Stochastic model for market stocks with strong resistance

We present several models to describe the stochastic evolution of stocks that show some strong resistance at some level and generalize to this situation the evolution based upon geometric Brownian motion. If volatility and drift are related in a certain way we show that our model can be integrated in an exact way. The related problem of how to prize general securities that pay dividends at a continuous rate and earn a terminal payoff at maturity is solved via the martingale probability approach.Comment: Proceedings of the conference APFA

Do teachers differ by certification route? novice teachers' sense of self-efficacy, commitment to teaching, and preparedness to teach

Alternative teacher certification (ATC) programs are one method created to help alleviate teacher shortages (Cox, Matthews, & Assoc, 2001; Hallinan & Khmelkov, 2001). While much debate has arisen over ATC programs, very few have empirically examined their impact on the teaching pool (Darling-Hammond, Berry, & Thoreson, 2001; Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow, 2002; Goldhaber, 2000; Ingersoll, 1999; Shen, 1997, 1999). The present study was designed to explore differences by certification type and program characteristics based on novice teachers' demographics, educational attainment, sense of self-efficacy, and sense of preparedness to enter the classroom. Results from the present study suggest ATC programs are somewhat diversifying the teaching population by bringing in more minorities and science majors, but do not appear to be bringing in more experienced scientists and mathematicians nor do they appear to be alleviating the teacher shortage. In this sample, traditionally certified teachers felt better prepared than ATC teachers with the biggest differences on Promoting Student Learning. Regardless of certification route, prior classroom experience was a strong predictor of Overall Preparedness and a teacher's perception of his or her ability to be an effective teacher. For ATC teachers, a positive mentoring experience was a strong predictor of Overall Preparedness. The discussion of whether or not ATC programs should exist should now be replaced with a discussion of how to ensure that these programs produce better teachers and improve student learning. The underlying theme from the present study was that, in order to feel prepared and have high self-efficacy, novice teachers needed instruction in the majority of the components identified by research and by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996), including positive mentoring experiences, field based experiences, and curriculum based on child development, learning theory, cognition, motivation, and subject matter pedagogy. Results from the present study support the assertion that teacher preparation programs, program components, mentoring experiences, and field-based experiences do impact teacher effectiveness in the classroom

Growth Optimal Investment and Pricing of Derivatives

We introduce a criterion how to price derivatives in incomplete markets, based on the theory of growth optimal strategy in repeated multiplicative games. We present reasons why these growth-optimal strategies should be particularly relevant to the problem of pricing derivatives. We compare our result with other alternative pricing procedures in the literature, and discuss the limits of validity of the lognormal approximation. We also generalize the pricing method to a market with correlated stocks. The expected estimation error of the optimal investment fraction is derived in a closed form, and its validity is checked with a small-scale empirical test.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

The Iowa Homemaker vol.2, no.5-6

Table of Contents Your Child Between the Bottle and School Age by Belle Lowe, page 1 Buy Your Hat From Your Grocery Savings by Blanche Ingersoll, page 2 Has Hosiery Become Your Hobby? by Mildred B. Elder, page 3 Pottery Making as a Community Work by Paul E. Cox, page 4 Fall Forecast for Children’s Frocks by Helen Paschal, page 5 “Ye Hatte Shoppe” As a Summer’s Occupation by Ruth Wilson, page 6 Will Courtesy Count in Your Child’s Career? by Eda Lord Murphy, page 7 Who’s There and Where by Jeanette Beyer, page 10 Card File Your Foreign Terms by Eleanor Murphy, page 10 Rival the Orient With Sealing Wax by Opal Wind, page 11 “Back to Natur”-ing With a Camp Kit by Helen T. Peterson, page 12 The Art of Outcasting Flies by Dorothy Morris, page 1

Exposure to childhood adversity and deficits in emotion recognition: results from a large, population-based sample

© 2018 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Background: Emotion recognition skills are essential for social communication. Deficits in these skills have been implicated in mental disorders. Prior studies of clinical and high-risk samples have consistently shown that children exposed to adversity are more likely than their unexposed peers to have emotion recognition skills deficits. However, only one population-based study has examined this association. Methods: We analyzed data from children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a prospective birth cohort (n=6,506). We examined the association between eight adversities, assessed repeatedly from birth to age 8 (caregiver physical or emotional abuse; sexual or physical abuse; maternal psychopathology; one adult in the household; family instability; financial stress; parent legal problems; neighborhood disadvantage) and the ability to recognize facial displays of emotion measured using the faces subtest of the Diagnostic Assessment of Non-Verbal Accuracy (DANVA) at age 8.5years. In addition to examining the role of exposure (vs. nonexposure) to each type of adversity, we also evaluated the role of the timing, duration, and recency of each adversity using a Least Angle Regression variable selection procedure. Results: Over three-quarters of the sample experienced at least one adversity. We found no evidence to support an association between emotion recognition deficits and previous exposure to adversity, either in terms of total lifetime exposure, timing, duration, or recency, or when stratifying by sex. Conclusions: Results from the largest population-based sample suggest that even extreme forms of adversity are unrelated to emotion recognition deficits as measured by the DANVA, suggesting the possible immutability of emotion recognition in the general population. These findings emphasize the importance of population-based studies to generate generalizable results

The performance of deterministic and stochastic interest rate risk measures : Another Question of Dimensions?

