Medieval Courtly Literature, Royal Patronage and World Harmony (III)

Music conquers the demon, as Pythagoras might have said. The present study approaches the problem yet a third time, and once again in the footsteeps of Stephen Jaeger, who has argued cogently also that many of these speculative principles trickle clown into vernacular literature. It is proposed chat cosmic harmony is recapiculated at the medieval court, such as at Arthur's Round Table, and that the equilibrium implied in the concept of world harmony reverberates -volens nolens- at the court of medieval kings, princes and bishops (Jaeger, Origins of Courtliness). A second analogy asserts that the concept of cosmic harmony corresponds to the social and human sphere; that, as Boethius urged, humans can shape their character by responding appropriately to cosmic harmony, thus leading to deeper selfknowledge. Three topics are discussed: a) the value-laden aims of medieval courtly literature; b) the background to the notion of cosmic harmony -seen in the description of the Perfect, or New Man, a «mysterious union»- and described in two significant twelfth century treatises, the Cosmographia of Bernardus Silvestris and Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus. The last concern is the issue of world harmony insofar as it suggests a courtly fusion of the divine and the human, the cosmic and social, heavenly and earthly, macrocosm and microcosm.La musique vainc le diable, comme doit avoir dit Pythagore. Cette étude aborde le problème, pour la troisième fois déjà et à nouveau sur les traces de Stephen Jaeger, qui a défendu à ce propos aussi la thèse que bon nombre de ces principes spéculatifs tombaient dans la littérature vernaculaire. On suggère que l'harmonie cosmique est réunie à la Cour médiévale, telle que la Table Ronde d'Arthur, et que l'équilibre sous-entendu dans le concept de l'harmonie du monde se reflète. volens nolens, à la cour des rois médiévaux, princes et évèques (Jaeger, Origins of Courtliness). Une seconde analogie soutient que le concept d'harmonie cosmique correspond à la sphère sociale et humaine; comme le préconise Boethius, les humains peuvent aiguiser leur caractère en répondant convenablement à l'harmonie cosmique, conduisant ainsi à une connaissance personnelle plus profonde. Trois thèmes sont discutés: a) les buts de l'échelle de valeur de la littérature médiévale raffinée; b) l'arrière plan de la notion d'harmonie cosmique -que l'on retrouve dans la description de la Perfection, ou Homme Nouveau, une «union mystérieuse»- et qui est décrite dans deụx traités importants du douzième siècle, la Cosmographia de Bernardus Silvestris et l'Anti­claudianus de Alan of Lille. La dernière préoccupation est le but de l'harmonie du monde étant donné qu'elle suggère une fusion raffinée du divin et de l'humain, du cosmic et du social, du terrestre et du céleste, du macrocosme et du microcos­me

Accruals, Cash-Flows and Tobin’s q : An Investment Perspective on Firm Accruals

Following Zhang (Accounting Review, 2007) we cast firm accruals in terms of short-term investment. Since many studies consider accruals as a smoothed measure of cash flows, we first adopt Zhang specification and augment the standard Jones model with a cash-flow variable. Second, if accruals are indeed a form of short-term investment they should also be influenced by firm’s performance as measured by Tobin’s q. Consequently we propose a new version of the accrual model including a proxy for Tobin’s q. Given that accounting data and Tobin’s q are generally measured with errors, we also introduce a new estimation method based on a modified version of the Hausman artificial regression, featuring an optimal weighting matrix composed of higher moments instrumental variable estimators. Our results suggest that all the key parameters of the accrual models are indeed systematically biased with measurement errors. More importantly, our findings largely qualify Zhang’s conjecture on accruals, as both cash-flows and Tobin’s q are found strongly significant regressors of firm accruals. Relatedly we find that the Tobin’s q augmented model better isolate discretionary accruals so that the residuals of the equation are particularly well-suited to forecast stock returns.Discretionary accruals; Earnings management; Investment; Measurement errors; Higher moments; Instrumental variable estimators.

Accruals, Investment and Errors-in-Variables

We formulate well-known discretionary accruals models in an investment setting. Given that accruals basically consist of short-term investment, we introduce, (i) cash-flows, as a proxy for financial constraints and other financial markets imperfections, and (ii) Tobin’s q as a measure of capital return. Accounting data and Tobin’s q being measured with errors, we propose an econometric method based on a modified version of the Hausman artificial regression which features an optimal weighting matrix of higher moments instrumental variable estimators. The empirical results suggest that all the key parameters of the discretionary accruals models studied are biased systematically with measurement errors.Discretionary accruals; Earnings management; Investment; Measurement errors; Higher moments; Instrumental variable estimators.

An Introduction to Early Irish Literature

Dès 1948, M. Dillon, celtisant de renom, publie un ouvrage fondamental : Early Irish Literature (5e éd., 1972). Il est suivi en 1966 d’un ouvrage d’E. Knott et G. Murphy : Early Irish Literature (int. J. Carney) et en 1990, d’une synthèse importante par K. McCone : Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature. J. E. Caerwyn Williams et P. Ford nous donnent dans The Irish Literary Tradition (1992), une étude thématique de ce sujet. Aujourd’hui, M. Ní Bhrolcháin, pendant vingt-cin..

Le Forum, Vol. 44 #3

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Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV