Does Company Specific News Effect the US, UK, and Australian Markets within 60 minutes?

The efficient market hypothesis states that an efficient market rapidly incorporates all available information into the price of the asset. It has been well established that no market, particularly the stock market, is truly efficient as there are too many traders with differing strategies, and differing access to and interpretation of information. Despite this there is considerable evidence that the stock market does assimilate new information into prices. There has however been little research into the intraday effect of company specific news. In this paper we investigate the intraday effect of company specific news on the US, UK, and Australian markets. We use a scheme to determine whether the markets react to news by determining the likelihood of certain events occurring, and the likelihood of news occurring within 60 minutes of them, and compare the two. We find that there is strong evidence that these markets do react to news within 60 minutes, and indicate which events are most likely to correlate to news.Return; Volatility; News

Superflux chlorophyll-a analysis: An assessment of variability in results introduced prior to fluorometric analysis

Several experiments were undertaken to identify variability in results that came from procedural differences in the processing of chlorophyll samples prior to fluorometric analysis. T-tests on group means indicated that significant differences (alpha = 0.05) in phaeopigment a concentrations did result in samples not initially screened, but not in the chlorophyll a concentrations. Highly significant differences (alpha = 0.001) in group means were found in samples which were held in acetone after filtering as compared to unfiltered seawater samples held for the same period. No difference in results was found between the 24-hour extraction and samples which were processed immediately

Probabilistic models of information retrieval based on measuring the divergence from randomness

We introduce and create a framework for deriving probabilistic models of Information Retrieval. The models are nonparametric models of IR obtained in the language model approach. We derive term-weighting models by measuring the divergence of the actual term distribution from that obtained under a random process. Among the random processes we study the binomial distribution and Bose--Einstein statistics. We define two types of term frequency normalization for tuning term weights in the document--query matching process. The first normalization assumes that documents have the same length and measures the information gain with the observed term once it has been accepted as a good descriptor of the observed document. The second normalization is related to the document length and to other statistics. These two normalization methods are applied to the basic models in succession to obtain weighting formulae. Results show that our framework produces different nonparametric models forming baseline alternatives to the standard tf-idf model

Applicability of 100kWe-class of space reactor power systems to NASA manned space station missions

An assessment is made of a manned space station operating with sufficiently high power demands to require a multihundred kilowatt range electrical power system. The nuclear reactor is a competitor for supplying this power level. Load levels were selected at 150kWe and 300kWe. Interactions among the reactor electrical power system, the manned space station, the space transportation system, and the mission were evaluated. The reactor shield and the conversion equipment were assumed to be in different positions with respect to the station; on board, tethered, and on a free flyer platform. Mission analyses showed that the free flyer concept resulted in unacceptable costs and technical problems. The tethered reactor providing power to an electrolyzer for regenerative fuel cells on the space station, results in a minimum weight shield and can be designed to release the reactor power section so that it moves to a high altitude orbit where the decay period is at least 300 years. Placing the reactor on the station, on a structural boom is an attractive design, but heavier than the long tethered reactor design because of the shield weight for manned activity near the reactor

Ebolavirus is evolving but not changing: No evidence for functional change in EBOV from 1976 to the 2014 outbreak

The 2014 epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) has had a devastating impact in West Africa. Sequencing of ebolavirus (EBOV) from infected individuals has revealed extensive genetic variation, leading to speculation that the virus may be adapting to humans, accounting for the scale of the 2014 outbreak. We computationally analyze the variation associated with all EVD outbreaks, and find none of the amino acid replacements lead to identifiable functional changes. These changes have minimal effect on protein structure, being neither stabilizing nor destabilizing, are not found in regions of the proteins associated with known functions and tend to cluster in poorly constrained regions of proteins, specifically intrinsically disordered regions. We find no evidence that the difference between the current and previous outbreaks is due to evolutionary changes associated with transmission to humans. Instead, epidemiological factors are likely to be responsible for the unprecedented spread of EVD

Public views on the donation and use of human biological samples in biomedical research: a mixed methods study

Objective A mixed methods study exploring the UK general public's willingness to donate human biosamples (HBSs) for biomedical research.<p></p> Setting Cross-sectional focus groups followed by an online survey.<p></p> Participants Twelve focus groups (81 participants) selectively sampled to reflect a range of demographic groups; 1110 survey responders recruited through a stratified sampling method with quotas set on sex, age, geographical location, socioeconomic group and ethnicity.<p></p> Main outcome measures (1) Identify participants’ willingness to donate HBSs for biomedical research, (2) explore acceptability towards donating different types of HBSs in various settings and (3) explore preferences regarding use and access to HBSs.<p></p> Results 87% of survey participants thought donation of HBSs was important and 75% wanted to be asked to donate in general. Responders who self-reported having some or good knowledge of the medical research process were significantly more likely to want to donate (p<0.001). Reasons why focus group participants saw donation as important included: it was a good way of reciprocating for the medical treatment received; it was an important way of developing drugs and treatments; residual tissue would otherwise go to waste and they or their family members might benefit. The most controversial types of HBSs to donate included: brain post mortem (29% would donate), eyes post mortem (35%), embryos (44%), spare eggs (48%) and sperm (58%). Regarding the use of samples, there were concerns over animal research (34%), research conducted outside the UK (35%), and research conducted by pharmaceutical companies (56%), although education and discussion were found to alleviate such concerns.<p></p> Conclusions There is a high level of public support and willingness to donate HBSs for biomedical research. Underlying concerns exist regarding the use of certain types of HBSs and conditions under which they are used. Improved education and more controlled forms of consent for sensitive samples may mitigate such concerns.<p></p&gt

