Longer Average Distance Research Articles

Is lending distance really changing? Distance dynamics and loan composition in small business lending

The increasing average distance between small businesses and their lenders has been used to argue that technological changes have allowed banks to lend at longer distances. Generally, studies assume that distance changes are uniform across loans and lenders. Our paper shows that, while average distance has increased substantially over the past two decades, banks themselves have not materially increased their lending distances. Instead, longer average distance was caused by a small number of banks that specialize in originating very small loans nationwide quadrupling their share of lending. Outside of these very small loans, small businesses remain dependent on local banks.

Combination Layout of Traffic Signs and Markings of Expressway Tunnel Entrance Sections: A Driving Simulator Study

To determine a better combination of signs and markings on expressway tunnel entrance sections, three types of typical signs and markings were compared and tested according to five indicators: speed, lane lateral offset, lane change behavior, fixation behavior, and operating load, using a driving simulator. The results identified that the obvious no overtaking and speed limit signs, combined with a layer of thin red pavement, had the most influence on drivers’ speed, and they led to the highest fixation frequency of static facilities, the longest average distance from the completion point of the lane change to the entrance, and the longest average lane change distance, which could help drivers to pass through tunnel entrance sections more smoothly. The location of the static facilities should be between 3 s before the tunnel entrance and 3 s after entering the tunnel, as this is the area where a driver’s relative viewpoint changes. The improper combination of warning signs and deceleration measures will affect a driver’s judgment, causing negative effects, such as premature lane changes and an increased operating load. The research results can provide a design basis and reference for the combination setting of safety signs and markings on tunnel entrance sections.

The Gap on Gap: Tackling the Problem of Differing Data Distributions in Bias-Measuring Datasets

Diagnostic datasets that can detect biased models are an important prerequisite for bias reduction within natural language processing. However, undesired patterns in the collected data can make such tests incorrect. For example, if the feminine subset of a gender-bias-measuring coreference resolution dataset contains sentences with a longer average distance between the pronoun and the correct candidate, an RNN-based model may perform worse on this subset due to long-term dependencies. In this work, we introduce a theoretically grounded method for weighting test samples to cope with such patterns in the test data. We demonstrate the method on the GAP dataset for coreference resolution. We annotate GAP with spans of all personal names and show that examples in the female subset contain more personal names and a longer distance between pronouns and their referents, potentially affecting the bias score in an undesired way. Using our weighting method, we find the set of weights on the test instances that should be used for coping with these correlations, and we re-evaluate 16 recently released coreference models.

External and internal load of playing positions of elite female handball players (U19) during competitive matches

Background: Effective training depends on knowledge of the sport's requirements. Physical (external load) and physiological (internal load) analyses will provide valuable data that can be used for other research and to improve specific training requirements. Handball is an intermittent sport game, and it is important discover the factors, that affect the performance in a handball match. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze and compare motion and heart rate of playing positions of female handball players during competitive matches.Methods: Heart rate and motion-time analyses were examined during six competitive matches of the Czech elite female handball league (U19). The average (± SD) age of the fourteen participants was 17.9 ± 0.3 years; their average weight 65.4 ± 6.9 kg, and their average height was 169.6 ± 6.9 cm. Results: During the matches, the longest average distance was covered by backs (7,138.3 ± 334.4 m), followed by wings (6,915.3 ± 362.2 m) and pivots (6,337.1 ± 477.3 m). A statistically significant difference was found only between backs and pivots (p = .01). The average heart rate of players in the most loaded position, pivots, was 185.3 ± 9.2 beats ⋅ min-1, corresponding to 90.1 ± 4.3% of HRmax. The second most loaded playing position were wings with the average heart rate of 183.8 ± 6.2 beats ⋅ min-1, corresponding to 89.9 ± 3.5% of HRmax. The average heart rate of backs was 182.9 ± 8.4 beats ⋅ min-1, corresponding to 89.2 ± 4.4% of HRmax. Conclusions: The results from the presented study show that handball is a game of intermittent high intensity and physiological profile where more than 80% of each game is spent in load-intensity above 85% HRmax. Between playing positions are differences in intensity of load, covered distance and in speed categories.

Nanoindentation study on micromechanical behaviors of Au–Ni–Sn intermetallic layers in Au–20Sn/Ni solder joints

Micromechanical behavior of interfacial intermetallics is closely related to the reliability of micro solder joints. Nanoindentation was employed to investigate the micromechanical behavior of the (Au,Ni)Sn and (Ni,Au)3Sn2 intermetallic layers in Au–20Sn/Ni solder joints. The indentation size effect (ISE) of both intermetallics was quantitatively analyzed. Based on the ISE parameters, the average Burger's vectors of (Au,Ni)Sn and (Ni,Au)3Sn2 were determined to be 2.38×10−10nm and 4.09×10−10nm, respectively. The first pop-in event is associated with the elastic–plastic deformation transition and shows an obvious rate-dependent: both the first pop-in load and the maximum shear stress increased with the loading rate. The apparent activation volumes of pop-in were calculated to be 0.11b3 and 0.02b3 for (Au,Ni)Sn and (Ni,Au)3Sn2, respectively. The apparent activation volume determined from the stress relaxation increased with the loading rate because of the preferential activation of preexisting dislocations and the longer average distance that dislocations have to travel under high loading rate. From nanoindentation creep tests, the average stress exponent of (Au,Ni)Sn and (Ni,Au)3Sn2 were determined to be 0.86 and 1.42, respectively.

Nearest-neighbor oxygen distances in liquid water and ice observed by x-ray Raman based extended x-ray absorption fine structure

We report the nearest-neighbor oxygen-oxygen radial distribution function (NN O-O RDF) of room temperature liquid water and polycrystalline ice Ih (-16.8 degrees C) obtained by x-ray Raman based extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. The spectra of the two systems were taken under identical experimental conditions using the same procedures to obtain the NN O-O RDFs. This protocol ensured a measurement of the relative distance distribution with very small systematic errors. The NN O-O RDF of water is found to be more asymmetric (tail extending to longer distances) with longer average distance (2.81 A for water and 2.76 A for ice) but a slightly shorter peak position (2.70 A for water and 2.71 A for ice). The refinement also showed a small but significant contribution from the linear O-H-O multiple scattering signal. The high sensitivity to short range distances of the EXAFS probe will set further restrictions to the range of possible models of liquid water.

Crystal structures of collagen model peptides with Pro-Hyp-Gly repeating sequence at 1.26 A resolution: implications for proline ring puckering.

Triple-helical structures of (Pro-Hyp-Gly)n (n = 10, 11) at 100 K and room temperature (RT) were analyzed at 1.26 A resolution by using synchrotron radiation data. Totals of 49 and 42 water molecules per seven triplets in an asymmetric unit were found for the structures at 100 K and RT, respectively. These water molecules were classified into two groups, those in the first and second hydration shells. Although there was no significant difference between water molecules in the first shell at 100 K and those at RT, a significant difference between those in the second shell was observed. That is, the number of water molecules at RT decreased to one half and the average distance from peptide chains at RT became longer by about 0.3 A. On the other hand, of seven triplets in an asymmetric unit, three proline residues at the X position at 100 K clearly showed an up-puckering conformation, as opposed to the recent propensity-based hypothesis for the stabilization and destabilization of triple-helical structures by proline hydroxylation. This puckering was attributed to the interaction between proline rings and the surrounding water molecules at 100 K, which is much weaker at RT, as shown by longer average distance from peptide chains.