Showing papers by "Oklahoma City University published in 2006"

Is Gold a Zero-Beta Asset? Analysis of the Investment Potential of Precious Metals

Abstract: Gold shows the characteristics of a zero-beta asset. It has approximately the same mean return as a Treasury Bill and bears no market risk. Silver also bears no market risk but has returns inferior to Treasury Bills. Both gold and silver show evidence of inflation-hedging ability, with the case being much stronger for gold. The prices of both metals are cointegrated with consumer prices, showing additional evidence of hedging ability.

A chloroplast-localized dual-specificity protein phosphatase in Arabidopsis contains a phylogenetically dispersed and ancient carbohydrate-binding domain, which binds the polysaccharide starch.

Abstract: Dual-specificity protein phosphatases (DSPs) are important regulators of a wide variety of protein kinase signaling cascades in animals, fungi and plants. We previously identified a cluster of putative DSPs in Arabidopsis (including At3g52180 and At3g01510) in which the phosphatase domain is related to that of laforin, the human protein mutated in Lafora epilepsy. In animal and fungal systems, the laforin DSP and the beta-regulatory subunits of AMP-regulated protein kinase (AMPK) and Snf-1 have all been demonstrated to bind to glycogen by a glycogen-binding domain (GBD). We present a bioinformatic analysis which shows that these DSPs from Arabidopsis, together with other related plant DSPs, share with the above animal and fungal proteins a widespread and ancient carbohydrate-binding domain. We demonstrate that DSP At3g52180 binds to purified starch through its predicted carbohydrate-binding region, and that mutation of key conserved residues reduces this binding. Consistent with its ability to bind exogenous starch, DSP At3g52180 was found associated with starch purified from Arabidopsis plants and suspension cells. Immunolocalization experiments revealed a co-localization with chlorophyll, placing DSP At3g52180 in the chloroplast. Gene-expression data from different stages of the light-dark cycle and across a wide variety of tissues show a strong correlation between the pattern displayed by transcripts of the At3g52180 locus and that of genes encoding key starch degradative enzymes. Taken together, these data suggest the hypothesis that plant DSPs could be part of a protein assemblage at the starch granule, where they would be ideally situated to regulate starch metabolism through reversible phosphorylation events.

Nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations for Baouendi–Grushin operators

Abstract: In this paper, we shall investigate the nonexistence of positive solutions for the following nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations: and Here, Ω is a Carnot–Caratheodory metric ball in RN and V ∈ L1loc(Ω). The critical exponents m * and p * are found, and the nonexistence results are proved for m * ≤ m < 1 and p * ≤ p < 2. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The Overnight Return, One More Anomaly

Abstract: Since the formal development of the efficient market hypothesis, studies of actual market performance have revealed a number of apparent inconsistencies (anomalies). Herein we report on our discovery of evidence anomaly which relates to the behavior of the overnight and subsequent intraday returns. According to the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis, a time series of returns is supposed to contain no useable degree of auto correlation. Numerous studies have provided strong support for this viewpoint. We may, however, have found evidence which is inconsistent with this hypothesis. The present study grew out of another study which focuses on the behavior of closed end fund returns. In that study we explored the daily return performance of such funds in conjunction with the daily performance of the funds' NAVs. We bifurcated the daily closed end return into an overnight return which reflect that part of the return that takes place between the close and the next day's open and the intraday return which encompasses that part of the return that occurs from the open to the close. The two pieces of the daily return exhibited a very strong negative autocorrelation. Naturally we wanted to explore whether a similar phenomenon was occurring for stocks in general. That is the question that this study seeks to answer. The short answer is yes, we have found the same type of negative auto correlation for stocks in general as we found for the shares of closed end funds. We have found this result for stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ. We have found it for both the 2000 to 2005 and 1994 to 1999 periods. When we divide the data into size categories, we find significant relationships for each sub sample. The correlations do, however, tend to be almost monotonically stronger as market capitalization decreases. Not only do we find a powerful negative correlation between the overnight and intraday returns but we also find a relationship between overnight and the prior intraday and the prior overnight returns. The signs of the correlations alternate with adjacent periods having negative correlations and one step back being positively related. We find that the relations hold up as anticipated in a multivariate context. When we add the S&P return to take account of the market return's impact, we find that the regressions' R squares rise but the coefficients on the other dependent variables are largely unaffected. All of our results are highly significant statistically. Most of the R squares are in the low to mid single digits.

