1,717 research outputs found
Snow and leverage
Using a sample of highly (over-)leveraged Austrian ski hotels undergoing debt
restructurings, we show that reducing a debt overhang leads to a significant improvement
in operating performance (return on assets, net profit margin). In particular,
a reduction in leverage leads to a decrease in overhead costs, wages, and input costs,
and to an increase in sales. Changes in leverage in the debt restructurings are instrumented
with Unexpected Snow, which captures the extent to which a ski hotel
experienced unusually good or bad snow conditions prior to the debt restructuring.
Effectively, Unexpected Snow provides lending banks with the counterfactual
of what would have been the ski hotel's operating performance in the absence of
strategic default, thus allowing to distinguish between ski hotels that are in distress
due to negative demand shocks ("liquidity defaulters") and ski hotels that are in
distress due to debt overhang ("strategic defaulters")
Economic Impact of the Mid-Term Review on Agricultural Production, Farm Income and Farm Survival: A Quantitative Analysis for Local Sub-Regions of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany
This study analyzes the impact of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) on the agricultural sector in Schleswig-Holstein, a federal state in Germany. First, a very detailed farm group linear programming model is built to quantify the effects on agricultural production and farm incomes. The production adjustment to the MTR and its impact on farm profit vary significantly between individual farms. These results depend mainly on the farm type and the resource endowments of the farms. Second, the impact on structural change is examined with a farm survival model. Although the MTR clearly reduces the incomes of several farm types, it accelerates the structural change only gradually.policy reform, modeling production adjustment, farm income, structural change, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Q12, Q18,
Snow and Leverage
Using a sample of highly (over-)leveraged Austrian ski hotels undergoing debt restructurings, we show that reducing a debt overhang leads to a significant improvement in operating performance (return on assets, net profit margin). In particular, a reduction in leverage leads to a decrease in overhead costs, wages, and input costs, and to an increase in sales. Changes in leverage in the debt restructurings are instrumented with Unexpected Snow , which captures the extent to which a ski hotel experienced unusually good or bad snow conditions prior to the debt restructuring. Effectively, Unexpected Snow provides lending banks with the counterfactual of what would have been the ski hotelâs operating performance in the absence of strategic default, thus allowing to distinguish between ski hotels that are in distress due to negative demand shocks (âliquidity defaultersâ) and ski hotels that are in distress due to debt overhang (âstrategic defaultersâ).
hsaâmiRâ374bâ5p regulates expression of the gene U2AF homology motif (UHM) kinase 1
Objective: We aimed to identify a microRNA (miRNA) that is significantly upregulated in blood and in cells of the oral mucosa upon exposure to the periodontitis main risk factors oral inflammation and tobacco smoke, to subsequently identify its target gene and to describe the molecular mechanism of gene regulation.
Background: miRNAs are associated with many disorders. Array-based miRNA expression studies indicated a number of differentially expressed miRNAs in the pathology of oral diseases. However, these miRNAs mostly lacked replication, and their target genes have remained unknown.
Methods: 863 miRNAs were analyzed in blood from 18 PD cases and 70 controls (Geniom Biochip). Selected miRNAs were analyzed for upregulation in the inflamed oral mucosa of PD patients using published miRNA expression profiling studies from gingival cells. hsa-miR-374b-5p mimic was overexpressed in primary gingival fibroblasts (pGFs) from 3 donors, and genome-wide mRNA expression was quantified (Clarion Array). Gene-specific regulation was validated by qRT-PCR and Luciferase activity in HeLa cells.
Results: hsa-miR-374b-5p showed >twofold change (FC) in 3 independent studies performed in blood, gingival tissues, and cells. After hsa-miR-374b-5p overexpression, genome-wide expression analysis showed UHMK1 as top 1 downregulated gene in pGFs (p = 2.5 Ă 10-04 , fold change = -1.8). Reporter genes demonstrated that hsa-miR-374b-5p downregulates mRNA levels (p = .02; FC = -1.5), leading to reduction in protein activity (p = .013, FC = -1.3).
