The effects of a change in market abuse regulation on abnormal returns and volumes: Evidence from the Amsterdam stock market

The Market Abuse Directive came into effect on 1 October 2005. One of its purposes is to reduce illegal insider trading and leakage of information prior to official releases by increasing penalties. This paper investigates the effects of the Market Abuse Directive through an event study approach. Using�a dataset of almost 5,000 corporate news announcements, the analysis reveals that the information value of announcements, measured by the announcement day abnormal return and abnormal volume, is not significantly different after the new regulation than it was before although the number of releases has increased significantly. Trading suspicious of illegal insider trading and leakage of information, measured in terms of cumulative average abnormal returns and volumes for the 30 days prior to the news announcement, has significantly declined for small capitalization firms, for announcements containing information about alliances and mergers and acquisitions and for firms in the technology sector.

Burgers en Vreemdelingen: Een analyse van Friedrich Schleiermachers preek: Wie sehr es die Würde des Menschen erhöht, wenn er mit ganzer Seele an der bürgerlichen Vereinigung hängt, der er angehört

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834) heeft het denken over de verhouding tussen religie en samenleving op een grondleggende manier bepaald. De receptie van Schleiermachers werk laat zijn homilieën veelal onderbelicht. Juist hier treedt de politieke dimensie van zijn denkbeelden over gemeenschap en religie naar voren. Dit geldt met name voor de preek van 24 augustus 1806, met de titel Wie sehr es die Würde des Menschen erhöht, wenn er mit ganzer Seele an der bürgerlichen Vereinigung hängt, der er angehört. In dit onderzoek wordt de betekenis van bovengenoemde preek op drie manieren kritisch onderzocht. In het eerste hoofdstuk wordt Wie sehr es die Würde des Menschen erhöht... in de ideeën- en politiekhistorische context van de (vroege) Duitse Romantiek geplaatst. De eerste paragraaf brengt de filosofische, sociale, esthetische, religieuze en politieke thema's samen, die het romantische discours kenmerken. De tweede paragraaf geeft een korte schets van de politiek- historische context van Pruisen rondom 1800. Ten tweede kan ook een retorische analyse helpen om de betekenis van een historische tekst te vatten. Deze benadering staat in het tweede hoofdstuk centraal. De eerste paragraaf is een korte samenvatting van de preek. De tweede paragraaf geeft een retorische analyse van de sleutel troop van “das Haus” aan de hand van vier tekstfragmenten. In de derde paragraaf wordt de retorisch-tropologische constructie van de preek geconfronteerd met enkele kernideeën uit het werk van de filosoof, linguist en literatuurwetenschapper Kenneth Burke (1897-1993). In de slotbeschouwing wordt de vraag naar de betekenis van Schleiermachers preek op een andere manier gesteld: Op welke manier - en onder welke voorwaarden - kan een historische tekst relevant zijn voor een beter begrip van actuele vraagstukken rondom identiteit, gemeenschap, (wereld)burgerschap en nationalisme. Het belang van contextualiseren en retorica als onontbeerlijke analyse-instrumenten voor de humanistiek wordt daarbij opnieuw onderstreept. Zij maken een kritische houding mogelijk, die weerbaar maakt tegen reductionistische posities in actuele debatten die geen recht doen aan de complexiteit van de problematiek. Zo wordt de mogelijkheid geschapen om starre polaire tegenstellingen open te breken en tussenposities (opnieuw) denkbaar te maken

How well do our measurements measure up? An overview of South Africa’s first proficiency testing scheme for organochlorine pesticides in water