Persistent physiological reactivity in a pilot study of partners of firefighters after a terrorist attack.

Abstract: Twenty-four female partners of firefighters participating in recovery efforts associated with the 1995 terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City were assessed 43 to 44 months later. Disaster experiences, psychiatric diagnoses, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and autonomic reactivity in response to an interview about the bombing were examined. Most of the participants with postbombing disorders suffered from pre-existing conditions. The majority found the bombing a "terrible" or "shocking" experience. One participant met all DSM-III-R symptom group criteria for bombing-related posttraumatic stress disorder, and 40% met both B (intrusive re-experiencing) and D (hyperarousal) criteria. More than one half of the sample exhibited autonomic reactivity on at least one measurement. Those who met symptom group criterion D evidenced greater autonomic reactivity than those who did not, suggesting a link between self-reported posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms of arousal and biological manifestations. Thus, it may be important to assess partners of disaster recovery workers for mental health and physiological consequences related to their indirect exposure as these may persist years after the event, even in the absence of a diagnosable mental disorder. Language: en

On the nonexistence of positive solutions to nonlinear degenerate parabolic equations with singular coefficients

Abstract: In this paper, we shall investigate the nonexistence of positive solutions for the following nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations: Here, Ω is a Carnot–Caratheodory metric ball in and . The critical exponent m∗ is found, and the nonexistence results are proved for m∗≤ m<1.

Closed End Fund Performance on a Daily Basis: The Discovery of a New Anomaly

Abstract: Herein we explore the relationships between the NAVs and market prices of closed end funds. We find the types of relationships that we expected. The market does react to the newly released NAV in the expected direction and the market does anticipate the changes in the NAV as expected. By far the most interesting relationship that we have uncovered, however, is the serendipitous find that the overnight and intraday returns of closed end funds are negatively auto correlated. This result is found for both the overall sample and all of the different sub samples that we tested. Our results are found in both univariate and multivariate tests. We believe the tendency for prices to move in opposite directions overnight and intraday is due to how the specialists choose to open their assigned stocks. This negative autocorrelation between intraday and overnight returns appears to us to be another example of an anomaly. This set of findings raises several questions. First, are the specialists properly carrying out their assigned task of stabilizing the prices of their securities on the opening? Or are they exploiting their monopolistic position to the disadvantage of those public investors who enter market orders overnight? And are the NYSE specialists particularly inclined to exploit their positions? Second, does this negative autocorrelation occur in the markets for other types of securities? Or is it just an artifact of how closed end funds are traded? Third, is the relationship exploitable? That is, could one utilize the tendency of closed end fund shares to move over the day in the opposite direction from its prior overnight move, to devise a profitable trading rule? Or does the next trade after the opening remove the profit potential? We look forward to seeking further answers.

The Corporation as Administrative Agency: Tax Expenditures and Institutional Design

Abstract: Tax expenditure analysis asserts that an income tax system is a poor vehicle for implementing non-tax goals. The traditional analysis argues that government subsidies now made available through tax deductions, tax credits, and the like should be converted into direct government expenditures administered by a specialized agency. This Article reconsiders tax expenditure analysis in light of institutional economics. The Article suggests that a complete analysis of the use of tax expenditures must include a comparison of an administrative agency with corporations as administrators of collective decisions. The analysis should not only compare an organization in the public sector to organizations in the private sector, but should also compare a centralized administrator to a decentralized group of administrators. The Article concludes that, under specified circumstances, tax expenditures may be appropriate means for implementing non-tax goals. By blending the public and private spheres and by blending centralization with decentralization, tax expenditures are a means of reducing the burden of transaction costs inherent in collective action.

