THE IMPACT OF INCREASED DIVIDEND ANNOUNCEMENTS ON STOCK PRICE: A TEST OF MARKET EFFICIENCY

The purpose of this study is to test the semi-strong form efficient market hypothesis by analyzing the effects of increased dividend announcements on stock price. Specifically, is it possible to earn an above normal return on a publicly traded stock when the firm announces an increased dividend? Numerous past studies suggest that with a company\u27s increased dividend announcement goes a positive signal about the firm\u27s future, thereby significantly increasing the firm\u27s stock price. Likewise, the positive signal implies that the firm now attracts a new breed of investors, thus driving up demand for the firm\u27s stock. According to the semi-strong form efficient market hypothesis, it is not possible to consistently outperform the market - appropriately adjusted for risk - by using public information such as increased dividend announcements. This type of information should impound stock price sufficiently fast to disallow any investor\u27s earning an above normal risk adjusted return. Evidence here supports the positive signal associated with the sample of increased dividend announcements examined. Likewise, the study results support the semi-strong form efficient market hypothesis

The Preparation of Fine Particulate for Electron Microscopy Investigations Using Dental Amalgam

Samples of high Tc superconductors and metal powders have been prepared for Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy examination by a novel method. Dental amalgam, commonly used for filling cavities in teeth by dentists, has been used as a binding agent to hold the sample particulate together during sample preparation. The amalgam was pressed into a small rod 3 mmn in diameter and samples were prepared by cutting slices from the rod followed by mechanical grinding and ion milling to perforation. This technique is extremely easy and offers several advantages over other preparation methods. Experiments revealed difficulties due to preferential sputtering yield, but generally these could be overcome and good thermal and electrical properties of the amalgam partially offset the former inconveniences. It should be possible to use this technique for any number of materials, including ceramic materials and small non-spherical particulate

Математическое моделирование гидрогазодинамики и тепломассопереноса в сдвиговых течениях реологически сложных вязких сред: идеи, результаты, перспективы прогноза процессов

В настоящей работе представлен критический анализ проблем, результатов и перспектив исследований течений сложных по структуре/реологии вязких сред в трубопроводных системах (узлах оборудования нефтегазовой, химико-технологической и тепло-энергетической промышленности), испытывающих на себе влияние неизотермичности, нестационарности, переменности тепло- и реофизических свойств, внешних полей от действия инерционных и гравитационных сил, особенностей формы поперечного сечения проточной части. Особое внимание уделяется: технологиям моделирования углеводородов (тяжелых нефтей, масел) при их транспортировке на участках труб/каналов с интенсивным тепломассообменом; определению мер повышения энергоэффективности и стабильности функционирования оборудования, изучению опыта анализа проблем коррозии энергонапряженных элементов, а также их очистки от загрязнений

The Economic Resource Receipt of New Mothers

U.S. federal policies do not provide a universal social safety net of economic support for women during pregnancy or the immediate postpartum period but assume that employment and/or marriage will protect families from poverty. Yet even mothers with considerable human and marital capital may experience disruptions in employment, earnings, and family socioeconomic status postbirth. We use the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the economic resources that mothers with children ages 2 and younger receive postbirth, including employment, spouses, extended family and social network support, and public assistance. Results show that many new mothers receive resources postbirth. Marriage or postbirth employment does not protect new mothers and their families from poverty, but education, race, and the receipt of economic supports from social networks do

Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure moral distress in community pharmacists

