Testing of Semi–Strong Form of Efficiency: an Empirical Study on Stock Market Reaction Around Dividend Announcement

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the efficiency of the Indian stock market of the Nifty IT index over the dividend announcement for five years from 2016 to 2020.   Theoretical framework: A reward procured by the shareholders on their equities is, of course, the dividend. A leading area of concern is the dividend announcement. According to the theory of efficient markets, stock prices accurately reflect all available information. This demonstrates that the prices are correct and fair. The market should therefore respond immediately to an event in this instance the dividend announcement. Therefore, depending on publicly available information will not provide investors with the possibility to consistently generate extraordinary returns.   Design/ methodology/ approach: The study attempts to validate the event study approach while investigating the semi-strong form of efficiency. Daily share prices of five companies out of ten of the Nifty IT index were observed to test the Efficient Market Hypothesis. 31 days event window has been employed to calculate the abnormal returns of the selected sample around dividend issue announcements also t-test was applied to assess the level of significance.   Findings: The study found that the stock market was efficient in its semi strong form and the investors could not make excess returns over the dividend announcement of the Nifty IT index.   Research, Practical & social implications: This study eliminates the possibility for investors to beat the average market returns. It is significant since it affects stock market investment choices.   Originality/ Values: The majority of studies are only able to analyse the overall average abnormal return and cumulative average abnormal return of chosen companies; it is difficult to locate studies that focus on the abnormal return for each individual company. The t test for each company-wise abnormal returns, overall average abnormal returns, and cumulative average abnormal returns were acquired and tested at the 5% level of significance in order to determine the significance.

Translational diffusion of fluorescent probes on a sphere: monte carlo simulations, theory, and fluorescence anisotropy experiment

Translational diffusion of fluorescent molecules on curved surfaces (micelles, vesicles, and proteins) depolarizes the fluorescence. A Monte Carlo simulation method was developed to obtain the fluorescence anisotropy decays for the general case of molecular dipoles tilted at an angle a to the surface normal. The method is used to obtain fluorescence anisotropy decay due to diffusion of tilted dipoles on a spherical surface, which matched well with the exact solution for the sphere. The anisotropy decay is a single exponential for α = 0° , a double exponential for α = 90° , and three exponentials for intermediate angles. The slower decay component(s) for α ≠ 0 arise due to the geometric phase factor. Although the anisotropy decay equation contains three exponentials, there are only two parameters, namely a and the rate constant, Dtr/R2, where Dtr is the translational diffusion coefficient and R is the radius of the sphere. It is therefore possible to determine the orientation angle and translational diffusion coefficient from the experimental fluorescence anisotropy data. This method was applied in interpreting the fluorescence anisotropy decay of Nile red in SDS micelles. It is necessary, however, to include two other independent mechanisms of fluorescence depolarization for molecules intercalated in micelles. These are the wobbling dynamics of the molecule about the molecular long axis, and the rotation of the spherical micelle as a whole. The fitting of the fluorescence anisotropy decay to the full equation gave the tilt angle of the molecular dipoles to be 1± 2° and the translational diffusion coefficient to be 1.3± 0.1×10-10 m2/s

Construction of two whole genome radiation hybrid panels for dromedary (Camelus dromedarius): 5000RAD and 15000RAD

The availability of genomic resources including linkage information for camelids has been very limited. Here, we describe the construction of a set of two radiation hybrid (RH) panels (5000RAD and 15000RAD) for the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) as a permanent genetic resource for camel genome researchers worldwide. For the 5000RAD panel, a total of 245 female camel-hamster radiation hybrid clones were collected, of which 186 were screened with 44 custom designed marker loci distributed throughout camel genome. The overall mean retention frequency (RF) of the final set of 93 hybrids was 47.7%. For the 15000RAD panel, 238 male dromedary-hamster radiation hybrid clones were collected, of which 93 were tested using 44 PCR markers. The final set of 90 clones had a mean RF of 39.9%. This 15000RAD panel is an important high-resolution complement to the main 5000RAD panel and an indispensable tool for resolving complex genomic regions. This valuable genetic resource of dromedary RH panels is expected to be instrumental for constructing a high resolution camel genome map. Construction of the set of RH panels is essential step toward chromosome level reference quality genome assembly that is critical for advancing camelid genomics and the development of custom genomic tools

Ablation of smooth muscle myosin heavy chain SM2 increases smooth muscle contractility and results in postnatal death in mice

The smooth muscle myosin heavy chains (SMHC) are motor proteins powering smooth muscle contraction. Alternate splicing of SHMC gene at the C-terminus produces SM1, and SM2 myosin isoforms; SM2 (200 kDa) contains a unique 9-amino-acid sequence at the carboxyl terminus, whereas SM1 (204 kDa) has a 43 amino acid non-helical tail region. To date the functional difference between C-terminal isoforms has not been established; therefore, we used an exon-specific gene targeting strategy and generated a mouse model specifically deficient in SM2. Deletion of exon-41 of the SMHC gene resulted in a complete loss of SM2 in homozygous (_SM2^-/-^_) mice, accompanied by a concomitant down-regulation of SM1 in bladders. While heterozygous (_SM2^+/-^_) mice appeared normal and fertile, _SM2^-/-^_ mice died within 30 days after birth. The peri-mortal _SM2^-/-^_ mice showed reduced body weight, distention of the bladder and alimentary tract, and end-stage hydronephrosis. Interestingly, strips from _SM2^-/-^_ bladders showed increased contraction to K^+^ depolarization or M3 receptor activation. These results suggest that SM2 myosin has a distinct functional role in smooth muscle, and the deficiency of SM2 increases smooth muscle contractility, and causes dysfunctions of smooth muscle organs, including the bladder that leads to the end-stage hydronephrosis and postnatal death

Bimodality and hysteresis in systems driven by confined L\'evy flights

We demonstrate occurrence of bimodality and dynamical hysteresis in a system describing an overdamped quartic oscillator perturbed by additive white and asymmetric L\'evy noise. Investigated estimators of the stationary probability density profiles display not only a turnover from unimodal to bimodal character but also a change in a relative stability of stationary states that depends on the asymmetry parameter of the underlying noise term. When varying the asymmetry parameter cyclically, the system exhibits a hysteresis in the occupation of a chosen stationary state.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 30 reference

Effects of Anchor Structure and Glycosylation of Fcγ Receptor III on Ligand Binding Affinity

Isoforms of the Fcγ receptor III (FcγRIII or CD16) are cell surface receptors for the Fc portion of IgG and important regulators of humoral immune responses. Different ligand binding kinetics of FcγRIII isoforms are obtained in three dimensions by surface plasmon resonance and in two dimensions by a micropipette adhesion frequency assay. We show that the anchor structure of CD16 isoforms isolated from the cell membrane affects their binding affinities in a ligand-specific manner. Changing the receptor anchor structure from full to partial to none decreases the ligand binding affinity for human IgG1 (hIgG1) but increases it for murine IgG2a (mIgG2a). Removing N-glycosylation from the CD16 protein core by tunicamycin also increases the ligand binding affinity. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that deglycosylation at Asn-163 of CD16 removes the steric hindrance for the CD16-hIgG1 Fc binding and thus increases the binding affinity. These results highlight an unexpected sensitivity of ligand binding to the receptor anchor structure and glycosylation and suggest their respective roles in controlling allosterically the conformation of the ligand binding pocket of CD16

Development of a new class of stable and adaptable free-standing fibre mats with high room-temperature hydroxide-ion conductivity.

For alkaline anion-exchange membrane electrolysers and fuel cells to become a technological reality, hydroxide-ion (OH-) conducting membranes that are flexible, robust, affording high OH- conductivity, and synthesised in a low-cost and scalable way must be developed. In this paper, we engineer a stable, self-supporting, and flexible fibre mat using a low-cost ZIF-8 metal-organic framework composited with ionic liquid tetrabutylammonium hydroxide and widely used polyacrylonitrile as polymeric backbone. We obtain mats with a high intrinsic OH- conductivity for a metal-organic framework-based material already at room temperature, without added ion-conductor polymers. This approach will contribute to the development of low-cost and tuneable ion-conducting membranes

Regular Solar Radio Imaging at Arecibo: Space Weather Perspective of Evolution of Active Regions

The sudden release of magnetic energy on the Sun drives powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The key issue is the difficulty in predicting the occurrence time and location of strong solar eruptions, i.e., those leading to the high impact space weather disturbances at the near-Earth environment. Solar radio imaging helps identify the magnetic field characteristics of active regions susceptible to intense flares and energetic coronal mass ejections. Mapping of the Sun at X-band (8.1 -- 9.3 GHz) with the 12-m radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory allows monitoring of the evolution of the brightness temperature of active regions in association with the development of magnetic complexity, which can lead to strong eruptions. For a better forecasting strategy in the future, such ground-based radio observations of high-spatial and temporal resolution, along with a full polarization capability, would have tremendous potential not only to understand the magnetic activity of solar eruptions, but also for revealing the particle acceleration mechanism and additional exciting science.Comment: 11 pages and 3 figures (White Paper Submitted to `Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033'