Blockholder Characteristics and Earnings Quality

This study focuses on the impact of blockholder characteristics on earnings quality. Most of the studies inliterature make the implicit assumption that blockholders are a homogeneous group. This study is one offew studies that acknowledges the heterogeneity of blockholders and attempts to understand theunexplained proportion of blockholder heterogeneity. Earnings quality is calculated using the modifiedDechow and Dichev (2002) model with fixed effects (FDD model) by Lee and Masulis (2009), and it isregressed on various blockholder characteristics. The results show that earnings quality is lower forfirms with market-driven and multilateral blockholders

The hjorth's IDB generator of distributions: properties, characterizations, regression modeling and applications

We introduce a new flexible class of continuous distributions via the Hjorth’s IDB model. We provide some mathematical prop-erties of the new family. Characterizations based on two truncated moments, conditional expectation as well as in terms of thehazard function are presented. The maximum likelihood method is used for estimating the model parameters. We assess the per-formance of the maximum likelihood estimators in terms of biases and mean squared errors by means of the simulation study.A new regression model as well as residual analysis are presented. Finally, the usefulness of the family is illustrated by means offour real data sets. The new model provides consistently better fits than other competitive models for these data sets

On the modified Burr XII-Power distribution: development, properties, characterizations and applications

In this paper, a flexible lifetime distribution with increasing, decreasing and bathtub hazard rate called the Modified Burr XII-Power (MBXII-Power) is developed on the basis of the T-X family technique. The density function of the MBXII-Power is arc, exponential, left-skewed, right-skewed, J, reverse-J and symmetrical shaped. Descriptive measures such as moments, moments of order statistics, incomplete moments, inequality measures, residual life functions and reliability measures are theoretically established. The MBXII-Power distribution is characterized via different techniques. Parameters of the MBXII-Power distribution are estimated using maximum likelihood method. The simulation study is performed on the basis of graphical results to see the performance of maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of the MBXII-Power distribution. The potentiality of the MBXII-Power distribution is demonstrated by its application to real data sets: survival times of pigs, survival times of patients and quarterly earnings

The Odd Power Lindley Generator of Probability Distributions: Properties, Characterizations and Regression Modeling

In this study, a new flexible family of distributions is proposed with its statistical properties as well as some useful characterizations. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate the unknown model parameters by means of two simulation studies. A new regression model is proposed based on a special member of the proposed family called, the log odd power Lindley Weibull distribution. Residual analysis is conducted to evaluate the model assumptions. Four applications to real data sets are given to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed model

Quasi-free Compton Scattering from the Deuteron and Nucleon Polarizabilities

Cross sections for quasi-free Compton scattering from the deuteron were measured for incident energies of 236--260 MeV at the laboratory angle -135 degrees. The recoil nucleons were detected in a liquid-scintillator array situated at 20 degrees. The measured differential cross sections were used, with the calculations of Levchuk et al., to determine the polarizabilities of the bound nucleons. For the bound proton, the extracted values were consistent with the accepted value for the free proton. Combining our results for the bound neutron with those from Rose et al., we obtain one-sigma constraints of alpha_n = 7.6-14.0 and beta_n = 1.2-7.6.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in PR

Addition of vardenafil into storage solution protects the endothelium in a hypoxia-reoxygenation model

OBJECTIVE: Based upon the well known protective effect of intracellular cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) accumulation, we tested the hypothesis that storage solution enriched with optimal concentration of the phosphodiestherase-5 inhibitor vardenafil could provide better protection of vascular grafts against reperfusion injury after long-term cold ischaemic storage. METHODS: Isolated thoracic aorta obtained from rats underwent 24-h cold ischaemic preservation in physiological saline or vardenafil (10(-11) M)-supplemented saline solution. Reperfusion injury was simulated by hypochlorite (200 muM) exposure for 30 minutes. Endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation was assessed, and histopathological and molecular-biological examination of the aortic tissue were performed. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the saline group showed significantly attenuated endothelium-dependent maximal relaxation (Rmax) to acetylcholine after hypoxia-reoxygenation, which was significantly improved by vardenafil supplementation (Rmax control: 98 +/- 1%; saline: 48 +/- 6%; vardenafil: 75 +/- 4%; p < .05). Vardenafil treatment significantly reduced DNA strand breaks (control: 10.6 +/- 6.2%; saline: 72.5 +/- 4.0%; vardenafil: 14.2 +/- 5.2%; p < .05) and increased cGMP score in the aortic wall (control: 8.2 +/- 0.6; saline: 4.5 +/- 0.3; vardenafil: 6.7 +/- 0.6; p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the view that impairment of intracellular cGMP signalling plays a role in the pathogenesis of the endothelial dysfunction induced by cold storage warm reperfusion, which can be effectively reversed by pharmacological phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition

