'Spindles' in symmetric spaces

We study families of submanifolds in symmetric spaces of compact type arising as exponential images of s-orbits of variable radii. Special attention is given to the cases where the s-orbits are symmetric

Examining the Overlapping Traits of Athletes and Entrepreneurs Through a Series of Case Studies

Today’s psychologists have paid close attention to personality and how it can affect many areas of a person’s life. From career success to criminal behavior psychologists continuously are trying to define key characteristics that may be contributing factors in the prediction of future happenings. This paper will look closely at theories regarding personality traits that are key to success. Those traits are identified in eight case studies relating to both entrepreneurial and athletic success with the findings showing a possible link between success and some key traits and an overlap of some traits between athletes and entrepreneurs

Do Elected Public Utility Commissioners Behave More Politically than Appointed Ones?

This paper investigates whether the means by which public utility commissioners are selected affects the influence of political affiliation on policy choices. This question is asked in the context of telecommunications network lease prices and retail prices. While political affiliation appears to have limited influence on lease prices set by appointed commissioners, it has a significant impact when these prices are set by elected commissioners. Conversely, the political affiliation of appointed regulators appears to affect retail prices, whereas the political affiliation of elected commissioners does not.

Is there a Relationship Between HMO Quality of Care and Financial Performance? Evidence from Texas HMOs

The profits earned by health insurance companies have been under intense scrutiny by policymakers and the general public. However, attempts to reduce insurance company profits could affect the quality of care that they provide to their enrollees. This study investigates whether there is a relationship between the profitability of an HMO and the quality of care that its enrollees receive. The sample is comprised of health maintenance organizations in Texas from 2000 to 2008. Quality of care is proxied by HEDIS compliance rates for selected child and female health measures, while profits are measured both on a dollar and percentage basis. Annual data are used that are disaggregated by market area. The results suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between profits and some measures of quality. Specifically, the child health measures used here are positively related to profits, in that increases (decreases) in profits are associated with increases (decreases) in quality. By contrast, there is not a statistically significant relationship between the available female health measures and profits. Further, for the child health measures, instrumental variable models that attempt to address to the potential endogeneity of quality and profits are consistent with the possibility that changes in profits have a causal effect on quality of care.

Acceleration by Strong Interactions

Beyond the attractive strong potential needed for hadronic bound states, strong interactions are predicted to provide repulsive forces depending on the color charges involved. The repulsive interactions could in principle serve for particle acceleration with highest gradients in the order of GeV/fm. Indirect evidence for repulsive interactions have been reported in the context of heavy meson production at colliders. In this contribution, we sketch a thought experiment to directly investigate repulsive strong interactions. For this we prepare two quarks using two simultaneous deep inelastic scattering processes off an iron target. We discuss the principle setup of the experiment and estimate the number of electrons on target required to observe a repulsive effect between the quarks.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Does the Relationship Between Mortality and the Business Cycle Vary by the Level of Economic Development? Evidence from Mexico

We investigate the relationship between mortality and business cycles within Mexico, where development varies significantly. We exploit this variation by separately analyzing the top ten and bottom ten developed states. We find that while mortality is procyclical nationally and in the top ten states, it is countercyclical in the bottom ten. Further, we show that in the top ten states mortality due to noncommunicable conditions is procyclical, while in the bottom ten mortality due to noncommunicable conditions and infectious and parasitic diseases is countercyclical. This suggests that the relationship between mortality and business cycles may vary by level of development.

Macroeconomic Changes and Mortality in Mexico

While previous studies examine how the business cycle affects mortality in developed countries, less is known about this relationship in developing countries. In this paper, we investigate whether the procyclical nature of mortality in developed countries found by Ruhm (2000) and others is also present in Mexico. We assemble a unique panel data set that contains state-level data on mortality rates by age and cause of death, GDP per capita, and socioeconomic status. We find that for Mexico total mortality rates are procyclical, with the largest impact on those aged 20 to 49. While these findings are similar to those in Ruhm (2000), the effects of business cycles on mortality rates differ for several specific causes of death. These results suggest that whereas total mortality may be procyclical in some developed and developing countries, significant differences may exist for some causes of death.