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The price and volume response to earnings announcements in the corporate bond market
No full textWe examine abnormal returns and trading activity in bond markets around earnings announcements. Previous work provides mixed evidence on the relative impact of positive and negative surprises and the degree of response in investment-grade and speculative-grade bonds. We find that these announcements convey value-relevant information for both positive and negative earnings surprises in both investment and speculative-grade bonds. We also document significant heterogeneity in the response across industries, with muted responses in both abnormal returns and trading activity for bonds of firms in the financial and utilities industries
Tourism Development and Air Pollution in Caribbean SIDs: A Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality Analysis
Get PDFThis paper investigates the possibility of Granger causality between tourism development and air pollution in twelve Caribbean small island developing states (SIDs) over the period 1995-2017 in a panel-based model that both allows for the assessment of causality in countries with cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity and avoids the problem of incorrect specification associated with conventional panel unit root and cointegration tests. The empirical results indicate bidirectional causality between tourism and air pollution for Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago; unidirectional causality running from tourism to air pollution in Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, and Guyana; reverse causality from air pollution to tourism in The Bahamas, British Virgin Islands and Haiti, while no causality is found for St. Kitts and Nevis. Our empirical findings provide important policy implications for the Caribbean countries being studied
Antioxidant and tyrosinase docking studies of heterocyclic sulfide derivatives containing a thymol moiety
No full textFourteen heterocyclic sulfide derivatives (4–17) containing a thymol moiety and oxadiazole, thiadiazole, triazole, oxazole, thiazole, imidazole, pyridine or purine heterocycles were synthesized in three steps. The cupric, Cu(II), ion reducing antioxidant capacity of the compounds was examined, and molecular docking studies were performed to determine whether the sulfur, thymol or heterocyclic moieties interact with the Cu ions in tyrosinase, a type-3 copper enzyme. Using the CUPRAC assay, eight compounds (5–8, 10, 15–17) showed equal or better Cu (II) reducing capacity than trolox at neutral pH, with trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) coefficients ranging between 1.00 and 1.48. The compounds containing a thiadiazole moiety were most effective, with the methyl thiadiazole derivative (8) having the highest Cu(II) reducing capacity. Molecular docking studies of the sulfide derivatives with tyrosinase revealed that there were no direct interactions between the sulfur atom and the active site copper ions. However, the compounds displayed two different binding interactions with the histidine-Cu catalytic center. For compounds 4–13, the thymol portion was embedded in the active site cavity, while for compounds 14–17 the heterocyclic portion of the molecule approached the cavity
A Fossil Guide for the Community: The Shale Pit in Beaver Springs PA
No full textThis study produced a fossil guide for the public from a shale pit owned by Spring Township located at Beaver Springs, PA. This shale exposure, located along Shale Pit Road, represents the Sherman Ridge Member of the Mahantango Formation (Middle Devonian- Givetian). At this location, the exposure is composed of 9-10 m of dark, iron-stained greenish-gray shale, however there is a thin, light bluish-gray, iron-stained shaley-sandstone ledge, ~1 m thick, that occurs within the succession. The shale contains rare to sparse bivalves, straight cephalopods, trilobites, several types of gastropods, crinoid stems and a partial calyx, and carbonized wood. The sandstone contains common to abundant brachiopods, bivalves, trilobites, crinoid columnals, and encrusting bryozoans. Additionally, a Skolithos ichnofacies was identified in the shaley sandstone. Findings indicate that the shale and sandstone represent different depositional environments. The shale environment is interpreted to represent a subtidal, low energy/oxygen, sediment starved environment in the photic zone where algae was able to grow; it is representative of a offshore environment. The sandstone environment represents a high energy/oxygen-rich environment, also in the photic zone; it is possibly a shoreface environment. This work provides a picture guide to help identify fossils, useful information about fossil preservation and environmental interpretations, and it provides practical information about the site. It is hoped that the public can use this guide to also identify the fossils in other, nearby locations
ArcGIS Analysis of Riparian Zone Restoration Potential in the Middle Creek – Penns Creek HUC-12 Watershed
Get PDFThe Middle Creek – Penns Creek HUC-12 watershed contains 48.9 miles of impaired streams out of the greater 73.1 miles of waterways within its capacity. The known impaired streams fail, by the water quality standards set by the Department of Environmental Protection, to meet the qualifications necessary to obtain their regulated attainments. In order to restore the waterways, best management practices (BMPs) can be installed to reduce nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and sediment loads. ArcGIS and Model my Watershed are utilized to produce a spatial analysis of the watershed and model how the best management practices will quantitatively reduce nutrient and sediment loads. The result of this study determines the sub-watersheds within the HUC-12 that have the most opportunity for best management practice implementation according to parcel, land use, soil, and impaired stream records. Based on these locations and spatial modeling, the conservation BMPs of streambank stabilization and nutrient management would reduce the most impairments in the headwaters of the Susquehecka Creek. This analysis will support the creation of a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) for this watershed through Section 319 Nonpoint Source Management grant funds
Time will Tell: Redeeming the hours given to us
