A Survival Analysis of Australian Equity Mutual Funds

Determining which types of mutual (or managed) investment funds are good financial investments is complicated by potential surbivorship biases. This project adds to a small recent international literature on the patterns and determinants of mutual fund survivorship. We use statistical techniques for survival data that are rarely applied in finance. Of specific interest is the hazard rate of fund closure, which gives the variation over time in the conditional probability of fund closure given fund survival to date. For a sample of 251 retail investment funds in Australia from 1980 to 1999 we identify a hump-shaped hazard function that reaches its maximum after about five or six years, a pattern similar to the UK findings of Lunde, Timmermann and Blake (1999). We also consider the impact of monthly and annual fund performance (gross and relative to a market benchmark). Returns relative to the benckmark are much more important than gross returns, with hgiher relative returns associated with lower hazard of fund closure. There appears to be an asymmetric response to performance, with positive shocks having a larger impact on the hazard rate than negative shocks.mutual funds; survivorship bias; duration analysis; cox regression

Changes in the status and distribution of mammals of the order Carnivora in Yorkshire from 1600. County history of the fox, badger, otter, pine marten, stoat, weasel, polecat, American mink, wildcat and domestic cat.

Data derived largely from ecclesiastical (mostly churchwardens¿) accounts, foxhunting statistics, local scientific society records and 19th and 20th century literature sources from a wide range of published material, have provided detailed evidence of the status and changes in distribution over the past four centuries in Yorkshire for fox (Vulpes vulpes), badger (Meles meles), otter (Lutra lutra), pine marten (Martes martes), stoat (Mustela erminea), weasel (M. nivalis), polecat (M. putorius), American mink (M. vison), wildcat (Felis silvestris) and domestic cat (Felis catus). In the case of the domestic cat, questionnaire surveys quantified population sizes and predatory activity in rural, suburban and urban situations. Evidence of the former distribution of all the carnivores studied provides a credible historical basis for biodiversity action planning and the substantial archived database and bibliography provide further research opportunities

Measures of effectiveness for data fusion based on information entropy

This thesis is concerned with measuring and predicting the performance and effectiveness of a data fusion process. Its central proposition is that information entropy may be used to quantify concisely the effectiveness of the process. The personal and original contribution to that subject which is contained in this thesis is summarised as follows: The mixture of performance behaviours that occur in a data fusion system are described and modelled as the states of an ergodic Markov process. An new analytic approach to combining the entropy of discrete and continuous information is defined. A new simple and accurate model of data association performance is proposed. A new model is proposed for the propagation of information entropy in an minimum mean square combination of track estimates. A new model is proposed for the propagation of the information entropy of object classification belief as new observations are incorporated in a recursive Bayesian classifier. A new model to quantify the information entropy of the penalty of ignorance is proposed. New formulations of the steady state solution of the matrix Riccati equation to model tracker performance are proposed

The importance of N-linked glycosylation on the N-domain of angiotensin-I converting enzyme

Angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) is an important drug target in the treatment of heart disease due to its role in the regulation of blood pressure. ACE contains two domains, the N- and C-domains, both of which are catalytically active and heavily glycosylated. Glycosylation is one of the most important forms of post-translational modification, having a wide range of functions including protein folding, modulation of the immune response, and providing targeting signals. Glycosylation is required for the expression of active ACE and structural studies of ACE have been fraught with severe difficulties because of surface N-glycosylation of the protein. This problem has been addressed to a large extent with respect to the C-domain, where the role of glycosylation has been extensively characterised and a minimally glycosylated form was able to crystallise reproducibly. As yet, little is known about the degree and importance of N-linked glycosylation on the N-domain. The generation of minimally glycosylated N-domain, however, requires a greater understanding of the relative importance of the individual N-linked glycosylation sites

The Characterization and Distribution of Magnesium Whitlockite Crystals in Human Articular Cartilage