Constitutional Safeguards for Silent Experiments in Living: Libraries, the Right to Read, and a First Amendment Theory for an Unaccompanied Right to Receive Information

Abstract: It is now well established that the First Amendment protects not only the rights of people to engage in speech but also the right of audiences to receive it. The First Amendment not only protects the controversial religious figure who gives a sermon on the radio, but also the audience that listens at home. It protects readers who, unbeknownst to a controversial writer and perhaps long after he has died, sit silently reading his book in a public library.This First Amendment protection for silent information-gathering, however, has garnered relatively little scholarly attention. On the surface, perhaps, there is good reason for this relative lack of attention: as courts usually analyze it, the individual's right to receive information is simply the mirror image of the right to express it. The same constitutional standards that protect ideas as they are voiced by a speaker continue to protect these ideas as they are disseminated to - and heard by - listeners. We do not, one might think, need one First Amendment at the beginning of the communicative process and a different First Amendment in the middle or the end. This article provides a very different account of the right to receive information and ideas. While the right to read or listen is certainly in one sense "the other half" of the right to express oneself, it is also much more than that. It is not merely a complement to expression; it is also an alternative way for individuals to exercise liberty of conscience and self-development-and First Amendment jurisprudence would do well to recognize the idiosyncratic properties of this right instead of merely recasting it into the more familiar image of the speech that has traditionally been at the core of First Amendment case law. More specifically, I suggest here that the right to receive information and ideas has two crucial characteristics that the right to speech itself (in most circumstances) lacks. First, it packages intellectual liberty with an unusual degree of privacy: When individuals encounter dissenting or obscure views merely by receiving or exploring information, they exercise their First Amendment freedom without saying a word about what they believe. Second, the right to receive information not only opens the realm of individual liberty to those who have no stance they are willing to espouse before the world, it also opens it up to those who have no stance at all. Individuals who wish to form an opinion rather than voice one - or quietly gather information rather than present it - are permitted by the right to receive to sample widely from books and cultural materials instead of espousing a particular position as their own.These two distinctive benefits of the right to receive information, I argue, help us better understand two areas of First Amendment jurisprudence that have often seemed to puzzle and confuse courts. One is how First Amendment principles often support (rather than counter) the need for privacy and anonymity. The First Amendment is often celebrated for allowing for public debate and non-conformity of the kind John Stuart Mill famously celebrated in On Liberty where he called for society to tolerate open deviation from convention. But while Mill hoped that dissenting ideas could be expressed clearly and openly, so that they could "light" up the general affairs of mankind," there may well be times when an individual will want her search for information to light up no one's affairs but her own. More than most other First Amendment activities, receipt of information allows for such privacy: it allows individuals to quietly explore alternative ways of life without alienating family members, peers, or colleagues. Moreover, better understanding the right to receive helps us understand what is perhaps the most important site for such quiet exploration: the public library. The Supreme Court has issued two splintered and, in some respects, quite puzzling analyses of how the First Amendment constrains legislatures' control over library collections. But this is partly because the library is fundamentally different from the parks, public squares, and meeting halls around which the Court has built its "public forum" doctrine for understanding how the First Amendment constrains speech regulation on public property. At bottom, the deficiency of public forum doctrine is that it overlooks and leaves unaddressed a fundamental asymmetry between speakers and information-seekers. A speaker is in a certain sense self-sufficient. He can write a book and send it out into the world unsure who its audience will be or whether there will be any audience at all. Even before his expression reaches or impacts a listener, it is protected from censorship or any government restriction that would abridge his right to put his thoughts on paper and disseminate them. By contrast, a listener or reader has less autonomy: the material that forms the basis for her First Amendment activity necessarily comes from an external source and when such a "willing speaker" is absent, so (generally) is her basis for a First Amendment claim. The traditional public forum does little to address this asymmetry. In a park, speakers may preach into empty space waiting for an audience to congregate; but audiences have nothing to hear until someone else begins preaching. One of the great benefits of a library is that it squarely addresses this asymmetry by placing information-seekers, who are normally dependent on speakers, in the position of being independent initiators of intellectual explorations. In libraries, it is generally readers who initiate the information-gathering process by coming in search of texts. Libraries provide individuals with "objectified cultural knowledge" (to use George Simmel's term) that they can mine for information of interest or relevance to their lives. Libraries thereby allow the information seeker the chance to exercise the kind of autonomous First Amendment activity that is usually the province of speakers-because the individual is certain (in advance of going to the library) that he will find plenty of the raw material necessary for intellectual exploration (and will likely find good quality material pertaining to the specific subject or subjects in which he is interested). This article argues that a proper appreciation of the right to receive information should safeguard this function of libraries - in supplying information that will gives an intellectual explorer independence from the private speakers he or she would otherwise depend on for information - and also assure that such intellectual exploration be able to occur anonymously, beyond the community's watch, so that people may be able to - in their reading - conduct "silent experiments in living" of a kind they are unwilling or unable to conduct in public view.

