Pediatric Rotavirus Gastroenteritis: A 2 year Analysis to Understand Current Prevalence in Mumbai

Many studies have established the high prevalence of paediatric Rotavirus gastroenteritis in India. The importance of rapid diagnosis of rotavirus infection has also been stressed upon, to initiate prompt rehydration therapy and prevent unnecessary use of antibiotics .We undertook a retrospective analysis of 327 paediatric stool specimens to understand the current prevalence and seasonal distribution of cases in Mumbai and its surrounding areas. Overall Rotavirus positivity rate was 37.9 %, with peak positivity in winter seasons. Infections were more common upto 2 years of age. Incidence of bacterial and parasitic coinfections was low

Agency Theory of Overvalued Equity as an Explanation for the Accrual Anomaly

We show that the agency theory of overvalued equity (see Jensen, 2005) rather than investors' fixation on accruals explains the accrual anomaly, i.e., abnormal returns to an accrual trading strategy (see Sloan, 1996).Under the agency theory of overvalued equity, managers of overvalued firms are likely to manage their firms' accruals upwards to prolong the overvaluation.Thus, high-accrual portfolios are likely to be over-represented with over-valued firms.Overvaluation, however, cannot be sustained indefinitely and we expect price reversals for high accrual firms.In contrast, undervalued firms do not face incentives to report low accruals, so undervalued firms are not concentrated in low accrual decile portfolios.Therefore, across the accrual decile portfolios, we predict and find an asymmetric relation between accruals and both prior and subsequent returns.In addition, consistent with the predictions of the agency theory of overvalued equity, we find high, but not low, accrual firms' investment-financing decisions and insider trading activity are distorted, and analyst forecast optimism is concentrated among the high-accrual decile portfolios.Overall, return behavior, analyst optimism, investment-financing decisions, and insider trading activity are all consistent with the agency theory of overvalued equity, but do not support investor fixation on accruals.accrual anomaly;earnings management;agency theory of overvalued equity

Econometrics of the Basu Asymmetric Timeliness Coefficient and Accounting Conservatism

A substantial literature investigates conditional conservatism, defined as asymmetric accounting recognition of economic shocks (“news”), and how it depends on various market, political, and institutional variables. Studies typically assume the Basu [1997] asymmetric timeliness coefficient (the incremental slope on negative returns in a piecewise-linear regression of accounting income on stock returns) is a valid conditional conservatism measure. We analyze the measure's validity, in the context of a model with accounting income incorporating different types of information with different lags, and with noise. We demonstrate that the asymmetric timeliness coefficient varies with firm characteristics affecting their information environments, such as the length of the firm's operating and investment cycles, and its degree of diversification. We particularly examine one characteristic, the extent to which “unbooked” information (such as revised expectations about rents and growth options) is independent of other information, and discuss the conditions under which a proxy for this characteristic is the market-to-book ratio. We also conclude that much criticism of the Basu regression misconstrues researchers’ objectives

Effect of moisture and water on thermal protective performance of multilayered fabric assemblies for firefighters

Multilayered protective fabric assemblies comprising a Nomex III woven outer layer, Nomex nonwoven thermal liners and a modacrylic/cotton woven inner layer have been studied for heat protective performance. Effect of conditioning and presence of water on the outer layer fabric has been studied on heat protective performance, against radiant heat flux. It is observed that the radiative heat protective performance of firefighters’ protective clothing assembly can be improved in presence of a water tight barrier layer used just after the outer layer when the outer layer fabric is wet. Conditioning of the assembly in a particular environment can also significantly affect thermal protective performance

Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of woven fabrics having metal coated zari wrapped yarns

Cotton and metal coated zari wrapped polyester filament yarns in different proportions have been used to produce woven fabrics for evaluating electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE). Coaxial transmission line measurement technique is used for the measurement of EMSE in the frequency range of 100-1500 MHz. The results show that the type of metal used, percentage of conductive yarns, type of weave and humidity have a significant effect on EMSE

An Analysis of Machine- and Human-Analytics in Classification

In this work, we present a study that traces the technical and cognitive processes in two visual analytics applications to a common theoretic model of soft knowledge that amy be added into a visual analytics process for constructing a decision-tree model. Both case studies involved the development of classification models based on the "bag of features" approach. Both compared a visual analytics approach using parallel coordinates with a machine-learning approach using information theory. Both found that the visual analytics approach had some advantages over the machine learning approach, especially when sparse datasets were used as the ground truth. We examine various possible factors that may have contributed to such advantages, and collect empirical evidence for supporting the observation and reasoning of these factors. We propose an information-theoretic model as a common theoretic basis to explain the phenomena exhibited in these two case studies. Together we provide interconnected empirical and theoretical evidence to support the usefulness of visual analytics

Agency Theory of Overvalued Equity as an Explanation for the Accrual Anomaly

We show that the agency theory of overvalued equity (see Jensen, 2005) rather than investors' fixation on accruals explains the accrual anomaly, i.e., abnormal returns to an accrual trading strategy (see Sloan, 1996).Under the agency theory of overvalued equity, managers of overvalued firms are likely to manage their firms' accruals upwards to prolong the overvaluation.Thus, high-accrual portfolios are likely to be over-represented with over-valued firms.Overvaluation, however, cannot be sustained indefinitely and we expect price reversals for high accrual firms.In contrast, undervalued firms do not face incentives to report low accruals, so undervalued firms are not concentrated in low accrual decile portfolios.Therefore, across the accrual decile portfolios, we predict and find an asymmetric relation between accruals and both prior and subsequent returns.In addition, consistent with the predictions of the agency theory of overvalued equity, we find high, but not low, accrual firms' investment-financing decisions and insider trading activity are distorted, and analyst forecast optimism is concentrated among the high-accrual decile portfolios.Overall, return behavior, analyst optimism, investment-financing decisions, and insider trading activity are all consistent with the agency theory of overvalued equity, but do not support investor fixation on accruals

Generalized formulation to estimate the Supercapacitor’s R-C series impedance using fractional order model

The main objective of this paper is to develop a new technique for the supercapacitor’s parameter identification that can handle the issue of initial voltage. An effective approach is proposed using the fractional-order derivative for accurate identification of a well-known series Resistance-Capacitance (R-C) model. An expression is derived using the Caputo definition and the Haar wavelet operational matrix, which is sufficient for both charging and discharging phase data of supercapacitors. To extract impedance parameters, voltage stimulated step response is utilized and parameters are calculated despite random initial voltage stored in a supercapacitor. This operational matrix approach transforms complex fractional derivative terms into simple algebraic expressions and reduces the overall complexity. The proposed technique shows a very good agreement with experimental data that exhibit different initial voltages and different time-frames. Investigations and experiments with various supercapacitors clearly reveal the importance of the developed equation for a fractional R-C model