Does Size Matter in the Airline Industry?

Over the last decade, the U.S. airline industry has transformed itself through mergers, restructurings, bankruptcies, and dissolutions. Also during this time, the airline industry focused on a business model that was driven by an emphasis on asset utilization. This was driven by increasing the load factor to increase cost efficiencies through economies of scale so that the return on invested capital could be improved by reducing the operating costs. This study evaluates economies of scale and resultant cost efficiencies in the U.S. passenger airline industry for the period 2013 to 2018. The research finds that the airline industry is experiencing cost efficiencies with every increase in the size of the airline, but cost efficiencies are not evenly distributed. The paper also finds that the main source of cost efficiency appears to be aircraft maintenance expenses

Assessing the Performance and Risk-Adjusted Returns of Financial Mutual Funds

In this study, we provide a comprehensive examination of the performance of financial (specialty sector financial) mutual funds over a 23-year period, a much longer time frame than what has been analyzed in previous literature. To fully understand the performance of these mutual funds, we consider multiple factors, including risk-adjusted performance, both unconditional and conditional multifactor analysis, and market timing and selectivity. Financial mutual funds have higher risk-adjusted performance than the overall market and financial sector benchmarks. However, fund alphas are not different from zero, and managers do not exhibit market timing or security selection abilities. Our analysis not only includes the overall performance of these mutual funds, but we also delve into sub-samples before and after the 2008 financial crisis and during the recent Coronavirus pandemic

Radial Velocity Prospects Current and Future: A White Paper Report prepared by the Study Analysis Group 8 for the Exoplanet Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG)

[Abridged] The Study Analysis Group 8 of the NASA Exoplanet Analysis Group was convened to assess the current capabilities and the future potential of the precise radial velocity (PRV) method to advance the NASA goal to "search for planetary bodies and Earth-like planets in orbit around other stars.: (U.S. National Space Policy, June 28, 2010). PRVs complement other exoplanet detection methods, for example offering a direct path to obtaining the bulk density and thus the structure and composition of transiting exoplanets. Our analysis builds upon previous community input, including the ExoPlanet Community Report chapter on radial velocities in 2008, the 2010 Decadal Survey of Astronomy, the Penn State Precise Radial Velocities Workshop response to the Decadal Survey in 2010, and the NSF Portfolio Review in 2012. The radial-velocity detection of exoplanets is strongly endorsed by both the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey "New Worlds, New Horizons" and the NSF Portfolio Review, and the community has recommended robust investment in PRVs. The demands on telescope time for the above mission support, especially for systems of small planets, will exceed the number of nights available using instruments now in operation by a factor of at least several for TESS alone. Pushing down towards true Earth twins will require more photons (i.e. larger telescopes), more stable spectrographs than are currently available, better calibration, and better correction for stellar jitter. We outline four hypothetical situations for PRV work necessary to meet NASA mission exoplanet science objectives.Comment: ExoPAG SAG 8 final report, 112 pages, fixed author name onl

Charge-Reversal Instability in Mixed Bilayer Vesicles

Bilayer vesicles form readily from mixtures of charged and neutral surfactants. When such a mixed vesicle binds an oppositely-charged object, its membrane partially demixes: the adhesion zone recruits more charged surfactants from the rest of the membrane. Given an unlimited supply of adhering objects one might expect the vesicle to remain attractive until it was completely covered. Contrary to this expectation, we show that a vesicle can instead exhibit {\it adhesion saturation,} partitioning spontaneously into an attractive zone with definite area fraction, and a repulsive zone. The latter zone rejects additional incoming objects because counterions on the interior of the vesicle migrate there, effectively reversing the membrane's charge. The effect is strongest at high surface charge densities, low ionic strength, and with thin, impermeable membranes. Adhesion saturation in such a situation has recently been observed experimentally [H. Aranda-Espinoza {\it et al.}, {\sl Science} {\bf285} 394--397 (1999)]

ISBS 2018 AUCKLAND CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS PROGRAMME

