Strategic Timing Research Articles

La résistance aux anthelminthiques chez les nématodes des équidés

Les cyathostomes et Parascaris equorum sont considérés actuellement comme les parasites les plus importants des chevaux. Les infestations étaient, jusqu’il y a une vingtaine d’années, contrôlées par des anthelminthiques appartenant à l’une des trois familles chimiques disponibles pour les équidés : les benzimidazoles, les tétrahydropyrimidines représentées uniquement par le pyrantel et les lactones macrocycliques. L’usage répandu, pendant plus de 40 ans, de protocoles de traitement fondés sur une administration régulière et fréquente d’anthelminthiques à tous les chevaux a exercé une forte pression de sélection sur les populations parasitaires, entrainant l’émergence, puis l’extension de la résistance aux anthelminthiques chez les cyathostomes et P. equorum. Ainsi, la résistance des cyathostomes aux benzimidazoles et, à moindre degré, au pyrantel, connaît maintenant une répartition mondiale et une diminution d’efficacité des lactones macrocycliques est suspectée sur la base d’un raccourcissement du délai de réapparition des oeufs après traitement. Par ailleurs, la résistance de P. equorum à l’ivermectine est maintenant décrite dans de nombreux pays d’Europe. En l’absence de possibilité de retour à la sensibilité et de la mise sur le marché imminente de nouvelles familles d’anthelminthiques destinées aux équidés, les détenteurs de chevaux et les vétérinaires doivent conjuguer leurs efforts pour abandonner les anciennes pratiques et travailler en étroite collaboration pour l’élaboration de programmes de contrôle durable. Ces programmes viseront à réduire la fréquence des traitements et à préserver un niveau suffisant de refuges parasitaires par la réalisation de traitements à des périodes stratégiques et de traitements sélectifs fondés sur l’excrétion d’oeufs dans les fèces, tout en s’appuyant sur des mesures sanitaires appliquées à l’environnement des chevaux.

Effects of Strategic Planning Time on L2 Paired Oral Test Performance

AbstractPlanning, as a task condition, is hypothesized to influence L2 test performance and thus test scores (Skehan, 1998). This study investigates the effects of lengths of strategic planning time on L2 paired oral test performance, moderated by L2 proficiency. It aims to determine whether differences in performance result from 0, 1, 2 or 3 minutes of planning time, and whether planning time and proficiency interactively affect performance. The participants were 72 Chinese EFL learners, divided into four groups, each performing the same dialogic task with 1 or 2 or 3 minute planning time or none. All speech recordings were rated by two trained raters, and the transcripts of the speech samples subjected to a discourse analysis, measuring fluency features of Rate A and Rate B, complexity features of syntactic complexity, syntactic variety and lexical variety, and accuracy features of error-free clauses and correct verb forms. Findings show a stable accuracy, higher fluency in the planned condition, and greater syntactic complexity when learners are given 3 minutes’ planning time. No interaction is found between planning time and proficiency.

Incorporating Departure Time Choice into High-occupancy/toll (HOT) Algorithm Evaluation

This paper presents an evaluation framework for high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes, extending previous frameworks by incorporat- ing departure time choice alongside stochasticity in demand. Drivers are divided into two classes, strategic and captive drivers. Strategic drivers time their departures to minimize expected generalized cost and can choose either the free lanes or HOT lane. Captive drivers have random departure times, and must choose the free lanes. Generalized cost for strategic drivers takes the form of the well-known schedule delay penalty function combined with travel time. The traffic flow model involves two parallel bot- tlenecks, one for each lane group. Four toll algorithms are compared: a fixed toll which is constant in time and unresponsive; a dynamic, but unresponsive toll based on expected demand; a dynamic and responsive toll which adapts based on congestion in the HOT lane; and a “full-information” toll which is aware of all captive driver inflows.

