Do Low-Priced Stocks Drive Long-Term Contrarian Performance on the London Stock Exchange?

We investigate whether low-priced stocks drive long-term contrarian performance on the U.K. market. We find that contrarian performance at low, middle, and high price levels is positive. On the Fama-French risk adjusted basis, we find both low-priced and middle-priced losers have significantly positive returns. When we adjust returns by market and liquidity risk, only middle-priced losers maintain their positive returns. Our results reveal that low-priced stocks are not fully responsible for contrarian performance. Our empirical evidence is generally consistent with the overreaction hypothesis and behavioral models of value investing.

Direct Contact as a Moderator of Extended Contact Effects: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Impact on Outgroup Attitudes, Behavioral Intentions, and Attitude Certainty

Cross-group friendships (the most effective form of direct contact) and extended contact (i.e., knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends) constitute two of the most important means of improving outgroup attitudes. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from different intergroup contexts, this research demonstrates that extended contact is most effective when individuals live in segregated neighborhoods having only few, or no, direct friendships with outgroup members. Moreover, by including measures of attitudes and behavioral intentions the authors showed the broader impact of these forms of contact, and, by assessing attitude certainty as one dimension of attitude strength, they tested whether extended contact can lead not only to more positive but also to stronger outgroup orientations. Cross-sectional data showed that direct contact was more strongly related to attitude certainty than was extended contact, but longitudinal data showed both forms of contact affected attitude certainty in the long run.

Discovery of Novel Allosteric Modulators of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Subtype 5 Reveals Chemical and Functional Diversity and In Vivo Activity in Rat Behavioral Models of Anxiolytic and Antipsychotic Activity

Modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) may provide novel treatments for multiple central nervous system (CNS) disorders, including anxiety and schizophrenia. Although compounds have been developed to better understand the physiological roles of mGluR5 and potential usefulness for the treatment of these disorders, there are limitations in the tools available, including poor selectivity, low potency, and limited solubility. To address these issues, we developed an innovative assay that allows simultaneous screening for mGluR5 agonists, antagonists, and potentiators. We identified multiple scaffolds that possess diverse modes of activity at mGluR5, including both positive and negative allosteric modulators (PAMs and NAMs, respectively). 3-Fluoro-5-(3-(pyridine-2-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazol-5-yl) benzonitrile (VU0285683) was developed as a novel selective mGluR5 NAM with high affinity for the 2-methyl-6-(phenyl-ethynyl)-pyridine (MPEP) binding site. VU0285683 had anxiolytic-like activity in two rodent models for anxiety but did not potentiate phen-cyclidine-induced hyperlocomotor activity. (4-Hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)(4-phenylethynyl) phenyl) methanone (VU0092273) was identified as a novel mGluR5 PAM that also binds to the MPEP site. VU0092273 was chemically optimized to an orally active analog, N-cyclobutyl-6-((3-fluorophenyl) ethynyl) nicotinamide hydrochloride (VU0360172), which is selective for mGluR5. This novel mGluR5 PAM produced a dose-dependent reversal of amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion, a rodent model predictive of antipsychotic activity. Discovery of structurally and functionally diverse allosteric modulators of mGluR5 that demonstrate in vivo efficacy in rodent models of anxiety and antipsychotic activity provide further support for the tremendous diversity of chemical scaffolds and modes of efficacy of mGluR5 ligands. In addition, these studies provide strong support for the hypothesis that multiple structurally distinct mGluR5 modulators have robust activity in animal models that predict efficacy in the treatment of CNS disorders.

A parenting intervenion for childhood behavioral problems: a randomised controlled trial in disadvantaged Community-based settings:A randomized controlled trial in disadvantaged community-based settings

Objective: A community-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in urban areas characterized by high levels of disadvantage to test the effectiveness of the Incredible Years BASIC parent training program (IYBP) for children with behavioral problems. Potential moderators of intervention effects on child behavioral outcomes were also explored. Method: Families were included if the child (aged 32-88 months) scored above a clinical cutoff on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). Participants (n = 149) were randomly allocated on a 2:1 ratio to an intervention group (n = 103) or a waiting-list control group (n = 46). Child behavior, parenting skills, and parent well-being were assessed at baseline and 6 months later using parent-report and independent observations. An intention-to-treat analysis of covariance was used to examine postintervention differences between groups. Results: Statistically significant differences in child disordered behavior favored the intervention group on the ECBI Intensity (effect size = 0.7, p

Random Regret Minimization: Exploration of a New Choice Model for Environmental and Resource Economics

This paper introduces the discrete choice model-paradigm of Random Regret Minimization (RRM) to the field of environmental and resource economics. The RRM-approach has been very recently developed in the context of travel demand modelling and presents a tractable, regret-based alternative to the dominant choice-modelling paradigm based on Random Utility Maximization-theory (RUM-theory). We highlight how RRM-based models provide closed form, logit-type formulations for choice probabilities that allow for capturing semi-compensatory behaviour and choice set-composition effects while being equally parsimonious as their utilitarian counterparts. Using data from a Stated Choice-experiment aimed at identifying valuations of characteristics of nature parks, we compare RRM-based models and RUM-based models in terms of parameter estimates, goodness of fit, elasticities and consequential policy implications.