The efficiency of traditional and stochastic interest rate risk measures is compared under one-, two-, and three-factor no-arbitrage Gauss-Markov term structure models, and for different immunization periods. The empirical analysis, run on the German Treasury bond market from January 2000 to December 2010, suggests that: i) Stochastic interest rate risk measures provide better portfolio immunization than the Fisher-Weil duration; and ii) The superiority of the stochastic risk measures is more evident for multi-factor models and for longer investment horizons. These findings are supported by a first-order stochastic dominance analysis, and are robust against yield curve estimation errors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An integrated study of geochemistry and mineralogy of the Upper Tukau Formation, Borneo Island (East Malaysia): Sediment provenance, depositional setting and tectonic implications

An integrated study using bulk chemical composition, mineralogy and mineral chemistry of sedimentary rocks from the Tukau Formation of Borneo Island (Sarawak, Malaysia) is presented in order to understand the depositional and tectonic settings during the Neogene. Sedimentary rocks are chemically classified as shale, wacke, arkose, litharenite and quartz arenite and consist of quartz, illite, feldspar, rutile and anatase, zircon, tourmaline, chromite and monazite. All of them are highly matured and were derived from a moderate to intensively weathered source. Bulk and mineral chemistries suggest that these rocks were recycled from sedimentary to metasedimentary source regions with some input from granitoids and mafic-ultramafic rocks. The chondrite normalized REE signature indicates the presence of felsic rocks in the source region. Zircon geochronology shows that the samples were of Cretaceous and Triassic age. Comparable ages of zircon from the Tukau Formation sedimentary rocks, granitoids of the Schwaner Mountains (southern Borneo) and Tin Belt of the Malaysia Peninsular suggest that the principal provenance for the Rajang Group were further uplifted and eroded during the Neogene. Additionally, presence of chromian spinels and their chemistry indicate a minor influence of mafic and ultramafic rocks present in the Rajang Group. From a tectonic standpoint, the Tukau Formation sedimentary rocks were deposited in a passive margin with passive collisional and rift settings. Our key geochemical observation on tectonic setting is comparable to the regional geological setting of northwestern Borneo as described in the literature

Prevalence of physical and verbal aggressive behaviours and associated factors among older adults in long-term care facilities

BACKGROUND: Verbal and physical aggressive behaviours are among the most disturbing and distressing behaviours displayed by older patients in long-term care facilities. Aggressive behaviour (AB) is often the reason for using physical or chemical restraints with nursing home residents and is a major concern for caregivers. AB is associated with increased health care costs due to staff turnover and absenteeism. METHODS: The goals of this secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study are to determine the prevalence of verbal and physical aggressive behaviours and to identify associated factors among older adults in long-term care facilities in the Quebec City area (n = 2 332). RESULTS: The same percentage of older adults displayed physical aggressive behaviour (21.2%) or verbal aggressive behaviour (21.5%), whereas 11.2% displayed both types of aggressive behaviour. Factors associated with aggressive behaviour (both verbal and physical) were male gender, neuroleptic drug use, mild and severe cognitive impairment, insomnia, psychological distress, and physical restraints. Factors associated with physical aggressive behaviour were older age, male gender, neuroleptic drug use, mild or severe cognitive impairment, insomnia and psychological distress. Finally, factors associated with verbal aggressive behaviour were benzodiazepine and neuroleptic drug use, functional dependency, mild or severe cognitive impairment and insomnia. CONCLUSION: Cognitive impairment severity is the most significant predisposing factor for aggressive behaviour among older adults in long-term care facilities in the Quebec City area. Physical and chemical restraints were also significantly associated with AB. Based on these results, we suggest that caregivers should provide care to older adults with AB using approaches such as the progressively lowered stress threshold model and reactance theory which stress the importance of paying attention to the severity of cognitive impairment and avoiding the use of chemical or physical restraints

Heterozygous Mutations of FREM1 Are Associated with an Increased Risk of Isolated Metopic Craniosynostosis in Humans and Mice

The premature fusion of the paired frontal bones results in metopic craniosynostosis (MC) and gives rise to the clinical phenotype of trigonocephaly. Deletions of chromosome 9p22.3 are well described as a cause of MC with variably penetrant midface hypoplasia. In order to identify the gene responsible for the trigonocephaly component of the 9p22.3 syndrome, a cohort of 109 patients were assessed by high-resolution arrays and MLPA for copy number variations (CNVs) involving 9p22. Five CNVs involving FREM1, all of which were de novo variants, were identified by array-based analyses. The remaining 104 patients with MC were then subjected to targeted FREM1 gene re-sequencing, which identified 3 further mutant alleles, one of which was de novo. Consistent with a pathogenic role, mouse Frem1 mRNA and protein expression was demonstrated in the metopic suture as well as in the pericranium and dura mater. Micro-computed tomography based analyses of the mouse posterior frontal (PF) suture, the human metopic suture equivalent, revealed advanced fusion in all mice homozygous for either of two different Frem1 mutant alleles, while heterozygotes exhibited variably penetrant PF suture anomalies. Gene dosage-related penetrance of midfacial hypoplasia was also evident in the Frem1 mutants. These data suggest that CNVs and mutations involving FREM1 can be identified in a significant percentage of people with MC with or without midface hypoplasia. Furthermore, we present Frem1 mutant mice as the first bona fide mouse model of human metopic craniosynostosis and a new model for midfacial hypoplasia