Further Evidence on Debt-Equity Choice

Using a large sample of 5,365 European firms,we document the driving factors of debt-equity choices. Adjustments to a target debt level play a modest role except when debt exceeds an upper barrier, a result that underlines the importance of debt capacity. Preference for internal financing, leverage deficit prior to equity issues, as well as a high level of slack of firms seeking to reduce equity constitute further evidence in favor of pecking order models. It is also found that managers try to time the market by issuing shares when returns are high, but that there is a link between financing and investment activities as predicted by agency models.Dynamic capital structure; Debt-equity choice; Tradeoff models; Pecking order models

A Critical Analysis of Scientific Productivity of the “Robotics” Research in India during 2009-2018

This paper describes results of a scientometric study of “Robotics” research publications during the period of 10 years i.e. (2009-2018). The raw data was collected from leading citation database i.e. Scopus. The study examines and analysis various scientometrics parameter and after the analysis it has been found that the out of total 4325 research paper, the highest documents were published in 2018 i.e. 791 (18.29%) while the minimum 134 (3.1%) of research papers were found in the year 2009 and the annual growth rate of publications was in fluctuating trends. The maximum (1.23) relative growth rate was found in 2010; the highest doubling time (3.43) was recorded in 2018; the maximum papers were written by more than three authors i.e. 1657 research papers. The average degree of author’s collaborations was (0.93). Krishna, K.M. was the most productive author with (51) research papers contribution. Out of a total 16670 citations, 2718 citations were recorded in 2010 and a total 4325 publications, 2704 (62.52%) of records were conference paper. The highest publications came from computer science subject and the highest publications were published in ACM international conference proceeding series while the maximum 2508 ‘Robotics keyword was used by the authors during the period of study

A GENUS AND TWO SPECIES OF INSECTS NEW FOR PUERTO RICO

A GENUS AND TWO SPECIES OF INSECTS NEW FOR PUERTO RIC

The capital structure of Swiss companies: an empirical analysis using dynamic panel data

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of the capital structure for a panel of 106 Swiss companies listed in the Swiss stock exchange. Both static and dynamic tests are performed for the period 1991-2000. It is found that the size of companies, the importance of tangible assets and business risk are positively related to leverage, while growth and profitability are negatively associated with leverage. The sign of these relations suggest that both the pecking order theory and trade off hypothesis are at work in explaining the capital structure of Swiss companies, although more evidence exists to validate the latter theory. Our analysis also shows that Swiss firms adjust toward a target debt ratio, but the adjustment process is much slower than in most other countries. It is argued that reasons for this can be found in the inst itutional context.Capital structure; dynamic panel data; trade-off theory; pecking order theory

LEPTOPHARSA CONSTRICTA (CHAMPION) A NEW LACEWING BUG (TINGIDAE:HEMIPTERA) FOR PUERTO RICO

LEPTOPHARSA CONSTRICTA (CHAMPION) A NEW LACEWING BUG (TINGIDAE:HEMIPTERA) FOR PUERTO RIC

Factors Affecting the Outcome of the National Council Licensure Examination among Nontraditional Learners from Associate Degree Nursing Programs

Background. The composition of student population in higher education is a reflection of a globalized society and current socioeconomic conditions. Characteristics of nontraditional adult learners have a significant impact in the achievement of their academic goals. A more diverse composition of students enrolled in nursing programs poses an important challenge to NCLEX-RN pass/fail outcomes. Studies that explore or predict the factors associated with NCLEX-RN performance amongst nontraditional adult learners after graduation are limited. Purpose. This study analyzed how the demographic, social, and psychological factors observed in the characteristic profile of the nontraditional adult learner are related to NCLEX-RN performance for graduates of an associate degree nursing program. Theoretical framework. The andragogy theory, as the theoretical framework, acknowledges four principles of the adult learning process. The assumptions explain the coping strategies of the adult learner to overcome challenges embedded in the demographic, social, and psychosocial factors of their characteristic profile. Methods. A quantitative, non-experimental design, following a correlational and regression analysis, was employed to test the hypothesis. Participants were recruited through a convenience sample and asked to complete a demographic questionnaire. The SPA-R-2 tool was used to collect data about how supportive or restricted were the social and psychological factors to their NCLEX-RN outcomes. Results: A statistically significant correlation was observed amongst various variables from the social and psychological factors with NCLEX-RN pass/fail outcomes. The regression model demonstrated the variables of employment responsibilities, nursing vi professional events, and college library services to be statistically significant in the regression model as predictors for NCLEX-RN pass/fail outcomes. Conclusion: The results from this study support the theoretical strands of the andragogy theory by confirming that the aspects of the behavioral response to learning is affected by non-academic factors embedded in the characteristic profile. The results allow for the development of educational strategies, strengthening of student support systems, and empirical information that can be used for the development of supplemental activities for nontraditional adult learners

THRIPS (INSECTA: THYSANOPTERA) FROM VIEQUES ISLAND (PUERTO RICO)

THRIPS (INSECTA: THYSANOPTERA) FROM VIEQUES ISLAND (PUERTO RICO

Exploring Convolutional Networks for End-to-End Visual Servoing

Present image based visual servoing approaches rely on extracting hand crafted visual features from an image. Choosing the right set of features is important as it directly affects the performance of any approach. Motivated by recent breakthroughs in performance of data driven methods on recognition and localization tasks, we aim to learn visual feature representations suitable for servoing tasks in unstructured and unknown environments. In this paper, we present an end-to-end learning based approach for visual servoing in diverse scenes where the knowledge of camera parameters and scene geometry is not available a priori. This is achieved by training a convolutional neural network over color images with synchronised camera poses. Through experiments performed in simulation and on a quadrotor, we demonstrate the efficacy and robustness of our approach for a wide range of camera poses in both indoor as well as outdoor environments.Comment: IEEE ICRA 201