Underlying causes of commercial bank failures in the 1980s

An examination of the contributions of economic and managerial factors to commercial bank failures in the 1980s.Bank failures

Properties of nuclei up to A=16A=16 using local chiral interactions

We report accurate quantum Monte Carlo calculations of nuclei up to $A=16$ based on local chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions up to next-to-next-to-leading order. We examine the theoretical uncertainties associated with the chiral expansion and the cutoff in the theory, as well as the associated operator choices in the three-nucleon interactions. While in light nuclei the cutoff variation and systematic uncertainties are rather small, in $^{16}$O these can be significant for large coordinate-space cutoffs. Overall, we show that chiral interactions constructed to reproduce properties of very light systems and nucleon-nucleon scattering give an excellent description of binding energies, charge radii, and form factors for all these nuclei, including open-shell systems in $A=6$ and 12.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Androgen Receptor Characteristics in Skin Fibroblasts from Hirsute Women

Hormonal measurements in some women with hirsutism often reveal little or no elevation in androgen levels to explain the disorder. Thus, it has been postulated that increased sensitivity of the hair follicle to androgen may contribute to the development of hirsutism in such patients. We, therefore, sought androgen receptor abnormalities in skin fibroblasts cultured from 10 hirsute women (ages 17–43) and normal or mildly elevated plasma testosterone levels (28–82 ng/dl). Androgen receptor content (Ro) and binding affinity (Kd) in cultured pubic skin fibroblasts were measured using a dispersed, whole cell assay. Ten such cell lines from these women were compared with 19 pubic skin cell lines from 9 normal volunteers (6 males and 3 females) and from 10 other subjects (males with gynecomastia or hypospadias). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean androgen receptor content (11,600 ± 2700 (SE) sites/cell fibroblasts vs 7900 ± 700 sites/cell or binding affinity (2.0 ± 0.3 (SE) × 10[sup-9] M vs 1.5 ± 0.2 × 10-9 M, respectively) between the patients' fibroblasts and those of the controls.We conclude that hirsutism cannot be explained by abnormalities in fibroblast androgen receptor number or affinity. These observations do not exclude the possibility that other mechanisms might lead to increased peripheral androgen sensitivity in such patients

Using Horticulturalists\u27 Input to Inform a Home Horticultural Website Redesign Process

The Internet is a growing source of information for consumers. Website design and development become important factors in website usability as consumers’ Internet access increases and they seek home horticulture and gardening resources. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln developed a website in the 1990s to supplement its Backyard Farmer television program. Consumers’ expectations of websites changed as technology changed, which resulted in the site no longer meeting visitors’ needs. Two focus groups evaluating the website’s usefulness as an information source were conducted with home and professional horticulturalists. Participants were most interested in locating concise information about horticulture and gardening on a website that was easy to navigate; had many links to additional information; and contained timely and current information. Overall, content quality, usability and aesthetics were highly ranked as important for a “perfect” website

Simulation of hurricane response to suppression of warm rain by sub-micron aerosols

The feasibility of hurricane modification was investigated for hurricane Katrina using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). The possible impact of seeding of clouds with submicron cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) on hurricane structure and intensity as measured by nearly halving of the area covered by hurricane force winds was simulated by "turning–off" warm rain formation in the clouds at Katrina's periphery (where wind speeds were less than 22 m s<sup>−1</sup>). This simplification of the simulation of aerosol effects is aimed at evaluating the largest possible response. This resulted in the weakening of the hurricane surface winds compared to the "non-seeded" simulated storm during the first 24 h within the entire tropical cyclone (TC) area compared to a control simulation without warm rain suppression. Later, the seeding-induced evaporative cooling at the TC periphery led to a shrinking of the eye and hence to some increase in the wind within the small central area of the TC. Yet, the overall strength of the hurricane, as defined by the area covered by hurricane force winds, decreased in response to the suppressed warm rain at the periphery, as measured by a 25% reduction in the radius of hurricane force winds. In a simulation with warm rain suppression throughout the hurricane, the radius of the hurricane force winds was reduced by more than 42%, and although the diameter of the eye shrunk even further the maximum winds weakened. This shows that the main mechanism by which suppressing warm rain weakens the TC is the low level evaporative cooling of the un-precipitated cloud drops and the added cooling due to melting of precipitation that falls from above

Lunar Communication Terminals for NASA Exploration Missions: Needs, Operations Concepts and Architectures

NASA is conducting architecture studies prior to deploying a series of short- and long-duration human and robotic missions for the exploration of the Moon and Mars under the Vision for Space Exploration Initiative. A key objective of these missions is to establish and expand, through a series of launches, a system of systems approach to exploration capabilities and science return. The systems identified were Crew Exploration Vehicles, crew and cargo launch vehicles, crew EVA suits, crew and cargo landers, habitats, mobility carriers, and small, pressurized rovers. Multiple space communication networks and systems, deployed over time, will support these space exploration systems of systems. Each deployment phase will support interoperability of components and provide 20 years of legacy systems. In this paper, we describe the modular lunar communications terminals needed for the emerging lunar mission operational scenarios. These lunar communication terminals require flexibility for use in stationary, integrated, and mobile environments. They will support links directly to Earth, to lunar relay satellites, to astronauts and to fixed and mobile lunar surface systems. The operating concepts and traffic models are presented for these terminals within variety of lunar scenarios. A preliminary architecture is outlined, providing for suitable long-duration operations in the harsh lunar environment