Street Earnings Activation Delay

Street earnings are non-GAAP earnings, adjusted for consistency with the analyst majority basis and disseminated by forecast data providers (FDPs). We find that the time it takes an FDP to incorporate street earnings in its products (activation delay, hereafter) reflects variation in the difficulty of constructing street earnings, investor demand for timely street earnings, and FDPs' limited attention and resources. Furthermore, the market reaction to reported earnings is more timely when activation delay is shorter, and price discovery is highly concentrated during the hour after street earnings are activated. Finally, activation delay increases the delay with which street earnings are incorporated in analyst forecasts. We conclude that frictions in information processing prevent market participants from instantaneously constructing and incorporating street earnings in their decisions, and that FDPs play a key role in alleviating these frictions

A study on cercarial dermatitis in Khuzestan province, south western Iran

BACKGROUND: Cercarial dermatitis' or swimmer's itch' is an itchy inflammatory response to the penetration of the skin by non-human schistosome parasites. In the hot season, (May to September) in Khuzestan province in the south west of Iran, swimming in canals and agriculture activities in swampy areas are common. This survey was made on people from villages north of Ahwaz city in south west Iran, to estimate cercarial dermatitis in this region. METHODS: 2000 people were observed for clinical signs of cercarial dermatitis. Also 2000 Lymnaea gedrosiana snails were collected from agriculture canals and examined for animal schistosome cercariae during 1998–2000. RESULTS: From this survey 1.1% of people had pruritic maculopapular rash on their feet, hands or other parts of body. From the total of examined snails, 2.4% were found to be infected with bird schistosome cercariae including Trichobilharzia species. CONCLUSION: Cercarial dermatitis could be a health problem in this area. This is the first report of cercarial dermatitis from this region of Iran

Sex, War, and Disease: The Role of Parasite Infection on Weapon Development and Mating Success in a Horned Beetle (Gnatocerus cornutus)

While parasites and immunity are widely believed to play important roles in the evolution of male ornaments, their potential influence on systems where male weaponry is the object of sexual selection is poorly understood. We experimentally infect larval broad-horned flour beetles with a tapeworm and study the consequent effects on: 1) adult male morphology 2) male-male contests for mating opportunities, and 3) induction of the innate immune system. We find that infection significantly reduces adult male size in ways that are expected to reduce mating opportunities in nature. The sum of our morphological, competition, and immunological data indicate that during a life history stage where no new resources are acquired, males allocate their finite resources in a way that increases future mating potential

Future response of global coastal wetlands to sea-level rise.

The response of coastal wetlands to sea-level rise during the twenty-first century remains uncertain. Global-scale projections suggest that between 20 and 90 per cent (for low and high sea-level rise scenarios, respectively) of the present-day coastal wetland area will be lost, which will in turn result in the loss of biodiversity and highly valued ecosystem services1-3. These projections do not necessarily take into account all essential geomorphological4-7 and socio-economic system feedbacks8. Here we present an integrated global modelling approach that considers both the ability of coastal wetlands to build up vertically by sediment accretion, and the accommodation space, namely, the vertical and lateral space available for fine sediments to accumulate and be colonized by wetland vegetation. We use this approach to assess global-scale changes in coastal wetland area in response to global sea-level rise and anthropogenic coastal occupation during the twenty-first century. On the basis of our simulations, we find that, globally, rather than losses, wetland gains of up to 60 per cent of the current area are possible, if more than 37 per cent (our upper estimate for current accommodation space) of coastal wetlands have sufficient accommodation space, and sediment supply remains at present levels. In contrast to previous studies1-3, we project that until 2100, the loss of global coastal wetland area will range between 0 and 30 per cent, assuming no further accommodation space in addition to current levels. Our simulations suggest that the resilience of global wetlands is primarily driven by the availability of accommodation space, which is strongly influenced by the building of anthropogenic infrastructure in the coastal zone and such infrastructure is expected to change over the twenty-first century. Rather than being an inevitable consequence of global sea-level rise, our findings indicate that large-scale loss of coastal wetlands might be avoidable, if sufficient additional accommodation space can be created through careful nature-based adaptation solutions to coastal management.Personal research fellowship of Mark Schuerch (Project Number 272052902) and by the Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (Visiting Scholar Programme). Furthermore, this work has partly been supported by the EU research project RISES-AM- (FP7-ENV-693396)