Integrated reporting and firms' performance of listed ICT companies in Nigeria

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of corporate performance of 9 listed ICT companies in Nigeria over a period of ten years (2011 – 2020). MVA and ROA were employed as market and financial based measures of performance and controlling for Leverage, Firm size and Age. Panel regression was employed using fixed effect model to test the study hypothesis. The findings from the analysis revealed a positive and significant association between IRINDEX and MVA while the result was insignificant between ROA and IRINDEX. All the control variables were significantly associated with IRINDEX. The model was also significant with f-statistics probability significant at 1% (0.000) level. The model account for about 66.21% variation in IRINDEX. The study therefore concluded that, corporate performance affect IR only in the long-run. The study recommended that, regulatory agencies in Nigeria should enact laws that make it mandatory for quoted companies to adopt IR or grant tax credit to voluntary compliers and lastly, managers should strive to adopt IR not minding its cost implication in the short-run as the benefit will accrue in the long-run.

Event Volunteer Satisfaction Research on the Relationship between the Service Performances—Based on Analysis of the Mediation Effect of Psychological Contract

In this paper, 287 volunteers from the 11th Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities were investigated, the relationship among job satisfaction, service performance and psychological contract of volunteers in sports events was studied by using correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis, to examine the mediating effect of psychological contract on satisfaction and service performance of event volunteers. The results show that (1) there is a significant correlation between satisfaction, service performance and psychological contract, and the positive correlation Coefficient between satisfaction and service performance is 0.448, the correlation coefficient between satisfaction and psychological contract was r = 0.342, and the positive correlation coefficient between psychological contract and service performance was r = 0.827, both of which had significant level on P & Lt; 0.01 (2) psychological contract and job satisfaction have positive influence on service performance. The higher the degree of psychological contract and job satisfaction, the better the service performance. (3) the degree of satisfaction with the work of the match volunteers can effectively improve the achievement of the psychological contract, and the achievement of the psychological contract is conducive to the improvement of the service performance of the match volunteers, psychological contract has a significant mediating effect between satisfaction and service performance. The direct effect (0.1599) and the mediating effect (0.227) of this model account for 41% and 59% of the total effect (0.3869) respectively. Therefore, a sound communication channel should be established between the organizers and the volunteers, a scientific and reasonable incentive mechanism should be established, the management level of the organizers of the Games should be raised, and the degree of work satisfaction and psychological contract of the volunteers should be enhanced, improve the service performance, enhance the influence of the competition.

Sequence-based hazard analysis for Italy considering a grid seismic source model

Earthquakes are usually clustered in both time and space and, within each cluster, the event of highest magnitude is conventionally identified as the mainshock, while the foreshocks and the aftershocks are the events that occur before and after it, respectively. Mainshocks are the earthquakes considered in the classical formulation of the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), where the contribution of foreshocks and aftershocks is usually neglected. In fact, it has been shown that it is possible to rigorously, within the hypotheses of the model, account for the effect of mainshock-aftershocks sequences by means of the sequence-based PSHA (i.e., SPSHA). SPSHA extends the usability of the homogeneous Poisson process, adopted for mainshocks within PSHA, to also describe the occurrence of clusters maintaining the same input data of PSHA; i.e., the seismic rates derived by a declustered catalog. The aftershocks’ occurrences are accounted for by means of conditional non-homogeneous Poisson processes based on the modified Omori law. The seismic source model for Italy has been recently investigated, and the objective of the study herein presented is to include and evaluate the effect of aftershocks, by means of SPSHA, based on a new grid model. In the paper, the results of PSHA and SPSHA are compared, considering the spectral and return periods that are of typical interest for earthquake engineering. Finally, a comparison with the SPSHA map based on a well- established source model for Italy is also provided.

Interpretation Bias Across Body Dysmorphic, Social Anxiety and Generalized Anxiety Disorder—A Multilevel, Diffusion Model Account

Background Interpretation biases are suggested to be transdiagnostic phenomena, but have rarely been compared across different disorders and current concerns. Methods We investigated explicit, decision-based, and more implicit, reaction time-based interpretation bias in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD; N = 29), social anxiety disorder (SAD; N = 36), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; N = 22), and non-clinical controls (NC; N = 32), using an adapted Word Sentence Association Paradigm (WSAP). Results Results indicated that interpretation bias occurred transdiagnostically, while content-specific bias patterns varied meaningfully across groups. BDD and SAD shared explicit and, more inconsistently, implicit interpretation biases for appearance-related and social situations. The GAD group exhibited an explicit and implicit negative interpretation bias for general situations, and an additional implicit lack of positive bias. Mechanistic Wiener diffusion model analyses revealed that interpretation bias patterns were mainly driven by speeded information uptake, potentially mirroring disorder-specific associative memory organization. Conclusions These findings have important implications for understanding interpretation biases as both etiological and treatment factors.

