The association between the investment opportunity set and corporate financing and dividend decisions: some Australian evidence

Summarizes previous research on the investment opportunity set (IOS) using price-based and investment-based proxies and variance measures; and develops hypotheses on the relationship between IOS, debt/equity ratios and dividend policies. Tests them on 1990-1998 data from listed Australian companies and explains the methodology, which builds on Gover and Gover (1993) by including more recent proxy variables. Finds no significant results from low growth firms, although some high growth firms show lower debt/equity ratios and dividends. Questions the robustness of existing IOS proxies in the Australian context and calls for further research.

Selected Ranked Set Sampling

This paper proposes a sampling procedure called selected ranked set sampling (SRSS), in which only selected observations from a ranked set sample (RSS) are measured. This paper describes the optimal linear estimation of location and scale parameters based on SRSS, and for some distributions it presents the required tables for optimal selections. For these distributions, the optimal SRSS estimators are compared with the other popular simple random sample (SRS) and RSS estimators. In every situation the estimators based on SRSS are found advantageous at least in some respect, compared to those obtained from SRS or RSS. The SRSS method with errors in ranking is also described. The relative precision of the estimator of the population mean is investigated for different degrees of correlations between the actual and erroneous ranking. The paper reports the minimum value of the correlation coefficient between the actual and the erroneous ranking required for achieving better precision with respect to the usual SRS estimator and with respect to the RSS estimator.

Sensory adaptability of foods with added Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) kernel fibre using pre-set criteria

Fiber-enriched white bread, muffin. pasta, orange juice, and breakfast bar were prepared with lupin (Lupin us angusti/olius) kernel fiber. Consumer panelists (n = 44) determined that all these fiber-enriched foods, except orange juice, fulfilled pre-set acceptability criteria. Fiber enrichment did not change overall acceptability (p> 0.05) of the bread and pasta, but reduced overall acceptability (p < 0.05) of the muffin, orange juice, and breakfast bar. In all fiber-enriched products, flavor was the attribute most highly correlated with overall acceptability (p < 0.05). The lupin kernel fiber used in this study therefore appears to have potential as a 'nonintrusive' ingredient in some processed cereal-based foods_ For other applications, fiber modification appears worthy of investigation to accomplish 'nonintrusive' fiber enrichment.

A set of patterns for the web-based interfaces of an employee services system

The provision of Human Resource (HR), especially payroll, is a core function in every organization. Previously, providers of HR/payroll have offered their services to their clients via conventional modes of communication, such as telephones, facsimile, and courier services. In recent years, with the advent of the Internet and the emergence of web-based electronic commerce, there has been a rise in the adoption of web-based technology and information
systems by service providers, thereby enabling them to interact with their clients through this medium. This development necessitates the use of web-based user interfaces as workspaces between the HR/payroll providers and their clients, and thus, raises certain concerns that determine the effectiveness of web-based workflow systems. These concerns, related to the use of web interfaces, form the basis of the patterns discussed in this paper

An email classification model based on rough set theory

The communication via email is one of the most popular services of the Internet. Emails have brought us great convenience in our daily work and life. However, unsolicited messages or spam, flood our email boxes, which results in bandwidth, time and money wasting. To this end, this paper presents a rough set based model to classify emails into three categories - spam, no-spam and suspicious, rather than two classes (spam and non-spam) in most currently used approaches. By comparing with popular classification methods like Naive Bayes classification, the error ratio that a non-spam is discriminated to spam can be reduced using our proposed model.

The Permian-Triassic Boundary Stratigraphic Set: characteristics and correlation

Eased on field observations and compilation of data, a new stratigraphic concept, herein named the Permian-Triassic boundary stratigraphic set (PTBST), is proposed. The PTBST consists of, in ascending order, beds of claystone, limestone (or marl) and claystone. This boundary stratigraphic
set has been recognized at many sections in the Yangtze region of South China, with laterally stable lithological characters, the same or comparable biotas, comparable radiometric ages, and identical or similar magnetostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic signals. Therefore, the PTBST marks an isochronous unit and can serve as an important and effective marker set for regional and global correlations.
The important index fossils for the lowermost Triassic, Hindeodus parvus or Claraia, may be diachronous in their first occurrences with respect to the base of the PTBST and, therefore, should not be used as an exclusive indicator for the beginning of the Triassic. Rather more attention should
be paid to events, succession of events and/or event surfaces, which would potentially provide a more precise tool for high-resolution stratigraphic division and correlation.

Some aspects of photosynthetic characteristics in a set of perennial irrigation reservoirs located in five river basins in Sri Lanka

Phytoplankton primary productivity of eleven irrigation reservoirs located in five river basins in Sri Lanka was determined on a single occasion together with light climate and nutrient concentrations. Although area-based gross primary productivity (1.43–11.65 g O2 m−2 d−1) falls within the range already established for tropical water bodies, net daily rate was negative in three water bodies. Light-saturated optimum rates were found in water bodies, with relatively high algal biomass, but photosynthetic efficiency or specific rates were higher in water bodies with low algal biomass, indicating nutrient limitation or physiological adaptation of phytoplankton. Concentrations of micronutrients and algal biomass in the reservoirs are largely altered by high flushing rate resulting from irrigation release. Underwater light climate and nutrient availability control the rate of photosynthesis and subsequent areabased primary production to a great extent. However, morpho-edephic index or euphotic algal biomass in the most productive stratum of the water column is not a good predictor of photosynthetic capacity or daily rate of primary production of these shallow tropical irrigation reservoirs.

On the size of training set and the benefit from ensemble

In this paper, the impact of the size of the training set on the benefit from ensemble, i.e. the gains obtained by employing ensemble learning paradigms, is empirically studied. Experiments on Bagged/ Boosted J4.8 decision trees with/without pruning show that enlarging the training set tends to improve the benefit from Boosting but does not significantly impact the benefit from Bagging. This phenomenon is then explained from the view of bias-variance reduction. Moreover, it is shown that even for Boosting, the benefit does not always increase consistently along with the increase of the training set size since single learners sometimes may learn relatively more from additional training data that are randomly provided than ensembles do. Furthermore, it is observed that the benefit from ensemble of unpruned decision trees is usually bigger than that from ensemble of pruned decision trees. This phenomenon is then explained from the view of error-ambiguity balance.

Institutional and structural forms of HIV-related discrimination in health care : a study set in Beijing

This paper presents key findings of a situational analysis of institutional and structural levels of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination in Beijing, China, with a focus on the area of health care. Initially slow to respond to the presence of HIV, China has altered its approach and enacted strict legislative protection for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). In order to determine whether this has altered discrimination against PLWHA, this study examined existing legislation and policy, and interviewed key informants working in health care and PLWHA. The overall findings revealed that discrimination in its many forms continued to occur in practice despite China's generally strong legislative protection, and it is the actual practice that is hindering PLWHAs' access to health services. A number of legislative and policy gaps that allow discrimination to occur in practice were also identified and discussed. The paper concludes with a call to rectify specific gaps between legislation, policy and practice. An understanding of the underlying factors that drive discrimination will also be necessary for effective strategic interventions to be developed and implemented.

The application of rough set and Kohonen network to feature selection for object extraction

Selecting a set of features which is optimal for a given task is a problem which plays an important role in a wide variety of contexts including pattern recognition, images understanding and machine learning. The paper describes an application of rough sets method to feature selection and reduction in texture images recognition. The proposed methods include continuous data discretization based on Kohonen neural network and maximum covariance, and rough set algorithms for feature selection and reduction. The experiments on trees extraction from aerial images show that the methods presented in this paper are practical and effective.