The non detection of multiple images due to gravitational lensing in the BATSE 4B catalog implies an upper limit to the average redshift < z > of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). Here we calculate an upper limit to < z >, independent of the physical model for GRBs, using a filled approximation to compute the lensing rate for GRBs at high z for a variety of cosmologies. The upper limit on < z > depends ...

Electronic B2B marketplaces bring together many online suppliers and buyers, each of which can potentially use his own format to represent the products in his product catalog. The marketplaces have to perform non-trivial mappings of these catalogs. In this paper, we analyze the problems which occur during the integration, taking several leading XML-based standards as an example. We advocate a t...

We examine the effect of direct mail (commonly referred to as junk mail) advertising on individual financial decisions by studying consumer choice of home equity debt contracts. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, we find that financial variables underlying the relative pricing of debt contracts are the leading factors explaining consumers’ home equity debt choice. Furthermore, we also...

We examine the effect of direct mail (commonly referred to as junk mail) advertising on individual financial decisions by studying consumer choice of home equity debt contracts. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, we find that financial variables underlying the relative pricing of debt contracts are the leading factors explaining consumers’ home equity debt choice. Furthermore, we also...

This publication is a follow-up study to MTI publication 00-01, Why Campaigns for Local Transportation Funding Initiatives Succeed or Fail: An Analysis of Four Communities and National Data. The earlier publication was case studies of four local ballot tax measures for transportation packages. The current study, Factors Influencing Voting Results of Local Transportation Funding Initiatives with...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of various community-based interventions in support of HPV vaccination implemented by cities and towns within Tochigi prefecture, Japan with a view to identifying useful indicators which might guide future interventions to improve HPV vaccination coverage in the prefecture. A postal questionnaire survey of all 27 local governments in Tochigi P...

W consider a finite-state, finite-action, infinite-horizon, discounted reward Markov decision process and study the bias and variance in the value function estimates that result from empirical estimates of the model parameters. We provide closed-form approximations for the bias and variance, which can then be used to derive confidence intervals around the value function estimates. We illustrate...

A time dependent two-point correlation-function analysis of the BATSE 2B catalog nds no evidence of burst repetition. As part of this analysis, we discuss the e ects of sky exposure on the observability of burst repetition and present the equation describing the signature of burst repetition in the data. For a model of all burst repetition from a source occurring in less than ve days we derive ...