Life cycle and settlement of an Australian isolate of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876 from rainbow trout

Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876, a ciliate parasite, is a cosmopolitan and problematic parasite of cultured freshwater fish. Each geographical isolate of I. multifiliis has variations in life cycle timing under different abiotic water conditions, such as temperature and salinity. We assessed the effects of salinity and temperature on the development and the preferred settlement site of a temperate Australian isolate of I. multifiliis. The time until theront release was significantly different between each temperature; development time was longest at 5 °C with a mean time of 189 h and decreased to a mean time of 11.7 h at 30 °C. At 5 °C our isolate produced a mean of 267 theronts per tomont, which increased to a mean of 493 theronts at 25 °C and reduced to a mean of 288 theronts at 30 °C. Theront length showed an inverse relationship to temperature; mean length was 62 μm at 5 °C and 41 μm at 30 °C. Our isolate reproduced faster at all temperatures and a greater sensitivity to salinity than all reported profiles for temperate isolates. Parasite abundance was highest on the dorsal region of the fish. An accurate understanding of temperature-life cycle information and optimal region to sample for surveillance will aid in the development of specific management plans for the Australian isolate of I. multifiliis, facilitating the strategic timing of treatments.

Assessing Racial Disparities in Parole Release

In a rational choice model of parole release, a color-blind parole board seeking to minimize violations would release all prisoners below a certain risk threshold. To test this prediction, we extend the outcome-test methodology used in assessing discrimination in police searches. We overcome the inframarginality critique by taking advantage of strategic timing of release: within each racial group, violation rates are equalized for a given sentence length. We use the National Corrections Reporting Program data, which record all parole-release decisions in the United States. We find that violation rates are consistently higher for African American parolees, a result not consistent with a parole board bias against African Americans. This conclusion is robust to a variety of tests, including ruling out postrelease discrimination. Evidence on the timing of release suggests a policy aimed at limiting racial disparities in time served rather than in violation rates, which favors fairness over efficiency.

International Environmental Agreements for River Sharing Problems

We study partial coalition formation and the strategic timing of membership of an IEA for environmental issues in the Coalitional Bargaining Game (CBG) of Gomes (Econometrica 73:1329–1350, 2005). We apply the CBG to a specific river sharing problem with two symmetric upstream agents, each at a tributary, and one downstream agent located at the junction of tributaries. We identify five regions in the parameter space of a discount factor and a productivity parameter for water. In one region the grand coalition always forms immediately. In two other regions, immediate formation of the grand coalition and gradual coalition formation both occur with positive probability. In another two regions only gradual coalition formation occurs. In one of these latter regions, a region with discount factors close to one, both upstream agents form a monopoly with positive probability. Formation of the monopoly persists in the limit as the discount factor goes to one.

Strategic Accounting Choice Around Firm-Level Labor Negotiations

Prior literature argues that managers make opportunistic income-decreasing accounting choices to limit the concessions made to trade unions. However, empirical research to date presents mixed evidence, potentially due to a common theoretical approach that views labor bargaining as a one-shot game in nature. Using a sample of U.S. firms that engage in firm-level labor collective agreement negotiations, we study whether managers act strategically to reduce the transfer of wealth to employees, and its consequences over investment efficiency. We expect that the repeated nature of this negotiation leads to cooperation among the parties and limits the incentives for earnings manipulation, particularly, over long windows. Our findings suggest that managers take both real and accounting actions, but that these choices are informative rather than opportunistic. In particular, we find evidence consistent with strategic timing of the negotiation and with increased conditional conservatism in the year when the agreement is signed. We do not find evidence of earnings manipulation through discretionary accruals or of decreased investment efficiency around labor bargaining.

