Does fundamental indexation lead to better risk-adjusted returns? New evidence from Australian Securities Exchange

We investigate the claims of superiority of fundamental indexation strategy over capitalisation-weighted indexation by using data for Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed stocks. Whilst our results are in line with the outperformance observed in other geographical markets, we find that the excess returns from fundamental indexation in Australian market are much higher. On a rolling 5-year basis, the fundamental index always outperforms the capitalisation-weighted index. Our results suggest that superior performance of fundamental indexation could not be entirely attributed to value, size, or momentum effects. The outperformance persists even after adjusting for slightly higher transaction costs related to turnover.

Abundance of Natural Riparian Forests and Tree Plantations in the Amudarya Delta of Uzbekistan and their impact on emissions of soil-borne greenhouse gases

Through a forest inventory in parts of the Amudarya river delta, Central Asia, we assessed the impact of ongoing forest degradation on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from soils. Interpretation of aerial photographs from 2001, combined with data on forest inventory in 1990 and field survey in 2003 provided comprehensive information about the extent and changes of the natural tugai riparian forests and tree plantations in the delta. The findings show an average annual deforestation rate of almost 1.3% and an even higher rate of land use change from tugai forests to land with only sparse tree cover. These annual rates of deforestation and forest degradation are higher than the global annual forest loss. By 2003, the tugai forest area had drastically decreased to about 60% compared to an inventory in 1990. Significant differences in soil GHG emissions between forest and agricultural land use underscore the impact of the ongoing land use change on the emission of soil-borne GHGs. The conversion of tugai forests into irrigated croplands will release 2.5 t CO2 equivalents per hectare per year due to elevated emissions of N2O and CH4. This demonstrates that the ongoing transformation of tugai forests into agricultural land-use systems did not only lead to a loss of biodiversity and of a unique ecosystem, but substantially impacts the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of GHG and soil C and N turnover processes.

Digital Copyright Exchange Feasibility Study : Response to the Hooper Consultation from the Big Innovation Centre

In this submission, we provide evidence for our view that copyright policy in the UK must encourage new digital business models which meet the changing needs of consumers and foster innovation in the UK both within, and beyond, the creative industries. We illustrate our arguments using evidence from the music industry. However, we believe that our key points on the relationship between the copyright system and innovative digital business models apply across the UK creative industries.

Smoking rates among hospital nurses in Longkou city, China

This study was undertaken as one of the first investigations of nurses' smoking habits in Longkou city, Shandong Province, China. An anonymous cross-sectional survey was administered as part of a larger investigation of healthcare professionals at a university teaching hospital during 2008. A total of 88 nurses responded to the survey, from whom tobacco-related data were provided by 83 of them (94%). Their overall smoking rate was very low (1%), with no male nurses reporting themselves to be current tobacco users. Overall, the current study suggests that smoking rates are very low among Chinese nurses in Longkou city, Shandong Province. These results are also consistent with studies of nurses' tobacco use conducted in other regions of China.

Collaborative intrusion detection framework : characteristics, adversarial opportunities and countermeasures

Complex Internet attacks may come from multiple sources, and target multiple networks and technologies. Nevertheless, Collaborative Intrusion Detection Systems (CIDS) emerges as a promising solution by using information from multiple sources to gain a better understanding of objective and impact of complex Internet attacks. CIDS also help to cope with classical problems of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) such as zero-day attacks, high false alarm rates and architectural challenges, e. g., centralized designs exposing the Single-Point-of-Failure. Improved complexity on the other hand gives raise to new exploitation opportunities for adversaries. The contribution of this paper is twofold. We first investigate related research on CIDS to identify the common building blocks and to understand vulnerabilities of the Collaborative Intrusion Detection Framework (CIDF). Second, we focus on the problem of anonymity preservation in a decentralized intrusion detection related message exchange scheme. We use techniques from design theory to provide multi-path peer-to-peer communication scheme where the adversary can not perform better than guessing randomly the originator of an alert message.

