Venture Capital Fund Performance and the IPO Market

In this paper, the investment performance of a large database of venture funds is considered over a 28 year period. The results suggest that a portfolio of venture capital partnerships can provide an average return that is superior to the public equity market, although the individual fund returns are highly positively skewed. Absent these outliers, the level of fund performance is more in line with public equity market returns. This paper also establishes a link between public equity market conditions and venture capital returns. Finally, some preliminary evidence is provided of venture fund performance during and immediately following the dot.com bubble

Stigma, Social Comparison and Self-Esteem in Adults with an Intellectual Disability

Background: The paper examines the perception of stigma in 43 adults with an intellectual disability, the relationship this has with their psychological well-being and whether the process of social comparison has a moderating effect on this relationship. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire-based, within-participant design was used. Participants completed three self-report measures of perception of stigma, self-esteem and social comparison. Results: Perception of stigma was found to be significantly related to negative social comparisons, which in turn was significantly related to low self-esteem. No difference was found between social comparisons made with other service users and those made with people in the community. Social comparison was not found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between stigma and self-esteem. Conclusion: This study provides support for the influence of the perception of stigma and social comparison on the self-concept of individuals with an intellectual disability

A pilot of the use of the WAIS III in learning disability services

The present study is a pilot examining how a group of people (n=133) with a learning disability perform on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Third Edition (1997). The study found that Full Scale IQ was not always predictive of performance on individual subtests or of performance on the Indices. Implications for clinical practice are discussed

EMG Analysis of Concurrent Activation Potentiation

Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of remote voluntary contractions (RVC) on concentric isokinetic knee extensor and flexor peak torque, rate of torque development, power, and work, the activation of the affected muscles, and gender differences therein. Methods: Eleven men and 12 women were evaluated with EMG and isokinetic dynamometry during knee extension and flexion tests in RVC and baseline (NO-RVC) test conditions. The RVC condition included jaw clenching, hand gripping, and the Valsalva maneuver. A two-way mixed ANOVA with repeated measures for test condition was used to evaluate the main effects for each isokinetic measure, as well as the EMG of the prime movers, their antagonist, and the muscles involved in the RVC, and the interaction between test condition and gender. Results: Significant interactions between test condition and gender indicate differences in response to RVC during knee extension tests for power and work (P ≤ 0.05) and for knee flexion tests for peak torque and power (P ≤ 0.05). All subjects produced higher peak torque and power during knee extension in the RVC condition (P ≤ 0.05). Men produced a higher rate of torque development and work during knee extension (P ≤ 0.05) and a higher peak torque and power during knee flexion in the RVC condition (P ≤ 0.05). Prime mover activation was greater in the RVC condition for most tests (P ≤ 0.05). Women demonstrated lower bilateral flexor digitorum superficialis activation than men during all tests in the RVC condition (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: RVC increased the performance of several outcome variables assessed, which coincides with the concomitant increase in EMG of the prime movers

Humanity and the Life of Language: the "Two Cultures" to Montaigne's "De l’Institution des enfans"

This article analyses the often aggressive discussion between C. P. Snow and F. R. Leavis about the « Two Cultures » – what might otherwise be termed the « war of literature and science » – which took place in the 1950s and 1960s. It suggests that behind Leavis’s strident attack lurks a novel, even unique, understanding of the « human ». For Leavis, the « human » is neither a genre, nor a stable category, but a literary activity; a mode of reading and its phenomenological effects. But the precise qualities of this « human » response to language are often unclear from Leavis’s implications; the final section of this article thus analyses Montaigne’s De l’Institution des enfans, the chapter where Montaigne – often seen as the inventor or anticipator of contemporary, post-modern or post-human subjectivity – explicitly deals with the kind of pedagogical themes discussed by Snow and Leavis, and which offers concrete signs of the kind of reading which might respond sensibly to words which live and make live

The Effect of Concurrent Activation Potentiation on the Knee Extensor and Flexor Performance of Men and Women

This study evaluated the effect of remote voluntary contractions (RVC) during isometric and isokinetic knee flexion and extension tests and evaluated gender differences therein. Subject peak torque, rate of torque development, and power were assessed with a dynamometer in RVC and no RVC’s conditions. A two way mixed ANOVA with repeated measures for condition was used to evaluate the interaction between conditions and gender, and to assess the main effects. Main effects were evaluated with a paired samples t-test. Results revealed a significant interaction between all but one test condition and gender as well as significant main effects for all of the variables assessed (P ≤ 0.05). Men attained 9.2% to 19.7% greater performances in the RVC condition for all variables whilst women demonstrated no significant differences between test conditions

The Acute Time Course of Concurrent Activation Potentiation

This study evaluated the acute time course of the ergogenic effect of concurrent activation potentiation (CAP). Forty-two men and women, including CAP non-responders and responders, performed a 5 second isometric knee extension on a dynamometer with the use of remote voluntary contractions (RVC). Mean torque was assessed in seven 500 millisecond (ms) time periods. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effects for time period (p ≤ 0.001), but no significant interaction between time period and CAP non-responders and responders (p \u3e 0.05). The ergogenic effects of CAP are accrued during the first 1000ms. Concurrent activation potentiation responders produce greater initial force than the CAP non-responders, without a concomitant acceleration in force decay throughout the time course

Accounting Choices and Reported Financial Performance: The UK Gas Industry

This study investigates the accounting choices made for the UK gas industry during the eleven years from 1 April 1969 to 31 March 1980. The general research question on which the study focuses is : What was the effect of these accounting choices on the gas industry's reported financial performance and what factors explain these choices and the gas industry's lobbying behaviour on proposed accounting standards. The theoretical foundation for the study is the US literature on accounting and the political process. However, as the institutional and political environment of the UK gas industry was different from that of any firm in the United States it has been necessary to adapt the investigation to take these differences into consideration. Each year of the study consists of evidence which is relevant to the research question; calculations of the effects of the accounting choices on reported financial performance; explanations for the accounting choices and where relevant, discussion of the gas industry's lobbying behaviour. The main findings of this study are: 1. When there was a perceived need to either justify or reduce criticism of a price rise accounting choices were made which reduced reported profit. 2. When there was a perceived need to avoid political costs accounting choices were made which reduced reported profit. 3. The impact of these income decreasing accounting choices on the gas industry's reported profits was significant. 4. The accounting choices made during the quinquennium ended 31 March 1974 appeared to undermine the intended usefulness of the comparison between the financial target for that period with the reported outcomes as a control mechanism. 5. The gas industry's lobbying behaviour on proposed accounting standards appeared to be aimed at decreasing future reported profits which was consistent with the approach adopted for the accounting choices made for the industry. This study has contributed to the fund of knowledge on the impact of the political process on accounting choices and has thereby contributed to the development of a positive theory of accounting choices