The Negative News Threshold - an Explanation for Negative Skewness in Stock Returns

A vast literature documents negative skewness and excess kurtosis in stock return distributions on several markets. We approach the issue of negative skewness from a different angle than in previous studies by suggesting a model, which we denote the “negative news threshold” hypothesis, that builds on asymmetrically distributed information and symmetric market responses. Our empirical tests reveal that returns for days when non-scheduled news are disclosed are the source of negative skewness in stock returns. This finding lends solid support to our model and suggests that negative skewness in stock returns is induced by asymmetries in the news disclosure policies of firm management.

Gender and female entrepreneurship in a pro-entrepreneurship magazine

In this working paper I discuss gendered entrepreneurship by exploring how the media writes about female entrepreneurship. The starting point is that the media when talking and writing about female entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurship, mould meanings of gender in entrepreneurship. I view entrepreneurship and gender as socially constructed, discursive phenomena. To uncover the processes of constructing gender in female entrepreneurship this paper applies a discursive framework, which treats language as a representational system producing and circulating meaning. The focus on language use as action implies that practises of writing and talking about female entrepreneurship ‘make’ gender as much as the women entrepreneurs) themselves: both involve working on culturally shared meanings to make reality intelligible. The data consists of articles published in Yrittäjä, a pro-SME magazine, in 1990-1997. In the analysis I show how gender is constructed in media talk. as a women’s issue Women entrepreneurs are constantly compared with men and with an implicitly masculine ideal of entrepreneurship and with strengths and weaknesses of women are displayed pointing out that the meaning making of gender taking place in the data refers to equality discourse. Finally I discuss possible consequences of the hegemonic equality discourse and suggest lines of further research.

What is A Virtual Service?- Broadening the Perspective on Technology-Based Services

This article expands the discussion of the impact of technology on services and contributes to a broader comprehension of the nature of virtual services. This is done by discovering dimensions that distinguish physical services from virtual services, i.e. services that are distributed by electronic means and where the customer has no direct human interaction with the service provider. Differences in the core characteristics of services, servicescape and service delivery are discussed. Moreover, dimensions that differentiate between virtual services are analysed. A classification scheme for virtual services is proposed, including the origin of the service, the element of the service offering, the customisation process, stage of the service process performed, and the degree of mobility of the service.

Statements on chaos control designs, including a fractional order dynamical system, applied to a MEMS comb-drive actuator

In this work, we deal with a micro electromechanical system (MEMS), represented by a micro-accelerometer. Through numerical simulations, it was found that for certain parameters, the system has a chaotic behavior. The chaotic behaviors in a fractional order are also studied numerically, by historical time and phase portraits, and the results are validated by the existence of positive maximal Lyapunov exponent. Three control strategies are used for controlling the trajectory of the system: State Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) Control, Optimal Linear Feedback Control, and Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control. The controls proved effective in controlling the trajectory of the system studied and robust in the presence of parametric errors.

Caldecott, Kipling, Rossetti: textos infantis vitorianos

Through brief comments on famous texts of Randolph Caldecott, Rudyard Kipling and Christina Rossetti, we intend to show to the reader aspects of children’s literature written in the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), in which authors inherited the Romantic idea that child and childhood are pure, close to nature in a way that the adult man is not. Moralizing texts, they taught children how to be an adult.