Likelihood‐free inference for transmission rates of nosocomial pathogens

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Case study: Estimating transmission rates of nosocomial pathogens Models and methods Data analysis and results Discussion References

Recovery and reuse of ammonium from wastewater treatment plants : an application for agriculture

In wastewater treatment plants based on anaerobic digestion, supernatant and outflows from sludge dewatering systems contain significantly high amount of ammonium. Generally, these waters are returned to the head of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), thereby increasing the total nitrogen load of the influent flow. Ammonium from these waters can be recovered and commercially utilised using novel ion-exchange materials. Mackinnon et al. have described an approach for removal and recovery of ammonium from side stream centrate returns obtained from anaerobic digester of a typical WWTP. Most of the ammonium from side streams can potentially be removed, which significantly reduces overall inlet demand at a WWTP. However, the extent of reduction achieved depends on the level of ammonium and flow-rate in the side stream. The exchange efficiency of the ion-exchange material, MesoLite, used in the ammonium recovery process deteriorates with long-term use due to mechanical degradation and use of regenerant. To ensure that a sustainable process is utilised a range of potential applications for this “spent” MesoLite have been evaluated. The primary focus of evaluations has been use of ammonium-loaded MesoLite as a source of nitrogen and growth medium for plants. A MesoLite fertiliser has advantage over soluble fertilisers in that N is held on an insoluble matrix and is gradually released according to exchange equilibria. Many conventional N fertilisers are water-soluble and thus, instantly release all applied N into the soil solution. Loss of nutrient commonly occurs through volatilisation and/or leaching. On average, up to half of the N delivered by a typical soluble fertiliser can be lost through these processes. In this context, use of ammonium-loaded MesoLite as a fertiliser has been evaluated using standard greenhouse and field-based experiments for low fertility soils. Rye grass, a suitable test species for greenhouse trials, was grown in 1kg pots over a period of several weeks with regular irrigation. Nitrogen was applied at a range of rates using a chemical fertiliser as a control and using two MesoLite fertilisers. All other nutrients were applied in adequate amounts. All treatments were replicated three times. Plants were harvested after four weeks, and dry plant mass and N concentrations were determined. At all nitrogen application rates, ammonium-loaded MesoLite produced higher plant mass than plants fertilised by the chemical fertiliser. The lower fertiliser effectiveness of the chemical fertliser is attributed to possible loss of some N through volatilisation. The MesoLite fertilisers did not show any adverse effect on availability of macro and trace nutrients, as shown by lack of deficiency symptoms, dry matter yield and plant analyses. Nitrogen loaded on to MesoLite in the form of exchanged ammonium is readily available to plants while remaining protected from losses via leaching and volatilisation. Spent MesoLite appears to be a suitable and effective fertiliser for a wide range of soils, particularly sandy soils with poor nutrient holding capacity.

Rates of attendance at a smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service

Objectives: Smoking cessation has been shown to be an important intervention for preventing cardiovascular events and improving the health of patients with heart disease. However, unaided quit attempts in these patients often leads to high rates of failure and a return to smoking. Outpatient smoking cessation clinics using face-to-face counseling, ongoing behavioral support, advice on smoking pharmacotherapy and objective monitoring, have been found to be one of the most effective interventions for improving quit smoking rates. An outpatient smoking cessation clinic was trialed within a cardiac rehabilitation service in order to explore its effects on smoking rates for patients with or at risk of heart disease. Attendance rates to the clinic were also monitored. Methods: A descriptive exploratory design was used for this newly developed clinic. Patients who currently smoked tobacco and who had a history of either coronary artery disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation or those seen under a chest pain assessment service were invited to an outpatient ‘Cardiac Patients Smokers Clinic’. Initially patients were offered up to 10 clinic visits over a 3 month period. Follow-up clinic visits were conducted at 3, 6 and 12 months. A portable carbon monoxide meter was used to objectively measure levels of smoking and validate smoking abstinence. Primary outcomes included rates of attendance. Results: Preliminary findings showed 24 per cent of participants (N = 6) completed all their clinic visits and remained smoke free as measured by their ongoing expired carbon monoxide readings. Clinic attendance rates appeared lowest for those with significant mental health issues such as schizophrenia or substance abuse. However, rates of attendance were improved by having an administration officer make reminder telephone calls prior to clinic visits. Conclusions: Early findings indicate the feasibility of providing a specialist smoking cessation clinic within a cardiac rehabilitation service. Further, that reminder telephone calls prior to appointments improved attendance rates in patients with heart disease to this type of clinic. However, future investigations are warranted.