Method of generating strategic guidance information for driving evacuation flows to approach safety-based system optimal dynamic flows: Case study of a large stadium

In previous evacuation flow planning, a system optimal dynamic traffic assignment (SO-DTA) did not consider the exogenous costs caused by potential traffic accidents. A traffic accident, which might occur as a result of traffic congestion, will impact an evacuation process because of accident-related delays experienced by the downstream vehicles. This paper establishes a safety-based SO-DTA linear programming model in which the generalized system cost incorporates both the travel time and the accident-related delay. The goal is to minimize the generalized system cost under the cell transmission setup. Furthermore, the authors provide strategic guidance information that considers both the objective of the decision maker and the route choice behavior of the evacuees. Mathematically, the authors propose an unconstrained non-linear programming model aimed at minimizing the gap between the safety-based flows and the stochastic real-world evacuation flows, to provide strategic travel time information to be published on variable message signs (VMS). In the case study, the authors found that the safety-based SO-DTA model can reduce congestion and improve the evacuation efficiency; the stochastic real-world evacuation flows, guided by strategic information, can approach the safety-based flows.

Epigenetics: new relation of health and nutrition

The development and maintenance of an organism is orchestrated by a set of chemical reactions that switch parts of the genome off and on at strategic times and locations. Epigenetics is the study of these reactions and the factors that influence them. The nutrients we extract from food enter metabolic pathways where they are manipulated, modified and molded into molecules, the body can use. One such pathway is responsible for making methyl groups important epigenetic tags that silence genes. Familiar nutrients like folic acid, B vitamins and SAMe (S-Adenosyl methionine) are key components of this methyl-making pathway. Diets high in these methyl-donating nutrients can rapidly alter gene expression, especially during early development when the epigenome is first being established. Nutrients can reverse or change epigenetic phenomena such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, thereby modifying the expression of critical genes associated with physiologic and pathologic processes, including embryonic development, aging, and carcinogenesis. It appears that nutrients and bioactive food components can influence epigenetic phenomena either by directly inhibiting enzymes that catalyze DNA methylation or histone modifications, or by altering the availability of substrates necessary for those enzymatic reactions. As we better understand the connections between diet and the epigenome, the opportunity arises for clinical applications. Enter the future field of nutrigenomics, where nutritionists take a look at your methylation pattern and design a personalized nutrition plan. While we’re not quite to that point yet, your doctor can already tell a lot about your disease risk by looking at your family health history. In this regard, nutritional epigenetics has been viewed as an attractive tool to prevent pediatric developmental diseases and cancer as well as to delay aging-associated processes. In recent years, epigenetics has become an emerging issue in a broad range of diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, inflammation and neurocognitive disorders.

Diphasic sedimentation technique complemented by a statistical approach as a useful tool to the quantification and the determination of dynamics of eggs produced by adult monogenean parasitizing groupers,Epinephelus marginatus(Lowe, 1834), in captivity

Monogenean parasites create problems in confined fish, such as at aquaculture and aquariums facilities. Strategic timing of antihelminthic treatments should be based on the dynamics of monogenean egg production which requires egg quantification, but there is no standardized analytical method. The WHO diphasic sedimentation method for helminth quantification of eggs was applied in samples with tetrahedral and fusiform monogenean eggs from six specimens of confined groupers (Epinephelus marginatus) (31 m3 sea water tank; water temperature 21.1–14.4°C; photoperiod 9:53–15 h light; November 2011 to June 2012). Helminth eggs remain in the pellet, while most organic matter was removed forming a cap. In contrast, monogenean eggs are distributed within both the pellet and cap. The diphasic sedimentation method is suitable to quantify tetrahedral and total egg number by counting those eggs in the pellet and incorporing water temperature data to obtain a statistically significant model expression (R2 = 0.943; R2 = 0.809), while this approach only weakly predicted fusiform egg numbers (R2 = 0.297). Fusiform egg numbers declined along November–December, and increased in February–March, until June. Tetrahedral eggs decreased in November–December, but did not increase until March. The trend of egg populations and best time for antihelminthic treatment application can be set by WHO technique with the statistical approach proposed.

