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Impact of Inflation on the Cost of Capital: Evidence from the United States
No full textThis paper investigates the differential impact of expected vs unexpected inflation on the weighted
average cost of capital (WACC) of US firms. While both measures have positive and significant
impacts on WACC, economically meaningful effects are observed only for unexpected inflation.
When WACC is disaggregated into its components, similar findings are observed for the cost of
equity, but not for the cost of debt. During periods of high inflation, unexpected inflation does
have a significant effect on the cost of debt, and its effect on the cost of equity is augmented. In
contrast with some of the recent literature that does not consider inflation, we find a negative and
significant relationship between WACC and investment levels, which is in accordance with theory.
However, we do not find a significant relationship between the cost of capital and research and
development (R&D) expenditures. This is consistent with the hypothesis that R&D decisions are
based on internal financing sources
The Influence of Low- versus High-Threat Fear Appeals on Advertisement Believability for Eco-Friendly Fashion Brands: Exploring the Moderating Effects of Message Framing and Consumer Involvement
Get PDFDespite the widespread prevalence of greenwashing and escalating consumer skepticism in the sustainability sector, limited research exists on identifying ways to enhance the believability of eco-friendly fashion brands’ communications. This gap is critical, especially given the need to promote such brands, considering the harmful environmental and health effects of unsustainable fashion practices. The current research aims to address this gap by investigating the interplay of fear appeal threat level, message framing, and consumer message involvement on message believability, which is critical in shaping consumer attitudes and purchase intentions toward eco-friendly fashion brands. Through a pre-test and two online experiments, the results suggest that high-threat fear appeals are likely to increase advertising message believability compared to low-threat fear appeals (Study 2). Additionally, it was found that in the low-threat condition, there was a slight preference for promotion-focused advertisements over prevention-focused ones in terms of believability (Study 1). Furthermore, in instances of low-threat fear appeals, heightened consumer involvement might enhance the believability of advertising messages (Study 2). The study also explores the downstream effects of message believability on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions (Study 2). This study investigates the persuasive power of fear appeals in the realm of eco-friendly fashion, identifying cues to enhance message believability and offering actionable strategies for marketers to address consumer skepticism. Furthermore, it proposes strategies to augment the effectiveness of governmental campaigns aimed at encouraging more sustainable consumption habits within the fashion industry
The Impact of Crisis on Strategic Corporate Activities: Determinants of M&A and Defensive Use of Buybacks
Get PDFThere is an extensive literature on the determinants of the likelihood of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), however, there is limited research on how a crisis impacts the likelihood of M&A. We examine a sample of 20,076 events to investigate the direction of influence of two
distinct crises (the financial crisis and Covid-19) on the likelihood of M&A. In addition, we assess the impact of M&A likelihood on the probability of buyback announcements as buybacks can be used as a defensive strategy against M&A attempts. We find smaller firms with higher liquidity and leverage are more likely to be targeted post-crisis. Additionally, we note that while bidders were more inclined towards more profitable firms following the financial crisis, less profitable firms were more appealing acquisition candidates after the Covid-19 crisis. Tobin’s Q was not statistically significant during post-crisis periods. We find that the probability of announcing a buyback is positively related to the likelihood of being a target in the pre-crisis periods, however, this relationship disappears post-crisis. It appears that firms reassess their use of share repurchases to deter acquirers in the event of a crisis. Our robustness tests highlight the importance of studying the impact of each crisis independently and show that our findings are not driven by random variation
Saturation-based Algebraic Reasoning for Description Logic ALCHQ