FORCEDECKS WORKSHOP - COMMERCIALISATION & FUNDING by Philip Graham Smith This workshop aims to improve your ability to attract and create commercialisation and funding opportunities. This workshop will challenge delegates to identify their real areas of expertise and consider ways in which they can attract and create funding opportunities. The aim is to help academics of all ages to focus their expertise, to manage their time more effectively and to explore new avenues to make their careers more rewarding, fulfilling and hopefully less stressful. Having been a former Head of Department and Associate Head of School (Business & Engagement), Dr Graham-Smith has been in the trenches and acknowledges the increasing demands and pressures of working in academia. The workshop will help delegates to strip back the various aspects of their roles, and to examine ways in which their teaching, research, consultancy and funding expectations can be managed successfully. Phil will be reflective on his own career and share experiences of working in academia, professional sport and private industry. SPRINZ WORKSHOP - ORAL PRESENTATION FEEDBACK by Joshua McGeown, Gillian Weir, Professor Mike McGuigan and SPRINZ PhD students This workshop aims to help you engaging your audience during your ISBS presentation. This workshop aims to provide delegates with tips and feedback as to how best present their research for the ISBS 2018 congress. This interactive workshop will help delegates to learn how to distill and communicate complex ideas, structure your narrative and how to best visualize your data. Participants are encouraged to bring their ISBS presentations to practice and receive constructive feedback. NZ HERALD WORKSHOP - HOW TO WORK WITH THE MEDIA TO AMPLIFY YOUR WORK by Dylan Cleaver, Editor at large with the New Zealand Herald This workshop will help delegates be able to interact with media to be able to amplify their work. Never before has there been so much attention given to the injury toll in elite sport, with the spotlight firmly centered on head injuries and the potential for long-term cognitive damage to those afflicted. With so much important research being done in the field of sports injury, it is important to know how to work with the media to highlight it. This workshop aims to give a brief overview of the fast-changing modern media landscape. It will offer advice as to how to establish contacts in the media and how to use those contacts wisely. It will demonstrate how to get your key messages across using simple language, without dumbing down the issue. It will traverse ethical issues and, finally, what to do when the message goes wrong. Attendees will use the lessons learnt from the examples, to workshop during the session how they can work with media to amplify their work. WORKSHOP - JAPAN COLLABORATION by Sayumi Iwamoto, Erika Ikeda, Ryu Nagahara, and Aaron Uthoff Do you want to share your experience with other researchers who are keen to conduct international research collaboration? The workshop will share experiences and key tips to enable successfully working together. “There are many positives with working with Japanese researchers, but the one that stands out the most to me is their willingness to share knowledge and lend a helping hand.” (Aaron Uthoff) AUT ENGINEERING WORKSHOP - AI CHALLENGES by Boris Bacic & Russell Pears from Auckland University of Technology Engineering School This workshop will help you to consider pushing your boundaries of biomechanics and sport science by embracing artificial intelligence (Dr Boris Bačić and Assoc. Prof Russel Pears, Auckland University of Technology, NZ). Pushing the boundaries of biomechanics and sport science also means embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to advance and augment ways in which sport is coached, played, promoted, broadcasted and commercialised. Technologies capable of capturing human motion enable the advancement of research and can create strategic differences in elite sport, which is reflected by their increasing presence in the growing market of sport gadgets, exergames and rehabilitation technologies. Data-driven machine-learning AI approaches have the potential to provide insights from data, find patterns in specific contexts, generate knowledge, validate expert’s common-sense rules, and offload support decisions and automate cognitive activities. The workshop will provide a theoretical introduction and a set of analytical and model-designing visual tools for getting started. For those interested in Matlab or other languages, code samples will be provided. The participants will be able to use free open source software alternatives as part of hands-on exercises in a supervised lab. SPRINGER WORKSHOP - WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL PAPER – AN EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE by Steve McMillan from Springer’s Sports Medicine journal This workshop will help delegates increase their likelihood of success in publishing in journals such as Sports Medicine. From a compelling cover letter to a concise conclusion, Sports Medicine’s Co-Editor in Chief, Steve McMillan, will provide an editor’s perspective on what makes a successful paper. Sports Medicine receives over 600 submissions a year and can publish only a quarter of these … How do the editors decide which manuscripts to send to peer review? Which manuscripts survive peer review? What details are essential to enable readers to best understand your research and allow for potential replication? What information is required from an ethical perspective? Why do word counts matter anyway?! This interactive workshop will guide you on how to produce an impressive manuscript and increase your chances of getting published in a reputable journal. NORAXON WORKSHOP - ELECTROMYOGRAPHY IN SPORTS PERFORMANCE by Coleman Bessert and Erin Feser from NORAXON. Noraxon USA (www.noraxon.com) will be hosting a workshop on electromyography (EMG) use in sports performance settings. “You will be able to develop a better understanding of how EMG fits into an athlete monitoring program or research investigation by learning what can, and cannot, be determined with EMG data and reporting. Participants will see hands-on use of precision EMG systems and biomechanics analysis software with practical, sport-specific examples.” Erin Feser , Director of Education for Noraxon USA

