Search results for " asymmetry."
showing 10 items of 257 documents
PARASITIC INFECTION AND DEVELOPMENTAL STABILITY: FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN GAMMARUS PULEX INFECTED WITH TWO ACANTHOCEPHALAN SPECIES
2002
Several studies have reported a negative association between developmental stability and parasitic infection. However, the host-parasite associations examined so far consist only of a limited number of parasite taxa, and developmental stability was appraised on definitive hosts. The present study examines the association between infection by 2 acanthocephalan parasites. Pomphorhynchus laevis and Polymorphus minutus, and the developmental stability of their common intermediate host Gammarus pulex. Developmental stability was estimated from the fluctuating asymmetry (FA) levels of 6 morphological traits. A positive association was found between FA and infection. Infected gammarids tended to b…
Gait asymmetry in patients with limb length discrepancy.
2004
Foot loading patterns and neuromuscular function of both limbs during walking were investigated on 25 patients with limb length discrepancy. Plantar pressures and 2-D ground reaction forces were recorded simultaneously with electromyographic activities at two different walking speeds. Bilateral comparison indicated that moderate limb length discrepancies resulted in asymmetrical gait patterns. The duration of the stance phase was reduced in the short limb in both walking speeds. The vertical ground reaction force (F) in the push-off phase was greater in the long limb both at normal (1.33 (SO, 0.05 BW) vs. 1.29 (SD, 0.09 BW)) (P=0.0027) and fast walking speed (1.55 (SD, 0.11) vs. 1.48 (SD, 0…
Infantile postural asymmetry and osteopathic treatment: a randomized therapeutic trial
2005
The aim of this study was to assess the therapeutic efficacy of osteopathic treatment in infants with postural asymmetry. A randomized clinical trial of efficacy with blinded videoscoring was performed. Sixty-one infants with postural asymmetry aged 6 to 12 weeks (mean 9wks) were recruited. Thirty-two infants (18 males, 14 females) with a gestational age of at least 36 weeks were found to be eligible and randomly assigned to the intervention groups, 16 receiving osteopathic treatment and 16 sham therapy. After a treatment period of 4 weeks the outcome was measured using a standardized scale (4-24 points). With sham therapy, five infants improved (at least 3 points), eight infants were uncha…
An empirical investigation into market risk disclosure: is there room to improve for Italian banks?
2020
PurposeThis paper aims to examine the market risk disclosure practices of large Italian banks. The contribution provides insights on the way banks should provide information about market risk. The problem related to the asymmetric information between banks from one side, and investors and stakeholders on the other, represents a crucial issue that requires further considerations by scholars and regulators.Design/methodology/approachThis contribution adopts a mixed methodological approach to analyse both qualitative and quantitative profiles of market risk disclosure in banking. This paper analyses the most important documents Italian banks are required to prepare for risk disclosure purposes…
Potential agency problems in European club football? The case of UEFA Financial Fair Play
2014
Purpose– With the licence season 2013/2014 onwards Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Financial Fair Play (FFP) fully came into force. Among other things, FFP demands from the clubs to operate within their own revenues in order to counteract the increasing over indebtedness in European club football. The purpose of this paper is to cast further light on the relationship between UEFA and the clubs as the main actors of FFP and to derive implications to UEFA to improve the efficacy of this regulatory intervention.Design/methodology/approach– This paper explicitly examines the case of FFP from an agency theory perspective. A positivist agency approach is applied in order to describ…
Optimal vs satisfactory transparency : The impact of global macroeconomic fluctuations on corporate competitiveness
2019
Abstract Being able to separate temporary global macroeconomic influences – caused by fluctuations in exchange rates, interest rates and inflation – from intrinsic performance – related to a superior product, production process or management – is crucial to assessing the development of a firm’s competiveness. Against that background, this paper analyzes institutions’ role in making firms supply outside shareholders with relevant information corresponding to satisfactory transparency from the shareholder perspective. Based on a sample of the 100 largest public European firms, it is found that no firm provided information to a level deemed satisfactory by the outside shareholder. One explanat…
Standard and non-standard neutrino properties
2002
I review the interpretation of solar and atmospheric neutrino data in terms neutrino oscillations and describe some ways to account for the required neutrino masses and mixing angles from first principles, both within top-down and bottom-up approaches. I also discuss non-oscillation phenomena such as nu-less double beta which may probe the absolute scale of neutrino mass, and also reveal its Majorana nature. I note that leptonic CP violation induced by ``Majorana'' phases drop from oscillations but play a role in the leptogenesis scenario for the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. Direct tests of leptonic CP violation in oscillation experiments, such as neutrino factories, will be a tough ch…
Reward crowdfunding contribution as planned behaviour: An extended framework
2019
Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. Reward crowdfunding is a popular channel for entrepreneurial fundraising, whereby backers receive non-monetary benefits in return for monetary contributions while accepting risks of non-delivery on campaign pitch promises. To understand contribution behavior in this context, we apply the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for analyzing contribution intentionality and behavior, as well as their antecedents. We use survey data from 560 users of Finland's leading reward crowdfunding platform– Mesenaatti. Our findings show that an extended TPB model holds for reward crowdfunding and that both financial-contribution…
Overreporting Oil Reserves
2009
An increasing number of oil market experts argue that OPEC members substantially overstate their oil reserves. While the economic implications could be dire, the incentives for overreporting remain unclear. This paper analyzes these incentives, showing that oil exporting countries may overreport to raise expected future supply, discourage oil-substituting R&D, and hence improve their future market conditions. Overreporting, however, comes at a cost since it must be backed by observable actions and therefore induces costly distortions of supply. Surprisingly, these latter can eliminate other distortions that arise regardless of information asymmetries in presence of endogenous technological …
A Further Note on Endogenous Spillovers in a Non-tournament R&D Duopoly
2008
This note considers the paper of Poyago-Theotoky (1999) on strategic R&D with endogenous spillovers. It proves through an example that, under R&D collusion, optimality sometimes requires either minimal or asymmetric spillovers. It also provides a simple sufficient condition for optimal spillovers between colluding firms to involve maximal spillovers (i.e., complete sharing of information).