Internet Securities Fraud: Old Trick, New Medium

Billions of securities are traded every day in public and private markets around the world. This practice is hundreds of years old and as long as securities have been traded, someone has tried to defraud the system to make a quick buck. With the advent of the Internet, new securities fraud schemes have appeared

A Method of Segregating Plant Communities

The purpose of this study was to develop a satisfactory method of mapping plant communities, and to provide data on the vegetation of the communities. The study area was located near Hays, Kansas. Data were collected by using the point transect method of analysis. A total of 85,000 point samples was taken along 60 line transects. The data were color coded and plotted on a map of the study area. Six distinct communities were mapped, using dominant species as indicators. The communities were blue grama-buffalo grass, side-oats grams-blue grama, hairy grama-side-oats grama, little bluestem-side-oats grama, tall dropseed, and big bluestem-western wheatgrass. The blue grama-buffalo grass community was found on upland habitats where soils were heavy. The two dominant species comprised 95 per cent of the vegetation. The side-oats grama blue grama community was the most complex of those studied. Seven different grass species were common in this community. The two dominant species comprised 66 per cent of the total vegetation. The soil in this community was somewhat open. The hairy grama- side- oats grama occupied the upper hillsides. The two dominants made up 72.2 per cent of the total vegetation. The soils on these upper slopes were very thin. The little bluestem- side -oats grama community occupied the lower hillside habitats. Soils were thin. The dominant species accounted for 86 per cent of the total vegetation in this community. The tall dropseed community occurred on alluvial soils of the lowland. Tall drop seed comprised 53 per cent of the vegetation. The big bluestem-western wheatgrass community was found in a small portion of the lowland where silt deposition was high. The dominant species made 50 per cent of the vegetation. Side-oats grama which made up 39 per cent of the total vegetation was the dominant species of the study area. Blue grama and buffalo grass were also very abundant, together comprising 46 per cent of the total vegetation. Big bluestem, little bluestem, hairy grama, tall drop seed, and western wheatgrass were common in parts of the study area

Small dynamical heights for quadratic polynomials and rational functions

Let $f \in Q(z)$ be a polynomial or rational function of degree 2. A special case of Morton and Silverman's Dynamical Uniform Boundedness Conjecture states that the number of rational preperiodic points of $f$ is bounded above by an absolute constant. A related conjecture of Silverman states that the canonical height $\hat{h}_f(x)$ of a non-preperiodic rational point $x$ is bounded below by a uniform multiple of the height of $f$ itself. We provide support for these conjectures by computing the set of preperiodic and small height rational points for a set of degree 2 maps far beyond the range of previous searches.Comment: 19 page

Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity : final report

This document reports the findings from the DEFRA funded research project 'Developing measures for valuing changes in biodiversity'. The aim of the research was to develop an appropriate framework that will enable cost-effective and robust valuations of the total economic value of changes to biodiversity in the UK countryside. The research involved a review of ecological and economic literature on the valuation of biodiversity changes. The information gathered from this review, along with the findings from a series of public focus groups and an expert review of valuation methodologies, were used to develop a suite of valuation instruments that were used to measure the economic value of different aspects of biodiversity. Contingent valuation and choice experiment studies were administered to households in Cambridgeshire and Northumberland, while valuation workshops were conducted in Northumberland only. The data from these studies were also used to test for benefits transfer

Examining Strategic Antecedents of the Appointment of Women to Top Management Teams

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the organizational and environmental antecedents to the appointment of a woman to a non-CEO top management team (TMT) position. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a conditional fixed effects logistic regression model to analyze non-CEO TMT appointment data collected from the S&P 500 between 2008 and 2016. Findings – Women were more likely to be appointed to non-CEO TMT positions when a firm was undergoing strategic change, had slack resources, and was in a less munificent environment. Originality/value – This article contributes to the literature concerning the antecedents of the selection of women to executive leadership (e.g. the glass cliff) roles by examining organizational and environmental contexts at the non-CEO TMT unit of analysis