Asset Allocation in the Euro-Zone: Industry or Country Based?

We investigate the relative importance of country and industry factors as determinants of international equity returns in the Euro-zone over the period 1990 to 2003.We conduct our analysis from a portfolio performance perspective, using mean-variance spanning and efficiency tests as well as style analysis, and show how to adjust the tests for time varying market wide volatility.Although unconditional analysis over the full sample suggests that country-based or industry-based EMU-wide portfolios provide similar risk-return trade-offs, a rolling window analysis indicates a striking change in the structure of equity returns in the Euro-zone over the last decade.From 1992 to 1998 country-based strategies outperform industry-based strategies: country based strategies offer higher Sharpe ratios and higher diversification potential as indicated by both spanning tests and style analysis.In the preconvergence period, equity returns in the EMU-zone clearly had a country structure.In contrast, after the introduction of the Euro the country outperformance has disappeared, both in terms of mean-variance efficiency and in terms of mimicking abilities.Industry factors and country factors are now equally important.Our findings suggest that following the adoption of the single currency, Euro-zone sector-based strategies, while not dominating country-based strategies, offer similar risk return trade-offs and diversification benefits.International financial markets;Mean-variance efficiency;Style analysis;EMU

Dielectric Properties of Various Organic Compounds

Condensers are widely used for many purposes. These devices are employed in one form or another in radio transmitting and allied industries such as television and amplifier circuits. They are used in automatic equipment, telephone, telegraph, and railway signal equipment as well as in condenser type motors. Condensers reduce sparking and arcing at contact relay points, switches, circuit breakers, time clocks, and thermostats. A vital part of a condenser is the dielectric. In present day condensers mineral oil is used extensively. The purpose of this investigation is to study other organic compounds in an effort to find a good di electric·, one that is more suitable than mineral oil

Putting concepts into context

Published online: 9 June 2016At first glance, conceptual representations (e.g., our internal notion of the object Blemon^) seem static; we have the impression that there is something that the concept lemon Bmeans^ (a sour, yellow, football-shaped citrus fruit) and that this meaning does not vary. Research in semantic memory has traditionally taken this Bstatic^ perspective. Consequently, only effects demonstrated across a variety of contexts have typically been considered informative regarding the architecture of the semantic system. In this review, we take the opposite approach: We review instances of context-dependent conceptual activation at many different timescales—from long-term experience, to recent experience, to the current task goals, to the unfolding process of conceptual activation itself—and suggest that the pervasive effects of context across all of these timescales indicate that rather than being static, conceptual representations are constantly changing and are inextricably linked to their contexts

Speaker matters: Natural inter-speaker variation affects 4-month-olds’ perception of audio-visual speech

First Published September 27, 2019In the language development literature, studies often make inferences about infants’ speech perception abilities based on their responses to a single speaker. However, there can be significant natural variability across speakers in how speech is produced (i.e., inter-speaker differences). The current study examined whether inter-speaker differences can affect infants’ ability to detect a mismatch between the auditory and visual components of vowels. Using an eye-tracker, 4.5-month-old infants were tested on auditory-visual (AV) matching for two vowels (/i/ and /u/). Critically, infants were tested with two speakers who naturally differed in how distinctively they articulated the two vowels within and across the categories. Only infants who watched and listened to the speaker whose visual articulations of the two vowels were most distinct from one another were sensitive to AV mismatch. This speaker also produced a visually more distinct /i/ as compared to the other speaker. This finding suggests that infants are sensitive to the distinctiveness of AV information across speakers, and that when making inferences about infants’ perceptual abilities, characteristics of the speaker should be taken into account.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/ or publication of this article: This research was funded by the grant PSI2014-5452-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to M.M. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the ‘Severo Ochoa Program for Centers/Units of Excellence in R&D’ (SEV-2015-490) and from the Basque Government ‘Programa Predoctoral’ to J.P

Asset Allocation in the Euro-Zone:Industry or Country Based?

We investigate the relative importance of country and industry factors as determinants of international equity returns in the Euro-zone over the period 1990 to 2003.We conduct our analysis from a portfolio performance perspective, using mean-variance spanning and efficiency tests as well as style analysis, and show how to adjust the tests for time varying market wide volatility.Although unconditional analysis over the full sample suggests that country-based or industry-based EMU-wide portfolios provide similar risk-return trade-offs, a rolling window analysis indicates a striking change in the structure of equity returns in the Euro-zone over the last decade.From 1992 to 1998 country-based strategies outperform industry-based strategies: country based strategies offer higher Sharpe ratios and higher diversification potential as indicated by both spanning tests and style analysis.In the preconvergence period, equity returns in the EMU-zone clearly had a country structure.In contrast, after the introduction of the Euro the country outperformance has disappeared, both in terms of mean-variance efficiency and in terms of mimicking abilities.Industry factors and country factors are now equally important.Our findings suggest that following the adoption of the single currency, Euro-zone sector-based strategies, while not dominating country-based strategies, offer similar risk return trade-offs and diversification benefits.

