Relationships in chemical equilibriums

Objectives: Students will be able to describe a dynamic equilibrium exists regardless of concentration levels

Nonrational Actors and Financial Market Behavior

The insights of descriptive decision theorists and psychologists, we believe, have much to contribute to our understanding of financial market macrophenomena. We propose an analytic agenda that distinguishes those individual idiosyncrasies that prove consequential at the macro-level from those that are neutralized by market processes such as poaching. We discuss five behavioral traits - barn-door closing, expert/reliance effects, status quo bias, framing, and herding - that we employ in explaining financial flows. Patterns in flows to mutual funds, to new equities, across national boundaries, as well as movements in debt-equity ratios are shown to be consistent with deviations from rationality.

Use of quadratic roots in acid- base pH calculations

Students will make a program for the TI calculator to find both roots of a quadratic equation, regardless of the parameters

Hot Hands in Mutual Funds: The Persistence of Performance, 1974-87

The net returns of no-load mutual growth funds exhibit a hot-hands phenomenon during 1974-87. When performance is measured by Jensen's alpha, mutual funds that perform well in a one year evaluation period continue to generate superior performance in the following year. Underperformers also display short-run persistence. Hot hands persists in 1988 and 1989. The success of the hot hands strategy does not derive from selecting superior funds over the sample period. The timing component -- knowing when to pick which fund -- is significant. These results are robust to alternative equity portfolio benchmarks, such as those that account for firm-size effects and mean reversion in returns. Capitilizing on the hot hands phenomenon, an investor could have generated a significant, risk-adjusted excess return of 10% per year.

Book Review

Reviewing Neil Carter, Guide to Workmen\u27s Compensation Claims: The Anatomy of the Claims Function, Roberts Publishing Corp., 196

OPTUMR a digital computer program to cost optimize a district heat piping network to remove waste heat from nuclear power reactors

The thermal pollution problem of a nuclear reactor electrical generating facility can be eliminated if an economical, productive use for the waste heat can be found. The computer program presented here is designed to investigate the economic feasibility of utilizing this waste heat to heat buildings. The program optimizes a district heating network using the reactor\u27s rejected heat and performs a comparative analysis with a selected conventional heat rejection system. The results indicate that the system is feasible only if the reactor can be sited relatively close (5 miles) to an urban center. Increasing national concern regarding thermal pollution and recently enacted legislation will tend to make this system more competitive so long as the current siting restrictions (about 10-12 miles) are not made more stringent --Abstract, page ii

Jurisdiction in Longshoremen\u27s Injuries

The decision in Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen that state law does not apply to injuries occurring on navigable waters, began a series of jurisdictional questions which continue today. This decision initially deprived some 300,000 longshoremen and harbor workers in dangerous occupations of a compensation remedy, but it paved the way for a federal statute providing them with compensation coverage. Longshoremen and harbor workers are today protected under state or federal law, depending on whether their injuries occur on land or upon navigable waters. They may be eligible for coverage under both federal and state law

Radiation Injury in Workmen\u27s Compensation

Whether because of expanded uses of the fruits of the nuclear age, or because of more insights into radiation caused diseases, in years to come more employees are likely to find themselves filing claims for workmen\u27s compensation because of alleged radiation-caused diseases or illnesses. What are radiation diseases and injuries? Which occupations are likely to give rise to radiation exposure? Do present workmen\u27s compensation laws provide coverage for such injuries and diseases, and to what extent? How is a claim processed? Can the present laws be improved, and what efforts are being made-or should be made-to im-prove them