Alane adsorption and dissociation on the Si(001) surface

We used DFT to study the energetics of the decomposition of alane, AlH3, on the Si(001) surface, as the acceptor complement to PH3. Alane forms a dative bond with the raised atoms of silicon surface dimers, via the Si atom lone pair. We calculated the energies of various structures along the pathway of successive dehydrogenation events following adsorption: AlH2, AlH and Al, finding a gradual, significant decrease in energy. For each stage, we analyse the structure and bonding, and present simulated STM images of the lowest energy structures. Finally, we find that the energy of Al atoms incorporated into the surface, ejecting a Si atom, is comparable to Al adatoms. These findings show that Al incorporation is likely to be as precisely controlled as P incorporation, if slightly less easy to achieve.Comment: Submitted to J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

The SEC's "Fair Value" Standard for Mutual Fund Investment in Restricted Shares and Other Illiquid Securities

Mutual funds generally do not invest in venture capital, private equity, or restricted shares of public companies. Consequently, individuals who desire to invest in such securities are unable to do so through diversified mutual funds. In this paper, we identify public policies and regulations that discourage mutual fund involvement in the markets for illiquid equity. We also present evidence that changes in SEC policy caused mutual funds to retreat from investing in illiquid equity. Under the Investment Company Act of l940, the SEC requires mutual fund boards to determine and report the “fair value” of their investments in restricted shares and other illiquid equity claims. The SEC interprets fair value to mean value in current sale. Under the Investment Company Act, fair value reporting is a “certification” standard that presumes investors rely on the value representations of the fund board and its auditors. We consider whether alternatives to certification and current sale valuation could reduce barriers to mutual fund investment, without exposing individuals who invest in mutual funds to excessive risk or potential manipulation. To assess the effects of public policies, we analyze recent efforts of the SEC to apply the fair-value standard and examine court decisions arising from subsequent litigation. We also analyze the financial economics literature concerning discounts for illiquidity and the implications for valuing restricted shares. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy alternatives, including allowing funds to rely more on “transparency” in lieu of certification and allowing funds more latitude in determining and reporting the values of their illiquid securities.

Issue Cost and Method of IPO Underwriting: Japan's Change from Auction Method Pricing to Book Building

In 1997, Japan introduced book building an alternative to an auction method of IPO pricing that had been required since 1989. Shortly after its authorization, all IPOs in Japan were priced by book building. The shift occurred despite economic arguments and evidence suggesting that the auction method reduced underpricing. We attribute the shift to creation of an information-based pooling equilibrium where low quality firms that benefit from the imposed auction regime lose the benefit if high quality firms are free to select book building. We examine the effects of the regime change on total issue cost and characteristics of IPO firms. We find that, on average, total issue cost during the auction period would have been similar under book building, but that the regimes have differential effects. For large well-established issuers, book building reduced total issue cost. Small issuers had lower cost under the auction method, but high-quality small firms appear to have been foreclosed from issuing. Ignoring the effect of pricing method on underinvestment, our estimates of the simple average cost advantage of the auction method range from 6.9 percent of aftermarket value to –1.8 percent. Because, from a cost standpoint, book building benefits large issuers, the value-weighted effect of the book building method is unambiguously positive, averaging 136 million Yen per issuer in our sample, or 3.5 percent of aftermarket value. In aggregate, we estimate that reliance on the auction method from 1995 through late 1997 cost JASDAQ issuers 61 billion Yen more than book building would have cost. This estimate does not include any additional costs associated with underinvestment.

Expert systems applied to spacecraft fire safety

Expert systems are problem-solving programs that combine a knowledge base and a reasoning mechanism to simulate a human expert. The development of an expert system to manage fire safety in spacecraft, in particular the NASA Space Station Freedom, is difficult but clearly advantageous in the long-term. Some needs in low-gravity flammability characteristics, ventilating-flow effects, fire detection, fire extinguishment, and decision models, all necessary to establish the knowledge base for an expert system, are discussed