Strategic Disclosure Timing and Insider Trading

I examine whether managers strategically disclose negative news for their own benet. Exploiting the SEC requirement that managers must disclose any material corporate event within ve business days, I nd they disclose negative events disproportionately on Fridays, before national holidays, and after the market closes - when investors are more distracted - despite these events occurring uniformly across days. This pattern is absent for non-negative events. Strategic disclosure timing is concentrated among smaller rms that have more retail investors and lower analyst coverage. I nd a signicant return under-reaction following negative Friday disclosures that persists for approximately three weeks, but no under-reaction for other days of the week. Managers exploit the return under-reaction to benet their insider trading. Disclosure of negative news on a Friday is twice as likely if a manager sells shares in the weeks following the event. Google searches and trading volume provide corroborating evidence that investors are more distracted on Fridays. These results are consistent with managers undertaking strategic actions to exploit the behavior of investors in the market.

Electoral Institutions, Political Competition and De Facto Judicial Independence

The importance of the judiciary in consolidating and sustaining a robust democracy and, an attractive business environment has led scholars to study the conditions which allow judiciaries to function with genuine or de facto independence. One of the most influential theories in the current literature argues that high levels of political competition, whether for office or among branches of government, create conditions supportive of high levels of de facto judicial independence (DFJI). However, comprehensive data over a 20-year period from 103 developing country democracies reveal a puzzle: under conditions of high political competition political elites in 56% of countries did indeed increase de facto judicial independence (DFJI) but fully 44% reduced the independence their judiciaries enjoyed. We explain this puzzle by arguing that in order to understand when political elites have incentives to support de facto judicial independence, it is essential to consider not just the effect of the magnitude but also the nature of political competition created by a country’s electoral institutions. Only in countries with electoral institutions which create high levels of electoral particularism do legislators and weak parties from both government and opposition have incentives to support DFJI when strategic time horizons shrink and, judges facing low risks and costs of political retaliation make a bid for DFJI. In countries with low levels of particularism however well-disciplined parties and their legislators do not find an independent judiciary attractive and, judges facing high political costs and certainty of retaliation choose to be subservient leading to low levels of DFJI. These claims are assessed using a comprehensive TSCS data of 103 developing countries observed as democracies anytime from 1985 to 2004. The statistical results corroborate our claims and remain robust when we control for alternative explanations, employ different estimation techniques, and use different measures of de facto judicial independence.

British HIV Association guidelines for HIV‐associated malignancies 2014

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The impact of litigation risk on the strategic timing of management earnings forecasts

AbstractThis paper examines whether managers strategically time their earnings forecasts (MEFs) as litigation risk increases. We find as litigation risk increases, the propensity to release a delayed forecast until after the market is closed (AMC) or a Friday decreases but not proportionally more for bad news than for good news. How costly this behaviour is to investors is questionable as share price returns do not reveal any under‐reaction to strategically timed bad news MEF released AMC. We also find evidence consistent with managers timing their MEFs during a natural no‐trading period to better disseminate information.

Strategic Investments with Competition Under Uncertainty in the ASEAN/AEC: A Game-Theoretic Real Options Analysis

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) intends to create the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) as a single market, to be completed by 2020. The single market will boost the competition in both ASEAN’s internal and external markets, which will spur innovation. Creative innovation will change the production technology to generate enhanced value products and services. Generating this new technology requires R&D investment. This paper discusses the strategic investment decisions which businesses in ASEAN will have to face in a highly competitive environment under uncertain growth conditions, by systematically outlaying several plausible strategic investment outcomes. The game-theoretic real options approach is used to analyze the strategic timing and interplay of strategic investments between Thai and Malaysian consumer firms. In particular, it is used to analyze the valuation of the firms’ strategic investment payoffs.

