What is behind the OpenDOAR? New Development and Community Benefits

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

DataONE Member Node Implementation Workshop

Workshop at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Stock Market reaction to the CSR announcements of American fast food companies

The purpose of this study is to examine whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) announcements of the three biggest American fast food companies (McDonald’s, YUM! Brands and Wendy’s) have any effect on their stock returns as well as on the returns of the industry index (Dow Jones Restaurants and Bars). The time period under consideration starts on 1st of May 2001 and ends on 17th of October 2013. The stock market reaction is tested with an event study utilizing CAPM. The research employs the daily stock returns of the companies, the index and the benchmarks (NASDAQ and NYSE). The test of combined announcements did not reveal any significant effect on the index and McDonald’s. However the stock returns of Wendy’s and YUM! Brands reacted negatively. Moreover, the company level analyses showed that to their own CSR releases McDonald’s stock returns respond positively, YUM! Brands reacts negatively and Wendy’s does not have any reaction. Plus, it was found that the competitors of the announcing company tend to react negatively to all the events. Furthermore, the division of the events into sustainability categories showed statistically significant negative reaction from the Index, McDonald’s and YUM! Brands towards social announcements. At the same time only the index was positively affected by to the economic and environmental CSR news releases.

Novas ocorrências de fungos conidiais para América do Sul e Neotrópico

Durante investigação de fungos conidiais associados a materiais vegetais em decomposição na Serra da Jibóia, município de Santa Terezinha, Bahia, algumas espécies interessantes foram encontradas. Endophragmiella rigidiuscula R. F. Castañeda, Murogenella lampadiformis R. F. Castañeda & W. B. Kendr., Mycoenterolobium platysporum var. platysporum Goos e Spegazzinia deightonii (S. Hughes) Subram., são novos registros para a América do Sul, e Pseudoacrodictys viridescens (B. Sutton & Alcorn) W. A. Baker & Morgan-Jones é um novo registro para o Neotrópico. Descrição, comentários, distribuição geográfica e ilustrações são apresentadas para as espécies.

Testing Accrual-Based Model for Detecting Earnings Management: Comparison of Finland and France

The aim of this study is to test the accrual-based model suggested by Dechow et al. (1995) in order to detect and compare earnings management practices in Finnish and French companies. Also the impact of financial crisis of 2008 on earnings management behavior in these countries is tested by dividing the whole time period of 2003-2012 into two sub-periods: pre-crisis (2003-2008) and post-crisis (2009-2012). Results support the idea that companies in both countries have significant earnings management practices. During the post-crisis period companies in Finland show income inflating practices, while in France the opposite tendency is noticed (income deflating) during the same period. Results of the assumption that managers in highly concentrated companies are engaged in income enhancing practices vary in two countries. While in Finland managers are trying to show better performance for bonuses or other contractual compensation motivations, in France they avoid paying dividends or high taxes.

The 9-O-acetyl GD3 gangliosides are expressed by migrating chains of subventricular zone neurons in vitro

Neurons from the anterior subventricular zone (SVZ) of the cerebral cortex migrate tangentially to become interneurons in the olfactory bulb during development and in adult rodents. This migration was defined as neuronophilic, independent of a radial glial substrate. The cortical SVZ and the rostral migratory stream to the olfactory bulb were shown to be rich in 9-O-acetyl GD3 gangliosides (9-O-acGD3), which have been previously shown to be implicated in gliophilic migration in the rodent cerebral cortex and cerebellum. In the present study, we performed SVZ explant cultures using rats during their first postnatal week to analyze the expression of these gangliosides in chain migration of neuronal precursors. We characterized migrating chains of these neuroblasts through morphological analysis and immunocytochemistry for the neural cell adhesion molecule. By using the Jones monoclonal antibody which binds specifically to 9-O-acGD3 we showed that migrating chains from the SVZ explants express 9-O-acGD3 which is distributed in a punctate manner in individual cells. 9-O-acGD3 is also present in migrating chains that form in the absence of radial glia, typical of the neuronophilic chain migration of the SVZ. Our data indicate that 9-O-acetylated gangliosides may participate in neuronophilic as well as gliophilic migration.

