Effects of New Zealand general elections on stock market returns

This paper examines stock returns under both National and Labour governments in New Zealand, offering further insight into the existence of the political cycle effect. Findings indicate the existence of a political cycle effect in stock returns, consistent with a number of recent studies performed within both Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand’s right-of-centre National party are found to be associated with significantly higher stock returns during their terms in office than their left-of-centre counterparts, the Labour party. Our findings add to a growing body of literature, particularly outside of the United States, where investors can expect stock returns to vary depending upon the governing political party and can make better investment decisions accordingly

Exports, Technical Progress and Productivity Growth in Chinese Manufacturing Industries

Theories suggesting either static or dynamic productivity gains derived from exports often assume the prior existence of a perfect market. In the presence of market failure, however, the competition effect and the resource reallocation effect of exports on productive efficiency may be greatly reduced; and there may actually be disincentives for innovation. This paper analyses the impact of exports on total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a transition economy using a panel of Chinese manufacturing industries over the period 1990-1997. TFP growth is estimated by employing a non-parametric approach and is decomposed into technical progress and efficiency change. We have not found evidence suggesting significant productivity gains at the industry level resulting from exports. Findings of the current study suggest that, for exports to generate significant positive effect on TFP growth, a well?developed domestic market and a neutral, outward-oriented policy are necessary.exports, industrial efficiency, technical progress, productivity

Systematic review of new medics’ clinical task experience by country

OBJECTIVES: There is a need for research which informs on the overall size and significance of clinical skills deficits among new medics, globally. There is also the need for a meta-review of the similarities and differences between countries in the clinical skills deficits of new medics. DESIGN: A systematic review of published literature produced 68 articles from Google/Scholar, of which 9 met the inclusion criteria (quantitative clinical skills data about new medical doctors). PARTICIPANTS: 1329 new medical doctors (e.g., foundation year-1s, interns, PGY1s). SETTING: Ten countries/regions. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 123 data points and representation of a broad range of clinical procedures. RESULTS: The average rate of inexperience with a wide range of clinical procedures was 35.92% (lower CI 30.84%, upper CI 40.99%). The preliminary meta-analysis showed that the overall deficit in experience is significantly different from 0 in all countries. Focusing on a smaller selection of clinical skills such as catheterisation, IV cannulation, nasogastric tubing and venepuncture, the average rate of inexperience was 26.75% (lower CI 18.55%, upper CI 35.54%) and also significant. England presented the lowest average deficit (9.15%), followed by New Zealand (18.33%), then South Africa (19.53%), Egypt, Kuwait, Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Ireland (21.07%), after which was Nigeria (37.99%), then USA (38.5%), and Iran (44.75%). CONCLUSION: A meta-analysis is needed to include data not yet in the public domain from more countries. These results provide some support for the UK General Medical Council’s clear, detailed curriculum, which has been heralded by other countries as good practice

A lower bound for the size of a Minkowski sum of dilates

Let A be a finite non-empty set of integers. An asymptotic estimate of the size of the sum of several dilates was obtained by Bukh. The unique known exact bound concerns the sum |A + k·A|, where k is a prime and |A| is large. In its full generality, this bound is due to Cilleruelo, Serra and the first author. Let k be an odd prime and assume that |A| > 8kk. A corollary to our main result states that |2·A + k·A|=(k+2)|A|-k2-k+2. Notice that |2·P+k·P|=(k+2)|P|-2k, if P is an arithmetic progression.Postprint (author's final draft

Some complement constructions of the Crow Indian language

Thesis. 1975. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics.Bibliography: leaf 37.by Dale Old Horn.M.S