Timing of Activities and their Effects on Circadian Rhythm in the Elderly with Dementia: A Literature Review

Study Background: Circadian rhythm disorders (CRDs) occur in over 60 percent of patients with dementia and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality and poor quality of life. Regulating the circadian system through the use of light and activity has been shown to alter core clock processes and suggests that activities delivered at strategic times may be an effective mechanism through which to entrain (or reset) disrupted circadian rhythms in persons with dementia. However, the nature and optimal timing of daily activities remains relatively unknown. Methods: The object of this review is to examine the role of timed activities in regulating circadian activity in older adults living with dementia. A rapid review process was used to identify relevant research with the search terms circadian rhythm, timed activity, sleep, dementia, and other relevant combinations. Results and Conclusions: Symptoms of CRD in older adults with dementia may be alleviated by participating in activities at their corresponding optimal time window. Future research needs to evaluate single and multiple activity interventions with emphasis on optimal timing to treat or mediate disrupted circadian patterns in older adults with dementia.

Audience Features and the Strategic Timing of Trade Disputes

AbstractIf international institutions are such potent alarm mechanisms that mobilize procompliance domestic audiences, as many existing theories argue, why do countries wait so long before sounding the alarm? World Trade Organization (WTO) members often wait months or even years before objecting to their trading partners’ WTO-illegal barriers. To turn a phrase, trade cooperation delayed is trade cooperation denied, so why wait? To explain this variation, I develop a theory of institutional alarm mechanisms in which (1) the preferences and strength of the audience hearing the alarm vary and (2) the decision to sound the alarm is strategic. Sounding the alarm is most valuable when strong audiences in the defendant country support compliance. I test this prediction using competing risks models analyzing the timing of WTO disputes against US tariff barriers. Consistent with the theory, disputes are more likely during election years when macroeconomic indicators suggest broader support for free trade.

The Strategic Timing of Management Earnings Forecasts

This paper examines whether managers strategically time their earnings forecasts (MEFs) as litigation risk increases. We find as litigation risk increases, the propensity to release a delayed forecast until after the market is closed (AMC) or a Friday decreases but not proportionally more for bad news than for good news. How costly this behaviour is to investors is questionable as share price returns do not reveal any under-reaction a strategically timed bad news MEF released AMC. We also find evidence consistent with managers timing their MEFs during a natural no-trading period to better disseminate information.

The Effect of Pre-Task Planning Time on L2 Learners’ Narrative Writing Performance

Building on Baddeley’s cognitive psychology (2007) and Skehan’s Limited Attentional Capacity Model (2009), this article reports a study of the effects of pre-task planning time (strategic planning time) on Malaysian English learners’ written narratives elicited by means of a picture composition. 50 first-year undergraduate students studying at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Penang were served as the participants of this study. All the participants achieved band four from Malaysian University English Test (MUET). They were randomly selected and divided into two equal groups of with pre-task planning time and without pre-task planning time. Each group was asked to narrate a story under the two different conditions. Participants in pre-task planning time group was required to plan for their performance for 10 minutes and take notes before they performed the tasks, whilst the participants in without pre-task planning time group began writing immediately. The learners’ writing performance was measured for complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Independent samples t-test was employed to analyze the collected data. Results indicated that pre-task planning time had no effect on the accuracy of the learners’ writing performances, but led to more fluency and complexity.

Evaluating Social Safeguards Protecting Indigenous Peoples

Developing countries adopt policies to achieve certain results, such as reducing poverty and building prosperity. Why do many such policies not seem to work? A recent World Bank evaluation highlighted one possible reason: projects don’t adequately protect community impacts, labor and working conditions, and health, safety and security issues. This paper will focus on a crucial part of the social and cultural landscape: indigenous peoples. It will explore how the World Bank has supported projects in areas that affect indigenous peoples. Based on good practices and lessons learned, investing in such areas can turn up alternative ways to re-think the challenges of social development and find better ways for sustainable growth. By supporting different forms of participation with policymakers, strategic timing, and real time feedback loops in learning, evaluators can contribute to advancing safeguard issues.