Get PDFIn this work we present a novel calculus for the description logic ALCHQ implemented in a reasoner named Avalanche. ALCHQ permits intersection, disjunction, and negation of concepts. It also allows existential and universal restrictions, role hierarchy, and qualified number restrictions that are of particular interest to us. Avalanche incorporates a number of widely applied and well known optimization techniques such as saturation, resolution, and linear optimization. We apply saturation to create a compressed version of a saturation graph. As a result, the overall size of the constructed model can be kept reasonably small. We employ resolution techniques in order to reason on disjunctions that are part of our calculus. Finally and most importantly, we leverage linear optimization to handle qualified number restrictions. We transform qualified number restrictions into linear programs and then apply the Branch-and-Price algorithm to solve them in the most efficient way. This novel approach gives us a clear advantage over the other reasoners that implement a more traditional procedure to deal with qualified number restrictions as there are ontologies containing entailments caused by the presence of qualified number restrictions that can be classified only by Avalanche
Deep learning-based brain ventricle segmentation in Computed Tomography using domain adaptation
No full textAccurate segmentation of brain ventricles from CT scans is crucial for clinical procedures such as ventriculostomy, which involves draining excess fluid from the ventricles to control intracranial pressure. Ventriculostomy is often performed in acute settings, making CT imaging the most commonly available modality. Unlike MRI, there is a lack of publicly available, well-annotated databases for developing CT-based brain segmentation algorithms. Furthermore, there is a need for intuitive confidence measures for segmentation results produced by automated algorithms, such as deep learning methods, which can potentially improve the confidence and accuracy of clinical tasks. To address these needs, we propose an end-to-end uncertainty-aware domain adaptation technique for CT ventricle segmentation. This technique is based on the joint training of translation models and anatomical segmentation, leveraging unpaired MRI and CT scans without segmentation ground truths. For the translation task, we experimented with three different generative models: Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Networks (CycleGAN), Contrastive Learning for Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation (CUT) from GANs, and the Unpaired Neural Schrödinger Bridge (UNSB) from diffusion models, and compared their results. For the segmentation phase, we employed an attention-based residual recurrent U-Net architecture to compare with U-Net and ResNet. Also, considering CycleGAN's challenges with stability and structural consistency, we assessed various methods to understand their impact on translation and segmentation during our end-to-end training process. Additionally, we incorporated Monte Carlo dropouts in both MRI-to-CT translation and CT segmentation to provide an intuitive interpretation of the segmentation results
Optimizing Biomass Conversion Routes for Sustainable Chemical Production.
Get PDFThis research focuses on shifting vital chemical production from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives,
particularly through biomass-based pathways. Promising methods using agricultural waste show
potential for sustainable production, contributing to a resilient, resource-conscious future for the
chemical sector and supporting climate targets through innovative bio-based solutions. The current
research focuses on utilizing bio-based production routes, particularly biochemical pathways
originating from agricultural biomass to derive bio-polyethylene. Six production pathways are analyzed
base on different pretreatment methods: dilute acid, hot water, ammonia fiber explosion, steam
explosion, organic solvent and alkaline. The primary objective is to provide a decision support system
among the available process options and identify promising integrated production routes based on costs,
resources, and energy demands inherent in these processes. This evaluation is conducted using mixed�integer linear programming modeling techniques, which enables the selection of technologies from a
broader range of production routes and optimizes their integration. The results from this modeling
indicate that the dilute acid pretreatment production route proves to be the most cost-efficient, followed
by steam explosion. The findings offer valuable insights into variations in primary resource usage and
energy demands based on the pretreatment methods employed to yield the final product. Investment
costs associated with each process unit facilitate a comparative economic analysis and highlight avenues
for potential cost reduction. This approach aids in assessing the feasibility and advantages of various
bio-based processes toward industrial production, to be complemented by thorough environmental
assessment in future work
Gay Steel Mill: Queer Oral Histories of Deindustrializing Cape Breton
