Five-Repetition Sit-to-Stand Test Performance in Healthy Individuals: Reference Values and Predictors From 2 Prospective Cohorts

Objective: The 5-repetition-sit-to-stand (5R-STS) test is an objective test of functional impairment- commonly used in various diseases, including lumbar degenerative disc diseases. It is used to measure the severity of disease and to monitor recovery. We aimed to evaluate reference values for the test, as well as factors predicting 5R-STS performance in healthy adults.Methods: Healthy adults ( > 18 years of age) were recruited, and their 5R-STS time was measured. Their age, sex, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, education level, work situation and EuroQOL-5D Healthy & Anxiety category were recorded. Linear regression analysis was employed to identify predictors of 5R-STS performance.Results: We included 172 individuals with mean age of 39.4 ± 14.1 years and mean BMI of 24.0 ± 4.0 kg/m². Females constituted 57%. Average 5R-STS time was 6.21 ± 1.92 seconds, with an upper limit of normal of 12.39 seconds. In a multivariable model, age (regression coefficient [RC], 0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.05/0.09; p < 0.001), male sex (RC, -0.87; 95% CI, -1.50 to -0.23; p = 0.008), BMI (RC, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.10–0.71; p = 0.010), height (RC, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.04–0.22; p = 0.006), and houseworker status (RC, -1.62; 95% CI, -2.93 to -0.32; p = 0.016) were significantly associated with 5R-STS time. Anxiety and depression did not influence performance significantly (RC, 0.82; 95% CI, -0.14 to 1.77; p = 0.097).Conclusion: The presented reference values can be applied as normative data for 5R-STS in healthy adults, and are necessary to judge what constitutes abnormal performance. We identified several significant factors associated with 5R-STS performance that may be used to calculate individualized expected test times.

Chinese securities investment funds: the role of luck in performance

Purpose The Chinese fund market has witnessed significant developments in recent years. However, although there has been a range of studies assessing fund performance in developed industries, the rapidly developing fund industry in China has received very little attention. This study aims to examine the performance of open-end securities investment funds investing in Chinese domestic equity during the period May 2003 to September 2020. Specifically, applying a non-parametric bootstrap methodology from the literature on fund performance, the authors investigate the role of skill versus luck in this rapidly evolving investment funds industry. Design/methodology/approach This study evaluates the performance of Chinese equity securities investment funds from 2003–2020 using a bootstrap methodology to distinguish skill from luck in performance. The authors consider unconditional and conditional performance models. Findings The bootstrap methodology incorporates non-normality in the idiosyncratic risk of fund returns, which is a major drawback in “conventional” performance statistics. The evidence does not support the existence of “genuine” skilled fund managers. In addition, it indicates that poor performance is mainly attributable to bad stock picking skills. Practical implications The authors find that the top-ranked funds with positive abnormal performance are attributed to “good luck” not “good skill” while the negative abnormal performance of bottom funds is mainly due to “bad skill.” Therefore, sensible advice for most Chinese equity investors would be against trying to “pick winners funds” among Chinese securities investment funds but it would be recommended to avoid holding “losers.” At the present time, investors should consider other types of funds, such as index/tracker funds with lower transactions. In addition, less risk-averse investors may consider Chinese hedge funds [Zhao (2012)] or exchange-traded fund [Han (2012)]. Originality/value The paper makes several contributions to the literature. First, the authors examine a wide range (over 50) of risk-adjusted performance models, which account for both unconditional and conditional risk factors. The authors also control for the profitability and investment risks in Fama and French (2015). Second, the authors select the “best-fit” model across all risk-adjusted models examined and a single “best-fit” model from each of the three classes. Therefore, the bootstrap analysis, which is mainly based on the selected best-fit models, is more precise and robust. Third, the authors reduce the possibility that findings may be sample-period specific or may be a survivor (upward) biased. Fourth, the authors consider further analysis based on sub-periods and compare fund performance in different market conditions to provide more implications to investors and practitioners. Fifth, the authors carry out extensive robustness checks and show that the findings are robust in relation to different minimum fund histories and serial correlation and heteroscedasticity adjustments. Sixth, the authors use higher frequency weekly data to improve statistical estimation.

The Performance of Environmental, Social, and Governance Investment in Thailand

The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment has evolved from the concept of socially responsible investing (SRI) starting in the period concerned with the civil rights movement and social responsibility. The concept of socially responsible investing has evolved into sustainable investment focusing on the companies that show concerns about environmental, social, and governance (ESG). This study aims to investigate the performance of ESG investment in the Stock Exchange of Thailand based on the list of companies with good performances in environmental, social and governance known as “ESG100 Companies” in Thailand. The performance of ESG investment is not different from the corresponding benchmarks. However, the risk of ESG portfolio is lower both in term of total risk and systematic risk, which results in the abnormal performance measured by Jensen’s Alpha. Finally, the list of ESG100 companies does not provide only static information in portfolio selection, but it can also provide information like the persistence in the list or the new inclusion to the list that can help in constructing the investment portfolio and generate abnormal performance.