Access to safe drinking water is a basic human right in South Africa. Therefore, the accurate measurement of water quality is critical in ensuring the safety of water prior to its intended use. Proficiency testing schemes (PTSs) are a recognised form of assessing the technical competence of laboratories performing these analyses. There are over 200 water testing laboratories in South Africa, with only 51 being accredited for testing some or all parameters (physical, chemical and microbiological content) prescribed in SANS 241. Only a limited number of laboratories test for organic contaminants, as this requires advanced, costly analytical instrumentation, such as GC-FID/ECD/MS and LC-UV/MS, as well as skilled staff. These laboratories are either looking at selected organic contaminants listed in the World Health Organisation (WHO) drinking water guidelines or performing the minimum requirements, as stipulated in SANS 241, for phenols, atrazine, trihalomethanes and total dissolved organic content. Whereas several local PTS providers are addressing the competent assessment of microbiological, physical and inorganic chemical testing of water, a clear need for a South African PTS provider for organic contaminant analysis in water was identified by NMISA (National Metrology Institute of South Africa) in 2012. The key drivers for the coordination of a local PTS stem mainly from the limited stability of analytes in the samples for analysis and the high cost and logistics of international PTS participation. During 2012 and 2013, NMISA conducted a PTS trial round, a workshop and 2 additional PTS rounds for organochlorine pesticides in water, for South African laboratories, and also several international participants from other countries in Africa. This paper will highlight some of the challenges faced by laboratories when analysing organochlorine pesticides at the ng/ℓ concentration level. Issues surrounding the comparability of measurement results, traceability, method validation and measurement uncertainty are also discussed.Keywords: Proficiency testing schemes, PTS, organochlorine pesticides, drinking wate

Bilingualism is more than just the sum of two parts : the family context of language development in ethnic minority children

1887/29753 This dissertation aims to provide inside into the family context of language development in ethnic minority children. In Chapter 2, the results of the meta-analyses show that host language proficiency has a positive effect on the school outcomes of early literacy, reading, spelling, mathematics, and general academic achievement. For early literacy and reading proficiency, cross-language effects were also found. The results in Chapter 3 show that ethnic constellation of the neighborhood and the start of child care are related to changes in home language input in Turkish-Dutch families. Chapter 4 focuses on the differential pathways from SES to vocabulary in Dutch and Turkish, and shows that family SES is related to home language input in both languages but to literacy input in the host language only. Home language and literacy input are in turn related to children's vocabulary outcomes. The results in Chapter 5 indicate that under circumstances of more ethnic than host language use, there can be positive effects of ethnic language skills on the development of host language skills. Overall, our findings show that bilingualism is a complex puzzle of input and output in two languages that can only be solved by taking children's (family) environment into accountNorface 292 / Sardes Educational ServicesDevelopment Psychopathology in context: famil

Predictive value of gastrointestinal symptoms and patient risk factors for NSAID-associated gastrointestinal ulcers defined by endoscopy? Insights from a pooled analysis of two naproxen clinical trials

Objective: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used to treat pain and rheumatic conditions. To facilitate patient management, we determined the predictive value of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and risk factors for the development of NSAID-associated GI injuries.Methods: Post-hoc analysis of pooled data from naproxen treatment arms of two identical, randomized, double-blind, controlled phase 3 trials in arthritis patients at risk of GI adverse events. Endoscopic incidence of GI ulcers at baseline, and 1, 3, and 6 months was employed as a surrogate parameter for GI injury. For GI symptom analysis, Severity of Dyspepsia Assessment questionnaire was used. For GI risk factor analysis, the high risk factors: previous GI injury, concomitant selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or corticosteroids, ulcer history, concomitant low-dose aspirin, and age &gt;65 years were employed.Results: Data of 426 naproxen patients were analyzed. Distribution of GI symptoms between patients with and without ulcer was similar; about one third of patients developing an ulcer reported no GI pain symptoms. GI symptoms experienced under naproxen treatment were thus not indicative of GI injury. The proportion of patients developing an ulcer increased with the number of risk factors present, however, about a quarter of patients without any of the analyzed risk factors still developed an ulcer.Conclusion: GI symptoms and the number of risk factors are not reliable predictors of NSAID-induced GI injury to decide which patients need gastroprotection and will lead to a large group of patients with GI injuries. A preventive rather than reactive approach should be taken.</p

