Review of Tax Shield Valuation and Its Application to Emerging Markets Finance

Due to the existence of tax-deductible expenses, a tax advantage, called tax shield, arises. The aim of the chapter is to identify and define the well-known approaches associated with tax shield, mainly interest tax shield and to analyze the approaches to quantify the present value of interest tax shields. Finally, we identify those that can be used in the conditions of emerging markets

Visualization of students’ cognitive knowledge in digital concept mapping

Meaningful learning through the creation a digital concept map is the easiest way to gain cognitive knowledge, new information, and possibility how to expand among learners. Only a few empirical studies have been conducted in the field of nursing regarding learning through concept mapping to achieve higher levels of knowledge and digital skills. The study evaluated the student’s ability to visualize cognitive knowledge by creating a digital concept map. The objectives were to identify the perception using digital technologies and conceptual mapping, differences and relationships between gender, age, years of study, and branches. We used the ContextMinds program map creation. There were 92 Slovak students of nursing, public health and physiotherapy participated in the study. Data were collected and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25.0. Perception of learning using digital concept mapping strategy was assessed using descriptive statistics, where paired t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Chi-square were used. The study found a positive perception of creating the digital concept map, but a low level of digital skills. First-year students took one or more weeks to submit the final version of the concept map in comparison to third-year students who took one or more hours. For second-year students, a creation of a concept map was less problematic than for first-year students. Students prefer standard teaching and learning methods. Healthcare absolvents are required to be proficient in digital literacy. Applying cognitive knowledge to create a digital concept map is a challenging strategy procedure

The Spermatophore in Glossina morsitans morsitans: Insights into Male Contributions to Reproduction.

Male Seminal Fluid Proteins (SFPs) transferred during copulation modulate female reproductive physiology and behavior, impacting sperm storage/use, ovulation, oviposition, and remating receptivity. These capabilities make them ideal targets for developing novel methods of insect disease vector control. Little is known about the nature of SFPs in the viviparous tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae), vectors of Human and Animal African trypanosomiasis. In tsetse, male ejaculate is assembled into a capsule-like spermatophore structure visible post-copulation in the female uterus. We applied high-throughput approaches to uncover the composition of the spermatophore in Glossina morsitans morsitans. We found that both male accessory glands and testes contribute to its formation. The male accessory glands produce a small number of abundant novel proteins with yet unknown functions, in addition to enzyme inhibitors and peptidase regulators. The testes contribute sperm in addition to a diverse array of less abundant proteins associated with binding, oxidoreductase/transferase activities, cytoskeletal and lipid/carbohydrate transporter functions. Proteins encoded by female-biased genes are also found in the spermatophore. About half of the proteins display sequence conservation relative to other Diptera, and low similarity to SFPs from other studied species, possibly reflecting both their fast evolutionary pace and the divergent nature of tsetse's viviparous biology

Monitoring Customer Satisfaction in Service Industry: A Cluster Analysis Approach

One of the key performance indicators of quality management system of an organization is customer satisfaction. The process of monitoring customer satisfaction is therefore an important part of the measuring processes of the quality management system. This paper deals with new ways how to analyse and monitor customer satisfaction using the analysis of data containing how the customers use the organisation services and customer leaving rates. The article used cluster analysis in this process for segmentation of customers with the aim to increase the accuracy of the results and on these results based decisions. The aplication example was created as a part of bachelor thesis

Drivers of information needs : a behavioural study – exploring searcher's feeling-of-knowing

The searcher's realisation of Information Need (IN) in Information Retrieval (IR) is triggered by a perception of the knowledge gap the searcher perceives. Introspective epistemic (knowledge) feelings are evoked, describing the state of the user's anomaly. For instance, Feeling-of-Knowing (FOK) refers to a state of a user's temporary unavailability to recall the information in question. The role and the extent to which such epistemic feelings inform the user's cognitive context need further research. Our methodological design followed the Recall-Judgment-Recognition (RJR) paradigm, commonly used as a framework for memory tests. We collected behavioural data from twenty-four participants in a general knowledge Q/A user study to investigate the interplay of users' internal perceptions of knowing based on three metacognitive states (Recall). The results showed significant differences across different metacognitive states and subsequent memory retrieval performance (Recognition), leading to our conclusion of the accuracy of the metacognitive states of knowing. Specifically, we found that FOK was only a relatively accurate predictor of MR. The amount of failures of recognition connected to FOK, thus, suggests that the participants might have misattributed their positive FOK. Participants could not recognise the answer as they thought, giving rise to phenomena such as Illusion of Knowing. Furthermore, our data support the significant effect of task (question) difficulty on participants' metacognitive states. Based on the interactions between Recall and Recognition, our results contribute to the understanding of the graded nature of cognitive functions, supporting the user's cognitive context in information search and expanding such an area to the realm of contextual task difficulty

Understanding feeling-of-knowing in information search : an EEG study

The realisation and the variability of information needs (IN) with respect to a searcher’s gap in knowledge is driven by the perceived Anomalous State of Knowledge (ASK). The concept of Feeling-of-Knowing (FOK), as the introspective feeling of knowledge awareness, shares the characteristics of an ASK state. From an IR perspective, FOK as a premise to trigger IN is unexplored. Motivated by the neuroimaging studies in IR, we investigate the neurophysiological drivers associated with FOK, to provide evidence validating FOK as a distinctive state in IN realisation. We employ Electroencephalography to capture the brain activity of 24 healthy participants performing a textual Question Answering IR scenario. We analyse the evoked neural patterns corresponding to three states of knowledge: i.e., (1)“I know”, (2)“FOK”, (3)“I do not know”. Our findings show the distinct neurophysiological signatures (N1, P2, N400, P6) in response to information segments processed in the context of our three levels. They further reveal that the brain manifestation associated with “FOK” does not significantly differ from the ones associated with “I do not know”, indicating their association with recognition of a gap in knowledge and as such could further inform the IN formation on different levels of knowing

Author Correction: Following de novo triglyceride dynamics in ovaries of Aedes aegypti during the previtellogenic stage (Scientific Reports, (2021), 11, 1, (9636), 10.1038/s41598-021-89025-6)

In the original version of this Article Veronika Michalkova was incorrectly affiliated with ‘Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic’. The correct affiliations are listed below. Department of Biology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 84506 Bratislava, Slovakia. The original Article and accompanying Supplementary Information file have been corrected