Survey evidence of tighter credit conditions: what does it mean?

Recent survey results from the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey indicate that, on net, many banks tightened their loan standards during 1990 and early 1991. This article investigates the implications of these results by comparing them to survey responses from previous periods.Credit ; Bank loans

On controllability and control laws for discrete linear repetitive processes

Repetitive processes are a distinct class of 2D systems (i.e. information propagation in two independent directions) of both systems theoretic and applications interest. They cannot be controlled by the direct extension of existing techniques from either standard (termed 1D here) or 2D systems theory. This article develops significant new results on the relationships between one physically motivated concept of controllability for the so-called discrete linear repetitive processes and the structure and design of control laws, including the case when disturbances are present

A NLO analysis on fragility of dihadron tomography in high energy AAAA collisions

The dihadron spectra in high energy $AA$ collisions are studied within the NLO pQCD parton model with jet quenching taken into account. The high $p_T$ dihadron spectra are found to be contributed not only by jet pairs close and tangential to the surface of the dense matter but also by punching-through jets survived at the center while the single hadron high $p_T$ spectra are only dominated by surface emission. Consequently, the suppression factor of such high-$p_T$ hadron pairs is found to be more sensitive to the initial gluon density than the single hadron suppression factor.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, proceedings for the 19th international Conference on ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions (QM2006), Shanghai, China, November 14-20, 200

An experimental investigation of the aerodynamics and cooling of a horizontally-opposed air-cooled aircraft engine installation

A flight-test based research program was performed to investigate the aerodynamics and cooling of a horizontally-opposed engine installation. Specific areas investigated were the internal aerodynamics and cooling mechanics of the installation, inlet aerodynamics, and exit aerodynamics. The applicable theory and current state of the art are discussed for each area. Flight-test and ground-test techniques for the development of the cooling installation and the solution of cooling problems are presented. The results show that much of the internal aerodynamics and cooling technology developed for radial engines are applicable to horizontally opposed engines. Correlation is established between engine manufacturer's cooling design data and flight measurements of the particular installation. Also, a flight-test method for the development of cooling requirements in terms of easily measurable parameters is presented. The impact of inlet and exit design on cooling and cooling drag is shown to be of major significance

Determinants of propensity of tertiary agricultural students in Ghana to enter agribusiness as a self-employment venture

The study aimed to identify factors that affect the decision of tertiary agricultural students in Ghana to enter agribusiness as a self-employment venture after graduation. The results showed that tertiary agricultural students in Ghana were predominantly males with little or no farming background. They had a rather moderate propensity to enter self-employed agribusiness. The propensity was based on the perception that agribusiness was beneficial, sustainable, and had a bright future. A significant and positive relationship was found between the propensity to enter self-employed agribusiness and availability of inputs, training received by students and supportive policies. However, a significant and negative relationship was found between students' propensity to enter self-employed agribusiness and the desire for other competing enterprises as well as risks and constraints in agribusiness. The most important determinants of the decision of tertiary level agricultural students to enter into agribusiness were found to be attraction to other businesses such as NGOs, non-agricultural manufacturing industries and banks; training received; perceived constraints; and needs for self- employment in agribusiness. The results indicate that the propensity of agricultural graduates to enter self-employed agribusiness may be increased by (1) making agribusiness attractive by increasing its competitiveness with respect to other enterprises, ( 2) modifying the curricula to make agricultural training at the tertiary level more practical, (3) making it easier to acquire production inputs for agribusiness, and (4) improving the policy environment with supportive policies to minimize risk and constraints in agribusiness.. La recherche était entreprise pour identifier les facteurs qui influencent la decision d'étudiants agricoles du niveau supérieur au Ghana de s'établir dans les agro-industries comme une entreprise de travailleur indépendant après l'obtention du diplôme. Les résultats montraient que les étudiants agricoles de l'enseignement supérieur au Ghana étaient principalement mâles avec peu ou sans expérience d'agriculture. Ils avaient plutôt une propension modérée de s'établir dans l'agro-industrie de travailleur indépendant. Cette propension est fondée sur l'idée que l'agro-industrie est bénéfique, durable et avait un avenir brillant. Un rapport considérable et positif était découvert entre la propension de s'établir dans l'agro-industrie de travailleur indépendant et la disponibilité d'intrants, la formation reçue par les étudiants et les politiques d'appui. Un rapport considérable et négatif était toutefois découvert entre la propension d'étudiants de s'établir dans les agro-industries indépendantes et le désir pour d'autres entreprises en concurrence ainsi que les risques et les contraintes d'agro-industries. Les déterminants les plus importants de la decision d'étudiants agricoles du niveau supérieur de s'établir dans les agro-industries étaient découverts d'être l'attrait aux autres entreprises telles que les ONGs, les industries manufacturières non-agricoles et les banques; la formation reçue; les contraintes remarquées; et les besoins requis pour l'indépendant en agro-industrie. Les résultats indiquent que la propension de licenciés agricoles de s'établir dans l'agro-industrie comme travailleurs indépendants pourrait être augmenté par (1) la transformation d'agro-industrie en la rendant attirante par l'augmentation de sa compétitivité relativement aux autres entreprises, (2) la modification du programme scolaire pour rendre la formation agricole au niveau supérieur plus pratique, (3) la facilitation de l'acquisition de resources de production pour l'agro-industrie, et (4) l'amélioration de l'environnement politique avec les politiques d'appui pour réduire au minimum le risque et les contraintes d'agro-industrie. Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 39 (1) 2006: pp. 41-5