Neonatal Ultrasound Results Following Very Preterm Birth Predict Adolescent Behavioral and Cognitive Outcome

This study investigated the association between different neonatal ultrasonographic classifications and adolescent cognitive, educational, and behavioral outcomes following very preterm birth. Participants included a group of 120 adolescents who were born very preterm (33 weeks of gestation), subdivided into three groups according to their neonatal cerebral ultrasound (US) classifications: (a) normal (N = 69), (b) periventricular hemorrhage (PVH, N = 37), and (c) PVH with ventricular dilatation (PVH + DIL, N = 14), and 50 controls. The cognitive functions assessed were full-scale IQ, phonological and semantic verbal fluency, and visual-motor integration. Educational outcomes included reading and spelling; behavioral outcomes were assessed with the Rutter Parents' Scale and the Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS). Adolescent outcome scores were compared among the four groups. A main effect for group was observed for full-scale IQ, Rutter Parents' Scale total scores, and PAS total scores, after controlling for gestational age, socioeconomic status and gender, with the PVH + DIL group showing the most impaired scores compared to the other groups. The current results demonstrate that routine neonatal ultrasound classifications are associated with later cognitive and behavioral outcome. Neonatal ultrasounds could aid in the identification of subgroups of children who are at increased risk of neurodevelopmental problems. These at risk subgroups could then be referred to appropriate early intervention services.

Is it painful or not?:Discriminant validity of the Behavioral Indicators of Infant Pain (BIIP) scale

To evaluate the ability of the Behavioral Indicators of Infant Pain (BIIP) scale to discriminate between skin-breaking and nonskin breaking procedures, and to identify sensitized pain responses in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Initial validation of the Behavioral Indicators of Infant Pain (BIIP)

Accurate pain assessment in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is complex. Infants who are born at early gestational ages (GA), and who have had greater early pain exposure, have dampened facial responses which may lead to under-treatment. Since behavioral and physiological responses to pain in infants are often dissociated, using multidimensional scales which combine these indicators into a single score may limit our ability to determine the effects of interventions on each system. Our aim was to design a unidimensional scale which would combine the relatively most specific, individual, behavioral indicators for assessing acute pain in this population. The Behavioral Indicators of Infant Pain (BIIP) combines sleep/wake states, 5 facial actions and 2 hand actions. Ninety-two infants born between 23 and 32 weeks GA were assessed during 3, 1 min Phases of blood collection. Outcome measures included changes in BIIP and in Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) scores coded in real time from continuous bedside video recordings; changes in heart rate (HR) were obtained using custom physiological processing software. Scores on the BIIP changed significantly across Phases of blood collection (p

Behavioral responses to pain are heightened after clustered care in preterm infants born between 30 and 32 weeks gestational age

To compare biobehavioral pain responses of preterm infants born at differing gestational ages (GAs) when pain was preceded by a rest period or by a series of routine nursing interventions.

Neonatal procedural pain exposure predicts lower cortisol and behavioral reactivity in preterm infants in the NICU

Data from animal models indicate that neonatal stress or pain can permanently alter subsequent behavioral and/or physiological reactivity to stressors. However, cumulative effects of pain related to acute procedures in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on later stress and/or pain reactivity has received limited attention. The objective of this study is to examine relationships between prior neonatal pain exposure (number of skin breaking procedures), and subsequent stress and pain reactivity in preterm infants in the NICU. Eighty-seven preterm infants were studied at 32 (+/-1 week) postconceptional age (PCA). Infants who received analgesia or sedation in the 72 h prior to each study, or any postnatal dexamethasone, were excluded. Outcomes were infant responses to two different stressors studied on separate days in a repeated measures randomized crossover design: (1) plasma cortisol to stress of a fixed series of nursing procedures; (2) behavioral (Neonatal Facial Coding System; NFCS) and cardiac reactivity to pain of blood collection. Among infants born

Relations between behavioral and cardiac autonomic reactivity to acute pain in preterm neonates

The purpose of this study was to assess relations and concordance between behavioral and physiologic reactivity to pain in preterm neonates at 32 weeks postconceptional age as a function of gestational age at birth.