Cloud altitude determination from infrared spectral radiances

The CO2 slicing method is generally recognized as the most accurate means of inferring cloud altitude from passive infrared radiance observations. The method is applicable to semi-transparent and broken clouds. During the cirrus FIRE and COHMEX field experiments, CO2 channel radiance data suitable for cloud altitude specification were achieved from moderate spectral resolution satellite sounders (NOAA-TOVS and GOES-VAS) and from a High spectral resolution Interferometer Spectrometer (HIS) flown on the NASA U2/ER2 aircraft. Also aboard the ER2 was a down-looking active lidar unit capable of providing cloud top pressure verifications with high accuracy. A third instrument, the Multispectral Atmospheric Mapping Sensor (MAMS) provided 50 meter resolution infrared window data which is used wtih radiosonde data to verify the heights of middle and low level clouds. Comparisons of lidar and MAMS/radiosonde ground truth cloud heights are made with those determined from: high resolution (0.5/cm) HIS spectra, HIS spectra degraded to the moderate resolution (15/cm) of the VAS/TOVS instruments, and spectrally averaged HIS radiances for individual pairs of VAS spectral channels. The results show that the best results are achieved from high resolution spectra; the RMS difference with the ground truth is 23 mb. The RMS differences between the infrared radiance determination and ground truth increase by 35 percent when the spectral resolution is degraded to the moderate spectral resolution of the VAS/TOVS instruments and by 52 to 183 percent, depending upon channel combinations, when only two spectral channels at VAS/TOVS spectral resolution are used

Banking Relationships and Access to Equity Capital Markets: Evidence from Japan’s Main Bank System

We study the role of banking relationships in IPO underwriting using a sample of 484 Japanese IPOs. Among other issues, we consider whether bank relationships lead to increased access to public equity markets, especially for smaller, lesser-known firms. When a firm in Japan goes public, it can engage an investment bank that is related through a common main bank, or can select an alternative investment bank. The main bank relationship can be an efficient way for the investment bank to acquire information generated by the main bank, but may give rise to conflicts of interest. We use data from two different investment banking regimes in Japan (a hybrid auction-method regime and a book-building regime) and find that main bank relationships give small issuers increased access to equity capital markets, but that issuers of large IPOs switch to non-related investment banks that are capable of managing large offerings. While we find evidence that investment banks seek to exploit bargaining power with related issuers, we also find that issuers respond to expected high issue cost by switching to non-related investment banks. The net result is that total issue costs through related and non-related investment banks are similar. With respect to aftermarket performance and use of offer proceeds, we find no evidence of conflict of interest or self-dealing for either the main bank or the investment bank.Main Bank; Banking Relationships; Capital Market Access; IPOs; Underwriting; Japanese Economy

New Venture Opportunity Cost of Capital and Financial Contracting

Investments in new ventures involve financial contracts between an entrepreneur and outside investors. Investors, such as venture capital firms, represent well-diversified investors. In contrast, the entrepreneur must commit a substantial fraction of human and financial capital to the venture. Consequently, the entrepreneur's required rate of return depends on total risk, in the context of the entrepreneur’s other assets. In this paper, we use the Capital Asset Pricing Model as an approximation of the asset pricing model used by well-diversified investors. Accordingly, the entrepreneur faces the risk-return tradeoff of the CAPM as the opportunity cost of holding an under-diversified portfolio that includes investment in the venture. We model the required rate of return of the entrepreneur, assuming investment in the venture is one of two assets in the portfolio and that the other is the market portfolio. We explore opportunities for value creation when the parties to a financial contract have different costs of bearing risk. We also present empirical data on factors relevant to new venture cost of capital estimation.

Classification of Coastal Communities Reporting Commercial Fish Landings in the U.S. Northeast Region: Developing and Testing a Methodology

The National Marine Fisheries Service is required by law to conduct social impact assessments of communities impacted by fishery management plans. To facilitate this process, we developed a technique for grouping communities based on common sociocultural attributes. Multivariate data reduction techniques (e.g. principal component analyses, cluster analyses) were used to classify Northeast U.S. fishing communities based on census and fisheries data. The comparisons indicate that the clusters represent real groupings that can be verified with the profiles. We then selected communities representative of different values on these multivariate dimensions for in-depth analysis. The derived clusters are then compared based on more detailed data from fishing community profiles. Ground-truthing (e.g. visiting the communities and collecting primary information) a sample of communities from three clusters (two overlapping geographically) indicates that the more remote techniques are sufficient for typing the communities for further in-depth analyses. The in-depth analyses provide additional important information which we contend is representative of all communities within the cluster

A statistical assessment of Buchanan's vote in Palm Beach County

This article presents a statistical analysis of the results of the 2000 U.S. presidential election in the 67 counties of Florida, with particular attention to the result in Palm Beach county, where the Reform party candidate Pat Buchanan recorded an unexpectedly large 3,407 votes. It was alleged that the "butterfly ballot" had misled many voters into voting for Buchanan when they in fact intended to vote for Al Gore. We use multiple regression techniques, using votes for the other candidates and demographic variables as covariates, to obtain point and interval predictions for Buchanan's vote in Palm Beach based on the data in the other 66 counties of Florida. A typical result shows a point prediction of 371 and a 95% prediction interval of 219-534. Much of the discussion is concerned with technical aspects of applying multiple regression to this kind of data set, focussing on issues such as heteroskedasticity, overdispersion, data transformations and diagnostics. All the analyses point to Buchanan's actual vote as a clear and massive outlier