The occurrence of crystals (previously termed 'cuboid crystals': 50-500nmsize range) not apparent by light microscopy, in human articular cartilage has been confirmed by transmission electron microscopy of tissue prepared by various techniques, including anhydrous and cryo processing. Earlier reports of such crystal deposition had been limited to osteoarthritic and elderly femoral head articular cartilage. In this study crystals have been reported in articular cartilage across an age range from five to ninety two years in normal and osteoarthritic tissue from a variety of joint sites. The distribution of crystal deposition within articular cartilage was described both qualitatively and quantitatively; normal femoral head tissue was investigated in most detail. Over 90 % of crystals were commonly deposited within the first 50μm below the articular surface; crystals appeared either in a band parallel to the surface or in a pericellular distribution. In deeper zones crystal deposition was restricted to pericellular distribution, and areas of chondrocyte necrosis. Quantitative analysis of crystal deposition distribution in articular cartilage at sites around the femoral head revealed a significantly greater deposition in the superior (zenith) region than the inferior (infrafoveal) region. Elemental analysis of crystals confirmed a calcium, phosphorus and magnesium content. It also demonstrated no variation in the mean calcium to phosphorus ratio with crystal size, specimen age, or between normal and osteoarthritic specimens. A crystal isolation technique involving collagenase digestion, centrifugation and sodium hypochlorite treatment was developed, enabling crystal characterization by electron and x-ray diffraction. Crystals were identified as magnesium whitlockite; the first report of this mineral in articular cartilage. The mode of formation and role of these crystals remain unknown, although histological and histochemical investigations revealed a consistent association with intramatrical lipid, containing a phospholipid component. The results of this study are most tenable with a concept of opportunistic crystal deposition

Can fundamental value predict stock returns? An empirical assessment of the Feltham -Ohlson model

In valuation research, two modeling approaches that have become prominent are those based on the Residual Income Model (RIM) and those based on the G. Feltham-James A. Ohlson framework. Ohlson (1995) develops a valuation model which links a firm\u27s fundamental value to the book value of equity, earnings and other relevant information. Feltham and Ohlson (1995) extend the Ohlson (1995) model to incorporate growth and conservative accounting. This study provides an evaluation of the Feltham-Ohlson (1995) model assuming market inefficiency. Analyst forecast data are obtained from the international I/B/E/S files. Financial information and share prices are obtained from the Compustat Database. Canadian T-bill rates and exchange rates are obtained from the International Financial Statistics database. All variables are scaled by the market value of equity at fiscal year end to mitigate for heteroscedasticity. Financial firms are excluded. Following Myers (1999), the discount rate is measured as the sum of the Canadian T-bill rate and the firm\u27s industry risk premium. Panel data methodology with lagged values is used to determine the parameters of the linear dynamics equations. Net operating assets are found to have a negative relationship with abnormal earnings. For the firms in the sample, net operating assets are diminishing over the time period 1990–1998. Managers are selling off assets or they are not making investments sufficient to offset the effects of depreciation. For every year from 1989 to 1998, four portfolios are formed based on the V/P ratio where V is the predicted value of the firm based on the Feltham-Ohlson (1995) model and P is the market value at fiscal year end. There is a statistically significant difference in the one year returns on low (V/P) portfolios and high (V/P) portfolios. Noise traders acting on pseudo signals continue to invest in overvalued stocks. Professional arbitrageurs are unable to restore equilibrium because of their limited wealth and time horizons. The differences in the equally weighted 36 month return for the low (V/P) and the high (V/P) portfolios are not statistically significant, indicating that investors become less optimistic about overvalued stocks within 36 months

Single Use bioreactors: Geometry does matter

The first generation of single use bioreactors (SUBs) departed from conventional stirred tank bioreactor (STR) geometry in terms of impeller number, and orientation and sparger hole diameter. Moreover, one marked feature of SUB bioreactors was that they could be operated at lower volumes than conventional STRs, bringing considerable operational flexibility. This practice, however, further negates the principle of geometric similarity. Whilst some processes may be able to remain within a SUB for the whole product life cycle, many products will require scale up to larger-scale vessels as demand for the product increases. This poster considers the implications of changing reactor geometry on scale up of mammalian cell culture processes using multivariate data analysis to compare different geometries and different fill volumes. This approach uncovered a surprising result when working at half volume, which may not have been spotted using conventional data analysis methods. The first generation of SUBs challenged two of the industry’s key principles of scale up: geometric similarity and maintenance of KLa. There is now a wider variety of SUBs on the market, including vessels that display a higher degree of geometrical similarity to conventional STR geometry. As a result a study was performed to evaluate similarity of process performance between systems with different geometries in order to support Lonza’s expansion of single use upstream capacity. In this study we have compared performance of two SUB systems; one with a conventional STR geometry (SUB 1) and one with a non‑conventional geometry (SUB 2). Mass transfer studies performed with both systems using the gassing-out approach demonstrated that empirical models built to describe KLa performance in Lonza’s conventional STRs (10 to 20,000 L) were better able to predict KLa’s in SUB 1 than in SUB 2, as would be expected given the geometries. Cell culture evaluations were performed with a model cell line in both SUB systems. Multivariate analysis of the data showed that the behavior of the cultures performed in the SUB 1 was closer to behavior of cultures performed in Lonza’s conventional scale-down model than those performed in SUB 2. However, Hoteling’s T2 and Q residuals analysis suggested that difference in behavior in SUB 2 was not extreme. The impact of operating SUB 1 at half volume was investigated for two different vessel volumes. Multivariate data analysis showed that there was considerable difference in behavior of the cultures performed at half volume when compared to cultures performed in the conventional scale-down model. At several time points towards the end of the cultures, Q residual values were outside the 95% confidence interval, indicating significantly different culture behavior. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that there was also a difference in behavior of the half-volume cultures in different size vessels. This indicated a lack of scalability between half-volume cultures performed in different scale vessels of SUB 1, which was not apparent when the same vessels were run at full volume. It was concluded that SUB geometry does matter when scaling processes up and should be a key consideration in a quality by design approach to minimizing differences in culture behavior during cell culture process scale up. Moreover, multivariate data analysis can provide useful supplemental insight in bioreactor process performance comparison

