Do Insiders Contribute to Market Efficiency? Informational Efficiency and Liquidity of Experimental Call Markets with and without Insiders

This paper reports the results of 13 experimental asset markets with 195 subjects that explore the effects of insider behavior on the price formation process and market liquidity. The experimental call markets use a more realistic design than related studies. We introduce infinitely-lived assets instead of periodical liquidation (so-called ?reset? markets) and provide full market transparency to the investors with an open orderbook. Our main findings are that insider trading does not improve informational efficiency at all but depresses market liquidity of the assets significantly. At a first glance, the observed spread widening as an impact of insider behavior leads to the conclusion that our call markets react ?as if? all subjects behave rationally like dealers in a market making environment. At a second glance, a first look into the individual data shows that only a smaller group of investors act as ?endogenous? market makers in the call market regime. --Market Microstructure,Experimental Asset Markets,Insider Behavior,Market Efficiency,Call Markets,Behavioral Finance

Discovering the best: Informational efficiency and liquidity of alternative trading mechanisms in experimental asset markets

This paper reports the results of 18 experimental asset markets with 262 subjects that explore the effects of liquidity and aggregation of information. The main focus lies on the comparison of different trading mechanisms of stock exchanges. Compared to most of financial markets experiments, reality is met by introducing long-living assets and integrating all subjects in a multi-period decision-making process. In accordance with the evidence from the empirical research in real financial markets, our results show that the continuous auction achieves the highest informational efficiency. Dealer markets do the worst; call markets (batch trading) reach an intermediate position. A comparable result is achieved regarding the liquidity of the trading mechanisms. For both success factors of real stock exchanges our results show a strong tendency that continuous trading outperforms the other market structures, at least in the framework of the present measurement and on the chosen abstraction level. This does not exclude for the practice to offer a combination with call markets in certain titles and at certain times, particularly, if the here met assumptions of an open market access and information symmetry between the investors do not apply in full extent. --Market Microstructure,Experimental Asset Markets,Market Efficiency,Informational Efficiency,Liquidity,Call Markets,Continuous Auction

Wearable technology in healthcare

Despite increasing reliability of data generated by wearable devices, not many institutions in the healthcare sector use wearables for patient care or safety. The benefit of having accurate patient data over a certain period of time is often neglected by the fact that the medical personnel and patients do not fully accept the technological improvement. Another issue is the interoperability between the device itself and the hospital information systems, e.g. data generated may not be further processed due to lacking data standards or interfaces. In order to investigate the acceptance of stakeholders of wearable devices, a survey based on use cases was sent out to medical and administrative staff of Swiss hospitals. Finally, a technical feasibility study was conducted to investigate the technical requirements and challenges for the integration of wearable devices in the hospital IT environment

Mãe, cadê o bebê? Repercussões do nascimento prematuro de um irmão

O objetivo deste artigo foi investigar as repercussões do nascimento prematuro do bebê sobre o(s) seu(s) irmão(s), sob a perspectiva materna, durante a internação do recém-nascido na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Neonatal. O estudo contou com a participação de 37 mães, entrevistadas no 15º dia após o parto. Elas responderam a instrumentos que contemplaram dados demográficos familiares, informações clínicas do bebê e da mãe, e a experiência da maternidade no contexto da prematuridade. A entrevista sobre maternidade continha questões acerca do irmão do bebê, cujas respostas foram examinadas a partir de análise de conteúdo qualitativa. Os resultados revelaram alteração na rotina dos irmãos em razão da maior ausência materna. Os sentimentos e reações dos irmãos incluíram questionamentos, preocupações, ciúme e ansiedade, ao lado de contentamento e curiosidade. A visita do irmão ao bebê prematuro não foi permitida por alguns hospitais. Evidencia-se a importância de os irmãos serem atendidos em suas necessidades de cuidado nesse período de hospitalização do bebê

In-situ estimation of ice crystal properties at the South Pole using LED calibration data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory instruments about 1 km3 of deep, glacial ice at the geographic South Pole using 5160 photomultipliers to detect Cherenkov light emitted by charged relativistic particles. A unexpected light propagation effect observed by the experiment is an anisotropic attenuation, which is aligned with the local flow direction of the ice. Birefringent light propagation has been examined as a possible explanation for this effect. The predictions of a first-principles birefringence model developed for this purpose, in particular curved light trajectories resulting from asymmetric diffusion, provide a qualitatively good match to the main features of the data. This in turn allows us to deduce ice crystal properties. Since the wavelength of the detected light is short compared to the crystal size, these crystal properties do not only include the crystal orientation fabric, but also the average crystal size and shape, as a function of depth. By adding small empirical corrections to this first-principles model, a quantitatively accurate description of the optical properties of the IceCube glacial ice is obtained. In this paper, we present the experimental signature of ice optical anisotropy observed in IceCube LED calibration data, the theory and parametrization of the birefringence effect, the fitting procedures of these parameterizations to experimental data as well as the inferred crystal properties.</p

TXS 0506+056 with Updated IceCube Data

Past results from the IceCube Collaboration have suggested that the blazar TXS 0506+056 is a potential source of astrophysical neutrinos. However, in the years since there have been numerous updates to event processing and reconstruction, as well as improvements to the statistical methods used to search for astrophysical neutrino sources. These improvements in combination with additional years of data have resulted in the identification of NGC 1068 as a second neutrino source candidate. This talk will re-examine time-dependent neutrino emission from TXS 0506+056 using the most recent northern-sky data sample that was used in the analysis of NGC 1068. The results of using this updated data sample to obtain a significance and flux fit for the 2014 TXS 0506+056 "untriggered" neutrino flare are reported

Galactic Core-Collapse Supernovae at IceCube: “Fire Drill” Data Challenges and follow-up

The next Galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make astrophysical measurements using neutrinos, gravitational waves, and electromagnetic radiation. CCSNe local to the Milky Way are extremely rare, so it is paramount that detectors are prepared to observe the signal when it arrives. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a gigaton water Cherenkov detector below the South Pole, is sensitive to the burst of neutrinos released by a Galactic CCSN at a level >10σ. This burst of neutrinos precedes optical emission by hours to days, enabling neutrinos to serve as an early warning for follow-up observation. IceCube\u27s detection capabilities make it a cornerstone of the global network of neutrino detectors monitoring for Galactic CCSNe, the SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS 2.0). In this contribution, we describe IceCube\u27s sensitivity to Galactic CCSNe and strategies for operational readiness, including "fire drill" data challenges. We also discuss coordination with SNEWS 2.0

All-Energy Search for Solar Atmospheric Neutrinos with IceCube

The interaction of cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere generates a secondary flux of mesons that decay into photons and neutrinos – the so-called solar atmospheric flux. Although the gamma-ray component of this flux has been observed in Fermi-LAT and HAWC Observatory data, the neutrino component remains undetected. The energy distribution of those neutrinos follows a soft spectrum that extends from the GeV to the multi-TeV range, making large Cherenkov neutrino telescopes a suitable for probing this flux. In this contribution, we will discuss current progress of a search for the solar neutrino flux by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory using all available data since 2011. Compared to the previous analysis which considered only high-energy muon neutrino tracks, we will additionally consider events produced by all flavors of neutrinos down to GeV-scale energies. These new events should improve our analysis sensitivity since the flux falls quickly with energy. Determining the magnitude of the neutrino flux is essential, since it is an irreducible background to indirect solar dark matter searches