Choosing Prevention Products: Questions to Ask When Considering Sexual and Relationship Violence and Stalking Prevention Products

The purpose of this white paper is to provide guidance to university and college leaders on how to choose products that address concerns of sexual and relationship violence and stalking from the perspective of prevention

The Impact of Shape on the Perception of Euler Diagrams

Euler diagrams are often used for visualizing data collected into sets. However, there is a significant lack of guidance regarding graphical choices for Euler diagram layout. To address this deficiency, this paper asks the question `does the shape of a closed curve affect a user's comprehension of an Euler diagram?' By empirical study, we establish that curve shape does indeed impact on understandability. Our analysis of performance data indicates that circles perform best, followed by squares, with ellipses and rectangles jointly performing worst. We conclude that, where possible, circles should be used to draw effective Euler diagrams. Further, the ability to discriminate curves from zones and the symmetry of the curve shapes is argued to be important. We utilize perceptual theory to explain these results. As a consequence of this research, improved diagram layout decisions can be made for Euler diagrams whether they are manually or automatically drawn

The Term Structure of Interest-Rate Future Prices

We derive general properties of two-factor models of the term structure of interest rates and, in particular, the process for futures prices and rates. Then, as a special case, we derive a no-arbitrage model of the term structure in which any two futures rates act as factors. The term structure shifts and tilts as the factor rates vary. The cross-sectional properties of the model derive from the solution of a two-dimensional autoregressive process for the short-term rate, which exhibits both mean reversion and a lagged persistence parameter. We show that the correlation of the futures rates is restricted by the no-arbitrage conditions of the model. In addition, we investigate the determinants of the volatility of the futures rates of various maturities. These are shown to be related to the volatilities of the short rate, the volatility of the second factor, the degree of mean reversion and the persistence of the second factor shock. We obtain specific results for futures rates in the case where the logarithm of the short-term rate [e.g., the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (Libor)] follows a two-dimensional process. Our results lead to empirical hypotheses that are testable using data from the liquid market for Eurocurrency interest rate futures contracts

Livestock health priorities in the Tanzania livestock master plan

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio

Red meat production in the Tanzanian livestock master plan

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio

Incremental Risk Vulnerability

We present a necessary and sufficient condition on an agent’s utility function for a simple mean preserving spread in an independent background risk to increase the agent’s risk aversion (incremental risk vulnerability). Gollier and Pratt (1996) have shown that declining and convex risk aversion as well as standard risk aversion are sufficient for risk vulnerability. We show that these conditions are also sufficient for incremental risk vulnerability. In addition, we present sufficient conditions for a restricted set of stochastic increases in an independent background risk to increase risk aversion.

MLS: Airplane system modeling

Analysis, modeling, and simulations were conducted as part of a multiyear investigation of the more important airplane-system-related items of the microwave landing system (MLS). Particular emphasis was placed upon the airplane RF system, including the antenna radiation distribution, the cabling options from the antenna to the receiver, and the overall impact of the airborne system gains and losses upon the direct-path signal structure. In addition, effort was expended toward determining the impact of the MLS upon the airplane flight management system and developing the initial stages of a fast-time MLS automatic control system simulation model. Results ot these studies are presented

The Valuation of American-style Swaptions in a Two-factor Spot-Futures Model1

We build a no-arbitrage model of the term structure of interest rates using two stochastic factors, the short-term interest rate and the premium of the futures rate over the short-term interest rate. The model provides and extension of the lognormal interest rate model of Black and Karasinski (1991) to two factors, both of which can exhibit mean-reversion. The method is computationally efficient for several reasons. First, the model is based on Libor futures prices, enabling us to satisfy the no-arbitrage condition without resorting to iterative methods. Second, we modify and implement the binomial approximation methodology of Nelson and Ramaswamy (1990) and Ho, Stapleton and Subrahmanyam (1995) to compute a multiperiod tree of rates with the no-arbitrage property. The method uses a recombining two-dimensional binomial lattice of interest rates that minimizes the number of states and term structures over time. In addition to these computational advantages, a key feature of the model is that it is consistent with the observed term structure of futures rates as well as the term structure of volatilities implied by the prices of interest rate caps and floors. These prices are shown to be highly sensitive to the existence of the second factor and its volatility characteristics