Financial Crises: Recent Experience in U.S. and International Markets

macroeconomics, financial crisis, crises, U.S. markets, international markets

Thrift Industry Crisis: Causes and Solutions

macroeconomics, thrift industry, crisis, competition, financial services, regulation

Cleaning Up the Depository Institutions Mess

macroeconomics, depository institution

Theoretical models of planetary system formation: mass vs semi-major axis

Planet formation models have been developed during the last years in order to try to reproduce the observations of both the solar system, and the extrasolar planets. Some of these models have partially succeeded, focussing however on massive planets, and for the sake of simplicity excluding planets belonging to planetary systems. However, more and more planets are now found in planetary systems. This tendency, which is a result of both radial velocity, transit and direct imaging surveys, seems to be even more pronounced for low mass planets. These new observations require the improvement of planet formation models, including new physics, and considering the formation of systems. In a recent series of papers, we have presented some improvements in the physics of our models, focussing in particular on the internal structure of forming planets, and on the computation of the excitation state of planetesimals, and their resulting accretion rate. In this paper, we focus on the concurrent effect of the formation of more than one planet in the same protoplanetary disc, and show the effect, in terms of global architecture and composition of this multiplicity. We use a N-body calculation including collision detection to compute the orbital evolution of a planetary system. Moreover, we describe the effect of competition for accretion of gas and solids, as well as the effect of gravitational interactions between planets. We show that the masses and semi-major axis of planets are modified by both the effect of competition and gravitational interactions. We also present the effect of the assumed number of forming planets in the same system (a free parameter of the model), as well as the effect of the inclination and eccentricity damping.Comment: accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Cantilever-based Resonant Gas Sensors with Integrated Recesses for Localized Sensing Layer Deposition

This work presents mass-sensitive hammerhead resonators with integrated recesses as a gas-phase chemical microsensor platform. Recesses are etched into the head region of the resonator to locally deposit chemically sensitive polymers by ink-jet printing. This permits the sensing films to be confined to areas that (a) are most effective in detecting mass loading and (b) are not strained during the in-plane vibrations of the resonator. As a result of the second point, even 5-μm thick polymer coatings on resonators with a 9-12 μm silicon thickness barely affect the Q-factor in air. This translates into higher frequency stability and ultimately higher sensor resolution compared to uniformly coated devices

Zone center phonons of the orthorhombic RMnO3 (R = Pr, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho) perovskites

A short range force constant model (SRFCM) has been applied for the first time to investigate the phonons in RMnO3 (R = Pr, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho) perovskites in their orthorhombic phase. The calculations with 17 stretching and bending force constants provide good agreement for the observed Raman frequencies. The infrared frequencies have been assigned for the first time. PACS Codes: 36.20.Ng, 33.20.Fb, 34.20.CfComment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Probe combination in large galaxy surveys: application of Fisher information and Shannon entropy to weak lensing

This paper aims at developing a better understanding of the structure of the information that is contained in galaxy surveys, so as to find optimal ways to combine observables from such surveys. We first show how Jaynes' Maximum Entropy Principle allows us, in the general case, to express the Fisher information content of data sets in terms of the curvature of the Shannon entropy surface with respect to the relevant observables. This allows us to understand the Fisher information content of a data set, once a physical model is specified, independently of the specific way that the data will be processed, and without any assumptions of Gaussianity. This includes as a special case the standard Fisher matrix prescriptions for Gaussian variables widely used in the cosmological community, for instance for power spectra extraction. As an application of this approach, we evaluate the prospects of a joint analysis of weak lensing tracers up to the second order in the shapes distortions, in the case that the noise in each probe can be effectively treated as model-independent. These include the magnification, and the two ellipticity and four flexion fields. At the two-point level, we show that the only effect of treating these observables in combination is a simple scale-dependent decrease in the noise contaminating the accessible spectrum of the lensing E-mode. We provide simple bounds to its extraction by a combination of such probes as well as its quantitative evaluation when the correlations between the noise variables for any two such probes can be ignore

Cohesion, team mental models, and collective efficacy: Towards an integrated framework of team dynamics in sport

A nomological network on team dynamics in sports consisting of a multi-framework perspective is introduced and tested. The aim was to explore the interrelationship among cohesion, team mental models (TMM), collective-efficacy (CE), and perceived performance potential (PPP). Three hundred and forty college-aged soccer players representing 17 different teams (8 female and 9 male) participated in the study. They responded to surveys on team cohesion, TMM, CE and PPP. Results are congruent with the theoretical conceptualization of a parsimonious view of team dynamics in sports. Specifically, cohesion was found to be an exogenous variable predicting both TMM and CE beliefs. TMM and CE were correlated and predicted PPP, which in turn accounted for 59% of the variance of objective performance scores as measured by teams’ season record. From a theoretical standpoint, findings resulted in a parsimonious view of team dynamics, which may represent an initial step towards clarifying the epistemological roots and nomological network of various team-level properties. From an applied standpoint, results suggest that team expertise starts with the establishment of team cohesion. Following the establishment of cohesiveness, teammates are able to advance team-related schemas and a collective sense of confidence. Limitations and key directions for future research are outlined

Raman spectroscopy, a non-destructive solution to the study of glass and its alteration

This paper presents the potential of Raman spectroscopy, a non-destructive technique which can be applied in-situ, for the analyses of glass and their alteration. Recent analytical developments are summarised for different glass composition and practical examples are given. The paper describes how to extract compositional information from the glass, first based on the spectra profile to distinguish rapidly alkali silicate from alkaline-earth alkali silicate and lead alkali silicate glass, then using the spectral decomposition and correlations to extract quantitative data. For alkali silicate glasses, that are most prone to alteration, the spectral characteristics are described to interpret the alteration process (selective leaching or dissolution of the glass) from the Raman spectra of the altered glass. These developments have greatly widened the potential of the technique and supplement well its ability to measure the thickness of the altered layer and identify the crystalline deposits