Conclusions: hsa-miR-374b-5p is upregulated in blood and ginvial cells exposed to oral inflammation and tobacco smoke and regulates UHMK1, which has a role in osteoclast differentiation
A study of caregiver support services: perspectives of family caregivers of persons with intellectual disabilities in Singapore
Most people with intellectual disabilities in Singapore live with family and are supported by family caregivers. Many caregivers lack the awareness, skills and resources needed for their caregiving role. A caregiver support service designed to build the capability of family caregivers serving children and adults with intellectual disabilities was evaluated after 2âyears of operation to ascertain the level of caregiver coping and resilience, perceived impact of strategies for emotional support, and satisfaction with a range of support services and gaps in service. Family caregivers were surveyed regarding satisfaction with services received using the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) and feedback from activities and events. Their coping and resilience were measured with the Coping Competence Questionnaire (CCQ). Qualitative data from caregiver interviews and staff focus groups were analysed for key themes that were triangulated and converged with other findings. Satisfaction, better coping and resilience were associated with specific support services. Key themes emerged around several effective supports and areas of unmet needs across the lifespan. Limitations and areas for improvement were identified to meet a broader range of caregivers. Targeted family support services can enhance the well-being of caregivers supporting people with intellectual disabilities (ID) across the lifespan. The results inform policymakers and support agencies that support of the family, not just the person with ID, is an important factor and needs to be incorporated at the heart of the design and development of any inclusive community living in Singapore
Nanolithography Based on the Formation and Manipulation of Nanometer-Size Organic Liquid Menisci
In this work we form and manipulate nanometer-size liquid bridges of nonpolar organic solvents such as octane and 1-octene with a dynamic force microscope. These menisci have been used to confine chemical reactions that gave rise to the fabrication of nanometer-size structures.Peer reviewe
Quantum simulation of battery materials using ionic pseudopotentials
Ionic pseudopotentials are widely used in classical simulations of materials
to model the effective potential due to the nucleus and the core electrons.
Modeling fewer electrons explicitly results in a reduction in the number of
plane waves needed to accurately represent the states of a system. In this
work, we introduce a quantum algorithm that uses pseudopotentials to reduce the
cost of simulating periodic materials on a quantum computer. We use a
qubitization-based quantum phase estimation algorithm that employs a
first-quantization representation of the Hamiltonian in a plane-wave basis. We
address the challenge of incorporating the complexity of pseudopotentials into
quantum simulations by developing highly-optimized compilation strategies for
the qubitization of the Hamiltonian. This includes a linear combination of
unitaries decomposition that leverages the form of separable pseudopotentials.
Our strategies make use of quantum read-only memory subroutines as a more
efficient alternative to quantum arithmetic. We estimate the computational cost
of applying our algorithm to simulating lithium-excess cathode materials for
batteries, where more accurate simulations are needed to inform strategies for
gaining reversible access to the excess capacity they offer. We estimate the
number of qubits and Toffoli gates required to perform sufficiently accurate
simulations with our algorithm for three materials: lithium manganese oxide,
lithium nickel-manganese oxide, and lithium manganese oxyfluoride. Our
optimized compilation strategies result in a pseudopotential-based quantum
algorithm with a total runtime four orders of magnitude lower than the previous
state of the art for a fixed target accuracy
New insights into lake responses to rapid climate change : the Younger Dryas in Lake Goscia(z) over dot, central Poland