SCADA data as a powerful tool for early fault detection in wind turbine gearboxes

The different operating conditions of wind turbines pose great challenges for efficient and reliable fault detection. Therefore, a good analysis of wind turbine data is essential in assessing the state of the wind turbines, since the traditional threshold cannot provide a timely warning as it indicates that the malfunction has already occurred. This paper presents a new method for analyzing the actual data of the turbines, using aggregated model consisting of the neighborhood comparison method, K-means clustering and decision tree model to diagnose faults. The wind speed of the adjacent turbines is compared with each other, then other parameters of the same wind speed are also compared with each other. The purpose of comparison is that, the wind turbines which are similar in wind speed are similar in performance as well. This approach helps us to discover the abnormal data for turbine performance with in the normal operating range. The abnormal performance of any turbine destroys the similarity relationship between its data and the neighboring unit’s data. The main advantage of this approach is the possibility to detect the beginning of abnormal performance in real time, a case study using real SCADA data is used to validate this approach, which demonstrates its effectiveness and advantages.

Down-regulation of the Genome Uncoupled 4 Retards Starch Biosynthesis in Rice

BackgroundStarch is the major storage carbohydrate in rice, with essential physical functions for plant growth. The starch biosynthesis in rice employs the cooperation of nucleus and plastid, which requires regulation of the signals from nucleus to plastid. However, the plastid-to-nucleus retrograde signals for starch biosynthesis is partly mediated by tetrapyrrole intermediates, i.e., heme, but the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. In previous studies, we revealed that the Genome Uncoupled 4 (OsGUN4) mutation in rice have been revealed to greatly affect tetrapyrrole intermediates but retain a high photosynthetic capacity. ResultsHere, we further found that down-regulation of OsGUN4 promoted to accumulate sucrose but reduce the total starch, attributing to abnormal performance of metabolisms and enzyme activities of starch biosynthesis in leaves of gun4epi. Besides, the exogenous sucrose led to induced starch synthesis but reduced sucrose contents in wild-type, while norflurazon(NF) treatments could eliminate or weaken these inductions. Nevertheless, no changes were detectedbetween check and sucrose treatments in the gun4epi,whereas NF treatment enhanced the trends of increased sucrose but reduced starch,suggesting the roles of OsGUN4 on balance of photosynthesis and starch biosynthesis. Dynamic activity changes of starch biosynthetic enzymes were in accordance with the contents of carbon metabolites. Moreover, RNA sequencing revealed that a great deal DEGs were associated with starch metabolic pathways, with 62 genes being up-regulated and 25 down-regulated in gun4epi. Many genes involved in starch biosynthesis performed down-regulated expression, including the transcription factor of bZIP58 and its target genes of OsBEIIb and OsSSI, which are vital for the formation of amylopectin and starch granules, while displayed up-regulatedexpression of OsSSIIIa and OsGBSSI that promotes the formation of amylose. ConclusionIn conclusion, these findings confirm that OsGUN4 play regulatory roles on biosynthetic genes and enzyme activity in starch biosynthesis.

The Changes of Gut Microbiota in Drug-Naïve First-Episode MDD Patients Under Treatment by SSRIs

Background Recently, gut microbiota has been found to play an important role during the development of MDD in mice models. Meanwhile, the antidepressant treatment with SSRIs could correct the abnormal performance in mice, and played a dual role of antibiotics. Therefore, this study aims to further explore whether the gut microbiota of MDD patients can be reshaped after receiving SSRI drugs.Methods Thirty patients with drug-naive first-episode MDD and thirty healthy controls were recruited and their samples were collected to complete 16S rRNA sequencing. All patients received standardized treatment with ecitalopram. When the reduction rate of HAMD scale score ≥ 50%, their fecal samples were collected again to sequence as follows group. Bioinformatics analysis was used to understand the changes of gut microbiota before and after treatment.Results A significant difference in gut microbiota abundance was found after treatment with escitalopram. The Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio decreased significantly in the follows group. After treatment, the differences in the classification and metabolic pathways of gut microbiota still existed between follows group and controls. The mainly difference were found as follows: Transport and catabolism, Nervous system, Glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, etc.Conclusions The study found that the gut microbiota of patients with first-episode MDD was similar, but was significantly different from controls. Under escitalopram treatment, the gut microbiota diversity of MDD patients tended to transform to normal. However, there were still some differences of structures and metabolic pathways in microbes between patients and controls, which might be related to the relapse of MDD.

