980 research outputs found

    Community content building for evolutionary biology: Lessons learned from LepTree and Encyclopedia of Life

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    Online resources to aid large-scale ecological and evolutionary biology are beginning to take root, only a decade behind fields such as genomics and molecular biology. One barrier has been a long tradition, in evolutionary biology at least, of work by individuals on the order of a few hundred of species rather than the thousands or hundreds of thousands necessary to understand the general evolutionary or ecological processes that explain species characteristics and distributions. Advances in collaborative and semantic software offer promise – it should be possible to develop high quality online species-level datasets for comparative analyses and even to integrate, via machine reasoning, across highly customized datasets. In this talk we will compare and contrast two approaches to assembling the data

    Time-varying risk and return in the bond market: a test of a new equilibrium pricing model

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    This article uses bond market data to empirically test the asset pricing model of Kazemi (1992). According to this model the rate of return on a long-term, pure-discount, default-free bond will be perfectly correlated with changes in the marginal utility of the representative investor. The covariability between financial asset returns and returns on such a bond can therefore serve as a measure of the riskiness of assets. The aim of this study is to determine whether the model can explain cross-sectional differences in the monthly returns of bonds with different maturity dates. We estimate and test the restrictions imposed by the model on returns of default-free bonds, while allowing the conditional distribution of bond returns to be time varying. The model is rejected during the full sample period (1973-1995) and the subperiod (1973-1980) when the Federal Reserve\u27s focus is on interest rates, while the model is not rejected during the subperiod (1981-1995) when the Federal Reserve\u27s focus is on money supply

    Quid-pro-quo exchanges of outside director defined benefit pension plans for equity-based compensation

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    The independence of outside directors is critical to corporate board effectiveness. We examine a unique period in corporate governance when outside directors\u27 defined benefit pensions are replaced with increases in equity. Firms with pension plans significantly underperform their industry in terms of stock returns. Firms terminating the pension plans in exchange for equity have significant increases in stock returns relative to their industry subsequent to the change. All samples outperform the ROA and ROE industry medians both before and after the change in compensation, indicating pressure from organized investors likely comes from stock performance, not accounting performance. Investor rights pressure and outside director compensation and not takeover risk or institutional ownership best explain firms altering outside director compensation, with board of director effectiveness improving

    Marine Turtle Conservation on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua

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    The purpose of this initial phase was to expand our previous work on marine turtles on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. This was done through the establishment of a collaborative program with the Miskitu Indians to reduce the uncontrolled take of marine turtles in this region. We initiated activities for a multi-year program that will include research, training, and educational activities involving three Miskitu Indian Communities located in the Indigenous Communities and Miskito Cays Biosphere Reserve (ICMCBR). (5 page document

    Multi-Country Event Study Methods

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    We provide the first simulation evidence of event-study test performance in multi-country non-US samples. The nonparametric rank and generalized sign tests are more powerful than two common parametric tests, especially in multi-day windows. The two nonparametric tests are mostly well specified, but neither is perfectly specified in all situations. The parametric standardized cross-sectional test can provide a useful robustness check but is less powerful than the nonparametric tests and rejects too often in single-market samples and when firm-specific events affect the market index. Local-currency market-model abnormal returns using national market indexes are sufficient

    MS

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    thesisThe Nurse Practitioner Pilot Project (Senate Bill 198) was initiated in June 1980 in Utah. Senate Bill 198 legalized prescriptive practice for specific nurse practitioners for a three-year period. Protocols selected for guidelines in practice were required for use by pilot project members. Two evaluations were conducted studying compliance to protocols by pilot project participants. The purpose of the research was to determine if the remaining 44 nurse practitioners were adhering to protocols. General systems theory was used to describe prescriptive practices by nurse practitioners. The focal system was the relationship between the nurse and the health care needs of the cultural suprasystem. Input from the patient consists of information concerning the health problem. The nurse practitioners process information through adaptation and throughput to construct a management plan. The output of the nurse practitioner is primary care, including prescribing medications. A random chart review was conducted in the practice of each nurse practitioner. All information recorded in the client's chart to justify the appropriate diagnosis and use of medications was noted. Eight-four percent of the sample were practicing at the level required for the project participation. Nurse practitioners educated at the Bachelor's level in Adult Practice received the highest total performance scores

    A CASE STUDY OF PRESERVICE TEACHERS\u27 PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR USE OF BACKDOOR PRAISE IN THE CLASSROOM

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    “Backdoor praise” (BDP) is defined as praise that is simultaneously delayed, indirect, and embedded in teacher comments. This case study investigated preservice teachers’ perceptions of their use of BDP as a strategy for getting and keeping students on task. Three participants, representing elementary, middle, and high school, were observed to collect baseline data on their natural use of BDP. The preservice teachers were then informed of what BDP is and how to use it with students, and they were observed twice more using BDP. Overall, 28 incidents of BDP use involving 21 students were recorded, and 16 of the students maintained long-term on-task behavior post-BDP. The preservice teachers all reported positive effects, including a greater focus on “finding the good” in their students and a decrease in their use of negative comments and reprimands. A tally sheet of BDP per student and individual and focus group interview transcripts are included in the appendices

    Evaluation of interventions for informed consent for randomised controlled trials (ELICIT) : protocol for a systematic review of the literature and identification of a core outcome set using a Delphi survey

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    Acknowledgements This work was supported by personal fellowship award (to KG) from the Medical Research Council’s Strategic Skills Methodology programme. The Health Services Research Unit is supported by a core grant from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. PW is funded by a UK Medical Research Council Hub for Trials Methodology Research Network grant G0800792. The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chief Scientist Office, MRC or the Department of Health.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
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