Rhyming the National Spirit: Taras Shevchenko and Ilia Chavchavadze

The paper is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818-1861) as national poets and anti-colonial (anti-Tsarist) intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century) both Ukraine and Georgia were under Tsarist imperial rule, albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian empire history. Through their major works, each called on their communities to ‘awaken’ and ‘revolt’ against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by Tsarist subjugation and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. The non-acceptance of present and belief in an independent future was one of the dominant themes in the poetry and prose of both. Their contemporary importance is illustrated in political discourse both after Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004), and Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003) where both poets are referred “as founding fathers of national ideology”, the history textbooks alluding to them as “symbols of anti-colonial resistance”. To this day, however, there has been surprisingly little academic writing in the West endeavoring to compare the works and activities of the two poets and their impact on national mobilization in Tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, even though their countries are often mentioned in a same breath by commentators on contemporary culture and politics. The paper attempts to fill this gap and tries to understand the relationship between literature and social mobilization in 19th century Russian Empire. By reflecting on Taras Shevchenko’s and Ilia Chavchavadze’s poetry, prose and social activism, I will try to explain how in different periods of Russian imperial history, the two poets helped to develop a modern form of political belonging among their compatriots and stimulated an anti-colonial mobilization with different political outcomes. To theorize on the role of poets and novelists in anti-colonial national movement, I will reflect on the writings of Benedict Anderson (1991), John Hutchinson (1994; 1999), Rory Finnin (2005; 2011) and problematize Miroslav Hroch’s (1996) three phase model of the development of national movements. Overall, the paper would aim to show the importance of, what John Hutchinson called, ‘cultural nationalists’ in understanding contemporary nationalist discourse in Georgian and Ukrainian societies.

Reminiscences, 1755-1762: including the Louisburg and Quebec campaigns, manuscript, 1792

Autograph diary, in the hand of British officer Lt. Governor Henry Hamilton, written in Bermuda.

Quebec, Canada, 1759 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper manuscript map entitled: Plan of the town and basin of Quebec : and part of the adjacent country shewing the principal encampments and works of the British army commanded by Major Genl. Wolfe and those of the French army by Lieut. Genl. the Marquis of Montcalm during the attack in 1759. Scale [ca. 1:9,600]. This image consists of images of a two sheet source map that have been stitched together using image editing software to create one image. Manuscript copy of a map. Copied by [Whlkington?] in 1857. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 19N NAD 1983 coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, selected buildings, fortification, ship and troop movements, and places of military interest for the Battle of Quebec, 1759, and more. Relief is shown by hachures. Includes index and text. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection as part of the Imaging the Urban Environment project. Maps selected for this project represent major urban areas and cities of the world, at various time periods. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features at a large scale. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.

Commonplace book : manuscript, 1820-1841

Written in several hands, some in red and black. Texts nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 are in the hand of Abdullah bin Abdulkadir.

Queen Hortense and her friends, 1783-1837 /

Includes index.

[Pamphlets on banks and banking law in Great Britain.

[1] Committee of Private Country Banks. Reasons against legislative interference. 1844.--[2] Drummond, Henry. Causes which lead to a bank restriction bill. 1839.--[3] Dun, John. The English bankers' grievance and its proper remedy. 1874.--[4] Greig, J.K. Bank note and banking reform. 1880.--[5] Holdsworth, A.H. A letter to a friend in Devonshire. 1818.--[6] Kinnear, George. Banks and exchange companies. 1847.--[7] A letter to the Right Hon. the Viscount Althorp on his proposed interference with the present system of country banking. 1833.--[8] LLoyds Bank Limited. Permanent staff training. 1919.--[9] [Maclean, A.W.] Additional considerations, addressed to all classes, on the necessity and equity of a national system of deposit-banking and paper currency. 1835.--[10] Nicholson, N.A. The controversy on free banking. 1868.--[11] Steele, F.E. On changes in the bank rate. [1891]--[12] Stirling, James. Practical considerations on banks and bank management. 1865.--[13] Thoughts upon the principles of banks, and the wisdom of legislative interference. 1837.--[14] Watt, Peter. The theory and practice of joint-stock banking. 1836.

Lettres de Napoléon à Joséphine pendent la première campagne d' Italie, le consulat et l̓empire; et lettres de Joséphine à Napoléon et à sa fille.

Mode of access: Internet.

Report, 1837-

Place of publication varies: Marshall, Ann Arbor, Monroe, Detroit; beginning with 1850, Lansing.

The Plaindealer.

"Printed for the Proprietors at the Printing Office of the Plaindealer", <1837>.

Pi︠a︡tidesi︠a︡tili︠e︡tnīĭ i︠u︡bileĭ S.-Peterburgskago prakticheskago tekhnologicheskago instituta, 28-go noi︠a︡bri︠a︡ 1878.

Includes index of graduates for 1837-1878.