Culture as a driver of entrepreneurship : contrasting independent entrepreneurship versus employee entrepreneurship

Principal Topic Counties in Northern Europe, such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark, have comparatively low per capita rates of entrepreneurship as measured by independent new venture start-up rates – as for example measured by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate. However, the latest 2011 GEM data reveals that these same countries have comparatively very high Employee Entrepreneurship Activity (EEA) rates – that is a high rate per capita of employees involved in new product development or new enterprise activities. This observation has prompted us to investigate the role of national culture in driving independent versus employee entrepreneurial activities. Prior research has established that national (and regional) culture plays an important role in forming an “entrepreneurial culture” that encourages (or discourages) independent business start-ups and TEA (e.g. Davidsson, 1995; Beugelsdijk, 2007). However, the relationship of culture and EEA has not received research attention. Moreover, empirical relationships between elements of national culture and independent entrepreneurship have revealed some surprising results. For example, Wildeman et al. (1999) report an unexpected higher share of individual business ownership in countries that have higher uncertainty avoidance, higher power distance and lower individualism according to Hofstede’s dimensions of culture. They speculate that dissatisfaction can be a source of entrepreneurship: in countries with a high power distance, a high uncertainty avoidance and low individualism, there may be relatively more business owners since enterprising individuals cannot satisfy their needs within existing organizations. Yet it remains a rather open question whether entrepreneurial behaviour in existing organisations provides a satisfactory explanation for these empirical findings. Methods We will conduct a cross sectional study of the influence of national culture according to the five / six dimensions of Hofstede (1980; 2001) on both TEA and EEA for the 54 countries that participated in GEM 2011. Since it is well established that the opportunities for entrepreneurship vary substantially with a country’s level of economic development, we intend to conduct separate analyses for the three categories of development – innovation driven economies, efficient driven economies and factor driven economies. We also intend to restrict our assessment of TEA to opportunity driven entrepreneurship, as necessity driven entrepreneurship has a different relationship to the “entrepreneurial culture” that is the focus of our study. We will control for a range of factors such as GDP growth, ease of doing business index and unemployment. Results and Implications Descriptive analyses of the GEM TEA and EEA data reveal clusters of countries that appear to be have similar national culture. We are yet to conduct regression analyses.

Social and mobile interaction design to increase the loyalty rates of young blood donors

Young adults represent the largest group of first time donors to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, but they are also the least loyal group and often do not return after their first donation. At the same time, many young people use the internet and various forms of social media on a daily basis. Web and mobile based technological practices and communication patterns change the way that young people interact with one another, with their families, and communities. Combining these two points of departure, this study seeks to identify best practices of employing mobile apps and social media in order to enhance the loyalty rates of young blood donors. The findings reported in this paper are based on a qualitative approach presenting a nuanced understanding of the different factors that motivate young people to donate blood in the first place, as well as the obstacles or issues that prevent them from returning. The paper discusses work in progress with a view to inform the development of interactive prototypes trialling three categories of features: personal services (such as scheduling); social media (such as sharing the donation experience with friends to raise awareness); and data visualisations (such as local blood inventory levels). We discuss our translation of research findings into design implications.

Charge carrier exchange at chemically modified graphene edges: A density functional theory study

Heteroatom doping on the edge of graphene may serve as an effective way to tune chemical activity of carbon-based electrodes with respect to charge carrier transfer in an aqueous environment. In a step towards developing mechanistic understanding of this phenomenon, we explore herein mechanisms of proton transfer from aqueous solution to pristine and doped graphene edges utilizing density functional theory. Atomic B-, N-, and O- doped edges as well as the native graphene are examined, displaying varying proton affinities and effective interaction ranges with the H3O+ charge carrier. Our study shows that the doped edges characterized by more dispersive orbitals, namely boron and nitrogen, demonstrate more energetically favourable charge carrier exchange compared with oxygen, which features more localized orbitals. Extended calculations are carried out to examine proton transfer from the hydronium ion in the presence of explicit water, with results indicating that the basic mechanistic features of the simpler model are unchanged.

Adatom CCV Auger rates via the local density of states

In this letter the core-core-valence Auger transitions of an atomic impurity, both in bulk or adsorbed on a jellium-like surface, are computed within a DFT framework. The Auger rates calculated by the Fermi golden rule are compared with those determined by an approximate and simpler expression. This is based on the local density of states (LDOS) with a core hole present, in a region around the impurity nucleus. Different atoms, Na and Mg, solids, Al and Ag, and several impurity locations are considered. We obtain an excellent agreement between KL1V and KL23V rates worked out with the two approaches. The radius of the sphere in which we calculate the LDOS is the relevant parameter of the simpler approach. Its value only depends on the atomic species regardless of the location of the impurity and the type of substrate. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.