Molded wood particle products including integrally joined intersecting members

A molded product formed from wood flakes intermixed with a binder and a first elongated member formed from elongated wood flakes compressed and bonded together with a binder, the wood flakes having a grain direction extending generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the flakes and the flakes being generally oriented in alignment with the longitudinal axis of the first elongated member. A second elongated member intersects the first elongated member and is integrally joined to it. The second elongated member is also formed from elongated wood flakes compressed and bonded together with a binder, the wood flakes being generally oriented in alignment with the longitudinal axis of the second elongated member. The wood flakes of the second elongated member intersect and are interleaved with the wood flakes of the first elongated member to thereby form an integral molded joint between the first elongated member and the second elongated member.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1122/thumbnail.jp

Calendar anomalies:evidence from six emerging markets

Abstract. This study aims to examine the presence of three well-documented calendar anomalies: The January/monthly, turn-of-the-month and day-of-the-week effect. These anomalies refer to systematic variations of financial asset returns during certain times of the week, month, or year. Throughout decades, these stock return regularities have been considered as decisive counterexamples that deviate from efficient market hypothesis due to potential trading strategies that generate abnormal returns based on such seasonal variations. Most explanations on the appearance of calendar anomalies are related to behavioural finance framework. Thus, investors might base their investment decisions on behavioural characteristics such as overconfidence and loss avoidance. However, recent research suggests that seasonal effects are disappearing in stock markets. The disappearance of calendar anomalies is a result of market learning, and therefore the exploitation of stock return seasonality has become less prominent. Based on the market efficiency theory, behavioural anomalies should be arbitraged away in the long run when investors begin exploiting them (Fama, 1998). This thesis aims to examine the behavior of stock return seasonality in six emerging market exchanges during the period of January 2005 through December 2020. Since numerous emerging market exchanges are open for foreign investors and they have experienced a rapid growth in recent years, the interest of observable anomalies is highlighted. The widely popular January/monthly, turn-of-the-month and day-of-the-week effects are estimated with the commonly used dummy variable regression model. In addition, all three are estimated with the GARCH framework by incorporating volatility clustering and asymmetric responses of return volatility. The OLS results show that the turn-of-the-month effect is statistically significant in Prague, Budapest, and Malaysian stock exchanges. The effect is also significant based on the GARCH regression results. Moreover, based on the OLS results, a weekend effect is found in the Malaysian stock exchange, where Friday returns are significantly high, and Monday returns significantly low. Under the GARCH framework, a January effect is found only in the Prague stock exchange. This indicates that the anomaly has most likely disappeared. Furthermore, the GARCH regression results exhibit positive Monday effects for Prague, Warsaw, and Johannesburg exchanges. Thus, the mixed results of the January/monthly effect and the day-of-the-effect indicate that they are sensible to the choice of error distribution, and generalizations of their existence cannot be made. However, the asymmetric GARCH models exhibit similar results by accounting the volatility dynamics to a greater extend. Thus, seasonality in the examined emerging market returns is present

Molded wood particle pallet having increased bending strength

The invention includes a molded unitarily formed pallet comprising wood particles bonded together by a cured binder in compressed relation and forming a deck having an upper surface supporting a load, and a plurality of elongated substantially parallel spaced channels supporting the deck. The channels extend from adjacent one edge of the pallet to adjacent an opposite edge. The channels each including spaced channel side walls extending downwardly from said deck and terminating in a planar bottom wall parallel to the deck. The side walls are integrally joined at their upper edges to the deck and integrally joined at their lower edges to the bottom wall. The deck and elongated channels are formed by laying a loosely felted mat of wood particles in a press, the mat including wood flakes mixed with a binder and the wood flakes being thin and generally planar and being laid in felted relation so as to lie in substantially horizontal planes in interleaved relation, and by compressing the mat.https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/patents/1121/thumbnail.jp

Applying child-based information to a microsimulation model : A better tool to assess outcomes of alternative entitlements to child care provisions?

The Finnish child day care system has had two alternative public provisions in the mid-1980s after the parental leave period: a subjective right to public child day care or cash for care (child home care allowance) until the child is 3 years of age. The elderly siblings of the youngest child, if cared for at home, are entitled to a smaller siblings’ allowance until they start obligatory education. The right to child day care concerns all children before obligatory education (7 years of age). The forms of public support for child care have continuously been in public debate, some people demanding a longer period and higher allowance for the parents (mothers) to care for a child at home after the parental leave whereas others demand a longer parental leave and greater gender equality in child care. In spring 2012 the controversy concerned the Government’s plan to cut the home care allowance period by one year, for children below 2 years of age. Cutting public transfer expenditure was one justification, the other being increasing mothers’ labour market participation. That plan was never introduced but halving the allowance period between the parents has been suggested by the Government in 2013. In spite of high-tempered public discussion very few calculations about potential outcomes have been presented. Also the current static microsimulation models seemed not very useful in capturing the scope of even immediate impacts of these kinds of reforms. This paper has two motivations. The first motivation was a lack of micro-macro level analyses of po-tential outcomes of a possible reform. Cutting home care allowance decreases cash for care costs, but may increase child day care costs, if the mothers are available to the labour market earlier than before. The second motivation is a wish to apply and develop a microsimulation model with new kind of data in preparation of different child care alternatives. The problem in the former models and data is a lack of child-based information about their actual care periods. This is the first attempt to utilize child based spell data of child home care allowance. As application the paper will present preliminary potential outcomes of cutting entitlements to child home care allowance by one year and discusses the strengths and limitations of the applied model and data