Who did what?: age-related differences in memory for people and their actions

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 20, 2007)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2006.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Psychology.The associative-deficit hypothesis (ADH), proposed by Naveh-Benjamin (2000), holds that the decline in episodic memory that accompanies aging is at least partially due to an inability to bind single units of information into more complex units. In order to extend the ADH to relatively dynamic stimuli, participants in the present experiments viewed a series of brief video clips, each showing a different person performing a different action. Memory for the actions, for the people, and for who did what, was then assessed in recognition tests. Different versions of the tests were completed on the following day.Experiment 1 revealed an associative deficit of older adults under intentional, but not incidental, learning instructions. In Experiment 2, a somewhat similar associative deficit of young adults under divided attention (DA) at both encoding and retrieval test was found. This partially supports Craik's (1983, 1986) idea that older adults have relatively few processing resources. Taken together, results suggest that the age-related associative deficit is partially due to a decline in strategic processing, and to problems which occur during the retrieval processes of older adults

Common Visual Representations as a Source for Misconceptions of Preservice Teachers in a Geometry Connection Course

In this paper, we demonstrate how atypical visual representations of a triangle, square or a parallelogram may hinder students’ understanding of a median and altitude. We analyze responses and reasoning given by 16 preservice middle school teachers in a Geometry Connection class. Particularly, the data were garnered from three specific questions posed on a cumulative final exam, which focused on computing and comparing areas of parallelograms, and triangles represented by atypical images. We use the notions of concept image and concept definition as our theoretical framework for an analysis of the students’ responses. Our findings have implication on how typical images can impact students’ cognitive process and their concept image. We provide a number of suggestions that can foster conceptualization of the notions of median and altitude in a triangle that can be realized in an enacted lesson

Age differences in memory for names : the effect of pre-learned semantic associations

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on August 23, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Moshe Naveh-Benjamin.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.The present experiments investigated whether participants could use basic semantic information about a person (i.e., a "mediator"), such as an occupation, to help link that person's name to his or her face. In each of three experiments, older and younger adults pre-learned associations between semantic information about fictional people (character information or occupations) and names. They then attempted to learn links between faces and either the names or semantic information that had been pre-learned. In the "unmediated" condition, participants learned only one piece of information (either the name or the semantic information) about each face, whereas in the "mediated" condition, they learned both the to-be-tested information as well as the "mediator" (i.e., both the name and the other semantic information). Experiment 1 showed that, at a simple level, both age groups could use character information ("good" or "bad") to help remember people's names, given their faces, when instructed to do so. In Experiment 2, knowing the occupation associated with a name helped both age groups to later remember the name associated with a given face, when they were instructed to use this mediation technique. Experiment 3 showed that this effect occurred, although to a lesser degree, even when participants were not explicitly told to use the mediation technique. Overall, the present experiments show that both younger and older participants can use semantic information about a person (i.e., a "mediator"), such as an occupation, to improve their memory for names given the presentation of a face.Includes bibliographical reference

A national register for surveillance of inherited disorders: beta thalassaemia in the United Kingdom

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the value of a national register for surveillance of services for an inherited disorder. METHODS: Data from the United Kingdom Thalassaemia Register and the United Kingdom Register of Prenatal Diagnosis for Haemoglobin Disorders were combined in a database; these registers include all fetuses known to have been diagnosed with beta thalassaemia major, beta thalassaemia intermedia, or haemoglobin E/beta thalassaemia in the United Kingdom. Data were extracted to show outcomes (selective abortion or live birth) of all fetuses and the status of those born with a disorder (alive, dead, successful bone marrow transplant, or lost to follow-up) by parents' region of residence and ethnicity. FINDINGS: At the end of 1999 the register included 1074 patients, 807 of whom were alive and residing in the United Kingdom. A successful bone marrow transplant has been performed for 117 out of 581 (20%) patients born since 1975. Residents of Pakistani origin are now the main group at risk in the United Kingdom, replacing residents of Cypriot origin. This has led to a marked shift in the need for services from the south-east of England to the Midlands and the north of England. Despite the acceptability of prenatal diagnosis, the proportion of affected births remains 50% higher than would be expected, reflecting a widespread failure to deliver timely screening and counselling to carriers. Even though effective treatment is available the annual number of deaths is rising, indicating that better tolerated treatments are needed. CONCLUSION: A national diagnosis register is a powerful instrument for monitoring the treatment and prevention of inherited disorders and for highlighting correctable shortcomings. In view of the increasing possibilities for genetic screening there is a strong case for central funding for such databases within modern health services