An Examination of Informed Traders and the Market Microstructure of Real Estate Investment Trusts

A significant body of research exists documenting that REITs perform differently from other types of equity securities, although the reasons for these differences are unclear. This study examines the intraday trading behavior of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Specifically, intraday REIT returns, volume, trading activity, and bid/ask spread are examined in an attempt to better understand the patterns of intraday information flow for a sample of REITs trading on the NYSE. After controlling for differences in market capitalization, share price, and institutional holdings, this paper analyzes differences between REITs and non-REITs, and between REITs that are widely held by institutions and those that are not. The results suggest that, as a group, REITs exhibit lower average volumes and number of trades than do similar non-REITs. In addition, the findings suggest that mortgage REITs trade at spreads that are wider. Surprisingly, the analysis of institutional ownership suggests that equity REITs that are widely held by institutions exhibit the largest divergence from non-REITs in terms of both intraday trading activity and volume, but at the same time trade closer to non-REITs in terms of bid/ask spread. Overall, the results of this study confirm that REITs are treated differently by investors than similar non-REITs, and the institutional ownership findings suggest that trading activity is less important as a determinant of REIT performance than is the level of institutional ownership.

REIT Pricing Efficiency; Should Investors Still Be Concerned?

This study examines the impact of the REIT boom on the market microstructure of REIT common stocks. We analyze NYSE-traded REITs during the pre-boom period (1992) and the post-boom period (1994), and find significant reductions in bid/ask spreads over the period. We also find that the bid/ask spread differential between REITs and non-REITs has been roughly halved between 1991 and 1994. These reductions provide a direct benefit to REIT investors in terms of reduction in transaction costs and improved liquidity, and suggest that the level of uncertainty on the part of the REIT specialist has been reduced.

Integrated control-structure design

A new approach for the design and control of flexible space structures is described. The approach integrates the structure and controller design processes thereby providing extra opportunities for avoiding some of the disastrous effects of control-structures interaction and for discovering new, unexpected avenues of future structural design. A control formulation based on Boyd's implementation of Youla parameterization is employed. Control design parameters are coupled with structural design variables to produce a set of integrated-design variables which are selected through optimization-based methodology. A performance index reflecting spacecraft mission goals and constraints is formulated and optimized with respect to the integrated design variables. Initial studies have been concerned with achieving mission requirements with a lighter, more flexible space structure. Details of the formulation of the integrated-design approach are presented and results are given from a study involving the integrated redesign of a flexible geostationary platform

The Molecular Clockwork of a Protein-Based Circadian Oscillator

The circadian clock of the cyanobacterium Synechococcuselongatus PCC 7942 is governed by a core oscillator consisting of the proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC. Remarkably, circadian oscillations in the phosphorylation state of KaiC can be reconstituted in a test tube by mixing the three Kai proteins and adenosine triphosphate. The in vitro oscillator provides a well-defined system in which experiments can be combined with mathematical analysis to understand the mechanism of a highly robust biological oscillator. In this Review, we summarize the biochemistry of the Kai proteins and examine models that have been proposed to explain how oscillations emerge from the properties of the oscillator’s constituents.Molecular and Cellular Biolog

A Spanish Language Milker\u27s School for Idaho Dairy Employees

Educational opportunities for Hispanic employees are consistently one of the top Idaho dairy industry-identified needs. Consequently, University of Idaho Extension Faculty developed a Spanish language Milker\u27s School. The Milker\u27s School provides Spanish-speaking dairy employees with an opportunity to improve their knowledge and understanding of the entire milking process, including the importance of their role in the process. The Milker\u27s School provides an educational opportunity for a traditionally underserved group, and narrows the language and culture gap that exists between English speaking dairy owners and Spanish speaking employees

Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding in Large-Scale Warehouses

Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) is the problem of moving a team of agents to their goal locations without collisions. In this paper, we study the lifelong variant of MAPF, where agents are constantly engaged with new goal locations, such as in large-scale automated warehouses. We propose a new framework Rolling-Horizon Collision Resolution (RHCR) for solving lifelong MAPF by decomposing the problem into a sequence of Windowed MAPF instances, where a Windowed MAPF solver resolves collisions among the paths of the agents only within a bounded time horizon and ignores collisions beyond it. RHCR is particularly well suited to generating pliable plans that adapt to continually arriving new goal locations. We empirically evaluate RHCR with a variety of MAPF solvers and show that it can produce high-quality solutions for up to 1,000 agents (= 38.9\% of the empty cells on the map) for simulated warehouse instances, significantly outperforming existing work.Comment: Published at AAAI 202

Specific disruption of hippocampal mossy fiber synapses in a mouse model of familial Alzheimer's disease.

The earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are characterized by deficits in memory and cognition indicating hippocampal pathology. While it is now recognized that synapse dysfunction precedes the hallmark pathological findings of AD, it is unclear if specific hippocampal synapses are particularly vulnerable. Since the mossy fiber (MF) synapse between dentate gyrus (DG) and CA3 regions underlies critical functions disrupted in AD, we utilized serial block-face electron microscopy (SBEM) to analyze MF microcircuitry in a mouse model of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD). FAD mutant MF terminal complexes were severely disrupted compared to control - they were smaller, contacted fewer postsynaptic spines and had greater numbers of presynaptic filopodial processes. Multi-headed CA3 dendritic spines in the FAD mutant condition were reduced in complexity and had significantly smaller sites of synaptic contact. Significantly, there was no change in the volume of classical dendritic spines at neighboring inputs to CA3 neurons suggesting input-specific defects in the early course of AD related pathology. These data indicate a specific vulnerability of the DG-CA3 network in AD pathogenesis and demonstrate the utility of SBEM to assess circuit specific alterations in mouse models of human disease

Facile tungsten alkylidene synthesis: alkylidene transfer from a phosphorane to a tungsten imido complex

A number of transition-metal complexes catalyze the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of a variety of cyclic olefins. Notable among these catalysts are the titanacyclobutane derivatives and certain alkylidene complexes of tungsten: molybdenum, tantalum, and rhenium. The highly reactive tungsten alkylidene complexes developed by Schrock, Osborn, and Basset are particularly useful for the synthesis of unsaturated polymers such as novel conducting polymers and soluble precursors and derivatives of polyacetylene. Recent applications of these catalytic systems involve the polymerization of acyclic alkynes and dienes In addition, the use of tungsten alkylidene complexes as Wittig-type reagents in organic synthesis holds considerable promise