Firm-level and Country-level factors on leverage ratio

This paper aims to examine the factors affecting the choice of capital structure for publicly listed firms in four Nordic countries including Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden over the period 2004 – 2017. The result of the investigation into firm-specific determinants on the capital structure shows that tangibility and firm size have a significant positive relationship with long-term debt ratio for public firms in most of Nordic countries, except for Finland. On the other hand, profitability is negatively correlated with leverage ratio in all four countries; meanwhile, growth opportunity yields a mixed result: there is a significant negative relationship for Finnish public firms and a significant positive relationship for Danish public firms. Liquidity and Non-debt tax shields have no significant impact on leverage for most of Nordic countries, except for Finland in terms of liquidity and Sweden in terms of non-debt tax shields. Business risk shows a significant negative relationship with leverage ratio in Norway and Sweden. Moreover, by decomposing the sample set into different industrial categories, I find that there is evidence for the existence of industrial effect on firm-specific determinants, as the impact of those determinants on leverage ratio is different in different sectors. The result of the investigation into country-specific effects shows that GDP growth rate and the development of the stock market have a significant negative correlation with long-term debt ratio. On the other hand, the estimation results show that the development of the banking industry, the development of the bond market, and the inflation rate have no significant impact on capital structure decision for public firms in the Nordic region. These results may imply that Nordic firms in general prefer equity financing to debt financing, and when it comes to debt financing decision these firms prefer corporate bonds to bank loans

МЕТОД И СИСТЕМА ОЦЕНКИ ФИЗИОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ РЕЗЕРВОВ СПОРТСМЕНА ВО ВРЕМЯ ТРЕНИРОВОК

Introduction. An assessing of the sportsman's physiological reserve (PR) and its dynamics is important when planning and carrying out a training, forecasting sportsman's results. An importance of this problem increases in highperformance sports, and energy consumption sports. A complexity of solving of this problem is caused by the requirement of taking into account of the complex of the biomedical parameters and formation of an integral parameter. This parameter reflects functioning of various body systems which provide significant income to the sportsman’s result achievement. Objective. Development of the method and the system of PR assessing allowing complex investigation of the PR during the training process. Method and materials. For achievement of the aim the tasks were formulated and solved using methods of biomedical research and engineering, mathematical processing and analysis of the diagnostically valuable parameters. Results. The complex of the biomedical parameters reflecting sportsman’s body metabolism in condition of physical exercises is formed. They are the heart rate, the heart rate variability, the pulse frequency, the systolic and diastolic pressure, the respiratory rate, the blood saturation, and the stress index by Baevsky. It is important for PR assessing to assess parameters characterizing sportsman’s physiological reserves at the current moment and its dynamics. The circle diagram is proposed for taking into account of all mentioned parameters and its variation dynamics. The value of the integral PR parameter is an area of a polygon, which is obtained on the circle diagram using normalized values of the diagnostically significant parameters. The method of biomedical investigation of the sportsman and the method of PR assessing based on the complex of the body system parameters are developed. The scheme of assessing of sportsman's body physiological reserves before and after the training is proposed. The scheme allows to assess not only sportsman's body energy consumption during the training but also its recovery after the training. General structures of the biotechnical system and a structures of systems of picking up, registration, processing, and analysis of biomedical signals for assessing of sportsman's physiological reserves are developed. Special attention is given to the development of a wearable device for synchronous registration of the complex of biomedical parameters and algorithms of assessing of the diagnostically significant parameters of sportsman's body physiological reserves. Conclusion. The proposed method of sportsman's physiologic reserves investigation and the structure of the system with spatially distributed architecture allow sport medicine doctor and coach to assess an efficiency of sportsman's training process with respect to his potential capabilities, and efficiently control the training process.Введение. Оценка физиологического резерва (ФР) спортсмена и его динамики актуальна при планировании и проведении тренировок, прогнозировании результатов спортсмена. Актуальность данной проблемы усиливается в спорте высоких достижений, в частности в энергетически затратных видах спорта. Сложность решения этой проблемы обусловлена необходимостью учета комплекса медико-биологических показателей и формирования интегрального показателя, отражающего функционирование различных систем организма, которые обеспечивают значимый вклад в достижение результата спортсмена. Цель работы. Разработка метода и системы оценки ФР, позволяющих комплексно изучить ФР во время тренировочного процесса. Методы и материалы. Для достижения поставленной цели были сформулированы и решены задачи с использованием методов медико-биологических исследований, биомедицинской инженерии, математической обработки и анализа диагностически значимых показателей. Результаты. Сформирован комплекс медико-биологических показателей организма, отражающих метаболизм организма спортсмена в условиях физических нагрузок. Это частота сердечных сокращений, вариабельность сердечного ритма, частота пульса, систолическое и диастолическое давление, частота дыхания, сатурации крови, индекс напряженности Баевского. Для оценки ФР важно оценивать показатели, характеризующие физиологические резервы спортсмена в текущий момент времени и их динамику. Предложена круговая диаграмма для комплексного учета всех перечисленных показателей и динамики их изменения. Количественной мерой интегрального показателя ФР является площадь многогранника, полученного на круговой диаграмме по нормированным значениям диагностически значимых показателей. Разработан метод проведения медико-биологических исследований спортсмена и метод оценки ФР на основе комплекса показателей систем организма, предложена схема оценки физиологических резервов организма спортсмена до и после тренировок. Она позволяет оценить не только энергозатраты организма спортсмена во время тренировок, но и его восстановление после тренировок. Разработана обобщенная структура биотехнической системы и структуры системы съёма, регистрации, обработки и анализа биомедицинских сигналов для оценки физиологических резервов спортсмена. Особое внимание уделено разработке носимого устройства для синхронной регистрации комплекса биомедицинских сигналов и алгоритмам оценки диагностически значимых показателей физиологических резервов организма спортсмена. Заключение. Предложенный метод исследования физиологических резервов спортсмена и структура системы с пространственно-распределенной архитектурой позволяют тренеру и врачу спортивной медицины оценивать эффективность тренировочного процесса спортсмена с учетом его потенциальных возможностей, эффективно управлять тренировочным процессом