Forecasting financial weather - can we foresee market sentiment? Spectrum of stock price behavior - NYSE case study

The desire to create a statistical or mathematical model, which would allow predicting the future changes in stock prices, was born many years ago. Economists and mathematicians are trying to solve this task by applying statistical analysis and physical laws, but there are still no satisfactory results. The main reason for this is that a stock exchange is a non-stationary, unstable and complex system, which is influenced by many factors. In this thesis the New York Stock Exchange was considered as the system to be explored. A topological analysis, basic statistical tools and singular value decomposition were conducted for understanding the behavior of the market. Two methods for normalization of initial daily closure prices by Dow Jones and S&P500 were introduced and applied for further analysis. As a result, some unexpected features were identified, such as a shape of distribution of correlation matrix, a bulk of which is shifted to the right hand side with respect to zero. Also non-ergodicity of NYSE was confirmed graphically. It was shown, that singular vectors differ from each other by a constant factor. There are for certain results no clear conclusions from this work, but it creates a good basis for the further analysis of market topology.

Th-1 and Th-2 cytokine production in infants with virus-associated wheezing

Wheezing associated with respiratory viral infections in infancy is very common and results in high morbidity worldwide. The Th1/Th2 pattern of immune response in these patients remains unclear and previous studies have shown controversial results. The aim of the present study was to compare the type of Th1/Th2 cytokine response between infants with acute bronchiolitis, recurrent wheezing and upper respiratory infections from a developing country. Infants younger than 2 years of age admitted to Hospital São Lucas, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, between May and November 2001, with an acute episode of wheezing associated with viral respiratory infection were selected. Subjects with upper respiratory infections from the emergency department were selected for the control group. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) levels from nasal aspirates were determined by ELISA from peripheral mononuclear cell cultures. Twenty-nine subjects with acute bronchiolitis, 18 with recurrent wheezing and 15 with upper respiratory infections were enrolled. There were no differences in family history of atopy or parental smoking between groups. Oxygen requirement was similar for the acute bronchiolitis and recurrent wheezing groups. The percentage of positive tests for the cytokines studied and the IFN-gamma/IL-4 ratio was similar for all groups. Comparison of the polarized Th1/Th2 cytokine results for the various groups showed no specific pattern of cytokine production. Infants with wheezing from a developing country do not show any specific predominant pattern of Th1/Th2 cytokine production, suggesting that multiple factors may be involved in the pathogenesis of this illness.

Automatic recognition of fish from video sequences

The problem of automatic recognition of the fish from the video sequences is discussed in this Master’s Thesis. This is a very urgent issue for many organizations engaged in fish farming in Finland and Russia because the process of automation control and counting of individual species is turning point in the industry. The difficulties and the specific features of the problem have been identified in order to find a solution and propose some recommendations for the components of the automated fish recognition system. Methods such as background subtraction, Kalman filtering and Viola-Jones method were implemented during this work for detection, tracking and estimation of fish parameters. Both the results of the experiments and the choice of the appropriate methods strongly depend on the quality and the type of a video which is used as an input data. Practical experiments have demonstrated that not all methods can produce good results for real data, whereas on synthetic data they operate satisfactorily.

TNF-a and IL-10 levels in tracheobronchial lavage of ventilated preterm infants and subsequent lung function

The role of airway inflammation in ventilated preterm newborns and the risk factors associated with the development of chronic lung disease are not well understood. Our objective was to analyze the association of the airway inflammatory response in ventilated preterm infants by serial measurements of TNF-a and IL-10 in tracheobronchial lavage (TBL) with perinatal factors and lung function measured early in life. A series of TBL samples were collected from ventilated preterm infants (less than 32 weeks of gestational age) and concentrations of TNF-a and IL-10 were measured by ELISA. Pulmonary function tests were performed after discharge by the raised volume rapid compression technique. Twenty-five subjects were recruited and 70 TBL samples were obtained. There was a significant positive association between TNF-a and IL-10 levels and length of time between the rupture of the amniotic membranes and delivery (r = 0.65, P = 0.002, and r = 0.57, P < 0.001, respectively). Lung function was measured between 1 and 22 weeks of corrected age in 10 patients. Multivariable analysis with adjustment for differences in lung volume showed a significant negative association between TNF-a levels and forced expiratory flow (FEF50; r = -0.6; P = 0.04), FEF75 (r = -0.76; P = 0.02), FEF85 (r = -0.75; P = 0.03), FEF25-75 (-0.71; P = 0.02), and FEV0.5 (r = -0.39; P = 0.03). These data suggest that TNF-a levels in the airways during the first days of life were associated with subsequent lung function abnormalities measured weeks or months later.