Monitoring of tumor radio frequency ablation using derivative spectroscopy

Despite the widespread use of radio frequency (RF) ablation, an effective way to assess thermal tissue damage during and after the procedure is still lacking. We present a method for monitoring RF ablation efficacy based on thermally induced methemoglobin as a marker for full tissue ablation. Diffuse reflectance (DR) spectra were measured from human blood samples during gradual heating of the samples from 37 to 60, 70, and 85°C. Additionally, reflectance spectra were recorded real-time during RF ablation of human liver tissue ex vivo and in vivo. Specific spectral characteristics of methemoglobin were extracted from the spectral slopes using a custom optical ablation ratio. Thermal coagulation of blood caused significant changes in the spectral slopes, which is thought to be caused by the formation of methemoglobin. The time course of these changes was clearly dependent on the heating temperature. RF ablation of liver tissue essentially led to similar spectral alterations. In vivo DR measurements confirmed that the method could be used to assess the degree of thermal damage during RF ablation and long after the tissue cooled

Tweetaligheid: 1+1=2?:Het TIC model

In de tweetalige ontwikkeling van kinderen met een niet-Nederlandse achtergrond is een belangrijke rol weggelegd voor contextuele factoren; niet alleen het gezin maar ook de buurt en de school maken onderdeel uit van de context waarbinnen tweetalige kinderen vaardigheden in zowel de thuistaal als de meerderheidstaal ontwikkelen. De factoren die hierbij een rol spelen worden samengevat in het Tweetaligheid-in-Context (TIC) model. Dit model is ontwikkeld op basis van resultaten uit eerder onderzoek naar tweetaligheid, met name het onderzoek beschreven in het proefschrift van Mariëlle Prevoo getiteld ‘Bilingualism is more than just the sum of two parts’. Het TIC model kan door logopedisten gebruikt worden om omgevingsinvloeden in kaart te brengen en op basis daarvan een passende benadering te kiezen voor de behandeling of begeleiding van een twee- of meertalig kind bij wie de taalontwikkeling moeizaam verloopt of van wie de ouders of de leerkracht vragen hebben over hoe beide talen een plek kunnen krijgen in de opvoeding. Door elke contextuele factor in kaart te brengen kan de logopedist inschatten in hoeverre er omgevingsinvloeden te verwachten zijn die bevorderlijk zijn voor de ontwikkeling van een of beide talen of deze ontwikkeling juist bemoeilijken. Het model kan zowel bij de anamnese als bij de behandeling worden ingezet (zie voor specifiek advies over diagnostiek en behandeling van meertalige kinderen: Blumenthal, 2013)

Mavrilimumab, a fully human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor α monoclonal antibody: long-term safety and efficacy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective: Mavrilimumab, a human monoclonal antibody, targets granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor alpha. We report mavrilimumab long-term safety and efficacy in rheumatoid arthritis patients in two phase IIb studies (1071, 1107) and open-label extension (OLE; NCT01712399). Methods: In 1071, patients with disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-inadequate responses received mavrilimumab 30, 100, 150 mg, or placebo every other week (eow), plus methotrexate. In 1107, patients with anti-tumor necrosis factor agent- and/or DMARD-inadequate responses received mavrilimumab 100 mg eow or golimumab 50 mg every 4 weeks, plus methotrexate. Patients entering the OLE received mavrilimumab 100 mg eow plus methotrexate. Mavrilimumab long-term safety and efficacy were assessed. Results: In total, 442 patients received mavrilimumab (14/245 patients from 1071, 9/70 from 1107, 52/397 from OLE discontinued mavrilimumab treatment throughout the studies). The cumulative safety exposure was 899 patient-years (PY); the median duration of mavrilimumab treatment was 2.5 (range 0.1–3.3) years. Most common treatment-emergent adverse events were nasopharyngitis (n=69, 7.68/100 PY), bronchitis (n=51, 5.68/100 PY). At Weeks 74/104: 3.5%/6.2% patients showed reduction in forced expiratory volume in 1 second; 2.9%/3.4% patients showed reduction in forced vital capacity, respectively (&gt;20% reduction from baseline to &lt;80% predicted). Most pulmonary changes were transient and only infrequently associated with adverse events. Mavrilimumab 100 mg eow demonstrated sustained efficacy; 65.0% and 40.6% patients achieved Disease Activity Score 28–C-reactive protein &lt;3.2 and &lt;2.6, respectively at Week 122. Conclusion: Mavrilimumab long-term treatment maintained response and was well-tolerated with no TEAE incidence increase. Safety data were comparable with both phase IIb qualifying studies