Radiative pion capture by a nucleon

The differential cross sections for $\pi^- p \to \gamma n$ and $\pi^+ n \to \gamma p$ are computed up to $O(p^3)$ in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). The expressions at $O(p)$ and $O(p^2)$ have no free parameters. There are three unknown parameters at $O(p^3)$, low energy constants of the HBChPT Lagrangian, which are determined by fitting to experimental data. Two acceptable fits are obtained, which can be separated by comparing with earlier dispersion relation calculations of the inverse process. Expressions for the multipoles, with emphasis on the p-wave multipoles, are obtained and evaluated at threshold. Generally the results obtained from the best of the two fits are in good agreement with the dispersion relation predictions.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, using RevTe

On Burr III Marshal Olkin Family: Development, Properties, Characterizations and Applications

In this paper, a flexible family of distributions with unimodel, bimodal, increasing, increasing and decreasing, inverted bathtub and modified bathtub hazard rate called Burr III-Marshal Olkin-G (BIIIMO-G) family is developed on the basis of the T-X family technique. The density function of the BIIIMO-G family is arc, exponential, left- skewed, right-skewed and symmetrical shaped. Descriptive measures such as quantiles, moments, incomplete moments, inequality measures and reliability measures are theoretically established. The BIIIMO-G family is characterized via different techniques. Parameters of the BIIIMO-G family are estimated using maximum likelihood method. A simulation study is performed to illustrate the performance of the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs). The potentiality of BIIIMO-G family is demonstrated by its application to real data sets

Yurt Dışında Yaşayan Türklerin Türkiye’nin Avrupa Birliği’ne Katılım Sürecine İlişkin Görüşleri.

Türkiye AB ilişkileri sadece siyasi bir süreçten ibaret değildir. Bu süreç içerisinde yaşayan halklar vardır. Bu kişilerin AB’ye ilişkin düşüncelerini, beklentilerini ve yaşam deneyimlerini öğrenmek demokrasi ve onunla ilişkili olarak AB’ye yönelik bilinçli bir kamu (gündemi) oluşturabilmek açısından gereklidir. Türk insanı göçmen statüsü veya vatandaş olarak yıllardır AB ülkelerinde yaşamaktadır. Ancak gelinen noktada Türkiye’nin üyeliğinin artık ne kadar gerekli olduğu ve Türk insanına neler sağlayabileceği sorgulanmaktadır. Bu araştırma, AB deneyimini fiili olarak yaşamakta olan Türk vatandaşlarının Birlik hakkındaki düşüncelerini bilimsel verilerle ortaya koymak amacıyla yapılmıştır. Bir anket uygulaması ile desteklenen bu çalışmada önemli bulgulara ulaşılmıştır. Bu araştırmada Yurtdışında yaşayan Türklerin Avrupa Birliği’ne ve Türkiye’nin AB’ye üyeliğine bakış açısı konusu incelenmiştir. Bu bağlamda Avrupa genelinde toplam 6 ülkede 5515 katılımcıya iki bölümden oluşan toplam 35 soruluk bir anket formu uygulanmıştır. Avrupa Birliği hakkında ne derece bilgiye sahip oldukları ve bilgi kaynaklarının neler olduğu, AB’ye ilişkin düşünceleri ve ardından AB ve entegrasyon hakkındaki görüşleri 5’li likert ölçekle sorgulanmıştır. AB’ye ilişkin özelliklerin demografik değişkenlere göre değişim gösterip göstermediği test edilmiştir. Oluşturulan ölçeğin güvenilirliğini test etmek amacıyla Cronbach’s alpha analizi uygulanmış ve güvenirlik katsayısı 0,952 olarak bulunmuştur. Sonuç olarak, Türklerin Avrupa kıtasındaki varlığının Türkiye’nin AB’ye üye olma sürecinde bir destek olduğu görülmektedir. Özellikle STK’ların temsiliyeti Türkiye’nin AB’ye girmesi konusunda oldukça destek olmaktadır. Katılımcılar Türkiye’nin AB’ye girmesine imkânsız olarak bakmaktadırlar. Türkiye’nin hiçbir zaman bir AB ülkesi olamayacağına dair inanç yüksektir. Yaş değişkeni ile AB’ye katılım konusunda destek ve ülkeye uyum sorununa ilişkin görüşlerde farklılıklar tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca gelir durumu ülkelere göre farklılık göstermemektedir. Tüm ülke vatandaşlarının gelir düzeylerinin düşük olduğu bulunmuştur. Cinsiyet ile AB’nin dezavantajlı olduğunu düşünme arasındaki ilişki bağımsız bulunmuştur. Her iki cinste AB dezavantajlı olarak görülmektedir

Analytical study of quality-biased competition dynamics for memes in social media

The spreading of news, memes and other pieces of information occurring via online social platforms has a strong and growing impact on our modern societies, with enormous consequences, that may be beneficial but also catastrophic. In this work we consider a recently introduced model for information diffusion in social media taking explicitly into account the competition of a large number of items of diverse quality. We map the meme dynamics onto a one-dimensional diffusion process that we solve analytically, deriving the lifetime and popularity distributions of individual memes. We also present a mean-field type of approach that reproduces the average stationary properties of the dynamics. In this way we understand and control the role of the different ingredients of the model, opening the path for the inclusion of additional, more realistic, features.Comment: 6 pages + 9 pages of Supplementary Materia