Problems Associated with the Use of Performance Appraisals in Promotion Decisions in the Federal Personnel System

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Mother, Infant, and Household Factors Associated with the Type of Food Infants Receive in Developing Countries

Objectives: We explore the complex factors associated with infant feeding by analyzing what mother, infant, and household factors are associated with the types of food given to infants. We seek to quantify associations in order to inform public health policy about the importance of target populations for infant feeding programs. Methods: We used data from the Demographic Health Survey in 20 developing countries for multiple years to examine mother, infant, and household factors associated with six types of food given to infants (exclusive breastfeeding, non-exclusive breastfeeding, infant formula, milk liquids, non-milk liquids, and solid foods). We performed a seemingly unrelated regressions analysis with community-year fixed effects to account for correlation between food types and control for confounding factors associated with community resources, culture, time period, and geography in the pooled analysis. Results: We found that several mother, infant, and household characteristics were associated with each of the feeding types. Most notably, mother’s education, working status, and weight are significantly associated with the type of food given to infants. We provide quantified estimates of the association of each of these variables with six types of food given to infants. Conclusion: By identifying maternal characteristics associated with infant feeding and quantifying those associations, we help public health policymakers generate priorities for targeting infant feeding programs to specific populations that are at greatest risk. Higher educated, working mothers are best to target with exclusive breastfeeding programs for young infants. Mothers with lower education are best to target with complementary feeding programs in infants older than 1 year. Finally, while maternal weight is associated with higher levels of exclusive breastfeeding the association is too weak to merit targeting of breastfeeding programs to low-weight mothers

DuPont analysis, future firm performance, and stock returns : to what extent do the DuPont components have explanatory power regarding a firm's future profitability and its market value?

This master thesis aims to examine how financial information can be used to predict a firm’s future performance and value. Specifically, five hypotheses are tested to explore the usefulness of the DuPont analysis framework in predicting future profitability and stock returns. The thesis thus builds upon prior research by replicating previous findings with more recent data and analyzing the explanatory power of the leverage DuPont com-ponents, namely financial and operating liability leverage, in predicting a firm's future performance and value. While previous studies primarily focused on analyzing the predictive ability of the operational DuPont components, this thesis extends previous re-search by conducting a more comprehensive analysis that also incorporates a firm's financial activities. The study conducts pooled regression analyses based on a data sample comprised of 482 listed US companies to assess the predictive ability of all DuPont com-ponents. In addition, the thesis investigates whether market participants fully appreciate the components’ forecasting power. The results indicate that the DuPont components possess explanatory power in predicting a firm’s future profitability and stock returns, thus providing valuable insights beyond what is already known from ΔROEt. Specifically, ΔATOt and ΔPMt are positively associated with a firm’s one-year-ahead profitability and market value, indicating that im-proved asset utilization efficiency and better cost control have a favorable impact. Market participants consider the information contained in both variables to be incrementally in-formative beyond ΔROEt. However, while the market fully appreciates the predictive power of ΔPMt, it fails to fully comprehend the implications of ΔATOt. The variable’s significant relation with future stock returns suggests that fully exploiting the information of ΔATOt can yield abnormal returns, indicating that the market is not completely efficient. Moreover, the thesis’s findings highlight the importance of incorporating information about a firm’s leverage when forecasting and valuing its performance. The results demonstrate that a firm’s financial activities have significant predictive ability regarding its future performance. Specifically, ΔFLEVt is a positive and significant predictor regarding one-year-ahead return on equity, confirming the suggestion of the DuPont model that leverage can increase a firm’s return on equity. Despite its positive association with a firm’s future profitability, the regression results indicate that the market appears to negatively price higher financial leverage. Furthermore, the results show that considering operating liability leverage separately from financial leverage provides additional explanatory power in the forecasting and valuation context. In contrast to financial leverage, higher levels of operating liability leverage are favorably priced by market participants. These findings refute the capital irrelevance proposition of previous research and demonstrate that leverage affects a firm’s market value

Superação das Vedações Dogmáticas para a Responsabilização Penal da Pessoa Jurídica: Reflexões Sobre o Modelo Construtivista de Autorresponsabilidade

O presente trabalho analisa se é possível superar os obstáculos dogmáticos da teoria do delito para a responsabilização penal da pessoa jurídica, tendo como fundamento epistemológico o modelo construtivista de autorresponsabilidade. Para tanto, analisam-se algumas dimensões político-criminais da autorresponsabilidade. O artigo se desenvolve com a abordagem da suposta incapacidade de ação da pessoa jurídica, bem como dos argumentos para a superação de tal obstáculo. Finalmente, pontua-se o suposto óbice da teoria do delito tradicional relacionado à ausência de culpabilidade da pessoa jurídica e elencam-se fundamentos do modelo construtivista que trabalham com alternativa funcionalmente equivalente para o juízo de reprovabilidade