Get PDFQueer history in Canada has often centred around metropolitan areas, like Toronto and Montreal, usually foregrounding social movements. This means that queer histories of the periphery are often overlooked, and that histories of metropole are taken as representative of the national context. In this thesis, I examine queer oral histories of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Through these oral histories I aim to complicate dominant narratives in both queer history and histories of deindustrialization in Canada. Cape Breton is a former steel and coal region in Nova Scotia that underwent a comparatively slow, state-managed deindustrialization in the latter half of the 20th century. Today, like in deindustrialized areas across the world, the “structure of feeling” of industrial life remains, despite plant and mine closure. Often, histories of deindustrialization center around a mythologized white male (and indubitably heterosexual) breadwinner, centering not just workers, but the specific function that masculine industrial labour played in the social reproduction of the Fordist accord in the household. By taking up the life stories of queer people, we can critically examine this centring of the nuclear family in deindustrialization studies. In the first chapter, I offer a theoretical and historiographical intervention arguing for a queer investigation of deindustrialization. In the second chapter, I apply this line of thinking to oral histories of Cape Breton queers, arguing that these narrators’ desires for queer history and queer future are ultimately filtered through the prism of deindustrialization’s half-life
The Influence of Interior Design on High School Students' Well-being and Stress Perceptions: A Case Study of The Math Guru Tutoring Studio
Get PDFThis qualitative case study draws upon personal narratives and academic insights from education, psychology, and interior design, offering a comprehensive exploration of the lived experiences of three high school students at The Math Guru tutoring studio, with a focus on how students perceive the studio's distinct interior design in relation to their experiences of school-related stress and learning. Central to this inquiry is a thematic analysis that considers the founder of The Math Guru’s interior design intentions and how these design choices resonate with students’ perceptions of well-being. The study employs a triangulation approach, with in-depth, semi-structured interviews complemented by on-site photography and observations. The findings illustrate how The Math Guru’s interior design, characterized by its aesthetic appeal, comfortable furniture selection, and adaptable spatial dynamics, contributes to students feeling less stressed, more engaged, and generally happier than in their standard school settings. By offering a detailed description of the role of interior design in shaping students' perceptions and experiences of well-being and learning, this research presents The Math Guru’s homelike design strategy as an inspirational model for future learning environment design. This study aims to act as a catalyst, encouraging secondary education institutions, along with the educators, designers, and policymakers who shape them, to recognize interior design as a valuable approach to enhancing student well-being, particularly in the context of school-related stress
The Last Knight's End
No full textWhat if Ancient American civilizations developed into an advanced technological stage before European ones? What if these advanced civilizations then sailed across the ocean and discovered new lands ruled by monarchs and protected by knights? And what if they invaded these new-found lands to extract crucial resources for their survival, slaughtering anyone who stood in their way, including every single knight except one?
Set in a fictional continent based on medieval Europe, fifteen years after the invasion of a modern Ancient-American-like nation, this novel follows Angmar, a seventeen-year-old hunter who’s obsessed with tales about knights and their adventures to slay monsters and save those in need—stories within the story based on classic medieval-fantasy epics such as Beowulf, Arthurian legends, and Tolkien’s novels. His father having died during the invasion, Angmar was adopted by Henry, an old hunter and war hero who takes care of the town’s orphans. Once Angmar learns that the outlaw known as the gun-breaker, who has the highest bounty ever recorded and is rumoured to be the last knight, was sighted near his town, he becomes determined to go after the terrible bounty
Gratuitous Knot
No full textI am drawn to the nature of routine as a means to understand trauma. A shift in habit can inform, or be informed by, a parallel change in psyche. What can our routines, in the days that follow assault/diagnosis/heartbreak/etc. tell us on a larger scale? How do our spaces, in turn, reflect these changes? I believe that the objects and practices which occupy a space are in direct correlation with the process of living with grief. A poem has the power to float or pace across the page: taking ownership of a space, or compressing itself neatly into a corner. As such, this genre is particularly apt for the work of embodying how spatiality plays into the process of attempting to overcome harm. The project approaches the above through both the poetic form and fiber arts pieces interspersed throughout the project, which serve as evidence of the speaker’s strained relationship with written expression, and their shifting coping mechanisms. The speaker in these poems is concerned with remembering. Snippets of past conversations, visited spaces, and half-baked memories ebb and flow throughout the piece as the seasons carry forward. There is a disconnect between the passage of time and the speaker’s desire to rest at “checkpoints” of certainty in the brain. Ultimately, the thesis concerns itself with healing by actively centering these poems in the body and space