The Competence of Nations and International Tax Law

Abstract: This article proposes a conceptual foundation for the field of international tax law. The article refers to this foundation as the institutional competence of nations in global economic development. A nation's institutional competence is its discretion to make decisions in pursuit of our collective goal of global economic development, discretion that is subject to a number of standards and limitations. The article constructs the institutional competence of nations in global economic development from institutional economics, simple game theory, and the literature on social norms. The article expresses the institutional competence of nations through standards and limitations that reduce the abuse of sovereign discretion and address international collective action problems in the pursuit of global economic development. These standards and limitations allocate prescriptive jurisdiction among nations over the global income tax base. The foundation proposed by the article would coordinate international taxation with the international regulation of trade. The article also addresses the proper place of capital export neutrality in the hierarchy of values for economic development, the choice between territorial and worldwide tax systems, the evaluation of tax havens and appropriate responses, the use of anti-deferral regimes, and the possible need for a multilateral tax treaty. On this institutional foundation, the role of the state is both essential and subordinate: sovereignty becomes an instrumental value and national law-making is seen in terms of a conceptual subsidiarity, to use the European term, or a consequentialist federalism in the realm of global economic development. Moreover, non-state actors facilitate sovereign competition and the benefits that such a constraint on the abuse of sovereign discretion brings to the world's people.

Controlling the Common Law: A Comparative Analysis of No-Citation Rules and Publication Practices in England and the United States

Abstract: Finding a balance between growth and restraint has been a central tension in common law countries. Various practices have been employed to achieve a balance between growth and restraint. The nineteenth century legal treatise tradition, the American Law Institute's Restatement, the West Digest System, uniform laws, legal encyclopedias, and other devices have been used in the United States in an effort to bring order to the rapidly expanding common law. The Law Commission, Law Reform Committee, Digest, and Halsbury's Laws of England are examples of similar efforts in England. Publication practices and no-citation rules play an important and controversial role in controlling the growth of the common law. These practices seem fundamentally in conflict with a system that bases its very existence on widely available judicial decisions that are presumptively citable. Common law systems have employed these measures in part to satisfy a bench and bar who complain of drowning in a sea of cases. England and America have taken drastically different approaches to publication practices and no-citation rules. The English approach is found in a combination of rules limiting the rights of lawyers to cite unreported judgments and giving judges the power to prospectively declare the precedential value of their judgments. In contrast, American federal appellate courts are free to issue unpublished opinions and to decide their precedential value, but are prohibited from imposing any restrictions on the citation of unpublished opinions. This Article examines why England and America took divergent approaches and explores the potential consequences for the common law. Part I of this Article establishes a context for the discussion through a historical survey of publication and citation practices in England and the United States. Part I concludes with an explanation of the current rules in both jurisdictions. Part II examines efficiency arguments advanced to justify the practices employed in England and explores why these arguments were accepted in England and rejected in the United States. Part III addresses policy arguments made in each country over no-citation rules. Part III also compares the substantial differences in both the volume and substance of policy arguments made in each country. Part IV predicts the impact no-citation rules will have on the future of the common law through an examination of the precedential value of unreported and unpublished cases, the role of the judiciary in controlling the growth of the common law, jurisprudential theories, and the degree no-citation rules will be enforced in both jurisdictions.

