Conditional coskewness and asset pricing

We explore the empirical usefulness of conditional coskewness to explain the cross-section of equity returns. We find that coskewness is an important determinant of the returns to equity, and that the pricing relationship varies through time. In particular we find that when the conditional market skewness is positive investors are willing to sacrifice 7.87% annually per unit of gamma (a standardized measure of coskewness risk) while they only demand a premium of 1.80% when the market is negatively skewed. A similar picture emerges from the coskewness factor of Harvey and Siddique (Harvey, C., Siddique, A., 2000a. Conditional skewness in asset pricing models tests. Journal of Finance 65, 1263–1295.) (a portfolio that is long stocks with small coskewness with the market and short high coskewness stocks) which earns 5.00% annually when the market is positively skewed but only 2.81% when the market is negatively skewed. The conditional two-moment CAPM and a conditional Fama and French (Fama, E., French, K., 1992. The cross-section of expected returns. Journal of Finance 47,427465.) three-factor model are rejected, but a model which includes coskewness is not rejected by the data. The model also passes a structural break test which many existing asset pricing models fail.

Nursing care of the mechanically ventilated patient: What does the evidence say?: Part two

The care of the mechanically ventilated patient is a fundamental component of a nurse's clinical practice in the intensive care unit (ICU). Published work relating to the numerous nursing issues of the care of the mechanically ventilated patient in the ICU is growing significantly, yet is fragmentary by nature. The purpose of this paper is to provide a single comprehensive examination of the evidence related to the care of the mechanically ventilated patient. In part one of this two-part paper, the evidence on nursing care of the mechanically ventilated patient was explored with specific focus on patient safety: particularly patient and equipment assessment. This article, part two, examines the evidence related to the mechanically ventilated patient's comfort: patient position, hygiene, management of stressors (such as communication, sleep disturbance and isolation), pain management and sedation.

Thermogravimetric analysis of selected coal-bearing strata kaolinite

Two kinds of coal-bearing kaolinite from China were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis-mass spectrometry (TG-MS), infrared emission spectroscopy. Thermal decomposition occurs in a series of steps attributed to (a) desorption of water at 68 °C for Datong coal bearing strata kaolinite and 56 °C for Xiaoxian with mass losses of 0.36 % and 0.51 % (b) decarbonization at 456 °C for Datong coal bearing strata kaolinite and 431 °C for Xiaoxian kaolinite, (c) dehydroxylation takes place in two steps at 589 and 633 °C for Datong coal bearing strata kaolinite and at 507 °C and 579 °C for Xiaoxian kaolinite. This mineral were further characterised by infrared emission spectroscopy (IES). Well defined hydroxyl stretching bands at around 3695, 3679, 3652 and 3625 cm-1 are observed. At 650 °C all intensity in these bands is lost in harmony with the thermal analysis results. Characteristic functional groups from coal are observed at 1918, 1724 and 1459 cm-1. The intensity of these bands decrease by thermal treatment and is lost by 700 °C.

Liking vs. wanting food : importance for human appetite control and weight regulation

Current train of thought in appetite research is favouring an interest in non-homeostatic or hedonic (reward) mechanisms in relation to overconsumption and energy balance. This tendency is supported by advances in neurobiology that precede the emergence of a new conceptual approach to reward where affect and motivation (liking and wanting) can be seen as the major force in guiding human eating behaviour. In this review, current progress in applying processes of liking and wanting to the study of human appetite are examined by discussing the following issues: How can these concepts be operationalised for use in human research to reflect the neural mechanisms by which they may be influenced? Do liking and wanting operate independently to produce functionally significant changes in behaviour? Can liking and wanting be truly experimentally separated or will an expression of one inevitably contain elements of the other? The review contains a re-examination of selected human appetite research before exploring more recent methodological approaches to the study of liking and wanting in appetite control. In addition, some theoretical developments are described in four diverse models that may enhance current understanding of the role of these processes in guiding ingestive behaviour. Finally, the implications of a dual process modulation of food reward for weight gain and obesity are discussed. The review concludes that processes of liking and wanting are likely to have independent roles in characterising susceptibility to weight gain. Further research into the dissociation of liking and wanting through implicit and explicit levels of processing would help to disclose the relative importance of these components of reward for appetite control and weight regulation.

