High-fructose corn-syrup-sweetened beverage intake increases 5-hour breast milk fructose concentrations in lactating women

This study determined the effects of consuming a high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)-sweetened beverage on breast milk fructose, glucose, and lactose concentrations in lactating women. At six weeks postpartum, lactating mothers (n = 41) were randomized to a crossover study to consume a commercially available HFCS-sweetened beverage or artificially sweetened control beverage. At each session, mothers pumped a complete breast milk expression every hour for six consecutive hours. The baseline fasting concentrations of breast milk fructose, glucose, and lactose were 5.0 ± 1.3 µg/mL, 0.6 ± 0.3 mg/mL, and 6.8 ± 1.6 g/dL, respectively. The changes over time in breast milk sugars were significant only for fructose (treatment × time, p < 0.01). Post hoc comparisons showed the HFCS-sweetened beverage vs. control beverage increased breast milk fructose at 120 min (8.8 ± 2.1 vs. 5.3 ± 1.9 µg/mL), 180 min (9.4 ± 1.9 vs. 5.2 ± 2.2 µg/mL), 240 min (7.8 ± 1.7 vs. 5.1 ± 1.9 µg/mL), and 300 min (6.9 ± 1.4 vs. 4.9 ± 1.9 µg/mL) (all p < 0.05). The mean incremental area under the curve for breast milk fructose was also different between treatments (14.7 ± 1.2 vs. −2.60 ± 1.2 µg/mL × 360 min, p < 0.01). There was no treatment × time interaction for breast milk glucose or lactose. Our data suggest that the consumption of an HFCS-sweetened beverage increased breast milk fructose concentrations, which remained elevated up to five hours post-consumption

The Information Content of Withdrawn Audit Qualifications: New Evidence on the Value of Subject-To Opinions

Statement on Auditing Standards No. 58 (AICPA 1988) effectively eliminated the subject-to audit opinion which auditors used to highlight financial statement uncertainties. Elimination of the subject-to report implied the Auditing Standards Board\u27s belief that the opinion conveyed no material information to users. Several market-based studies of the value of subject-to opinions have yielded mixed results. A major limitation in most of these studies was a lack of precision in identifying the exact date upon which information, if any, was revealed to the market. This study extends the previous work by examining the common share price reactions to public announcements of withdrawn subject-to opinions. The sample consists of 52 withdrawn opinions announced betweeen 1978 and 1987. Each announcement had to be free of potentially contaminating information that might have affected common stock prices. Also, adequate common stock price data had to be readily available for all firms. To measure the impact of the announcement, a method was employed by which expected returns (calculated for a period prior to the time closely surrounding the announcement) were compared to the returns during the announcement period. Results indicate an increase in returns attributable to the announcement

Cal Poly Supermileage Drivetrain

The following report details the full design process used by the Cal Poly Supermileage Drivetrain (CPSMD) Senior Project team in designing a new drivetrain system for the Cal Poly Supermileage Vehicle (SMV) Team. Included is the development stages of each component, the manufacturing of our parts, the final solution’s assembly, the testing of the project, and the results from the 2018 Shell Eco-Marathon Competition. After collecting data from several tests, only the final drivetrain efficiency and final sprocket alignment remain unknown. Otherwise, the project came in under budget, within our weight tolerance, and met all the other design objectives. The team was successfully able to produce a robust and reliable drivetrain system for the 2018 Supermileage car that resulted in a 4th place finish at competition. The learnings in this report provide the SMV team with a repository of information on how to build a reliable single staged drivetrain with a large gear ratio

An Empirical Investigation of Stock Dividends-in-Kind

We investigate share price reactions to announcements of dividends payable in the common stock of corporations different from the issuing firm. We find that firms that declare these dividends (typically investment companies) experience positive abnormal returns upon announcement. We also find that such dividends are more likely to be declared when the shares to be distributed have peaked in value. Consistent with this finding, we document negative announcement-period abnormal returns for firms having their shares distributed. Additional tests reveal that prices respond more negatively when the information signal is strongest, when outside ownership is more dispersed, and when management is more entrenched

Refinancing Pressure and Earnings Management: Evidence from Changes in Short-term Debt and Discretionary Accruals

Refinancing pressure may entice a very specific form of managerial misbehavior on the part of borrowers. Borrowers utilizing a greater amount of short term debt in one period may feel pressure to make their firms look as attractive as possible leading into the next period when refinancing may take place. In other words, potential refinancing pressure may lead managers to manipulate earnings. We examine the relation between changes in debt in current liabilities (short-term debt) and discretionary accruals as an indicator of the propensity to manage earnings. Our results show that (i) firms have higher discretionary accruals during periods of increased short-term debt, (ii) firms have higher discretionary accruals prior to the initiation of bank loan agreements, and (iii) both of these relations are influenced by a firm’s credit risk

Quantifying Roadside Assessment for Highway Safety

Many of Kentucky’s two-lane rural roads pose an above average risk for fixed object crashes. In Kentucky, run-off-road (ROR) collisions with fixed objects account for 18.9% of all crashes and 41.6% of fatal crashes. Accordingly, ROR crashes are a significant public safety hazard that must be addressed through judicious investments in safety improvements. Until recently, transportation engineers and planners have mostly leveraged qualitative metrics to prioritize safety investments, however, qualitative methodologies are problematic because they may rely excessively on subjective opinion and intuition. This study applied methodologies and software from the U.S. Road Assessment Program (usRAP) to develop quantitative, objective roadside safety ratings for rural two-lane roads in the state of Kentucky on which 20 or more crashes occurred from 2010 to 2015. Kentucky Transportation Center researchers generated usRAP star rating scores following standard protocols and, to validate the methodology, compared those scores to the number of ROR collisions over the specified interval. Analysis revealed robust correlations between star rating scores (and star ratings) and crash data, justifying their as an objective measure of roadside safety. Researchers also delivered a comprehensive database containing over 126,000 records to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which can be used to examine roadside severity and potentially inform future highway investments