In the reduced-form approach to credit modeling, default intensity has been found to depend on several firm-specific factors, most notably credit rating. But aggregate default rates also vary substantially over time, presumably reflecting changes in general economic conditions. In this paper, we fit Cox intensity models for major credit events, including defaults as well as major upgrades and d...

A technique is described for reducing miss latency in coherent-cache sharedmemory parallel computers. Miss latency is reduced by speculatively invalidating and downgrading (copying an exclusively held line back to memory) cache lines at one processor that might be needed at another processor. A line becomes a candidate for speculative invalidation when another line last accessed by the same ins...

On the heels of prominent corporate downgrades in the U.S., the haircut unwinding of exposed collateralized debt obligations reverberated in a drumbeat of warnings and mounting regulatory unease about current risk measurement standards of derivatives and their impact on financial stability. The subsequent drumbeat of warnings about probable knock-on effects of leveraged structured claims on fin...

We compared value recovery of a modified tree-length (MTL) logging system that measures product diameter and length using a Waratah 626 harvester head to that of a tree-length (TL) system that estimates dimensions. A field test compared the actual value cut to the maximum potential value suggested by the log bucking optimization program Assessment of Value by Individual Stems (AVIS) for 25 fell...

Nowadays, identity-based client authentication (e.g., by username/ password) over SSL is the standard for user authentication on the Web. In particular, browser-based federated identity management (FIM) protocols prefer this technique to authenticate customers due to its user-convenience and lightweight access management. However, recent attacks known as phishing provide evidence that this auth...

This paper studies changes in the information environment brought about by Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD), which was implemented on October 23, 2000. FD now prohibits U.S. public companies from making selective, non-public disclosures to favored analysts and portfolio managers. FD, however, has a number of exclusions, one of which still allows disclosure of nonpublic information to credit rati...

Exploiting a natural experiment in which voluntary audits replace mandatory audits for U.K. private companies, we analyze whether imposing audits suppresses valuable information about the types of companies that would voluntarily choose to be audited. We control for the assurance benefits of auditing to isolate the role signaling plays by focusing on companies that are audited under both regime...

Since performance of conventional linear prediction (LP) deteriorates in formant estimation of high-pitched voices, several all-pole modeling methods robust to F0 have been developed. This study compares five such previously known methods and proposes a new technique, Weighted Linear Prediction with Attenuated Main Excitation (WLP-AME). WLP-AME utilizes weighted linear prediction in which the s...

Since performance of conventional linear prediction (LP) deteriorates in formant estimation of high-pitched voices, several all-pole modeling methods robust to F0 have been developed. This study compares five such previously known methods and proposes a new technique, Weighted Linear Prediction with Attenuated Main Excitation (WLP-AME). WLP-AME utilizes weighted linear prediction in which the s...

Similar to the traditional approach, we consider the task of summarization as selection of top ranked sentences from ranked sentenceclusters. To achieve this goal, we rank the sentence clusters by using the importance of words calculated by using page rank algorithm on reverse directed word graph of sentences. Next, to rank the sentences in every cluster we introduce the use of weighted cluster...