Thrifty Viability and Traditional Mortgage Lending: A Simultaneous Equations Analysis of the Risk-Return Trade-Off

A number of studies have argued that the thrift industry is not viable as it is presently structured and regulated because mortgage yields are inadequate to cover interest and operating costs. This hypothesis suggests that observed profitability is primarily the result of the tendency of the industry to "ride" the yield curve by borrowing short and lending long. To evaluate this argument, we construct a simultaneous-equations model of thrift risk (maturity gap positions) and return (net interest margin). We find support for the notion that the industry could not be reasonably profitable if it did not take on significant interest-rate risk. For instance, a zero gap position produces a return on assets of only 19 basis points and a return on equity of only 4%. We also estimate the amount of interest-rate risk the industry can employ to increase returns on equity and assets. Our estimates show that over 50% of thrift profits earned during this period are the result of negative gap positions and interest-rate speculation. As earlier research shows, changes in regulations affecting thrift asset and liability choices can be counterproductive.

Monitoring quantity and quality of pangasius pond effluent : report of a monitoring program and recommendations for certification

The quantity and quality of pangasius pond effluent was monitored by means of monthly sampling during a study conducted on four striped catfish farms located in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The study was undertaken to test the practical implications of the standards and guidelines with regard to catfish pond effluent that are at present developed by various certification programs for striped catfish production in Vietnam. The results showed a great variability twelve pangasius pond within the samples that were taken during one period of partial pond draining and refilling. The consequences of such variability with regard to the certification standards and guidelines are discussed and recommendations are given

Generating topological order from a 2D cluster state using a duality mapping

In this paper we prove, extend and review possible mappings between the two-dimensional Cluster state, Wen's model, the two-dimensional Ising chain and Kitaev's toric code model. We introduce a two-dimensional duality transformation to map the two-dimensional lattice cluster state into the topologically-ordered Wen model. Then, we subsequently investigates how this mapping could be achieved physically, which allows us to discuss the rate at which a topologically ordered system can be achieved. Next, using a lattice fermionization method, Wen's model is mapped into a series of one-dimensional Ising interactions. Considering the boundary terms with this mapping then reveals how the Ising chains interact with one another. The relationships discussed in this paper allow us to consider these models from two different perspectives: From the perspective of condensed matter physics these mappings allow us to learn more about the relation between the ground state properties of the four different models, such as their entanglement or topological structure. On the other hand, we take the duality of these models as a starting point to address questions related to the universality of their ground states for quantum computation.Comment: 5 Figure

Detecting and analysing spontaneous oral cancer speech in the wild

Oral cancer speech is a disease which impacts more than half a million people worldwide every year. Analysis of oral cancer speech has so far focused on read speech. In this paper, we 1) present and 2) analyse a three-hour long spontaneous oral cancer speech dataset collected from YouTube. 3) We set baselines for an oral cancer speech detection task on this dataset. The analysis of these explainable machine learning baselines shows that sibilants and stop consonants are the most important indicators for spontaneous oral cancer speech detection.Comment: Accepted to Interspeech 202

Spin-label EPR Approaches to Protein Interactions

Protein-protein interactions are essential for various biological processes including cell metabolism, muscle contraction, and signal transduction. The dissertation describes a study of the interaction between the proteins cytochrome c and cytochrome c peroxidase by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR). A spin label containing an unpaired electron was placed at the surface of one of the proteins. The combination of spin labelling and EPR provided novel information on the structure and dynamics of the proteins.Bilogical and Molecular physics - OU

Hall viscosity from gauge/gravity duality

In (2+1)-dimensional systems with broken parity, there exists yet another transport coefficient, appearing at the same order as the shear viscosity in the hydrodynamic derivative expansion. In condensed matter physics, it is referred to as "Hall viscosity". We consider a simple holographic realization of a (2+1)-dimensional isotropic fluid with broken spatial parity. Using techniques of fluid/gravity correspondence, we uncover that the holographic fluid possesses a nonzero Hall viscosity, whose value only depends on the near-horizon region of the background. We also write down a Kubo's formula for the Hall viscosity. We confirm our results by directly computing the Hall viscosity using the formula.Comment: 12 page