Spectroscopy of selected copper group minerals : Ktenasite, orthoserpierite and Kipushite

The near-infrared (NIR) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy has been applied for characterisation of three complex Cu-Zn sulphate/phosphate minerals, namely ktenasite, orthoserpierite and kipushite. The spectral signatures of the three minerals are quite distinct in relation to their composition and structure. The effect of structural cations substitution (Zn2+ and Cu2+) on band shifts is significant both in the electronic and vibrational spectra of these Cu-Zn minerals. The variable Cu:Zn ratio between Zn-rich and Cu-rich compositions shows a strong effect on Cu(II) bands in the electronic spectra. The Cu(II) spectrum is most significant in kipushite (Cu-rich) with bands displayed at high wavenumbers at11390 and 7545 cm-1. The isomorphic substitution of Cu2+ for Zn2+ is reflected in the NIR and IR spectroscopic signatures. The multiple bands for 3 and 4 (SO4)2- stretching vibrations in ktenasite and orthoserpierite are attributed to the reduction of symmetry to the sulphate ion from Td to C2V. The IR spectrum of kipushite is characterised by strong (PO4)3- vibrational modes at 1090 and 990 cm-1. The range of IR absorption is higher in Ktenasite than in kipushite while it is intermediate in orthoserpierite.

Swimming between the flags: A preliminary exploration of the influences on Australians’ intentions to swim between the flags at patrolled beaches

Swimming at patrolled beaches reduces the likelihood of drownings and near-drownings. The present study tested the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), with the addition of risk perceptions, in predicting people’s intentions to swim between the flags at patrolled beaches. We examined also the predictors of people’s willingness to swim [1] up to 10 metres and [2] more than 10 metres outside of the patrol flags. Participants (N = 526) completed measures of attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control (PBC), intentions/willingness, and both objective and subjective risk perceptions. Two weeks later, a sub-sample of participants reported on their beach swimming behaviour for the previous fortnight. Attitude and subjective norm predicted intentions to swim between and willingness to swim outside of the flags. Age and PBC influenced willingness to swim beyond the flags. Objective risk predicted willingness to swim beyond the flags (both distances) while subjective risk predicted willingness to swim up to 10 metres outside the flags. People’s intentions to swim between the flags were correlated with their behaviour at follow-up. This study provides a preliminary investigation into an important safety behaviour and identifies factors to target when promoting safe swimming behaviours to prevent drowning deaths on Australian beaches.

Cholecystokinin and leptin: their influence upon the eating behaviour and nutrient intake of dialysis patients

Background We have used serial visual analogue scores to demonstrate disturbances of the appetite profile in dialysis patients. This is potentially important as dialysis patients are prone to malnutrition yet have a lower nutrient intake than controls. Appetite disturbance may be influenced by accumulation of appetite inhibitors such as leptin and cholecystokinin (CCK) in dialysis patients. Methods Fasting blood samples were drawn from 43 controls, 50 haemodialysis (HD) and 39 peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients to measure leptin and CCK. Hunger and fullness scores were derived from profiles compiled using hourly visual analogue scores. Nutrient intake was derived from 3 day dietary records. Results Fasting CCK was elevated for PD (6.73 ± 4.42 ng/l vs control 4.99 ± 2.23 ng/l, P < 0.05; vs HD 4.43 ± 2.15 ng/l, P < 0.01). Fasting CCK correlated with the variability of the hunger (r = 0.426, P = 0.01) and fullness (r = 0.52, P = 0.002) scores for PD. There was a notable relationship with the increase in fullness after lunch for PD (r = 0.455, P = 0.006). When well nourished PD patients were compared with their malnourished counterparts, CCK was higher in the malnourished group (P = 0.004). Leptin levels were higher for the dialysis patients than controls (HD and PD, P < 0.001) with pronounced hyperleptinaemia evident in some PD patients. Control leptin levels demonstrated correlation with fullness scores (e.g. peak fullness, r = 0.45, P = 0.007) but the dialysis patients did not. PD nutrient intake (energy and protein intake, r = -0.56, P < 0.0001) demonstrated significant negative correlation with leptin. Conclusion Increased CCK levels appear to influence fullness and hunger perception in PD patients and thus may contribute to malnutrition. Leptin does not appear to affect perceived appetite in dialysis patients but it may influence nutrient intake in PD patients via central feeding centres.

Internal audit department characteristics/activities and audit fees : some evidence from Hong Kong firms

This study provides preliminary support for the notion that internal audit function assists in reducing external audit effort and fees. Data on internal audit characteristics and activities are obtained from survey respondents of Hong Kong companies and audit fee model data are acquired from their annual reports. The results of this study suggest that the external auditor of firms in Hong Kong rely on the internal audit function and subsequently charge a lower fee. Lower external audit fees are associated with a larger internal audit department and certain activities carried out by the internal audit. Specifically, lower external audit fees are associated with more internal audit effort spent on activities relating to financial statements, systems development and maintenance, operating efficiency and effectiveness, fraud investigations and unlimited access to internal auditors’ working papers. The results of this study suggest that the contribution of the internal audit may substitute for some substantive external auditing processes and lower monitoring costs.

