3,702 research outputs found
Credit Line Availability and Utilization in REITs
Analysis of REIT credit line availability and use under normal conditions and during the recent financial crisis are provided. Descriptive statistics indicate REIT credit lines represent an important component of capital structure, credit line availability and utilization have increased substantially over the sample period, and REITs maintain precautionary liquidity via credit lines rather than holding cash. Multivariate results indicate that credit line availability is directly associated with cash flow uncertainty, dividend distributions, acquisitions, and capital market access and is inversely linked to the market-to-book ratio. Credit line use is unrelated to cash flow volatility and dividends, but is correlated with operating cash flow, acquisitions, and capital market access. Unlike with non-REITs, when setting credit limits lenders focus on dividends and not just operating cash flow. Despite finding that line availability is influenced by dividend payments, REITs do not systematically use lines to pay dividends implying that dividends are paid from operating cash flows.
Archaeological Field School at the Hennings Site
Iowa State University’s 2013 archaeological field school was held from May 13 to June 7 at the Hennings site, a 4,400 year-old prehistoric occupation in Monona County, Iowa, just west of Ute. The Western Research and Demonstration Farm (a.k.a. Wayne’s World) served as a field camp and staging area for the project. This is a summary of the effort and the results of preliminary analyses
Ownership Structure, Property Performance, Multifamily Properties and REITs
This research extends literature that empirically evaluates the impact of ownership and management structure on property level performance. The results show that multifamily properties owned and managed by real estate investment trusts (REITs) generate higher effective rents at the property level than non-REIT-owned properties. After controlling for positive operating scale and brand effects, REIT property level performance is better than non-REIT property level performance in the market studied. The REIT structure represents diversified scale operators with property management skills. The results imply that the structure of property ownership can impact property performance.
Shareholder Returns from Supplying Trade Credit
We examine shareholder wealth implications of supplying financing to customers. Robust results demonstrate that excess returns and trade receivables are directly and significantly related. Further evidence indicates the value of receivables is higher for suppliers with stronger motives relating to operating and contracting costs. The results also suggest a discounted value of receivables for financially unconstrained firms. Overall, we conclude that investors recognize trade credit as an effective instrument in mitigating frictions hindering sales growth. Thus, certain suppliers are positioned to derive increased strategic benefits from credit policy
Goal-directed fluid therapy- a survey of anaesthetists in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand
BACKGROUND: Goal-directed fluid therapy (GDFT) has been shown to reduce complications and hospital length of stay following major surgery. However, there has been no assessment regarding its use in clinical practice. METHODS: An electronic survey was administered to randomly selected anaesthetists from the United Kingdom (UK, n = 2000) and the United States of America (USA, n = 2000), and 500 anaesthetists from Australia/New Zealand (AUS/NZ). Preferences, clinical use and attitudes towards GDFT were investigated. Results were collated to examine regional differences. RESULTS: The response rates from the UK (n = 708) and AUS/NZ (n = 180) were 35%, and 36% respectively. The response rate from the USA was very low (n = 178; 9%). GDFT use was significantly more common in the UK than in AUS/NZ (p < 0.01). The Oesophageal Doppler Monitor was the most preferred instrument in the UK (n = 362; h76%) with no clear preferences in other regions. GDFT was most commonly utilised in major abdominal surgery and for patients with significant comorbidities. The commonest reasons stated for not using GDFT were either lack of availability of monitoring tools (AUS/NZ: 57 (70%); UK: 94 (64%)) or a lack of experience with instruments (AUS/NZ: 43 (53%); UK: 51 (35%)). A subset of respondents (AUS/NZ: 22(27%); UK: 45 (30%)) felt GDFT provided no perceived benefit. Enthusiasm towards the use of GDFT in the absence of existing barriers was high. CONCLUSION: Several hypotheses were generated regarding important differences in the use of GDFT between anaesthetists from the UK and AUS/NZ. There is significant interest in utilising GDFT in clinical practice and existing barriers should be addressed
Photoionization of High Altitude Gas in a Supernova-Driven Turbulent Interstellar Medium
We investigate models for the photoionization of the widespread diffuse
ionized gas in galaxies. In particular we address the long standing question of
the penetration of Lyman continuum photons from sources close to the galactic
midplane to large heights in the galactic halo. We find that recent
hydrodynamical simulations of a supernova-driven interstellar medium have low
density paths and voids that allow for ionizing photons from midplane OB stars
to reach and ionize gas many kiloparsecs above the midplane. We find ionizing
fluxes throughout our simulation grids are larger than predicted by one
dimensional slab models, thus allowing for photoionization by O stars of low
altitude neutral clouds in the Galaxy that are also detected in Halpha. In
previous studies of such clouds the photoionization scenario had been rejected
and the Halpha had been attributed to enhanced cosmic ray ionization or
scattered light from midplane H II regions. We do find that the emission
measure distributions in our simulations are wider than those derived from
Halpha observations in the Milky Way. In addition, the horizontally averaged
height dependence of the gas density in the hydrodynamical models is lower than
inferred in the Galaxy. These discrepancies are likely due to the absence of
magnetic fields in the hydrodynamic simulations and we discuss how
magnetohydrodynamic effects may reconcile models and observations.
Nevertheless, we anticipate that the inclusion of magnetic fields in the
dynamical simulations will not alter our primary finding that midplane OB stars
are capable of producing high altitude diffuse ionized gas in a realistic
three-dimensional interstellar medium.Comment: ApJ accepted. 17 pages, 7 figure
The Turbulent Warm Ionized Medium: Emission Measure Distribution and MHD Simulations
We present an analysis of the distribution of H-alpha emission measures for
the warm ionized medium (WIM) of the Galaxy using data from the Wisconsin
H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) Northern Sky Survey. Our sample is restricted to Galactic
latitudes |b| > 10. We removed sightlines intersecting nineteen high-latititude
classical H II regions, leaving only sightlines that sample the diffuse WIM.
The distribution of EM sin |b| for the full sample is poorly characterized by a
single normal distribution, but is extraordinarily well fit by a lognormal
distribution, with = 0.146 +/- 0.001 and standard deviation
0.190 +/- 0.001. drops from 0.260 +/- 0.002 at Galactic
latitude 10<|b|<30 to 0.038 +/- 0.002 at Galactic latitude 60<|b|<90. The
distribution may widen slightly at low Galactic latitude. We compare the
observed EM distribution function to the predictions of three-dimensional
magnetohydrodynamic simulations of isothermal turbulence within a
non-stratified interstellar medium. We find that the distribution of EM sin |b|
is well described by models of mildy supersonic turbulence with a sonic Mach
number of ~1.4-2.4. The distribution is weakly sensitive to the magnetic field
strength. The model also successfully predicts the distribution of dispersion
measures of pulsars and H-alpha line profiles. In the best fitting model, the
turbulent WIM occupies a vertical path length of 400-500 pc within the 1.0-1.8
kpc scale height of the layer. The WIM gas has a lognormal distribution of
densities with a most probable electron density n_{pk} = 0.03 cm^{-3}. We also
discuss the implications of these results for interpreting the filling factor,
the power requirement, and the magnetic field of the WIM.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, ApJ in press. Replacement reflects version
accepted for publicatio
Fluoride-containing bioactive glasses: Effect of glass design and structure on degradation, pH and apatite formation in simulated body fluid
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Acta Biomaterialia. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Acta Biomaterialia, [VOL 6, ISSUE 8, (2010)] DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2010.01.04
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