Estrategias comunicacionales para la divulgación de las actividades de proyección social que realiza la Escuela de Ciencias Sociales Artes y Humanidades ECSAH a través del Centro de Investigación y Acción Psicosocial Comunitaria CIAPSC, I periodo 2012 Ibagué-Tolima

Talleres, Registro Fotográfico, Entrevistas, Archivos de AudioLa Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD, dentro de sus opciones de grado para las diversas carreras que ofrece, cuenta con la alternativa de una Experiencia Profesional Dirigida EPD, en la cual como estudiante del programa de Comunicación Social de la Escuela de las Ciencias Sociales Artes y Humanidades ECSAH me encuentro desarrollando esta opción de grado consistente en la proyección y realización de un documental como medio audiovisual que esta centrada en una propuesta titulada “Estrategias Comunicacionales para la divulgación de las actividades de proyección social que realiza la Escuela de Ciencias Sociales Artes Y Humanidades ECSAH a través del Centro de Investigación y Acción Psicosocial Comunitario CIAPSC, I periodo 2012 Ibagué Tolima” con una intensidad horaria para su desarrollo de 8 horas diarias en un periodo de 6 meses, en los cuales coloque en practica mis habilidades y destrezas en los canales comunicativos y a su vez los conocimientos y aprendizajes adquiridos dentro del programa de comunicación social. Las Estrategias Comunicacionales permitirán el registro, divulgación, promoción y sistematización de un documental como producto audiovisual en el cual estarán plasmadas cada una de las actividades de proyección social y de investigación que el centro de investigación realiza, esto conducirán a la disponibilidad de este trabajo en la biblioteca de la universidad como material de consulta y en la pagina web del centro de investigación, donde servirán de guía, referencia e instrumento para los estudiantes, docentes y administrativos del plantel educativo UNAD. Las herramientas utilizadas para el ejercicio de la documentación fueron: la entrevista, fotografías y videos, ayudando de esta manera a que diferentes actores sociales a además de los existentes en la UNAD conozcan el centro y puedan visualizar todo lo que el mismo puede desarrollar.The National Open University and Distance UNAD, within their options grade for the various courses offered, has the alternative of Experience Directed Professional EPD, where as a student of Communication program Social School of Social Sciences and Humanities Arts ECSAH I find developing this degree option consistent in design and implementation of a Media documentary as it is centered on a proposal entitled "Communicational Strategies for dissemination of outreach activities performing social Social Sciences School of Arts and Humanities through ECSAH Research Center and Psychosocial Action Community CIAPSC, I period 2012 Ibague Tolima "with an intensity of development time for 8 hours a day in a period of six months, in each of which my skills and abilities in the communication channels and in turn acquired knowledge and learning within the social communication program. Communication strategies allow the registration, disclosure, promotion and systematization of a documentary and audiovisual product which will be reflected each of the outreach activities and research center research done, this will lead to the availability of this work in the library university as reference material and on the website of the research center, which will guide, and reference tool for students, teachers and UNAD administrative campus. The tools used for the exercise documentation were: the interview, photos and videos, thus helping to that different social actors besides those in the know the center UNAD and can visualize everything that it can develop

Effect of pressure on the superconducting transition temperature of doped and neutron-damaged MgB2

Measurements of the superconducting transition temperatures for Al-doped, C-doped and neutron-damaged-annealed MgB2 samples under pressure up to ~8 kbar are presented. The dT_c/dP values change systematically with the decrease of the ambient pressure T_c in a regular fashion. The evolution of the pressure derivatives can be understood assuming that the change in phonon spectrum is a dominant contribution to dT_c/dP

Physical properties of SrSn4 single crystals

We present detailed thermodynamic and transport measurements on single crystals of the recently discovered binary intermetallic superconductor, SrSn4. We find this material to be a slightly anisotropic three-dimensional, strongly-coupled, possibly multi-band, superconductor. Hydrostatic pressure causes a decrease in the superconducting transition temperature at the rate of -0.068 K/kbar. Band structure calculations are consistent with experimental data on Sommerfeld coefficient and upper superconducting critical field anisotropy and suggest complex, multi-sheet Fermi surface formed by four bands.Comment: Figure 11 correcte