189,606 research outputs found
The Basu measure as an indicator of conditional conservatism: Evidence from U.K. earnings components
No full textFollowing the work of Basu in 1997, the excess of the sensitivity of accounting earnings to negative share return over its sensitivity to positive share return (the Basu coefficient) has been interpreted as an indicator of conditional accounting conservatism. Although this interpretation is supported by substantial evidence that the Basu coefficient is associated with likely demands for conservatism, concerns have arisen that it may reflect factors not directly related to conservatism, and that this may adversely affect its validity as an indicator of that phenomenon. We argue that evidence on the validity of the Basu coefficient as an indicator of conditional conservatism can be obtained by disaggregating earnings into components, classifying those components by whether or not they are likely to be affected by conditional conservatism, and examining whether the Basu coefficient arises primarily from components likely to be affected by conditional conservatism. We implement this procedure for UK firms reporting under FRS 3: Reporting Financial Performance from 1992 to 2004. Although a substantial proportion of the Basu coefficient emanates from cash flow from operating and investing activities (CFOI), which cannot directly reflect accounting conservatism, its incidence across other components of earnings is predominantly within those components likely to be affected by conditional conservatism. Also, although the bias documented by Patatoukas and Thomas in 2009 is present in all of our aggregate earnings measures, it is heavily concentrated in the CFOI component of earnings and largely absent from components classified as likely to be affected by conditional conservatism. With the important caveat that researchers should test the robustness of their results to the exclusion of the element of the Basu coefficient due to cash flows, our findings are consistent with the conditional conservatism interpretation of the coefficient
Benchmarking the Effective Literacy Rate
No full textBy now the importance of literacy in the process of development is widely accepted. However, unlike measuring welfare or inequality, the problem of literacy measurement remains largely unexamined. Alternatives to the standard literacy rate, R, equal to the number of literate adults as a percentage of the adult population, are not well known, but this measure has its deficiencies. In particular, several authors have identified the externality accruing to proximate illiterates, that is, illiterate people with access to a literate person. The standard literacy rate ignores this externality; measures of effective literacy are sensitive to it. The present note offers two effective literacy rates (measures) and a set of axioms characterizing each. Nearly all measures of effective literacy appearing in the literature are greater than or equal to R. In fact, the best known of these, the Basu-Foster measure L*, is strictly greater in virtually every case (see Basu and Foster [1]). Although the inequality L* >= R is an unintended consequence of their construction, it amounts to setting a benchmark for the effective literacy rate. This notes examines Basu and Foster's framework and offers an alternative benchmark.
Deposition and characterisation of sputtered Nickel manganate thin films
No full textThis work investigates the structural and electrical properties of both bulk and r magnetron sputtered thin films of spinel structured Ni(_x)Mn(_3-x)0(_4=8) material system. The distribution of the LDOS of the thin films is also studied using STS. A rf magnetron sputtering system capable of reactive sputtering in a range of argon/oxygen ambients was designed, constructed and commissioned in the first phase of this work. The system was optimised in terms of the effect of various process parameters on the growth rate using factorial experimental design technique. Incident power, substrate to target distance and oxygen percentage in the ambient was found to be the most significant. The effect of different sintering temperatures was investigated for five different compositions of the NhMn3-x04+s material system. Monophase material could not be prepared without prolonged annealing at 800 C after sintering at higher temperatures. This was in contradiction with the published phase diagram of the material and hence a modified scheme was proposed. The lattice parameter of the spinel phase increased with decreasing nickel content. Grain growth was found to be exponentially dependent on the sintering temperature. The R-T characteristics below 300K followed the Shklovskii and Efros VRH model (To -2x10(^5) K) and a change to the NNH model (∆E -330 meV) was observed above 300K. The resistivity of the material was dependent on both the ratio of Ni:Mn and the oxygen stoichiometry (varying from 1.2 Kohm-cm up to 30 Kohm-cm).The as-deposited films showed poor crystallinity, hence post deposition annealing at 800 C was required. The microstructure and the degree of preferred orientation were found to be dependent on the substrate temperature and post deposition annealing. The lattice parameter of the films was lower than the target. The NNH model best described the R-T characteristics of the films deposited at low oxygen content <2.5% (∆E -360 meV) whereas films deposited at higher oxygen content could be better described by the Shklovskii and Efros VRH model {To -2.4 x 10^ K). The resistivity of the films decreased with increasing oxygen in the ambient in the as-deposited state, however after annealing the resistivity of all the films became similar and much lower than the target. The distribution of the LDOS of the films, using STS, was found to be parabolic and in agreement with the assumption in the Shklovskii and Efros VRH model. Additional features were observed in the LDOS with increasing temperatures (~±0.15 eV and ~+1.6 eV) however the changes were completely reversible with temperature
Consistent estimation of conditional conservatism