Androgen-regulated genes differentially modulated by the androgen receptor coactivator L-dopa decarboxylase in human prostate cancer cells

Background The androgen receptor is a ligand-induced transcriptional factor, which plays an important role in normal development of the prostate as well as in the progression of prostate cancer to a hormone refractory state. We previously reported the identification of a novel AR coactivator protein, L-dopa decarboxylase (DDC), which can act at the cytoplasmic level to enhance AR activity. We have also shown that DDC is a neuroendocrine (NE) marker of prostate cancer and that its expression is increased after hormone-ablation therapy and progression to androgen independence. In the present study, we generated tetracycline-inducible LNCaP-DDC prostate cancer stable cells to identify DDC downstream target genes by oligonucleotide microarray analysis. Results Comparison of induced DDC overexpressing cells versus non-induced control cell lines revealed a number of changes in the expression of androgen-regulated transcripts encoding proteins with a variety of molecular functions, including signal transduction, binding and catalytic activities. There were a total of 35 differentially expressed genes, 25 up-regulated and 10 down-regulated, in the DDC overexpressing cell line. In particular, we found a well-known androgen induced gene, TMEPAI, which wasup-regulated in DDC overexpressing cells, supporting its known co-activation function. In addition, DDC also further augmented the transcriptional repression function of AR for a subset of androgen-repressed genes. Changes in cellular gene transcription detected by microarray analysis were confirmed for selected genes by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Conclusion Taken together, our results provide evidence for linking DDC action with AR signaling, which may be important for orchestrating molecular changes responsible for prostate cancer progression.

Quality of life after total laparoscopic hysterectomy versus total abdominal hysterectomy for stage I endometrial cancer (LACE) : a randomised trial

Background: The two-stage Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (TLH) versus Total Abdominal Hysterectomy (TAH) for stage I endometrial cancer (LACE) randomised controlled trial was initiated in 2005. The primary objective of stage 1 was to assess whether TLH results in equivalent or improved QoL up to 6 months after surgery compared to TAH. The primary objective of stage 2 was to test the hypothesis that disease-free survival at 4.5 years is equivalent for TLH and TAH. Results addressing the primary objective of stage 1 of the LACE trial are presented here. Methods: The first 361 LACE participants (TAH n= 142, TLH n=190) were enrolled in the QoL substudy at 19 centres across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and 332 completed the QoL analysis. Randomisation was performed centrally and independently from other study procedures via a computer generated, web-based system (providing concealment of the next assigned treatment) using stratified permuted blocks of 3 and 6, and assigned patients with histologically confirmed stage 1 endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma and ECOG performance status <2 to TLH or TAH stratified by histological grade and study centre. No blinding of patients or study personnel was attempted. QoL was measured at baseline, 1 and 4 weeks (early), and 3 and 6 months (late) after surgery using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) questionnaire. The primary endpoint was the difference between the groups in QoL change from baseline at early and late time points (a 5% difference was considered clinically significant). Analysis was performed according to the intention-to-treat principle using generalized estimating equations on differences from baseline for the early and late QoL recovery. The LACE trial is registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00096408) and the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (CTRN12606000261516). Patients for both stages of the trial have now been recruited and are being followed up for disease-specific outcomes. Findings: The proportion of missing values at the 5%, 10% 15% and 20% differences in the FACT-G scale was 6% (12/190) in the TLH and 14% (20/142) in the TAH group. There were 8/332 conversions (2.4%, 7 of which were from TLH to TAH). In the early phase of recovery, patients undergoing TLH reported significantly greater improvement of QoL from baseline compared to TAH in all subscales except the emotional and social well-being subscales. Improvements in QoL up to 6 months post-surgery continued to favour TLH except for the emotional and social well-being of the FACT and the visual analogue scale of the EuroQoL five dimensions (EuroQoL-VAS). Length of operating time was significantly longer in the TLH group (138±43 mins), than in the TAH group at (109±34 mins; p=0.001). While the proportion of intraoperative adverse events was similar between the treatment groups (TAH 8/142, 5.6%; TLH 14/190, 7.4%; p=0.55), postoperatively, twice as many patients in the TAH group experienced adverse events of CTC grade 3+ than in the TLH group (33/142, 23.2% and 22/190, 11.6%, respectively; p=0.004). Postoperative serious adverse events occurred more frequently in patients who had a TAH (27/142, 19.0%) than a TLH (15/190, 7.9%) (p=0.002). Interpretation: QoL improvements from baseline during early and later phases of recovery, and the adverse event profile significantly favour TLH compared to TAH for patients treated for Stage I endometrial cancer.

