Day Of The Week And Its Effect On Stock Market Volatility: Evidence From An Emerging Market

This paper investigates the day of the week effect in the volatility of the Saudi Stock Exchange during the period between January 7, 2007 and April 1, 2013. Using a conditional variance framework, we find that the day of the week effect is present in the volatility. Our results show that the lowest volatility occurs on Saturdays and Sundays. We argue that due to the closure of international markets on Saturdays and Sundays, there is not enough activity in the Saudi Stock Exchange. As a result, the volatility is the lowest on these days. Our results also show that the highest volatility occurs on Wednesdays. We argue Wednesday, being the last trading day of the week, corresponds with the start of four non-trading days (Thursday through Sunday) for foreign investors. Fearing that they will be stuck up with stocks in case some unfavorable information enters the market, foreign investors tend to exit the market on Wednesdays. As a result of excessive trading, there is high volatility on Wednesdays

Temporomandibular joint pain and tissue destruction in relation to inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis

The general aim of this thesis was to study temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain and bone tissue destruction in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in particular: pro- and anti‐inflammatory cytokines, systemic inflammatory activity, and the impact of TMJ pain on daily activities and quality of life. This thesis comprises three parts. The aim of the first part was to investigate the impact of TMJ pain and inflammation on daily activities and quality of life in relation to systemic inflammatory activity. The aim of the second part was to investigate how local and systemic cytokine levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin 1 (IL-­‐1) interact to modulate TMJ pain in RA. And the aim of the third study was to investigate the relationship between inflammatory mediators in TMJ synovial fluid and blood versus bone tissue destruction by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the TMJ. Each study in this thesis examined subjects from the same group of patients with a recent RA diagnosis. In the first study, 33 patients participated; in the second, 26; and in the third, 22. Each study performed similar clinical examinations. The patients rated their TMJ pain (resting, movement, loading and on palpation) on a scale from 0 to 10 and underwent MRI examination to assess signs of TMJ erosions. We obtained and analyzed TMJ synovial fluid samples for TNF, IL-­‐1ra, anti-­‐citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), and rheumatoid factor (RF) and blood samples for erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-­‐reactive protein (CRP), ACPA and RF. Studies I and II used non-­‐parametric statistics (Mann-­‐Whitney U-­‐test, Spearman correlation) while Study III used parametric statistics (student’s t-­‐test and Pearson correlation). A probability level of less than 0.05 was considered as significant. The first study found that TMJ pain intensity, together with systemic inflammatory activities, plays an important role in the impact of TMJ pain on daily living and quality of life in RA. The second study found that a high TNF to TNFsRII ratio in the synovial fluid of the TMJ was associated with TMJ pain on palpation in patients with RA. High levels of TNF were found to be associated with high levels of TNFsRII; however, increases in local cytokine control in the presence of elevated levels of TNF was likely insufficient to control or inhibit the inflammatory process. Presence of ACPA in TMJ synovial fluid was associated with elevated TNF levels but not with TNFsRII levels. The third study found that TNF in TMJ synovial fluid modulates TMJ bone tissue resorption in patients with RA. However, bone tissue destruction was associated with a low degree of endogenous cytokine control. In conclusion, TNF, including its endogenous control system, seems to be involved in TMJ inflammation, which results in TMJ pain and tissue destruction. In turn, TMJ pain has a negative impact on daily living and quality of life in patients with RA

Financial Centers And Portfolio Performance: Evidence From An Emerging Market

How does location of a firm’s headquarter effect its performance? This paper answers this question by using the data from India. This paper shows that portfolio of firms headquartered in Mumbai, the main financial center of the country, outperform portfolio of firms headquartered in other cities. Our results show that average returns, Sharp ratios, Farinelli and Tibiletti ratio, and CAPM alphas for portfolios comprising of firms headquartered in Mumbai are higher than their counterpart portfolios comprising of firms headquartered in other cities. We argue that firms headquartered in the financial center have better information environment than other firms. One of the channels via which improvement in information environment takes place is the clustering of firms in the financial center. We believe that, for any given level of resources, it is relatively cost effective for stock market participants to expend their resources on clustered firms to obtain value relevant information than on dispersed firms, thereby improving information environment of firms headquartered in the financial centers relative to other firms. Our arguments claim that better information environment of firms headquartered in the financial centers helps in maintaining investors’ confidence

The performance of double skin facades in office building refurbishment in hot arid areas

The facade's configuration in hot arid areas is predicted to be responsible for up to 40% of the building's cooling loads. The increasing reliance of public buildings in Cairo on air conditioning systems indicates the failing role of the building envelope to perform its function as a moderator leading to an alarming increase in electricity consumption. Office buildings in Cairo consume 5-7% of the total national energy consumption. The need to reduce energy consumption in this sector targets benefits of reductions of electricity bills to building owners as well as reducing C02 emissions from the built environment due to increasing electricity generation. The lack of maintenance funds left the office building facades in a deteriorated state. This deterioration of image led to abandonment of buildings and loss of economic revenue. Double skin facades were investigated as a novel facade refurbishment option, targeting a multi criteria framework for facade refurbishment set in this thesis. To achieve the aim of the thesis, different facade technologies were simulated using a dynamic software (APACHE v.4.3.1) to understand their thermal performance. Quantitative results of simulations were parametrically examined to identify benchmark options for facade refurbishment to reduce building total cooling loads. Simulations results indicated up to 40% reductions in total cooling loads if a double skin facade with an outer reflective surface is used. Information generated from the simulation of single and double skin facade configurations were inducted into qualitative theories predicting human comfort aspects within the workplace. Three qualitative criteria underpinning the psychological comfort of occupants and its impact on productivity are set for balancing energy saving measures through facade refurbishment. These criteria are: the need for a view out, day light availability for non-task performances, and perceived control over the facade in work places.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Evolution of Public Sector Pension Plans in the United States