Production of a Prompt Photon in Association with Charm at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD

A second order, $O(\alpha ^2_s)$, calculation in perturbative quantum chromodynamics of the two particle inclusive cross section is presented for the reaction $p +\bar{p}\rightarrow \gamma + c + X$ for large values of the transverse momentum of the prompt photon and charm quark. The combination of analytic and Monte Carlo integration methods used here to perform phase-space integrations facilitates imposition of photon isolation restrictions and other selections of relevance in experiments. Differential distributions are provided for various observables. Positive correlations in rapidity are predicted.Comment: 27 pages in RevTex plus 14 figures in one compressed PS fil

Potential vorticity structure in the North Atlantic western boundary current from underwater glider observations

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 46 (2016): 327–348, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-15-0112.1.Potential vorticity structure in two segments of the North Atlantic’s western boundary current is examined using concurrent, high-resolution measurements of hydrography and velocity from gliders. Spray gliders occupied 40 transects across the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico and 11 transects across the Gulf Stream downstream of Cape Hatteras. Cross-stream distributions of the Ertel potential vorticity and its components are calculated for each transect under the assumptions that all flow is in the direction of measured vertically averaged currents and that the flow is geostrophic. Mean cross-stream distributions of hydrographic properties, potential vorticity, and alongstream velocity are calculated for both the Loop Current and the detached Gulf Stream in both depth and density coordinates. Differences between these mean transects highlight the downstream changes in western boundary current structure. As the current increases its transport downstream, upper-layer potential vorticity is generally reduced because of the combined effects of increased anticyclonic relative vorticity, reduced stratification, and increased cross-stream density gradients. The only exception is within the 20-km-wide cyclonic flank of the Gulf Stream, where intense cyclonic relative vorticity results in more positive potential vorticity than in the Loop Current. Cross-stream gradients of mean potential vorticity satisfy necessary conditions for both barotropic and baroclinic instability within the western boundary current. Instances of very low or negative potential vorticity, which predispose the flow to various overturning instabilities, are observed in individual transects across both the Loop Current and the Gulf Stream.Glider operations in the Gulf Stream were supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant OCE-0220769. Glider operations in the Gulf of Mexico were supported by BP. R.E.T. was supported by the Penzance Endowed Fund in Support of Assistant Scientists and the Independent Research and Development Program at WHOI.2016-07-0

The X-ray afterglow of the Gamma-ray burst of May 8, 1997: spectral variability and possible evidence of an iron line

We report the possible detection (99.3% of statistical significance) of redshifted Fe iron line emission in the X-ray afterglow of Gamma-ray burst GRB970508 observed by BeppoSAX. Its energy is consistent with the redshift of the putative host galaxy determined from optical spectroscopy. The line disappeared about 1 day after the burst. We have also analyzed the spectral variability during the outburst event that characterizes the X-ray afterglow of this GRB. The spectrum gets harder during the flare, turning to steep when the flux decreases. The variability, intensity and width of the line indicate that the emitting region should have a mass approximately greater than 0.5 solar masses (assuming the iron abundance similar to its solar value), a size of about 3 times 10^15 cm, be distributed anisotropically, and be moving with sub-relativistic speed. In contrast to the fairly clean environment expected in the merging of two neutron stars, the observed line properties would imply that the site of the burst is embedded in a large mass of material, consistent with pre-explosion ejecta of a very massive star. This material could be related with the outburst observed in the afterglow 1 day after the GRB and with the spectral variations measured during this phase.Comment: To appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, AASTEX LateX, 2 PostScript figure