Nitrogen pools and fluxes in grassland soils sequestering carbon

Carbon sequestration in agricultural, forest, and grassland soils has been promoted as a means by which substantial amounts of CO2 may be removed from the atmosphere, but few studies have evaluated the associated impacts on changes in soil N or net global warming potential (GWP). The purpose of this research was to ( 1) review the literature to examine how changes in grassland management that affect soil C also impact soil N, ( 2) assess the impact of different types of grassland management on changes in soil N and rates of change, and (3) evaluate changes in N2O fluxes from differently managed grassland ecosystems to assess net impacts on GWP. Soil C and N stocks either both increased or both decreased for most studies. Soil C and N sequestration were tightly linked, resulting in little change in C: N ratios with changes in management. Within grazing treatments N2O made a minor contribution to GWP (0.1-4%), but increases in N2O fluxes offset significant portions of C sequestration gains due to fertilization (10-125%) and conversion (average = 27%). Results from this work demonstrate that even when improved management practices result in considerable rates of C and N sequestration, changes in N2O fluxes can offset a substantial portion of gains by C sequestration. Even for cases in which C sequestration rates are not entirely offset by increases in N2O fluxes, small increases in N2O fluxes can substantially reduce C sequestration benefits. Conversely, reduction of N2O fluxes in grassland soils brought about by changes in management represents an opportunity to reduce the contribution of grasslands to net greenhouse gas forcing.

Land use effects on soil carbon fractions in the southeastern United States. II. changes in soil carbon fractions along a forest to pasture chronosequence

Since land use change can have significant impacts on regional biogeochemistry, we investigated how conversion of forest and cultivation to pasture impact soil C and N cycling. In addition to examining total soil C, we isolated soil physiochemical C fractions in order to understand the mechanisms by which soil C is sequestered or lost. Total soil C did not change significantly over time following conversion from forest, though coarse (250-2,000 mum) particulate organic matter C increased by a factor of 6 immediately after conversion. Aggregate mean weight diameter was reduced by about 50% after conversion, but values were like those under forest after 8 years under pasture. Samples collected from a long-term pasture that was converted from annual cultivation more than 50 years ago revealed that some soil physical properties negatively impacted by cultivation were very slow to recover. Finally, our results indicate that soil macroaggregates turn over more rapidly under pasture than under forest and are less efficient at stabilizing soil C, whereas microaggregates from pasture soils stabilize a larger concentration of C than forest microaggregates. Since conversion from forest to pasture has a minimal impact on total soil C content in the Piedmont region of Virginia, United States, a simple C stock accounting system could use the same base soil C stock value for either type of land use. However, since the effects of forest to pasture conversion are a function of grassland management following conversion, assessments of C sequestration rates require activity data on the extent of various grassland management practices.

Unraveling the complexity of driving while intoxicated: a study into the prevalence of psychiatric and substance abuse comorbidity

Objective Research is beginning to provide an indication of the co-occurring substance abuse and mental health needs for the driving under the influence (DUI) population. This study aimed to examine the extent of such psychiatric problems among a large sample size of DUI offenders entering treatment in Texas. Methods This is a study of 36,373 past year DUI clients and 308,714 non-past year DUI clients admitted to Texas treatment programs between 2005 and 2008. Data were obtained from the State's administrative dataset. Results Analysis indicated that non-past year DUI clients were more likely to present with more severe illicit substance use problems, while past year DUI clients were more likely to have a primary problem with alcohol. Nevertheless, a cannabis use problem was also found to be significantly associated with DUI recidivism in the last year. In regards to mental health status, a major finding was that depression was the most common psychiatric condition reported by DUI clients, including those with more than one DUI offence in the past year. This cohort also reported elevated levels of Bipolar Disorder compared to the general population, and such a diagnosis was also associated with an increased likelihood of not completing treatment. Additionally, female clients were more likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems than males, as well as more likely to be placed on medications at admission and more likely to have problems with methamphetamine, cocaine, and opiates. Conclusions DUI offenders are at an increased risk of experiencing comorbid psychiatric disorders, and thus, corresponding treatment programs need to cater for a range of mental health concerns that are likely to affect recidivism rates.

The impact of tax morale and institutional quality on the shadow economy

This paper uses a multivariate analysis to examine how countries‘ tax morale and institutional quality affect the shadow economy. The literature strongly emphasizes the quantitative importance of these factors in understanding the level of and changes in the shadow economy. Newly available data sources offer the unique opportunity to further illuminate a topic that has received increased attention. After controlling for a variety of potential factors, we find strong support that a higher tax morale and a higher institutional quality lead to a smaller shadow economy.