The Tying of Lending and Equity Underwriting

This article examines the practice of tying,' which occurs when an underwriter lends to an issuer around the time of a public securities offering. We examine whether there are efficiencies from tying lending and underwriting which lead to benefits for issuers and underwriters. We find evidence consistent with tying occurring for issues when there are informational economies of scope from combining lending and underwriting. Firms benefit from tying through lower financing costs, as tied issuers receive lower underwriter fees on seasoned equity offerings and discounted loan yield spreads. These financing costs are significantly reduced for non-investment grade issuers, where informational economies of scope from combining lending with underwriting are likely to be large. These results are robust to matching methodology developed by Heckman, Ichimura, and Todd (1997, 1998). For underwriters, tying helps build relationships that augment an underwriter's expected revenues by increasing the probability of receiving both current and future business. Both commercial banks and investment banks tie lending and underwriting and offer price discounts, albeit in different ways, with commercial banks discounting loan yield spreads and investment banks offering reduced underwriter spreads.

Informal Online Decision Making: Current Practices and Support System Design

Existing group decision support systems are too complex to support lightweight, informal decision making made popular by the amount of information available on the Web. From an examination of related work, an online survey and a formative study to examine how people currently use the Web for decision support, we present a set of design recommendations towards the development of an informal Web decision support tool

The Suitability of polyethylene terephthalate copolyester for radiation sterilized dry small volume parenterals

Small volume parenterals (SVP) are typically terminally sterilized through autoclaving. This technique works when the containers are filled with a liquid. However, in the case of sterile powders, autoclaving is not a viable method nor is dry heat since most products can not withstand 2 50C for a half hour. Thus gamma irradiation may be an acceptable method to terminally sterilize this class of product. One of the drawbacks of gamma irradiation is that it will discolor glass which is currently the package material of choice due to superior barrier properties and relative inertness. This paper explores the possibility of packaging one product in a manner to accept gamma irradiation sterilization. In doing so, the various reguirements of SVP\u27s are reviewed. The package used was a polyethylene terephthalate copolyester (PETG) vial that could withstand the required level of radiation without any discernible effects. The product was tested to determine what level of radiation it could withstand. Finally, product was irradiated and placed on stability to determine whether this package and process are suitable. The PETG vial was found to inadequately protect this product from moisture

Intelligent cameral control for graphical environments

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-207).by Steven Mark Drucker.Ph.D

How Do Analysts Understand and Verify AI-Assisted Data Analyses?

Data analysis is challenging as it requires synthesizing domain knowledge, statistical expertise, and programming skills. Assistants powered by large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, can assist analysts by translating natural language instructions into code. However, AI-assistant responses and analysis code can be misaligned with the analyst's intent or be seemingly correct but lead to incorrect conclusions Therefore, validating AI assistance is crucial and challenging. Here, we explore how analysts across a range of backgrounds and expertise understand and verify the correctness of AI-generated analyses. We develop a design probe that allows analysts to pursue diverse verification workflows using natural language explanations, code, visualizations, inspecting data tables, and performing common data operations. Through a qualitative user study (n=22) using this probe, we uncover common patterns of verification workflows influenced by analysts' programming, analysis, and AI backgrounds. Additionally, we highlight open challenges and opportunities for improving future AI analysis assistant experiences

SlideSpace: Heuristic design of a hybrid presentation medium

The Slide and Canvas metaphors are two ways of helping people create visual aids for oral presentations. Although such physical metaphors help both authors and audiences make sense of material, they also constrain authoring in ways that can negatively impact presentation delivery. In this article, we derive heuristics for the design of presentation media that are independent of any underlying physical metaphors. We use these heuristics to craft a new kind of presentation medium called SlideSpace-one that combines hierarchical outlines, content collections, and design rules to automate the real-time, outline-driven synthesis of hybrid Slide-Canvas visuals. Through a qualitative study of SlideSpace use, we validate our heuristics and demonstrate that such a hybrid presentation medium can combine the advantages of existing systems while mitigating their drawbacks. Overall, we show how a heuristic design approach helped us challenge entrenched physical metaphors to create a fundamentally digital presentation medium with the potential to transform the activities of authoring, delivering, and viewing presentations