Electron Transport and Hot Phonons in Carbon Nanotubes

We demonstrate the key role of phonon occupation in limiting the high-field ballistic transport in metallic carbon nanotubes. In particular, we provide a simple analytic formula for the electron transport scattering length, that we validate by accurate first principles calculations on (6,6) and (11,11) nanotubes. The comparison of our results with the scattering lengths fitted from experimental I-V curves indicates the presence of a non-equilibrium optical phonon heating induced by electron transport. We predict an effective temperature for optical phonons of thousands Kelvin.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Consent for the use of human biological samples for biomedical research: a mixed methods study exploring the UK public’s preferences

OBJECTIVE: A mixed-methods study exploring the UK general public's views towards consent for the use of biosamples for biomedical research.<p></p> SETTING: Cross-sectional population-based focus groups followed by an online survey.<p></p> PARTICIPANTS: 12 focus groups (81 participants) selectively sampled to reflect a range of demographic groups; 1110 survey responders recruited through a stratified sampling method with quotas set on sex, age, geographical location, socioeconomic group and ethnicity.<p></p> MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Views on the importance of consent when donating residual biosamples for medical research; (2) preferences for opt-in or opt-out consent approaches and (3) preferences for different consent models.<p></p> RESULTS: Participants believed obtaining consent for use of residual biosamples was important as it was 'morally correct' to ask, and enabled people to make an active choice and retain control over their biosamples. Survey responders preferred opt-in consent (55%); the strongest predictor was being from a low socioeconomic group (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.41 to 3.57, p=0.001) and having a religious affiliation (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.81, p=0.04). Focus group participants had a slight preference for opt-out consent because by using this approach more biosamples would be available and facilitate research. Concerning preferred models of consent for research use of biosamples, survey responders preferred specific consent with recontact for each study for which their biosamples are eligible. Focus group participants preferred generic consent as it provided 'flexibility for researchers' and reduced the likelihood that biosamples would be wasted. The strongest predictor for preferring specific consent was preferring opt-in consent (OR 4.58, 95% CI 3.30 to 6.35, p=0.015) followed by non-'White' ethnicity (OR 2.94, 95% CI 1.23 to 7.14, p<0.001).<p></p> CONCLUSIONS: There is a preference among the UK public for ongoing choice and control over donated biosamples; however, increased knowledge and opportunity for discussion is associated with acceptance of less restrictive consent models for some people.<p></p&gt

Maximum Edge-Disjoint Paths in kk-sums of Graphs

We consider the approximability of the maximum edge-disjoint paths problem (MEDP) in undirected graphs, and in particular, the integrality gap of the natural multicommodity flow based relaxation for it. The integrality gap is known to be $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$ even for planar graphs due to a simple topological obstruction and a major focus, following earlier work, has been understanding the gap if some constant congestion is allowed. In this context, it is natural to ask for which classes of graphs does a constant-factor constant-congestion property hold. It is easy to deduce that for given constant bounds on the approximation and congestion, the class of "nice" graphs is nor-closed. Is the converse true? Does every proper minor-closed family of graphs exhibit a constant factor, constant congestion bound relative to the LP relaxation? We conjecture that the answer is yes. One stumbling block has been that such bounds were not known for bounded treewidth graphs (or even treewidth 3). In this paper we give a polytime algorithm which takes a fractional routing solution in a graph of bounded treewidth and is able to integrally route a constant fraction of the LP solution's value. Note that we do not incur any edge congestion. Previously this was not known even for series parallel graphs which have treewidth 2. The algorithm is based on a more general argument that applies to $k$-sums of graphs in some graph family, as long as the graph family has a constant factor, constant congestion bound. We then use this to show that such bounds hold for the class of $k$-sums of bounded genus graphs

A Conceptual Design Study on the Application of Liquid Metal Heat Transfer Technology to the Solar Thermal Power Plant

Alkali metal heat transfer technology was used in the development of conceptual designs for the transport and storage of sensible and latent heat thermal energy in distributed concentrator, solar Stirling power conversion systems at a power level of 15 kWe per unit. Both liquid metal pumped loop and heat pipe thermal transport were considered; system configurations included: (1) an integrated, focal mounted sodium heat pipe solar receiver (HPSR) with latent heat thermal energy storage; (2) a liquid sodium pumped loop with the latent heat storage, Stirling engine-generator, pump and valves located on the back side of the concentrator; and (3) similar pumped loops serving several concentrators with more centralized power conversion and storage. The focus mounted HPSR was most efficient, lightest and lowest in estimated cost. Design confirmation testing indicated satisfactory performance at all angles of inclination of the primary heat pipes to be used in the solar receiver