Municipal governments in the U.S. began offering retirement plans for their workers in the mid-19th century, and state governments followed in the early 20th century. As these plans matured, they confronted economic, social, and political challenges, including the creation of the Social Security system, which subsequently shaped their structure, governance, and generosity. After reviewing this history, we employ data from all 50 states to estimate a pension benefit equation for hypothetical workers and explain differences in the generosity of plans across states and types of workers covered. We show that population growth, plan funding, union representation, and participation in Social Security influenced the generosity of the plans

Assessment of Contractor's Extension of Time Claim (Eot)

Project Management tools and techniques are simply the process of coordinating the contractor's resources to achieve the Employer's Target. Each project has its own level of project management tailored to the project unique case. In project initiation stage, various inputs drive the main project key assumptions relevant to Project Scope, Duration, Cost and Stakeholders. Those same assumptions could impose a reason for the contractor not to meet project completion date and to be titled as causes of delay or Delay Events. Some of you might understand that since the topic is Time Extension Claim, so we focus on project timeline, this is correct, and within this, we will explain why the "Project Programme of Work (Baseline)" where assigned resources, cost, quantities, and sequence of work will drive Project Progress need to be agreed. Regardless the debate of whither or whither-not, the Baseline is a contractual document, and it requires approval or not, this paper assumes that; the contractor has signed the contract, secured approved programme, and managed to follow all contract clauses to submit a proper extension of time claim. Hence, he/she is concerned about the Contract Administrator action upon receiving this claim, methods of delay analysis, and determination report contents

C-reactive protein as a screening test for gestational diabetes mellitus in first-trimester of pregnancy: a prospective cohort study

Background: The current study aims to determine if increased inflammation identified by increased C-reactive protein (CRP) level is associated with the subsequent development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).Methods: A prospective cohort study conducted at a tertiary University Hospital included 496 booking for their antenatal care visit between 10-12 weeks of gestation. They were tested for presence of CRP in blood. All women without a history of antenatal type 1 or type 2 diabetes undergo routine GDM screening with the 50-g oral glucose-loading test (GLT) between 24 and 28 weeks 'gestation. Women whose 1-h post-loading plasma glucose level >7.8 mmol/l (>140 mg/dl) undergo a diagnostic, fasting, 100-g, 3-h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) within 1-2 weeks following the GLT.Results: Among these 496 women, a total of 27 women (5.4%) were diagnosed as GDM and 10 women (2.0%) were diagnosed as IGT at week 24-28. The CRP was positive and higher in the GDM diagnosed group (p=0.000) compared to those who did not develop GDM. CRP was positively correlated with diagnosis of GDM (r=0.438, p=0.012).Conclusions: There is an association between first-trimester inflammation, marked by increased CRP levels and subsequent risk of GDM

Hydraulic performance of sluice gate with unloaded upstream rotor

This study presents video analysis of the hydraulic performance of a sluice gate with an unloaded upstream built-in rotor. A number of laboratory experiments were  conducted using two unloaded rotor shapes. The first was the cross-shaped rotor and the second was the Savonius-like rotor. A new video analysis technique was  introduced for measuring rotor angular speed and its perturbation. Swift speed  cameras and Tracker software were used to measure the upstream backwater depth and to estimate the instantaneous variation of the rotor speed. The study shows that adding a rotor upstream of the gate caused the upstream water level to increase  such that the averaged normalized afflux increased to 1.72 and 0.9 for the cross-shaped and the Savonius rotors, respectively. Lab experiments indicated that the water flow–structure interaction for the sluice-rotor is quite complex and nonlinear. Two main flow regimes were distinguished. The flow regimes are: the flow through a rotor with possible weir flow conditions and the orifice flow conditions. The  time-averaged angular speed of the tested Savonius-like rotor ranged between 0 and 300 r/min. As the upstream backwater depth increased, the angular speed  increased; however, the rate was significantly lower for the orifice flow condition compared to the flow under rotor and weir flow conditions. The video analysis also indicated that significant perturbation exists for the rotor angular speed. The  normalized perturbation intensity varied from a minimum of 8% to a maximum of 60%.Keywords: sluice gate, rotor, angular speed, video analysis, hydropowe

Emerging relationship between vitamin D and LL-37 in the immune system’s response to infection and their possible role in combating sepsis

Background: In patients who are critically unwell, sepsis could be one of major causes of mortality as well as many complications. Sepsis is the medical term describing dysfunctional body reaction to infection that results in dysfunctions in various body systems and hence severe organ failure could occur. A rise of 2 or more points in the sequential organ failure evaluation is an early indicator of organ dysfunction (SOFA score). Severe organ failure can occur if sepsis is left untreated. An infection-controlling effect of vitamin D has been demonstrated. With an increase in cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (AMP) LL-37, human skin, blood plasma, monocytes, and macrophages are all affected. LL-37 and other AMPs, which operate directly against bacteria, regulate numerous innate and adaptive immunological functions. Objective: To make an overview of role of lack of vitamin D (25(OH) D) as well as AMP, LL-37, as risk factors for sepsis. Conclusion: Severe infections, as well as sepsis, have been linked to a deficiency of vitamin D. However, it is not yet clear what the underlying linkage and its clinical consequence is between sepsis and respiratory tract infections as well as critical illness