The sediment profile from Lake Goscia(z) over dot in central Poland comprises a continuous, seasonally resolved and exceptionally well-preserved archive of the Younger Dryas (YD) climate variation. This provides a unique opportunity for detailed investigation of lake system responses during periods of rapid climate cooling (YD onset) and warming (YD termination). The new varve record of Lake Goscia(z) over dot presented here spans 1662 years from the late Allerod (AL) to the early Preboreal (PB). Microscopic varve counting provides an independent chronology with a YD duration of 1149+14/-22 years, which confirms previous results of 1140 +/- 40 years. We link stable oxygen isotopes and chironomid-based air temperature reconstructions with the response of various geochemical and varve microfacies proxies especially focusing on the onset and termination of the YD. Cooling at the YD onset lasted similar to 180 years, which is about a century longer than the terminal warming that was completed in similar to 70 years. During the AL/YD transition, environmental proxy data lagged the onset of cooling by similar to 90 years and revealed an increase of lake productivity and internal lake re-suspension as well as slightly higher detrital sediment input. In contrast, rapid warming and environmental changes during the YD/PB transition occurred simultaneously. However, initial changes such as declining diatom deposition and detrital input occurred already a few centuries before the rapid warming at the YD/PB transition. These environmental changes likely reflect a gradual increase in summer air temperatures already during the YD. Our data indicate complex and differing environmental responses to the major climate changes related to the YD, which involve different proxy sensitivities and threshold processes.Peer reviewe
Initial state preparation for quantum chemistry on quantum computers
Quantum algorithms for ground-state energy estimation of chemical systems
require a high-quality initial state. However, initial state preparation is
commonly either neglected entirely, or assumed to be solved by a simple product
state like Hartree-Fock. Even if a nontrivial state is prepared, strong
correlations render ground state overlap inadequate for quality assessment. In
this work, we address the initial state preparation problem with an end-to-end
algorithm that prepares and quantifies the quality of initial states,
accomplishing the latter with a new metric -- the energy distribution. To be
able to prepare more complicated initial states, we introduce an implementation
technique for states in the form of a sum of Slater determinants that exhibits
significantly better scaling than all prior approaches. We also propose
low-precision quantum phase estimation (QPE) for further state quality
refinement. The complete algorithm is capable of generating high-quality states
for energy estimation, and is shown in select cases to lower the overall
estimation cost by several orders of magnitude when compared with the best
single product state ansatz. More broadly, the energy distribution picture
suggests that the goal of QPE should be reinterpreted as generating
improvements compared to the energy of the initial state and other classical
estimates, which can still be achieved even if QPE does not project directly
onto the ground state. Finally, we show how the energy distribution can help in
identifying potential quantum advantage
Optical Properties of (162173) 1999 JU3: In Preparation for the JAXA Hayabusa 2 Sample Return Mission
We investigated the magnitude-phase relation of (162173) 1999 JU3, a target
asteroid for the JAXA Hayabusa 2 sample return mission. We initially employed
the international Astronomical Union's H-G formalism but found that it fits
less well using a single set of parameters. To improve the inadequate fit, we
employed two photometric functions, the Shevchenko and Hapke functions. With
the Shevchenko function, we found that the magnitude-phase relation exhibits
linear behavior in a wide phase angle range (alpha = 5-75 deg) and shows weak
nonlinear opposition brightening at alpha< 5 deg, providing a more reliable
absolute magnitude of Hv = 19.25 +- 0.03. The phase slope (0.039 +- 0.001
mag/deg) and opposition effect amplitude (parameterized by the ratio of
intensity at alpha=0.3 deg to that at alpha=5 deg, I(0.3)/I(5)=1.31+-0.05) are
consistent with those of typical C-type asteroids. We also attempted to
determine the parameters for the Hapke model, which are applicable for
constructing the surface reflectance map with the Hayabusa 2 onboard cameras.
Although we could not constrain the full set of Hapke parameters, we obtained
possible values, w=0.041, g=-0.38, B0=1.43, and h=0.050, assuming a surface
roughness parameter theta=20 deg. By combining our photometric study with a
thermal model of the asteroid (Mueller et al. in preparation), we obtained a
geometric albedo of pv = 0.047 +- 0.003, phase integral q = 0.32 +- 0.03, and
Bond albedo AB = 0.014 +- 0.002, which are commensurate with the values for
common C-type asteroids.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figure, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
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