Dispelling the Hype: An Examination of SPAC Common Equity Performance

The U.S. SPAC market has faced explosive growth in recent years, but the financial performance of these investments is weakly understood. Therefore, this paper contributes an analysis on the long-term performance of SPAC common equity for SPACs that completed acquisitions between 2016 and 2018. Using hand-collected data from the Compustat – Capital IQ and SEC EDGAR databases, this paper runs a two-sample t-test assuming unequal variances and constructs an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model. In conclusion of the t-test, the results suggest that SPAC common shares do not outperform the market over a three-year holding period. In addition, the regression model identifies SPAC behaviors that signal long-term positive yields in common share price. These findings inform investment strategies, and the paper goes on to discuss further positions an investor can create to gain exposure to this rising investment class

The Exchange Rate Exposure of U.S. and Japanese Banking Institutions

In this paper, we examine the foreign exchange exposure of a sample of U. S. and Japanese banking firms. Using daily data, we construct estimates of the exchange rate sensitivity of the equity returns of the U.S. bank holding companies and compare them to those of the Japanese banks. We find that the stock returns of a significant fraction of the U. S. companies move with the exchange rate, while few of the Japanese returns that we observe do so. We next examine more closely the sensitivity of the U.S. firms by linking the U.S. estimates cross-sectionally to accounting-based measures of currency risk. We suggest that the sensitivity estimates can provide a benchmark for assessing the adequacy of existing accounting measures of currency risk. Benchmarked in this way, the reported measures that we examine appear to provide a significant, though only partial, picture of the exchange rate exposure of U. S. banking institutions. The cross-sectional evidence is also consistent with the use of foreign exchange contracts for the purpose of hedging.Foreign Exchange Risk, Banking, Market Risk

What do Life Cafes tell us about dying and end of life care

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the number of deaths worldwide will increase from 56 million to 70 million by 2030. Within the United Kingdom this equates to an increase of 20% over the next five years. Not only will palliative and end of life care services be required to meet the needs of an increasing number of people who are dying but we must also respond to an increasing number of people who are dying from complex, long-term conditions such as cancer and dementia. This paper reports the findings of the first phase of a study undertaken by design researchers at Sheffield Hallam University to inform the development of new and flexible models of care that are responsive to the needs of an ageing population with increasingly complex end of care life needs. Taking the method of ‘exhibition in a box’, a form of object elicitation developed by Chamberlain and Craig (2013) as the starting point this study curated a series of creative activities, named the ‘Life Café’ to scaffold thinking and to prompt conversation

A Chronicle of Place: Three Novellas and a Critical Dissertation on Compositional Process with a Contextual Analysis of Annie Proulx's 'Barkskins' and Michael Cunningham's 'The Hours'

This thesis is presented in two parts: a work of fiction in the form of three interconnected novellas exploring settler colonialism of Native north-east America (New England), with a critical dissertation as supplement. The research encompasses four main areas: archival; contextual; experiential and the primary field of practice research. Of particular importance to the research was field work conducted in the U.S., which included meetings with Wampanoag educators and artists, and interviews and archival research at the Plimoth Patuxet Museum. The research has been informed by the work of several writers, both historical and contemporary. Primary and secondary historical sources include William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation and the ‘captivity’ narrative of Mary Rowlandson. Two contemporary works of fiction are explored and serve as case-studies for the creative work: Annie Proulx’s Barkskins, which includes the themes of story, landscape and legacy from a postcolonial perspective; and an appraisal of the structural form of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours as an interconnected trilogy of narratives. The critical element also examines the process of research toward writing a historical narrative, addressing the challenges which arise from writing the past and, particularly, from including an Indigenous element when writing from a non-Indigenous perspective. As a mode of practice research, the trilogy interrogates a number of ideas, including the transcendent nature of story over time. Using examples of oral tradition and the metanarrative form, it reflects upon the legacy of colonialism upon both the land and the Wampanoag people, and originates a greater exchange between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous

Review Essay: Emplacement and everyday use of medications in domestic dwellings

To extend knowledge of relationships between people and domestic settings in the context of medication use, we conducted fieldwork in twenty households in New Zealand. These households contained a range of ‘medicative’ forms, including prescription drugs, traditional remedies, dietary supplements and enhanced foods. The location and use of these substances within domestic dwellings speaks to processes of emplacement and identity in the creation of spaces for care. Our analysis contributes to current understandings of the ways in which objects from ‘outside’ the home come to be woven into relationships, identities and meanings ‘inside’ the home. We demonstrate that, as well as being pharmacological objects, medications are complex, socially embedded objects with histories and memories that are ingrained within contemporary relationships of care and home-making practices

Genes influencing milk production traits predominantly affect one of four biological pathways

In this study we introduce a method that accounts for false positive and false negative results in attempting to estimate the true proportion of quantitative trait loci that affect two different traits. This method was applied to data from a genome scan that was used to detect QTL for three independent milk production traits, Australian Selection Index (ASI), protein percentage (P%) and fat percentage corrected for protein percentage (F% – P%). These four different scenarios are attributed to four biological pathways: QTL that (1) increase or decrease total mammary gland production (affecting ASI only); (2) increase or decrease lactose synthesis resulting in the volume of milk being changed but without a change in protein or fat yield (affecting P% only); (3) increase or decrease protein synthesis while milk volume remains relatively constant (affecting ASI and P% in the same direction); (4) increase or decrease fat synthesis while the volume of milk remains relatively constant (affecting F% – P% only). The results indicate that of the positions that detected a gene, most affected one trait and not the others, though a small proportion (2.8%) affected ASI and P% in the same direction

Reading and Writing for Pleasure: A Framework for Practice

Commissioned by the Mercers' Company as part of its Young People and Education programme's 'Literacy Special Initiative - Reading and Writing for Pleasure 2020-2023', the Framework for Practice has been developed by the Open University. The Framework draws together insights from the international research literature in these areas, and data from six London-based literacy programmes

Life Cafe - A co-designed method of engagement

The last decade has witnessed a demographic change on unprecedented scale - people are living longer and with more complex, long term conditions. This paper presents a programme which seeks to rethink how palliative and end of life care can be provided equitably, efficiently and sustainably for future generations. It explores the methodological approach undertaken by university researchers, to engage communities in conversations around a topic often seen as taboo. The community engagement focuses on understanding what is important to individuals in life, care, and end of life. A methodology, named the Life Café, has been developed to gather research in an informal manner within community groups and familiar environments. The Life Café comprises critical artefacts, activities and resources, co-developed with community members developed to answer the research questions. The Life Cafe has become a product that can be used across different services to establish what matters to individuals and enable difficult conversations

Approaches to Reading and Writing for Pleasure: An Executive Summary of the Research

This Executive Summary was commissioned by the Mercers' Company as part of its three-year Young People & Education programme's 'Literature Special Initiative on Reading and Writing for Pleasure (2020-2023)'. It sought to establish the approaches that seem to be effective in inspiring and encouraging children and young people to read and/or write for pleasure