Stochastic Dominance Analysis of iShares

Country indices as represented by iShares exhibit non-normal return distributions with both skewness and kurtosis. Davidson and Duclos (2000) and Memmel (2003) provide procedures for determining the statistical significance of stochastic dominance measures and the Sharpe Ratio, respectively. This study uses these refinements to compare the performance of 18 country market indices. The iShares are indistinguishable when using the Sharpe Ratio as no significant differences are found. In contrast, stochastic dominance procedures identify dominant iShares. Although the results vary over time, stochastic dominance appears to be both more robust and discriminating than the CAPM in the ranking of the iShares.Stochastic dominance; Sharpe ratio; skewness; country index funds

Links between the Indian, U.S. and Chinese Stock Markets

This study examines the bilateral relations between three pairs of stock markets, namely India-U.S., India-China and China-U.S. We use a Fractionally Integrated Vector Error Correction Model (FIVECM) to examine the cointegration mechanism between markets. By augmenting the FIVECM with a multivariate GARCH formulation, we study the first and second moment spillover effects simultaneously. Our empirical results show that all three pairs of stock markets are fractionally cointegrated. The U.S. stock market plays a dominant role in the relations with the other two markets, whereas there is an interactive relationship between the Indian and Chinese stock markets. In particular, the Indian stock market dominates the first moment feedback with the Chinese market, while the latter dominates the second moment feedback with the former.Stock market, Cointegration, Fractionally Integrated Vector Error Correction Model, Multivariate GARCH

A New Class of Solutions to the Strong CP Problem with a Small Two-Loop theta

We present a new class of models which produce zero theta (QCD} angle at the tree and one-loop level due to hermiticity of sub-blocks in the extended quark mass matrices. The structure can be maintained typically by non-abelian generation symmetry. Two examples are given for this class of solutions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

The Design of Incentive Compensation for Directors

Today, most firms provide equity-based incentive compensation to their non-executive directors. We summarize viewpoints supportive and critical of the development. We argue that the effectiveness of incentive compensation is related to the structure of the incentive pay contact. We discuss the use of options and shares as well as the issue of whether incentive pay should be geared toward current rewards or future incentives. We also discuss the critical issue of maintaining the ownership exposure of directors by providing sufficient levles of equity as well as placing restictions on cashing out. Using our arguments aboce, we suggest guidelines for constructing an optimal contract. We compare 289 incentive plans offered by public companies in the US during 1988-1998 and find that plans deviate significantly from the optimum

Design and fabrication of a long-life Stirling cycle cooler for space application. Phase 3: Prototype model

A second-generation, Stirling-cycle cryocooler (cryogenic refrigerator) for space applications, with a cooling capacity of 5 watts at 65 K, was recently completed. The refrigerator, called the Prototype Model, was designed with a goal of 5 year life with no degradation in cooling performance. The free displacer and free piston of the refrigerator are driven directly by moving-magnet linear motors with the moving elements supported by active magnetic bearings. The use of clearance seals and the absence of outgassing material in the working volume of the refrigerator enable long-life operation with no deterioration in performance. Fiber-optic sensors detect the radial position of the shafts and provide a control signal for the magnetic bearings. The frequency, phase, stroke, and offset of the compressor and expander are controlled by signals from precision linear position sensors (LVDTs). The vibration generated by the compressor and expander is cancelled by an active counter balance which also uses a moving-magnet linear motor and magnetic bearings. The driving signal for the counter balance is derived from the compressor and expander position sensors which have wide bandwidth for suppression of harmonic vibrations. The efficiency of the three active members, which operate in a resonant mode, is enhanced by a magnetic spring in the expander and by gas springs in the compressor and counterbalance. The cooling was achieved with a total motor input power of 139 watts. The magnetic-bearing stiffness was significantly increased from the first-generation cooler to accommodate shuttle launch vibrations

Large NcN_c Universality of The Baryon Isgur--Wise Form Factor: The Group Theoretical Approach

In a previous article, it has been proved under the framework of chiral soliton model that the same Isgur--Wise form factor describes the semileptonic $\Lambda_b\to\Lambda_c$ and $\Sigma^{(*)}_b\to\Sigma^{(*)}_c$ decays in the large $N_c$ limit. It is shown here that this result is in fact independent of the chiral soliton model and is solely the consequence of the spin-flavor SU(4) symmetry which arises in the baryon sector in the large $N_c$ limit.Comment: 10 pages in REVTeX, no figure

Chromatin regulation at the frontier of synthetic biology

As synthetic biology approaches are extended to diverse applications throughout medicine, biotechnology and basic biological research, there is an increasing need to engineer yeast, plant and mammalian cells. Eukaryotic genomes are regulated by the diverse biochemical and biophysical states of chromatin, which brings distinct challenges, as well as opportunities, over applications in bacteria. Recent synthetic approaches, including 'epigenome editing', have allowed the direct and functional dissection of many aspects of physiological chromatin regulation. These studies lay the foundation for biomedical and biotechnological engineering applications that could take advantage of the unique combinatorial and spatiotemporal layers of chromatin regulation to create synthetic systems of unprecedented sophistication.National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship )United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R24 Grant)Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired EngineeringHoward Hughes Medical Institut

Profiteering from the Dot-com Bubble, Sub-Prime Crisis and Asian Financial Crisis

This paper explores the characteristics associated with the formation of bubbles that occurred in the Hong Kong stock market in 1997 and 2007, as well as the 2000 dot-com bubble of Nasdaq. It examines the profitability of Technical Analysis (TA) strategies generating buy and sell signals with knowing and without trading rules. The empirical results show that by applying long and short strategies during the bubble formation and short strategies after the bubble burst, it not only produces returns that are significantly greater than buy and hold strategies, but also produces greater wealth compared with TA strategies without trading rules. We conclude these bubble detection signals help investors generate greater wealth from applying appropriate long and short Moving Average (MA) strategies

High Energy Quark-Antiquark Elastic scattering with Mesonic Exchange

We studies the high energy elastic scattering of quark anti-quark with an exchange of a mesonic state in the $t$ channel with $-t/\Lambda^{2} \gg 1$. Both the normalization factor and the Regge trajectory can be calculated in PQCD in cases of fixed (non-running) and running coupling constant. The dependence of the Regge trajectory on the coupling constant is highly non-linear and the trajectory is of order of $0.2$ in the interesting physical range.Comment: 29 page

Galerkin FEM for fractional order parabolic equations with initial data in H−s, 0<s≤1H^{-s},~0 < s \le 1

We investigate semi-discrete numerical schemes based on the standard Galerkin and lumped mass Galerkin finite element methods for an initial-boundary value problem for homogeneous fractional diffusion problems with non-smooth initial data. We assume that $\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^d$, $d=1,2,3$ is a convex polygonal (polyhedral) domain. We theoretically justify optimal order error estimates in $L_2$- and $H^1$-norms for initial data in $H^{-s}(\Omega),~0\le s \le 1$. We confirm our theoretical findings with a number of numerical tests that include initial data $v$ being a Dirac $\delta$-function supported on a $(d-1)$-dimensional manifold.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure