European capital structures and the macroeconomic, corporate and taxation environments

The objective of this thesis is to determine whether European firms exhibit firmspecific optimal capital structure solutions. If the capital structure of the firm is irrelevant then the finance manager should concentrate upon the maximisation of the returns from the firm's investment projects alone. Alternatively, if the capital structure is relevant then the finance manager should strive to attain the capital structure which minimises the cost of capital to the firm, and thus maximises the value of the firm. The firm is positioned within three environments: the macroeconomic environment, the taxation environment and the corporate environment, and it is with respect to these environmentst hat optin-ýisingb ehaviour may be measured.A variety of conventional and modem econometric techniques are employed to study the interaction of the capital structure with the environments within which it is placed to determine whether behaviouro f an optimising nature may be ascertainedT. o allow for as comprehensivea perspective as possible, the processes which determine capital structure policies are tested and modelled across average, marginal, dynamic and long-run time-frames, to enable operational capital structure policies to be distinguished from strategic capital structure policies of the firm. The conclusions suggest that there exists a behavioural dichotomy between larger and smaller firms, based upon differences in the sophistication of information systems present within the finance function of the firm. Larger firms engage in full-optimisation behaviour at the strategic level by targeting the long-run path of the capital structure ratio in relation to key taxation, macroeconomic, and corporate environment variables, endo-exogenousin teraction effects, and considerationo f the effects of the two-way causal interrelationship between the capital structure ratio and the corporate environment. Smaller firms engage in a form of bounded-optimisation behaviour at the strategic level, targeting the capital structure ratio upon the norm for the industry to which the firm belongs, upon the capital structure ratio of larger firms, or on the basis of some other targeting criterion. For both larger and smaller firms, departures from the long-run path of the capital structure ratio, determined by the strategic capital structure policy, are caused by operational capital structure policy adjustments. The operational capital structure policy of both larger and smaller firms is determined mainly by those exogenous factors which determine the explicit costs of finance, although endo-exogenousin teraction effects and the two-way causal interrelationship between the capital structure ratio and the corporate environment also exert an influence. Overall, the theoretical and empirical analyses of the European research provide very strong support for the existence of firm-specific optimal capital structure solutions.Plymouth Business School, University of Plymout

Epidemiology, molecular characterisation and tropism of the Hepatitis G Virus / GBV-C

The hepatitis G virus and GBV-C are recently discovered variants of the same virus belonging to the family Flavivirus (HGV/GBV-C). Although initially thought to be a hepatitis virus, it has been shown to have no association with liver disease. No work has been performed on the prevalence or molecular characteristics of HGV/GBV-C in southern Africa. In addition, although it is clear that the liver is not the primary site of replication, there is no data on the sites of HGV/GBV-C replication in normal subjects. Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of HGV/GBV-C carriage in the urban and rural adult Black communities of the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa, and compare it to the prevalence of serological markers of the hepatitis viruses A-E. In addition, this study aimed to assess the molecular features of South African HGV/GBV-C isolates and demonstrate the organs where viral replication was present. The mean prevalences of antibodies to hepatitis A lgG, hepatitis B surface antigen and antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen were 98%, 4.3% and 61.1 % respectively. The mean prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C was 1.8%. No significant differences in prevalence were shown between the urban and rural regions for these viruses. The mean anti-hepatitis E prevalence varied from 5.8% to 19.1 % in the different regions. Those living in mud houses without access to chlorinated tap water had a significantly higher prevalence of antihepatitis E. No anti-hepatitis D positive samples were isolated. The overall prevalence of HGV/GBV-C was 26.9%, with rural communities having a significantly lower prevalence than urban communities. A significant relationship was observed between HGV/GBV-C infection with the use of illicit drugs, female gender, younger age and past blood transfusions. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a novel fourth South African HGV/GBV-C genotype, distinct from the previously described genotypes 1-3. In addition, certain isolates showed a major deletion in the highly conserved 5' non-coding region of HGV/GBV-C. Analysis of 23 tissue biopsies from infected cadavers suggested that the spleen and bone marrow were the primary sites of HGV/GBVC replication

Flow Induced Vibration of Metal Bellows

No abstract availabl

RS -25 High Pressure Oxygen Turbopump Inducer

No abstract availabl

The Dual-Bell (DB) Nozzle

No abstract availabl

Does Income Smoothing Improve Earnings Informativeness?

This paper uses a new approach to examine whether income smoothing garbles earnings information or improves the informativeness of past and current earnings about future earnings and cash flows. We measure income smoothing by the negative correlation of a firm’s change in discretionary accruals with its change in pre-managed earnings. Using the approach of Collins, Kothari, Shanken and Sloan (1994), we find that change in the current stock price of higher-smoothing firms contains more information about their future earnings than does change in the stock price of lower-smoothing firms. This result is robust to decomposing earnings into cash flows and accruals and to controlling for firm size, growth, future earnings variability, private information search activities, and cross-sectional correlations

Aquaculture Potential for Hornyhead Chubs

The hornyhead chub (Nocomis biguttatus) is one of the most valuable baitfish species in Minnesota. Culturing hornyhead chub supplies valuable baitfish to anglers and generates income for fish farmers and baitshop owners in Minnesota and other northern states. Hornyhead chubs can be reared in aquaculture facilities and sold through baitshops to anglers, who are often willing to pay $5 to$6 per dozen. Because it is illegal to import baitfish into Minnesota, such prices put harvesting pressure on wild populations. Culturing hornyhead chubs relieves pressure on wild populations while keeping the market adequately supplied with this desirable bait. This technical bulletin describes how to spawn and grow hornyhead chubs produced in an outdoor spawning system and an indoor over-winter growout facility

The \u3cem\u3en\u3c/em\u3e-Extent of \u3cem\u3eS\u3csup\u3e3\u3c/sup\u3e(p,m)\u3c/em\u3e

In this paper we estimate xtn (S3 (p, m)), the n-extent of various lens spaces. We give numerical evidence for extending certain results of D. G. Yang [Duke Math. J., 74 (1994), 531-545.] to primes p between 11 and 37. We explain the implication of our results for the topology of 4-dimensional manifolds of positive sectional curvature with nontrivial isometric Zp-actions