NHTSA driver performance data book. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Field evaluation of jail sanctions for DWI. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Import passenger automobile weight projections 1979-1986: Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, BL Ltd. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Preparation of instructional materials: highway safety management system plan and problem identification. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Southwest conference on coordinating mobility programs for the transportation disadvantaged. Proceedings.

Transportation Department, Office of University Research, Washington, D.C.

Earnings behaviour of financially distressed firms:The role of institutional ownership

Using a sample of 859 U.S. bankruptcy-filing firms over the period 1986-2004, we examine the earnings behaviour of managers during the distressed period by looking at sources of abnormal accruals prior to the bankruptcy-filing year. Results show that managers of highly distressed firms shift earnings downwards prior to the bankruptcy filing. We test and provide evidence in support of two potential contributing factors. First, top-level management turnover among distressed firms leads new managers to earnings bath choices during the distressed period. Second, qualified audit opinions exert pressure on managers to follow more conservative earnings behaviour during the distressed period. Evidence is also provided that the management of distressed firms with lower (higher) institutional ownership has greater (lesser) tendency to manage earnings downwards. Results also show that higher institutional ownership mitigates the negative abnormal returns of firms with top management turnover. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to examine whether institutional ownership relates to market reaction in conjunction with a top management turnover or a qualified audit opinion during the distressed period. Prior studies focused on the investigation of earnings management or institutional ownership (separately) during the distressed period, but did not examine if the effect of institutional ownership on earnings behaviour also influences subsequent returns. Thus, the results of this study should be of interest to analysts, standard setters and regulatory bodies since our results show that management turnover, qualified audit opinions and firm governance mechanisms affect the quality of earnings and the level of abnormal returns. © 2007 Accounting Foundation, The University of Sydney.

Numerical prediction of the lateral displacement capacity of flexural reinforced concrete shear walls

Previous earthquakes showed that shear wall damage could lead to catastrophic failures of the reinforced concrete building. The lateral load capacity of shear walls needs to be estimated to minimize associated losses during catastrophic events; hence it is necessary to develop and validate reliable and stable numerical methods able to converge to reasonable estimations with minimum computational effort. The beam-column 1-D line element with fiber-type cross-section model is a practical option that yields results in agreement with experimental data. However, shortcomings of using this model to predict the local damage response may come from the fact that the model requires fine calibration of material properties to overcome regularization and size effects. To reduce the mesh-dependency of the numerical model, a regularization method based on the concept of post-yield energy is applied in this work to both the concrete and the steel material constitutive laws to predict the nonlinear cyclic response and failure mechanism of concrete shear walls. Different categories of wall specimens known to produce a different response under in plane cyclic loading for their varied geometric and detailing characteristics are considered in this study, namely: 1) scaled wall specimens designed according to the European seismic design code and 2) unique full-scale wall specimens detailed according to the U.S. design code to develop a ductile behavior under cyclic loading. To test the boundaries of application of the proposed method, two full-scale walls with a mixed shear-flexure response and different values of applied axial load are also considered. The results of this study show that the use of regularized constitutive models considerably enhances the response predictions capabilities of the model with regards to global force-drift response and failure mode. The simulations presented in this thesis demonstrate the proposed model to be a valuable tool for researchers and engineers.

Military procurement : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services ... Eighty-sixth Congress, first session, on S. 500, amending Title 10, United States Code, with respect to procurement procedures of the armed services; S. 1383, requiring the use of competitive bidding ... ; [and] S. 1875 ... July 13, 15, 21, 24, 28, and 31, 1959.

Mode of access: Internet.

Emploi des étrangers et protection de la main d'oeuvre nationale . [Code du travail, ordonnances, décrets, loi, arrêtés. Mise à jour au 15 juin 1957.]

[Code]

S.V.U.L:n Varsinais-Suomen piirin Pyöräilymestaruuskilpailut Salon Urheilukentällä 15-16/7 -39

14 x 23 cm