Middle Childhood Adverse Psychomotor Outcomes from Malaria in Pregnancy: A Study using the Denver Developmental Screening Test-II

Objective: to evaluate changes in the development of premature children aged 5 to 6 years, born to mothers with malaria during pregnancy and to compare them to a control group of premature children born to mothers who did not have malaria during pregnancy. Methods: cross-sectional and analytical study. The Denver test-II was applied to 20 children in the study group and 20 children in the control group. Results: in the group of premature children of mothers with malaria during pregnancy, the vast majority showed abnormal performance with more significant changes in the activities of the language sector "define seven words", "say two compound words", "understand four prepositions" and "account five blocks”, “knows three adjectives”. In the fine-adaptive motor sector, the activities "draw people with six parts", "copy disassembled square", "copy +" and in the gross motor sector "swing your foot for six seconds", "swing your foot for five seconds", "swing the foot for four seconds", "rocks the foot for three seconds", were the most important developmental changes. In the control group, the performance of suspected delay or possible abnormality was more concentrated in the gross motor sector. Conclusions: children from 5 to 6 years of age, born prematurely to mothers with malaria during pregnancy, 80% had suspected abnormal performance, a result much higher than the group of children born prematurely to mothers without malaria. These results strongly suggest that malaria disease during pregnancy alters fetal development, producing developmental sequelae that can be detected even at 5 to 6 years of age. In addition, the results support the use of the Denver test-II as a simple screening method for the assessment of delays in child development, covering broad motor coordination (coarse), fine motor coordination (adaptive), language and personal-social adaptation. This test has been used to identify children who are at risk of developing problems and to monitor the child longitudinally.

Long-run equity performance of firms that restate financial statements

Purpose The authors investigate how the stock market reacts to financial restatements using the restatements data from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO-06-678). In particular, the purpose of this paper is to examine the long-run equity performance of the restating firms, for holding periods of one to five years after the announcements of restatements. Design/methodology/approach This paper measures the long-run stock performance of restating firms with the buy-and-hold abnormal returns and time-series regression analyses based on Fama–French’s (1993) three-factor model and Carhart’s (1997) four-factor model. Findings The authors find that restating firms significantly underperform in the long run compared with their peers matched by industry, size and book-to-market. Restating firms’ underperformance is confirmed with time-series regression analyses based on Fama–French’s (1993) three-factor model and Carhart’s (1997) four-factor model. Further, the authors find the negative long-run abnormal performance of restating firms is primarily driven by large firms. The authors also report that self-prompted restatements and improper revenue accounting-triggered restatements result in worse long-run abnormal performance. Originality/value This paper is the first paper that thoroughly investigates the long-run stock returns of the firms that restate financial statements by fully considering the size effect.

The Determinants of the Stock Price Performance of Analyst Recommendations

This study examines the cross-sectional determinants of the price reaction to analysts&rsquo; recommendations disseminated through various type of media and for firms listed in Taiwan stock markets. We measure abnormal returns using the market model of event study. Based on the type of media (traditional media/social media) and the type of exchange (Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE)/Taipei Exchange (TPEx)), we classify the combined sample observations into four samples and run quantile regressions to investigate whether the relation will be uniform across various quantile levels. Our results show that the relation between firm characteristics and cumulative abnormal returns is not homogeneous across various quantiles of abnormal returns. Our evidence indicates that in general the relation tends to be stronger for firms at higher performance quantile levels and tends to be more pronounced for TWSE firms. The strongest relation is found for the Traditional/TWSE sample, where the abnormal returns are positively related to insider ownership and prior-period earnings, and negatively related to institutional shareholding and price-to-book ratio for firms in the highest abnormal performance quantile.

Auditory and Cognitive Behavioral Performance Deficits and Symptom Reporting in Postconcussion Syndrome Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Purpose This study examined auditory deficits and symptom reporting in individuals with long-term postconcussion symptoms following a single mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) compared to age- and gender-matched controls without a history of mTBI. Method Case history interviews, symptom questionnaires, and a battery of central auditory and neuropsychological tests were administered to 2 groups. The mTBI group was a civilian population recruited from a local concussion management program who were seeking rehabilitation for postconcussion-related problems in a postacute period between 3 and 18 months following injury. Symptom validity testing was included to assess the rate of possible insufficient test effort and its influence on scores for all outcome measures. Analyses of group differences in test scores were performed both with and without the participants who showed insufficient test effort. Rates of symptom reporting, correlations among symptoms and behavioral test outcomes, and the relationships between auditory and cognitive test performance were analyzed. Results The mTBI group reported a high rate of auditory symptoms and general postconcussion symptoms. Performance on neuropsychological tests of cognitive function showed some differences in raw scores between groups, but when effort was considered, there were no significant differences in the rate of abnormal performance between groups. In contrast, there were significant differences in both raw scores and the rate of abnormal performance between groups for some auditory tests when only considering participants with sufficient effort. Auditory symptoms were strongly correlated with other general postconcussion symptoms. Conclusions Significant auditory symptoms and evidence of long-term central auditory dysfunction were found in a subset of individuals who had chronic postconcussion symptoms after a single mTBI unrelated to blast trauma. The rate of abnormal performance on auditory behavioral tests exceeded the rate of abnormal performance on tests of cognitive function. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8329955