SOME COMMON PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS FOR JAPANESE LEARNERS OF THE VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE - CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

資料・研究ノー

Comparison of Urea Formaldehyde, Melamine Formaldehyde, Glyoxal and Latex in Improving the Water Resistance of the Starch Coatings

Several coatings colors were prepared and applied. The coated sheets were tested with great emphasis on keeping the conditions constant throughout the course of the experimental work. The study utilized several types of insolubilizers: urea formaldehyde, melamine formaldehyde, glyoxal and latex. Two types of starches were also used: regular and cationic. Results showed the importance of drying on wet rub development of both urea and malamine formaldehyde as compared to latex and glyoxal. Results also proved the superiority of using insolubilizer additions with cationic starch rather than regular starch. Glyoxal and latex were superior choices to urea and malamine formaldehyde, even with lower amounts

Od konfucianizma do nacionalizma: izmišljeno sorodstvo in oblikovanje Vietnamcev

This paper examines how political discourses have changed as scholars seek answers regarding the origins of the Vietnamese people. The origin(s) of the Vietnamese people has long been a subject of debate. Confucian scholars from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries claimed themself to be descendants of Han people, the successors of the Han civilization. The colonial scholars (from 1860 to 1945), when using the theory of race, anthropology, and social evolution theory, thought that the Annam people were a hybrid breed, still in the process of evolution, and needed to be enlightened civilized. Indigenous scholars combined the Han ideology of Confucianism and the ideology of the French to claim that the Vietnamese were the descendants of the Hùng Vương. This ideological transformation was aimed at calling for patriotism, fighting against the French, and defending the nation from colonial domination. The results reveal that the process of changing paradigms in Confucian thought through colonialism led to the formation of fictive kinship and the spread of nationalism in Vietnam.Članek raziskuje, kako so se na podlagi znanstvenih raziskovanj porekla Vietnamcev spremenili politični diskurzi. Izvor(i) Vietnamcev je tako že dolgo predmet razprave. Konfucijanski učenjaki so med petnajstim in devetnajstim. stoletjem trdili, da so potomci Hanov in nasledniki hanske civilizacije. Kolonialni učenjaki (med letoma 1860 in 1945) so ob uporabi rasne teorije, antropologije in teorije družbene evolucije menili, da so ljudje Annam hibridna rasa, ki je še vedno v procesu evolucije, zaradi česar jo je treba civilizirano razsvetljevati. Domači učenjaki so združili hansko ideologijo konfucianizma in ideologijo Francozov; tako so lahko zatrjevali, da so Vietnamci potomci Hunga Vuonga. Ta ideološka preobrazba je bila usmerjena k pozivanju k domoljubju, boju proti Francozom in obrambi naroda pred kolonialno prevlado. Izsledki raziskave razkrivajo, da je proces spreminjanja paradigem v konfucijanski misli skozi kolonializem privedel do oblikovanja izmišljenega sorodstva in širjenja nacionalizma v Vietnamu