The Business Judgment Rule, Disclosure and Executive Compensation

Abstract: Despite its ubiquity in corporate law, the business judgment rule remains a doctrinal puzzle. Both courts and scholars offer different understandings of the Rule's role in litigation brought against corporate directors and different justifications for its deployment to insulate such directors from liability for breaches of fiduciary duties. This Article rejects all existing justifications for the Rule and argues that the Rule is no longer needed to protect directors from liability, either because the justifications offered never made any sense or because directors are now protected by other, statutory means. Rather, the Rule is needed today to protect not directors but the corporations they serve from the irreparable harm corporations would suffer if forced to disclose prospective business plans in order to defend decisions taken by their boards. This Article follows some recent scholarship in arguing that the Rule is best understood as an abstention doctrine and argues that courts should invoke the Rule and abstain from the review of the business judgment of corporate directors when the litigation that gives rise to such review would compel the corporation to disclose information relating to its prospective business plans. The Article then illustrates why the Rule should not apply in cases involving challenges to board decisions relating to executive compensation through a detailed discussion of the on-going litigation relating to the hiring and dismissal of the Walt Disney Company's former President, Michael Ovitz.

Selective Affinities: On the American Reception of Hans Kelsen's Legal Theory

Abstract: Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), who lived and taught in the United States for over three decades, was one of those emigre intellectuals whose "style of thinking," as H. Stuart Hughes put it, "withered or barely held [its] own in the new American setting." Kelsen's relative obscurity in the U.S. legal academy continues despite a recent revival of interest in German legal theory among U.S. academics. Oddly enough, that revival of interest, which has been spearheaded by self-described post-Marxists and other progressives seeking to develop a new critique of liberalism, has not focused on Kelsen and his social-democratic critics, instead latching onto the writings of Kelsen's Nazi nemesis, Carl Schmitt. Interest in Schmitt has continued to grow, as reflected in the recent writings of America's leading legal economics and law theorist, Richard Posner. Still, one finds surprisingly little American legal scholarship addressing Kelsen's writings. This Article explores the reasons underlying the rejection by the U.S. legal academy of Kelsen's brand of legal positivism and proposes that Kelsen's theories can assist the American legal academy as it continues to struggle to address the problem of indeterminacy in adjudication.

Of Shrinking Sweatsuits and Poison Vine Wax: A Comparison of Basis for Excuse Under U.C.C. 2-615 and CISG Article 79

Abstract: This article compares CISG and U.C.C. jurisprudence on excuse for nonperformance and argues for an application of the CISG in excuse cases which is stricter than the U.C.C. and, I suggest, is more consistent with the drafters' intent and the goals of the Treaty. As I will discuss, the CISG's Article 79 seems to set out much narrower grounds for excuse than does U.C.C. s 2-615 (2005). In practice, however, cases in the two jurisdictions diverge less than the wording of the two statutes might lead one to expect, evincing comparable reluctance to excuse nonperformance. There are two reasons for this similarity: first, U.S. courts construe U.C.C. s 2-615 more narrowly than its language might predict; second, tribunals applying the CISG hear more bases for excuse than *759 Article 79, based on its drafters' intentions, probably allows. In other words, U.S. courts construe U.C.C. s 2-615 more narrowly than its wording seems to allow, while tribunals applying the CISG apply Article 79 more broadly than its wording seems to justify. The result is that Article 79 tribunals hear cases for excuse that would seem to be acceptable only under the U.C.C., while cases actually decided under the U.C.C. do not show any tendency to excuse nonperformance more often than the CISG.