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to understand the subject of time management and its effects on my personal and professional interactions, specifically as a teacher. A developmental portfolio, student surveys of fourth graders in a lower economic status elementary school, and teacher feedback aligned with the Pennsylvania Department of Education were collectively used to measure the outcomes of time expenditure and teaching practice. Findings showed that time management, teaching practice, and student performance were significantly related. Expressly, prioritization, planning in advance, faith-based community, rest, and reflective practice were major factors demonstrative of an effective educator
Factors Influencing College Students\u27 Implicit and Explicit Biases Towards Those with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities
Get PDFWe examined a variety of factors that might predict college undergraduates’ attitudes toward those with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Contrary to expectations, lifetime exposure to individuals from this population was not a significant predictor of participant attitudes. Interestingly, however, increasing years in college was associated with more positive responses toward those with IDD in an implicit test of attitudes (a customized version of the IAT), even after controlling for participant age. Keywords: implicit bias, explicit bias, Intellectual Developmental Disabilities, Implicit Association Test, IAT, college students, inclusion, exposure, Multidimensional Attitude Scale, MA
Lethal Effects of Common Herbicides on an Agriculturally Important Wolf Spider (Pardosa milvina)
Get PDFHerbicide use in crop systems has increased dramatically over the last fifty years yet the effects of chronic exposure to these chemicals on beneficial non-target arthropods have been poorly tested. We tested the lethal effects of field-relevant dosages of five commonly used herbicides on the economically important wolf spider, Pardosa milvina. Tested herbicides included atrazine, S-metolachlor, rimsulfuron, mesotrione, glyphosate, a mixture of all five herbicides, and a distilled water control. Spiders were housed individually in containers with topsoil previously sprayed with a recommended herbicide dosage or a water control. Tested spiders were collected from two nearby fields; one field was kept under continuous crop rotation for over twenty years and sprayed with various combinations of all of these herbicides (“conventional field) while the other site had no pesticide application for the last 12 years but was maintained under alfalfa cultivation (“no herbicide field”). Adult male and female spiders from each plot were exposed to the seven herbicide treatments (N=1,214, n= 43 spiders across 28 treatments). Spiders were maintained on these soil substrates for 52 days, fed weekly, and checked for mortality daily. We found significant herbicide treatment effects, with mesotrione being particularly lethal to wolf spiders while atrazine and S-metolachlor had modest, but significantly higher survival than the control group. We also found significant differences and treatment interactions by sex and collecting site. In general, male spiders showed significantly shorter survival and spiders from the pesticide-free site had longer survival than spiders collected from a field maintained under constant crop rotation. The mesotrione-treated spiders had significantly poorer survival than even the combined herbicide treatment suggesting a complex antagonistic interaction of some of these herbicides on wolf spider survival. Given that species of Pardosa are found on six continents and occur at high densities in most agricultural systems, use of mesotrione may be particularly counterproductive in systems that rely on integrated pest management and biocontrol using generalist arthropod predators
Chemical Composition and Source Regions of Dry Deposition
Get PDFAir pollutants, such as nitrate, sulfate, and ammonia, can negatively affect the environment and human health. Pollutants can be removed from the atmosphere through dry deposition, in which dry particles and gases contact the ground directly, or wet deposition, in which particles and gases interact with precipitation before reaching the ground. Despite there being two ways particles and gases can be removed from the atmosphere, wet deposition has been studied more routinely and comprehensively than dry deposition. In this research, dry deposition to surfaces covered by dew or frost was examined for its chemical makeup (including cations, anions, and organic acids) and compared to wet deposition using data from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). In addition, source regions of the chemical species were assessed through HYSPLIT back trajectory modeling. Over five weeks from October to November 2019, 10 dry deposition samples were collected and analyzed at a rural college campus in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Each sample was collected over an 11 hour period between dusk and dawn on a 0.84 m2 insulated PTFE surface. Ion chromatography shows ammonium exhibited a higher concentration than any other ions in the study, six times more concentrated than nitrate. Generally, airmasses that impacted the study site during sample collection originated from Canada or other regions to the northwest. These findings and others will provide insight into the role of dry deposition in the removal of pollutants
Exploring War and Translation: A Lost German Soldier\u27s Letter Home
Get PDFIn summer 2019, a man named John Bleich loaned fifty-four pieces of correspondence from World War II to the Blough-Weis Library at Susquehanna University. The letters are written in German and are communication between a German Soldier on the Eastern Front, Adolf Lohmann, and his wife in western Germany, Maria Lohmann, along with some messages to friends and relatives. In 1944, Maria Lohmann is informed that Adolf Lohmann has gone missing. My research project investigates these letters as well as Lohmann’s disappearance. My translation of one of the letters into English gives voice, as it were, to a representative war victim beyond his death, while using relevant translation theories such as those by Walter Benjamin, Paul de Man, and Lawrence Venuti. This capstone project in German Studies was conducted at Susquehanna University under the supervision of Dr. Martina Kolb, Associate Professor of German, with careful guidance from Special Collections Librarian, Meg Garnett, as well as the input of German Fulbright Fellow, Britta Zimniok, and her mother, Claudia Zimniok