Scale-up in the single use age: Does geometry matter?

Singe use bioreactors (SUBs) are becoming standard work horses in the biopharmaceutical industry. These SUBs are supplied by vendors as off the shelf designs limiting the cell culture engineer’s ability to match the geometry of the SUB to the geometry of their existing stirred tank reactor (STR) capacity. The first generation of SUBs departed from conventional stirred tank bioreactor (STR) geometry in terms of impeller number, and orientation and sparger hole diameter. Moreover, one marked feature of SUB bioreactors was that they could be operated at lower volumes than conventional STRs, bringing considerable operational flexibility. This practice, however, further negated the principle of geometric similarity. This presentation considers the implications of changing reactor geometry on scale up of mammalian cell culture processes using multivariate data analysis to compare different geometries and different fill volumes. This approach uncovered a surprising result when working at half volume, which may not have been spotted using conventional data analysis methods. The first generation of SUBs challenged two of the industry’s key principles of scale up: geometric similarity and maintenance of KLa. As an early adopter of SUBs Lonza had to overcome these challenges. This was done by following an approach advocated by the SUB manufactures which departs from a conventional scale up strategy. Conditions were found empirically that matched the oxygen mass transfer in a conventional STR as closely as possible. There is now however a wider variety of SUBs on the market, including vessels that display a higher degree of geometrical similarity to conventional STR geometry. As a result a study was performed to evaluate similarity of process performance between systems with different geometries in order to support Lonza’s expansion of single use upstream capacity. In this study we have compared performance of two SUB systems; one with a conventional STR geometry (SUB 1) and one with a non‑conventional geometry (SUB 2). Mass transfer studies were performed with both systems using the gassing-out approach. Results demonstrated that empirical models built to describe KLa performance in Lonza’s conventional STRs (10 to 20,000 L) were better able to predict KLa’s in SUB 1 than in SUB 2, as would be expected given the geometries. Cell culture evaluations were performed with a model cell line in both SUB systems. Multivariate analysis of the data showed that the behavior of the cultures performed in the SUB 1 was closer to behavior of cultures performed in Lonza’s conventional scale-down model than those performed in SUB 2. However, Hoteling’s T2 and Q residuals analysis suggested that difference in behavior in SUB 2 was not extreme. The impact of operating SUB 1 at half volume was investigated for two different vessel volumes. Multivariate data analysis showed that there was considerable difference in behavior of the cultures performed at half volume when compared to cultures performed in the conventional scale-down model. At several time points towards the end of the cultures, Q residual values were outside the 95% confidence interval, indicating significantly different culture behavior. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that there was also a difference in behavior of the half-volume cultures in different size vessels. This indicated a lack of scalability between half-volume cultures performed in different scale vessels of SUB 1, which was not apparent when the same vessels were run at full volume. It was concluded that SUB geometry does matter when scaling processes up and should be a key consideration in a quality by design approach to minimizing differences in culture behavior during cell culture process scale up. Moreover, multivariate data analysis can provide useful supplemental insight in bioreactor process performance comparisons

Teaching legal research subversively

This article presents a novel approach to teaching the compulsory law subject Legal Research. It considers that while Legal Research is traditionally a non-substantive subject that does not explain the law, let alone question or critique the law, it can in fact be taught in a way that encourages law students to think critically about legal institutions and the broader social context that gives rise to them. The article explores ways to pursue such legal instruction, with reference to activities administered in a legal research subject at the Law and Justice Faculty of the University of [withheld for peer review], Australia. It concludes that the discipline of legal research presents valuable opportunities for providing law students with a deeper social education in the law