Tropical Cyclone Prediction on Subseasonal Time-Scales

Here we discuss recent progress in understanding tropical cyclone (TC) subseasonal variability and its prediction. There has been a concerted effort to understand the sources of predictability at subseasonal time-scales, and this effort has continued to make progress in recent years. Besides the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), other modes of variability affect TCs at these time-scales, in particular various equatorial waves. Additionally, TC activity is also modulated by extratropical processes via Rossby wave breaking. There has also been progress in the ability of models to simulate the MJO and its modulation of TC activity. Community efforts have created multi-model ensemble datasets, which have made it possible to evaluate the forecast skill of the MJO and TCs on subseasonal time-scales in multiple forecasting systems. While there is positive skill in some cases, there is strong dependence on the ensemble system considered, the basin examined, and whether the storms have extratropical influences or not. Furthermore, the definition of skill differs among studies. Forecasting centers are currently issuing subseasonal TC forecasts using various techniques (statistical, statistical-dynamical and dynamical). There is also a strong interest in the private sector for forecasts with 3-4 weeks lead time

A linked geomorphological and geophysical modelling methodology applied to an active landslide

Moisture-induced landslides are a global geohazard; mitigating the risk posed by landslides requires an understanding of the hydrological and geological conditions present within a given slope. Recently, numerous geophysical studies have been attempted to characterise slow moving landslides, with an emphasis on developing geoelectrical methods as a hydrological monitoring tool. However, landslides pose specific challenges for processing geoelectrical data in long-term monitoring contexts as the sensor arrays can move with slope movements. Here we present an approach for processing long-term (over 8 years) geoelectrical monitoring data from an active slow moving landslide, Hollin Hill, situated in Lias rocks in the southern Howardian Hills, UK. These slope movements distorted the initial setup of the monitoring array and need to be incorporated into a time-lapse resistivity processing workflow to avoid imaging artefacts. We retrospectively sourced seven digital terrain models to inform the topography of our imaging volumes, which were acquired by either Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based photogrammetry or terrestrial laser ranging systems. An irregular grid of wooden pegs was periodically surveyed with a global position system, from which distortions to the terrain model and electrode positions can be modelled with thin plate splines. In order to effectively model the time-series electrical resistivity images, a baseline constraint is applied within the inversion scheme; the result of the study is a time-lapse series of resistivity volumes which also incorporate slope movements. The workflow presented here should be adaptable for other studies focused on geophysical/geotechnical monitoring of unstable slopes

Stellar Diameters and Temperatures II. Main Sequence K & M Stars

We present interferometric diameter measurements of 21 K- and M- dwarfs made with the CHARA Array. This sample is enhanced by literature radii measurements to form a data set of 33 K-M dwarfs with diameters measured to better than 5%. For all 33 stars, we compute absolute luminosities, linear radii, and effective temperatures (Teff). We develop empirical relations for \simK0 to M4 main- sequence stars between the stellar Teff, radius, and luminosity to broad-band color indices and metallicity. These relations are valid for metallicities between [Fe/H] = -0.5 and +0.1 dex, and are accurate to ~2%, ~5%, and ~4% for Teff, radius, and luminosity, respectively. Our results show that it is necessary to use metallicity dependent transformations to convert colors into stellar Teffs, radii, and luminosities. We find no sensitivity to metallicity on relations between global stellar properties, e.g., Teff-radius and Teff-luminosity. Robust examinations of single star Teffs and radii compared to evolutionary model predictions on the luminosity-Teff and luminosity-radius planes reveals that models overestimate the Teffs of stars with Teff < 5000 K by ~3%, and underestimate the radii of stars with radii < 0.7 R\odot by ~5%. These conclusions additionally suggest that the models overestimate the effects that the stellar metallicity may have on the astrophysical properties of an object. By comparing the interferometrically measured radii for single stars to those of eclipsing binaries, we find that single and binary star radii are consistent. However, the literature Teffs for binary stars are systematically lower compared to Teffs of single stars by ~ 200 to 300 K. Lastly, we present a empirically determined HR diagram for a total of 74 nearby, main-sequence, A- to M-type stars, and define regions of habitability for the potential existence of sub-stellar mass companions in each system. [abridged]Comment: 73 pages, 12 Tables, 18 Figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa