Several recent empirical papers report evidence of significant systematic variation in recovery rates on defaulted corporate debt, implying that the convenient assumption of independent recovery rates found in most defaultable debt pricing models and portfolio credit risk models is unrealistic. However, such work has used recoveries on individual assets. These are claims on the value of the ban...

This paper tells the story of a doctor in a vegetative state. The approach towards him is quite different from that towards a common patient. The other physicians cannot deal with this situation with the necessary open mind.

Two improved list-ranking algorithms are presented. The “peeling-off” algorithm leads to an optimal PRAM algorithm, but was designed with application on a real parallel machine in mind. It is simpler than earlier algorithms, and in a range of problem sizes, where previously several algorithms where required for the best performance, now this single algorithm suffices. If the problem size is muc...

We outline an approach to enumeration problems which relies on the algebra of free abelian groups, giving as our main application a generalisa-tion of the chromatic polynomial of a simple graph G. Our polynomial lies in the free abelian group generated by the poset K(G) of contractions of G, and reduces to the classical case after a simple substitution. Its main properties may be stated in term...