No full textIn this paper, we propose an econometric model that presents three advantages in relation to the Basu model: (1) it is robust to the aggregation problem; that is, we prove that the Basu model produces inconsistent estimations of conditional conservatism and that this problem is solved with our proposal; (2) it can produce firm-specific measures of conservatism by using time-series; and (3) it completes the understanding of the intercept in the Basu model by breaking it down between unconditional conservatism and the reversion of the differences between market and book values of equity. In other words, we can provide firm-specific measures of both conditional and unconditional conservatism with the same model. We demonstrate all these theoretical assertions using simulated dataAccounting conservatism, Conditional conservatism, Unconditional conservatism, The Basu model, Aggregation effect
Measurement of selective effect of insulin on glucose disposal from labeled glucose oral test minimal model
No full textThe oral glucose minimal model (OMM) measures insulin sensitivity (S(I)) and the glucose rate of appearance (R(a)) of ingested glucose in the presence of physiological changes of insulin and glucose concentrations. However, S(I) of OMM measures the overall effect of insulin on glucose utilization and glucose production. In this study we show that, by adding a tracer to the oral dose, e.g., of a meal, and by using the labeled version of OMM, OMM* to interpret the data, one can measure the selective effect of insulin on glucose disposal, S(I)*. Eighty-eight individuals underwent both a triple-tracer meal with the tracer-to-tracee clamp technique, providing a model-independent reference of the R(a) of ingested glucose (R(a meal)(ref)) and an insulin-modified labeled intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT*). We show that OMM* provides not only a reliable means of tracing the R(a) of ingested glucose (R(a meal)) but also accurately measures S(I)*. We do so by comparing OMM* R(a meal) with the model-independent R(a meal)(ref) provided by the tracer-to-tracee clamp technique, while OMM* S(I)* is compared with both S(I)(* ref), obtained by using as known input R(a meal)(ref), and with S(I)* measured during IVGTT*
Minimal model estimation of glucose absorption and insulin sensitivity from oral test: validation with a tracer method. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab.
No full textMeasuring insulin sensitivity during the physiological milieu of oral glucose perturbation, e.g., a meal or an oral glucose tolerance test, would be extremely valuable but difficult since the rate of appearance of absorbed glucose is unknown. The reference method is a tracer two-step one: first, the rate of appearance of glucose (R(a meal)(ref)) is reconstructed by employing the tracer-to-tracee ratio clamp technique with two tracers and a model of non-steady-state glucose kinetics; next, this R(a meal)(ref) is used as the known input of a model describing insulin action on glucose kinetics to estimate insulin sensitivity (SI(ref)). Recently, a nontracer method based on the oral minimal model (OMM) has been proposed to estimate simultaneously the above quantities, denoted R(a meal) and SI, respectively, from plasma glucose and insulin concentrations measured after an oral glucose perturbation. This last method has obvious advantages over the tracer method, but its domain of validity has never been assessed against a reference method. It is thus important to establish whether or not the "nontracer" R(a meal) and SI compare well with the "tracer" R(a meal)(ref) and SI(ref). We do this comparison on a database of 88 subjects, and it is very satisfactory: R(a meal) profiles agree well with the R(a meal)(ref) and correlation of SI(ref) with SI is r = 0.86 (P < 0.0001). We conclude that OMM candidates as a reliable tool to measure both the rate of glucose absorption and insulin sensitivity from oral glucose tests without employing tracers
THE CRYSTAL SPECTRUM OF VANADYLACETYLACETONE
No full text G. Basu, W. A. Yeranos and R. L. Belford, Inorg. Chem., (accepted for publication). Joel Selbin, T. R. Ortolano, and Fred J. Smith, Inorg. Chem., 2, 1315 (1963).Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, University of IllinoisThe single crystal absorption spectrum of vanadylacetylacetone, between , has been obtained as a function of temperature. A new band as well as structures on previously known bands have been . Implication of these results and a comparison with the solution spectrum, as well as with the frozen solution spectrum of , shall be discussed
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Assessment of insulin action on carbohydrate metabolism: physiological and non-physiological methods.
No full textCarbohydrate metabolism in humans is regulated by insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells and glucose disposal by insulin-sensitive tissues. Insulin facilitates glucose utilization in peripheral tissues and suppresses hepatic glucose production. Any defects in insulin action predispose an individual to glucose intolerance and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Early detection of defects in insulin action could provide opportunities to prevent or delay progression of the disease state. There are different approaches to assess insulin action. Initial methods, such as peripheral insulin concentration and simple indices, have several limitations. Subsequently, researchers developed methodologies using intravenous glucose infusion to determine glucose fluxes. However, these methodologies are limited by being non-physiological. Newer, innovative techniques that have been developed are more sophisticated and physiological. By modelling glucose kinetics using isotope dilution techniques, several robust parameters can be obtained that are physiologically relevant and sound. This brief review summarizes most of the non-physiological and physiological methodologies used to measure the variables of insulin action
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