Sweden, Denmark and Norway

Jones & Smith sc. Pentonville.

An application of cell-cluster theory to a rare gas crystal /|n[by] K. Westera. - 260 St. Catharines [Ont.] : Dept. of Physics, Brock University,

The Lennard-Jones Devonshire 1 (LJD) single particle theory for liquids is extended and applied to the anharmonic solid in a high temperature limit. The exact free energy for the crystal is expressed as a convergent series of terms involving larger and larger sets of contiguous particles called cell-clusters. The motions of all the particles within cell-clusters are correlated to each other and lead to non-trivial integrals of orders 3, 6, 9, ... 3N. For the first time the six dimensional integral has been calculated to high accuracy using a Lennard-Jones (6-12) pair interaction between nearest neighbours only for the f.c.c. lattice. The thermodynamic properties predicted by this model agree well with experimental results for solid Xenon.

Application of [Lambda] to the fourth perturbation theory in calculating the equation of state of rare gas solids and fcc metals

We have calculated the thermodynamic properties of monatomic fcc crystals from the high temperature limit of the Helmholtz free energy. This equation of state included the static and vibrational energy components. The latter contribution was calculated to order A4 of perturbation theory, for a range of crystal volumes, in which a nearest neighbour central force model was used. We have calculated the lattice constant, the coefficient of volume expansion, the specific heat at constant volume and at constant pressure, the adiabatic and the isothermal bulk modulus, and the Gruneisen parameter, for two of the rare gas solids, Xe and Kr, and for the fcc metals Cu, Ag, Au, Al, and Pb. The LennardJones and the Morse potential were each used to represent the atomic interactions for the rare gas solids, and only the Morse potential was used for the fcc metals. The thermodynamic properties obtained from the A4 equation of state with the Lennard-Jones potential, seem to be in reasonable agreement with experiment for temperatures up to about threequarters of the melting temperature. However, for the higher temperatures, the results are less than satisfactory. For Xe and Kr, the thermodynamic properties calculated from the A2 equation of state with the Morse potential, are qualitatively similar to the A 2 results obtained with the Lennard-Jones potential, however, the properties obtained from the A4 equation of state are in good agreement with experiment, since the contribution from the A4 terms seem to be small. The lattice contribution to the thermal properties of the fcc metals was calculated from the A4 equation of state, and these results produced a slight improvement over the properties calculated from the A2 equation of state. In order to compare the calculated specific heats and bulk moduli results with experiment~ the electronic contribution to thermal properties was taken into account~ by using the free electron model. We found that the results varied significantly with the value chosen for the number of free electrons per atom.

A treatment of atomic mean square displacement in higher order perturbation theory

A general derivation of the anharmonic coefficients for a periodic lattice invoking the special case of the central force interaction is presented. All of the contributions to mean square displacement (MSD) to order 14 perturbation theory are enumerated. A direct correspondance is found between the high temperature limit MSD and high temperature limit free energy contributions up to and including 0(14). This correspondance follows from the detailed derivation of some of the contributions to MSD. Numerical results are obtained for all the MSD contributions to 0(14) using the Lennard-Jones potential for the lattice constants and temperatures for which the Monte Carlo results were calculated by Heiser, Shukla and Cowley. The Peierls approximation is also employed in order to simplify the numerical evaluation of the MSD contributions. The numerical results indicate the convergence of the perturbation expansion up to 75% of the melting temperature of the solid (TM) for the exact calculation; however, a better agreement with the Monte Carlo results is not obtained when the total of all 14 contributions is added to the 12 perturbation theory results. Using Peierls approximation the expansion converges up to 45% of TM• The MSD contributions arising in the Green's function method of Shukla and Hubschle are derived and enumerated up to and including 0(18). The total MSD from these selected contributions is in excellent agreement with their results at all temperatures. Theoretical values of the recoilless fraction for krypton are calculated from the MSD contributions for both the Lennard-Jones and Aziz potentials. The agreement with experimental values is quite good.