The Author(s) 2016. . This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Jayne L. Astbury, and Cathal T. Gallagher, 'Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure moral distress in community pharmacists', International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy (2017) Vol 39(1): 156-164, first published online on 22 December 2016, the version of record is available on line via doi: 10.1007/s11096-016-0413-3 Funding for this work was provided by Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK).Background Pharmacists work within a highly-regulated occupational sphere, and are bound by strict legal frameworks and codes of professional conduct. This regulatory environment creates the potential for moral distress to occur due to the limitations it places on acting in congruence with moral judgements. Very little research regarding this phenomenon has been undertaken in pharmacy: thus, prominent research gaps have arisen for the development of a robust tool to measure and quantify moral distress experienced in the profession. Objective The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to measure moral distress in community pharmacists. Setting Community pharmacies in the United Kingdom. Method This study adopted a three-phase exploratory sequential mixed-method design. Three semi-structured focus groups were then conducted to allow pharmacists to identify and explore scenarios that cause moral distress. Each of the identified scenarios were developed into a statement, which was paired with twin seven-point Likert scales to measure the frequency and intensity of the distress, respectively. Content validity, reliability, and construct validity were all tested, and the questionnaire was refined. Main outcome measure The successful development of the valid instrument for use in the United Kingdom. Results This research has led to the development of a valid and reliable instrument to measure moral distress in community pharmacists in the UK. The questionnaire has already been distributed to a large sample of community pharmacists. Conclusion Results from this distribution will be used to inform the formulation of coping strategies for dealing with moral distress.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

New approaches towards sustainability of land-use systems in Tropical Brazil.

The SHIFT-Program ENV 44 tries to maintain soil fertility in the Bragantina area (Pará) by production of mulch material from fallow vegetation. A main focus with respect to sustainability deserves to be agroforestry

IT controls in the public cloud : success factors for allocation of roles and responsibilities

The rapid adoption of cloud computing by organizations has resulted in the transformation of the roles and responsibilities of staff in managing the information technology (IT) resources (via IT governance controls) that have migrated to the cloud. Hence, the objective of this research is to provide a set of success factors that can assist IT managers to allocate the roles and responsibilities of IT controls appropriately to staff to manage the migrated IT resources. Accordingly, we generated a set of success factors from behavioral and information systems (IS) literature. These success factors were verified using in-depth interviews of executives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The empirical intervention suggests that the role allocation is driven predominantly by people’s skills, competencies, organizational strategy, structures, and policies. In addition, the research made clear that the most significant competency and skill for a person allocated to IT controls is to be able to evaluate and manage a cloud service provider, especially in terms of risks, compliance, and security issues related to public cloud technology. The findings of this study not only offer new insights for scholars and practitioners involved in assigning responsibilities but also provide extensions for IT governance framework authorities to align their guidelines to the emerging cloud technology

Affection, virtue, pleasure, and profit: Developing an understanding of friendship closeness and intimacy in western and Asian societies

The development of friendship understanding has rarely been explored from a cross-cultural perspective. In this study, children and adolescents from Iceland, China, Russia, and the former East Germany were investigated in one longitudinal and three cross-sectional samples. Children from three different Chinese ecologies were interviewed to account for within-culture variation. Participants were interviewed about friendship closeness and intimacy at ages 7, 9, 12, and 15 years. Their statements were scored according to (a) structural-developmental stages and (b) content aspects of friendship reasoning. Results reveal that the development of friendship reasoning of participants from all societies could be captured by the cognitive-structural stages and content categories developed in western cultures. At the same time, distinct cultural differences emerged, especially between the Russian and Chinese participants, on the one hand, and the Icelandic and East German participants, on the other hand. The within-China analyses reveal little differences for the content aspects of friendship understanding between the three ecologies, but differences in the cognitive-structural aspects of friendship reasoning were found. © 2008 The International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development

A Tunable Narrowband Source in the Sub-THz and THz Range at DELTA

At DELTA, a 1.5-GeV electron storage ring operated as a synchrotron light source by the TU Dortmund University, an interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with electron bunches is used to generate broadband as well as tunable narrowband radiation in the frequency range between 75 GHz and 5.6 THz. The performance of the source was studied using two different Fourier-transform spectrometers. It was demonstrated that the source can be used for the characterization and comparison of Schottky-diode based detectors, e.g., an on-chip spectrometer enabling single-shot applications