Sustainable and responsible investment funds in Europe

Purpose The sustainable and responsible investing (SRI) is the part of sustainable investment which focusses on mutual funds. The purpose of this paper is to map and evaluate all the active European SRI funds, their performances and correlation with the national identity. Design/methodology/approach The sample of the research was analysed with descriptive statistics, mainly the frequency, the mean and the correlation analysis. A well-known volatility is represented by the synthetic risk and reward indicator (SRRI). Other two ratings are the environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds score distribution and the ESG funds letter rating distribution. Findings SRI investment may seem to be performing better than in the funds with a different focus. The segment of SRI funds will grow for the next decade. Research limitations/implications There is a lack of definitions and clear metrics for sustainable investing. For better performance, it would be also appropriate to examine each country separately. Practical implications This paper is part of the project targeting to design a model and methodology of SI evaluation taking into account ESG factors and risks, including profitability in a selected sector. This model can be used by investors for better decision-making. Social implications The paper focusses on the funds selecting investments that fulfil ESG criteria, which are part of the social responsibility and sustainability. Originality/value An analysis of the current approaches to evaluating investments shows that the key barrier in the transitions to sustainable investment is not taking into account the ESG factors. The research in this paper includes the ESG factors in the evaluation.

Flatter Is Better

It is well known that explicit user ratings in recommender systems are biased toward high ratings and that users differ significantly in their usage of the rating scale. Implementers usually compensate for these issues through rating normalization or the inclusion of a user bias term in factorization models. However, these methods adjust only for the central tendency of users’ distributions. In this work, we demonstrate that a lack of flatness in rating distributions is negatively correlated with recommendation performance. We propose a rating transformation model that compensates for skew in the rating distribution as well as its central tendency by converting ratings into percentile values as a pre-processing step before recommendation generation. This transformation flattens the rating distribution, better compensates for differences in rating distributions, and improves recommendation performance. We also show that a smoothed version of this transformation can yield more intuitive results for users with very narrow rating distributions. A comprehensive set of experiments, with state-of-the-art recommendation algorithms in four real-world datasets, show improved ranking performance for these percentile transformations.

Automation of the Process of Modelling Sales Volume Dynamics of Light Weight Vehicles in the Russian Market, Using Customer Satisfaction as a Yardstick

This paper takes a look at the questions surrounding the analysis of sales volume forecast of light weight vehicle of selected Makes/Brands in the Russian Market, taking into consideration the rating distribution of customer satisfaction. The link between the changes and fluctuations in the sales of LWV in combination with the cyclical processes of the level of economic activity is being considered.

Is Your Restaurant Worth the Risk? A Motivational Perspective on Reviews’ Rating Distribution and Volume

This research aims to understand diners’ risk-taking tendencies when referring to online reviews to make restaurant decisions as a function of dining motivations (i.e., intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations). Two experiments jointly reveal that given a positive valence, restaurants with a centralized rating distribution are preferred over those with a polarized rating distribution, and such a preference is accounted for by perceived risk. The preference for restaurants with a centralized (vs. polarized) rating distribution is more pronounced among customers exhibiting extrinsic motivation compared with those exhibiting intrinsic motivation. In addition, a high rating volume can temper the negative effects of polarized reviews on dining decisions among intrinsically motivated consumers but not extrinsically motivated consumers. Consistent with our theorization, the dining motivation– and rating volume–conditioned effects of rating distribution on restaurant visit intention are also mediated by perceived risk. These findings provide important insights for academic researchers and managerial practitioners.

The CEFR Rating Scale Functioning: An Empirical Study on Self- and Peer Assessments

One of the criticisms on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) rating scales pertains to the lack of reference to the performance of learners in the construction process of the scales. Therefore, this study attempted to delve into rating scale functioning by English as a Second Language (ESL) learners during self-assessment and peer assessment of their oral proficiency practice. Two objectives guided the study: 1) to gauge the overall rating scale functioning and 2) to measure each criterion scaling structure. Three self- and peer assessments’ cycles were conducted in three months. In each cycle, eleven learners recorded their own speech, uploaded their video clips to a private YouTube channel and assessed their own videos as well as selected peers based on five CEFR oral assessment criteria with six levels of ratings (A1-C2). Findings revealed that four of the CEFR levels were utilised (B1-C2). Categories A1 and A2 (basic user level) however, were not observed during the practice. Analysis from the Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) indicated that utilised categories seemed to function usefully since each category observed was advancing by more than 1.4 logits. Category B2 dominated four criteria of ratings awarded while B1 dominated the rating distribution for fluency. The implications of this study will be discussed in relation to rating scale development, specifically on matching learners’ proficiency to the psychometrically developed rating criteria as well as illustrating assessment as learning approach in the ESL classroom where learners become the key assessors for their own performance.

Pediatric cancer: epidemiologic profile of attended children in a reference center in the state of Para

Aim: To describe the epidemiological findings of children diagnosed with cancer in a referral center.Material and Methods: Daily at Ophir Loyola Hospital visits were made - Belém / PA, in clinical pediatric oncology sector, from December 2013 to June 2014. The sample comprised 46 children 2-12 years, diagnosed with cancer, which was already or would begin anticancer treatment. A questionnaire containing questions about family, socioeconomic and environmental aspects was applied..Results: The most frequent neoplasia LLA was followed by nephroblastoma, neuroblastoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and osteosarcoma. The genre most affected by childhood cancer was male. The age group with the predominant prevalence were children aged 8-12 years. By observing the religious belief that it was possible to detect most practiced Catholicism. The practice of sports is not part of the daily lives of these children. The origin of these families had dominated for deriving from the state. As the rating distribution of households according to the Economic Classification Criterion Brazil, the two classes were most frequently C2 and D. Conclusions: We sought, in this article, to demonstrate the epidemiological profile of children seen at a referral center in the state of Para. Research like this, identifying population groups at highest risk or with more unfavorable prognosis, provide health authorities and researchers in the area of cancer with an important instrument in the definition of health necessary for proper control and prevention of the disease.