Equity Returns to Small Bank Investors

Unlike most other small firms, there is an excellent record of the initial equity capitalization details of banking organizations when they are formed, as well as subsequent changes, because of the chartering application and reporting requirements of the banking regulatory authorities. By combining these records with the actual approved acquisition price of small banks, the return received by small bank investors from the time of organization through acquisition is determined. For small banks organized after 1972 and acquired from 1980 and through 1988, yearly mean rates of return ranged from 23.07 percent to 10.49 percent. Generally, these returns exceed S&P 500 returns for similar holding periods, but on a Sharpe Performance Index risk adjusted basis were inferior to S&P portfolios in six of nine holding periods and consistently weaker by the same measure to small company investment on the NYSE for this entire period. This inferior risk adjusted performance was unexpected

Symmetry and shape on the plasmonic behaviour of nanocavities

Plasmonic nanocavities confine light in deep subwavelength volumes and in recent years have enabled unprecedented control on light-matter interactions. A characteristic example is the nanoparticle-on-mirror geometry, which allows for the fabrication of very robust plasmonic gaps with sub-nanometre accuracy. Due to the extreme field confinement, the size and shape of plasmonic nanocavities dominate their optical response. But so far, the community has mainly focused on idealized spherical nanoparticles, ignoring that during their synthesis nanoparticles actually acquire polyhedral shapes, and that many different geometries can be synthesised these days. Here, we provide a complete description of the plasmonic modes in nanocavities made of three commonly occurring polyhedral nanoparticles (cuboctahedron, rhombicuboctahedron, decahedron). We show that the shape and symmetry of these plasmonic nanocavities dominate both their near- and far-field response, with intricate and rich optical behaviour. Through a recombination technique, the total far-field emission profile is obtained for an emitter placed at various nanocavity positions, which is crucial for understanding how energy couples in and out of the nanocavity. This work paves the way towards controlling light-matter interactions in extreme plasmonic environments for various applications, such as photochemical reactions and non-linear vibrational pumping

The Importance of Audit Firm Characteristics and the Drivers of Auditor Change in UK Listed Companies

This paper explores the importance of audit firm characteristics and the factors motivating auditor change based on questionnaire responses from 210 listed UK companies (a response rate of 70%). Twenty-nine potentially desirable auditor characteristics are identified from the extant literature and their importance elicited. Exploratory factor analysis reduces these variables to eight uncorrelated underlying dimensions: reputation/quality; acceptability to third parties; value for money; ability to provide non-audit services; small audit firm; specialist industry knowledge; non-Big Six large audit firm; and geographical proximity. Insights into the nature of 'the Big Six factor' emerge. Two thirds of companies had recently considered changing auditors; the main reasons cited being audit fee level, dissatisfaction with audit quality and changes in top management. Of those companies that considered change, 73% did not actually do so, the main reasons cited being fee reduction by the incumbent and avoidance of disruption. Thus audit fee levels are both a key precipitator of change and a key factor in retaining the status quo

Synaptic Neurotransmission Depression in Ventral Tegmental Dopamine Neurons and Cannabinoid-Associated Addictive Learning

Drug addiction is an association of compulsive drug use with long-term associative learning/memory. Multiple forms of learning/memory are primarily subserved by activity- or experience-dependent synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). Recent studies suggest LTP expression in locally activated glutamate synapses onto dopamine neurons (local Glu-DA synapses) of the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) following a single or chronic exposure to many drugs of abuse, whereas a single exposure to cannabinoid did not significantly affect synaptic plasticity at these synapses. It is unknown whether chronic exposure of cannabis (marijuana or cannabinoids), the most commonly used illicit drug worldwide, induce LTP or LTD at these synapses. More importantly, whether such alterations in VTA synaptic plasticity causatively contribute to drug addictive behavior has not previously been addressed. Here we show in rats that chronic cannabinoid exposure activates VTA cannabinoid CB1 receptors to induce transient neurotransmission depression at VTA local Glu-DA synapses through activation of NMDA receptors and subsequent endocytosis of AMPA receptor GluR2 subunits. A GluR2-derived peptide blocks cannabinoid-induced VTA synaptic depression and conditioned place preference, i.e., learning to associate drug exposure with environmental cues. These data not only provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic depression at VTA dopamine circuitry requires GluR2 endocytosis, but also suggest an essential contribution of such synaptic depression to cannabinoid-associated addictive learning, in addition to pointing to novel pharmacological strategies for the treatment of cannabis addiction

Ethnographic study of knowledge and skills of elementary principals relevant to development of reading programs.

This study examined the self-reported role and responsibility of elementary principals in Oklahoma which were related to the area of reading by means of an opinionnaire providing ten components of reading to be rated on a five-point scale of importance. In addition, the components of reading were rated as to the importance additional information about each component would be for the elementary principals. Administrative experience, classroom teaching experience, college course hours in reading, gender, and interest in further training which related the role of elementary principal to the area of reading provided data which revealed the following: (1) Elementary principals in Oklahoma considered their role and responsibility important with respect to the area of reading, (2) additional information, as well as training, were of importance to elementary principals, (3) the highest ranked components dealt with improvement of instructional quality of reading, and (4) the value assigned components of reading were not significantly affected by college course hours in reading, elementary classroom teaching experience, or gender

FŒTAL RESPIRATION.

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Morphology dependence of nanoparticle-on-mirror geometries: A quasinormal mode analysis

Plasmonic nanoantennas are able to produce extreme enhancements by concentrating electromagnetic fields into sub-wavelength volumes. Recently, one of the most commonly used nanoantennas is the nanoparticle-on-mirror geometry, which allowed for the room temperature strong coupling of a single molecule. Very few studies offer analysis of near-field mode decompositions, and they mainly focus on spherical and/or cylindrically-faceted nanoparticle-on-mirror geometries. Perfectly spherical nanoparticles are not easy to fabricate, with recent publications revealing that a rhombicuboctahedron is a commonly occurring nanoparticle shape – due to the crystalline nature of metallic nanoparticles. In this paper, we perform a quasi-normal mode analysis for the rhombicuboctahedron-on-mirror nanoantenna and map the field distributions of each mode. We examine how the geometry of the cavity defines the near-field distribution and energies of the modes, and we show that in some cases the mode degeneracies break. This has a significant impact on the radiative emission and far-field profile of each mode, which are measured experimentally. Understanding how realistic nanoantenna geometries behave in the near-field and far-field helps us design antennas with specific properties for controlling and sensing quantum emitters in plasmonic systems