Optimierung der Altersvorsorge - Aufbau eines zeitkontenbasierten Dienstleistungsanspruches

Mittels eines Optimierungsproblems werden die optimalen Investment- und Konsumentscheidungen eines Individuums zur Altersversorgung hergeleitet. Neben monetären Instrumenten wie, z. B. Investitionen auf dem Kapitalmarkt, wird eine auf Zeitguthaben basierende inflationssichere Anlageform einbezogen

Análise da dependência dos coeficientes térmicos de módulos fotovoltaicos com a irradiância solar

A energia solar fotovoltaica é uma fonte intermitente de energia e depende de diversos fatores, tais como disponibilidade de radiação solar, inclinação do painel fotovoltaico, eficiência de conversão da célula, temperatura de operação da célula, entre outros. Os módulos fotovoltaicos possuem coeficientes térmicos que representam o comportamento de alguns parâmetros em função da temperatura. Em geral, tais coeficientes são considerados constantes ao longo da faixa de irradiâncias. Neste trabalho é feita uma proposta de obter equações empíricas que modelem o comportamento dos coeficientes térmicos de módulos fotovoltaicos em função da irradiância solar. Foram feitos ensaios de medida da curva I-V de sete módulos fotovoltaicos de silício cristalino e um módulo de tecnologia CIS. A partir destas curvas foram extraídos os parâmetros: corrente de curto-circuito (Isc), tensão de circuito aberto (Voc) e potência máxima (Pmp), que foram utilizados para calcular os coeficientes térmicos dos módulos fotovoltaicos. A variação de Isc com a temperatura é utilizada para determinação do coeficiente térmico α. Já a variação de Voc com a temperatura é usada para determinar o coeficiente térmico β. E, por fim, a variação de Pmp com a temperatura é utilizada para determinar o coeficiente térmico ϒ. Foi observado que a variação de α em função da irradiância não justificava uma abordagem, sendo assim, foi considerado constante ao longo da faixa de irradiâncias estudada, de 100 a 1000 W/m². Para o coeficiente térmico β foi proposta uma equação obtida a partir de regressão linear que modela a variação deste parâmetro em função da irradiância. Para tanto é necessário possuir o valor de β obtido nas condições de teste padrão (STC), que é fornecido pelos fabricantes nos catálogos dos módulos. No caso do coeficiente térmico ϒ foi observado uma variação deste parâmetro em função da irradiância, entretanto não foi feita uma abordagem para modelar essa variação pois depende da variação de α e β e, portanto, não foi encontrado um modelo adequado a todos os casos. Tendo em mãos a equação proposta neste trabalho é possível adicioná-la a programas computacionais que calculam e simulam o desempenho de sistemas fotovoltaicos.Photovoltaic solar energy is an intermittent source of energy and depends on several factors, such as availability of solar radiation, inclination of the photovoltaic panel, cell conversion efficiency, cell operating temperature, among others. The photovoltaic modules have thermal coefficients that represent the behavior of some parameters as a function of temperature. In general, such coefficients are considered constant over the irradiance range. In this work, a proposal is made to obtain empirical equations that model the behavior of the thermal coefficients of photovoltaic modules as a function of solar irradiance. Tests were carried out to measure the I-V curve of seven crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and one module of the CIS technology. From these curves, the parameters were extracted: short-circuit current (Isc), open circuit voltage (Voc) and maximum power (Pmp), which were used to calculate the thermal coefficients of the photovoltaic modules. The Isc variation with temperature is used to determine the thermal coefficient α. Voc variation with temperature is used to determine the thermal coefficient β. Finally, the variation of Pmp with temperature is used to determine the thermal coefficient ϒ. It was observed that the variation of α as a function of irradiance did not justify an approach, therefore, it was considered constant over the studied irradiance range, from 100 to 1000 W/m². For the thermal coefficient β, an equation obtained from linear regression that models the variation of this parameter as a function of irradiance was proposed. Therefore, it is necessary to have the value of β obtained under standard test conditions (STC), which is provided by the manufacturers in the module datasheets. In the case of the thermal coefficient ϒ a variation of this parameter was observed as a function of irradiance, however an approach was not taken to model this variation as it depends on the variation of α and β and, therefore, an adequate model was not found in all cases. Having in mind the equation proposed in this work, it is possible to add it to computer programs that calculate and simulate the performance of photovoltaic systems