Semiparametric regression of the illness-death model with interval censored disease incidence time: An application to the ACLS data

To investigate the effect of fitness on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality using the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, we develop a semiparametric illness-death model account for intermittent observations of the cardiovascular disease incidence time and the right censored data of all-cause mortality. The main challenge in estimation is to handle the intermittent observations (interval censoring) of cardiovascular disease incidence time and we develop a semiparametric estimation method based on the expectation-maximization algorithm for a Markov illness-death regression model. The variance of the parameters is estimated using profile likelihood methods. The proposed method is evaluated using extensive simulation studies and illustrated with an application to the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study data.

Interpretation bias across body dysmorphic, social anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder – a multilevel, diffusion model account

Interpretation biases are suggested to be transdiagnostic phenomena, but have rarely been compared across disorders and current concerns. We investigated explicit, decision-based and more implicit, reaction time-based interpretation bias in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD; N = 29), social anxiety disorder (SAD; N = 36), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; N = 22), and non-clinical controls (NC; N = 32), using an adapted Word Sentence Association Paradigm (WSAP). Results indicated that interpretation bias occurred transdiagnostically, while content-specific bias patterns varied meaningfully across groups. BDD and SAD shared explicit and, more inconsistently, implicit interpretation biases for appearance-related and social situations. The GAD group exhibited a negative interpretation bias for general situations, and an additional implicit lack of positive bias. Mechanistic Wiener diffusion model analyses revealed that interpretation bias was mainly driven by speeded information uptake, potentially mirroring disorder-specific associative memory organization. These findings have important implications for the understanding of interpretation biases as both etiological and treatment factors.

Influence of Food Consumption on Food Production in Ibadan Oyo State

Aims: The study determined the influence of food consumption on food production in Ibadan, Oyo State. It identified the predominant food produced; assessed the prevalent food consumption pattern; identified the underlying factors affecting food consumption, and determined the influence of food consumption patterns on food production in Ibadan, Oyo State. Study Design: The study employed public opinion survey. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Ibadan Oyo state, Nigeria between June 2018 and December 2018. Methodology: Using the multistage sampling technique, data for the study were collected from a sample of two hundred and four (204) respondents. Results: The result revealed that the predominant food produced in Ibadan included cereals, roots and tubers, legumes and nuts, meat and dairy products, fruits and leafy vegetables. The result revealed that respondents’ consumption pattern is spread across all the food groups. Factors determining the consumption of food were identified to include increased food prices (178%), seasonality of some crop (201%), cultural believes (202%), religious believes (194), personal traits (176%), ease of preparation (108%), affordability (172%), income (198%), taste (161%), and availability (181%). The joint effect of the explanatory variable in the model account for 75.9% of the variations in the factors affecting the quantity of food produced. Given that the F- statistics of 214.440 is significant at 1% level of significance, and the computed F- value higher than the F-tabulated value of (1.94) at 5% level of significance, therefore, the hypothesis that food consumption patterns have significant influence on food production was accepted. Conclusion: The study thus concludes that food consumption patterns influences food production significantly in the study

Extensile motor activity drives coherent motions in a model of interphase chromatin

The 3D spatiotemporal organization of the human genome inside the cell nucleus remains a major open question in cellular biology. In the time between two cell divisions, chromatin—the functional form of DNA in cells—fills the nucleus in its uncondensed polymeric form. Recent in vivo imaging experiments reveal that the chromatin moves coherently, having displacements with long-ranged correlations on the scale of micrometers and lasting for seconds. To elucidate the mechanism(s) behind these motions, we develop a coarse-grained active polymer model where chromatin is represented as a confined flexible chain acted upon by molecular motors that drive fluid flows by exerting dipolar forces on the system. Numerical simulations of this model account for steric and hydrodynamic interactions as well as internal chain mechanics. These demonstrate that coherent motions emerge in systems involving extensile dipoles and are accompanied by large-scale chain reconfigurations and nematic ordering. Comparisons with experiments show good qualitative agreement and support the hypothesis that self-organizing long-ranged hydrodynamic couplings between chromatin-associated active motor proteins are responsible for the observed coherent dynamics.