Abstract Mutual fund, which has become a popular domestic investment tool possess a lot of advantages. However, how on earth investors could choose the fund that worth investing is often confusing. This research begins from the qualities of mutual fund itself and it¡¦s manager. I¡¦ll discuss the influence that the type of fund, achievement in the past, scale of fund, turnover rate, risks and investors¡¦ age, sex, schooling record and experiences would have on its achievement. Hoping through these different sides of thinking would provide a direction for investors when choosing Mutual fund. This research was done in the period from January, 1997 to January, 2002, after excluding some of the survivorship bias, we sift through the whole information in the five years, and we acquire 59 open type that would be used as sample fund in this research. We adopt Jensen-performance-estimated model and 4-factor model as achievement measure standard. By setting tests of Pearson Correlation Coefficients and Durbin-Watson, plus OLS, we estate mate Jensen-performance-estimated model and 4-factor model, and the result of its alpha would be cross-analyzed with the multiple linear regression model, thus we¡¦ll clearly see the relation of quality between mutual fund and their managers. Before going on the cross-analysis, in order to seek for the best estimating method, we test heteroscedasticity by residual pattern and Breusch-Pagan Test. Since it comes out there is no heteroscedasticity, we still conduct the process by OLS to observe how the relation between the qualities of mutual fund itself and that of managers will affect on fund achievement. We found 4-factor model is more convincing among all other achievement evaluation model though the results vary from types of model. In the achievement index, a positive and remarkable difference type of fund is from Jensen index,, which coincided with Dahlquist, Engstrom, and Soderlind(2000)¡BJia-ling Hong(2000). Under 4-factor model, global fund and region ones appear obvious negative related, but high-tech types and general are not convincing at all. Besides, the influence of reward in the past and the scale of it shows the conclusion that two model are related positively in achievement side of short and long term, but negative in scale. Moreover, the risks can¡¦t explain the achievement difference, and turnover-rate doesn¡¦t affect achievement directly, the outcome coincided with the prove of Ippolito(1989) . Finally, which this research shows that the types results vary from managers personal qualities, but most of them can¡¦t explain the achievement differences. We only catch that under Jensen index, managers who get their MBA degree abroad tends to have positive relation in achievement of fund.

Prior research finds that mutual fund investors have adequate ability to select funds which superior performance remains persistent. Following the work of Keswani and Stolin (2008), we use a fund netflow as a proxy for investors¡¦ preference to examine whether the smart money effect exists. Furthermore, this paper differs from prior research by combining the smart money phenomenon and fund firm¡¦s marketing activities (the advertising expenditure of mutual funds). This paper generates four empirical findings. (1) Mutual funds with positive netflow subsequently have positive Carhart four-factor alpha, that is, the ¡§smart money effect¡¨ exists in Taiwanese mutual fund market. (2) The smart money effect is caused by investors¡¦ buying decisions. (3) The smart money effect is only a short-lived phenomenon. (4) Our evidence shows that advertising of funds can explain the smart money effect in Taiwanese open-end mutual fund market.

<p> </p><p>The world is experiencing yet another energy- and fuel predicament as oil prices are escalating to new hights. Alternative fuels are being promoted globally as the increasing gasoline prices trigger inflation. Basic food commodities are some of the goods hit by this inflation and the purpose of this thesis is to analyse whether the higher maize and sugar prices are having any effect on the expanding ethanol production. This thesis focuses on the two major crop inputs in ethanol production: maize (in the US) and sugar cane (in Brazil). Econometric tests using cross-sectional data were carried through to find the elasticities of the variables. The crops prices were tested against ethanol output using the log-linear model in several regressions to find a relationship. In addition, the output levels of the crops were tested using the same method. It was found that maize prices and output affects ethanol production. Sugar cane prices do not have any significant impact on ethanol production while sugar cane output has a small, yet significant relationhip with ethanol. Consequently, ethanol’s rise in the fuel market could be a result of increased maize input, rather than sugar.</p><p> </p> / <p>Dagens värld upplever ännu ett energi- och bränsle predikament när oljepriser eskalerar mot nya höjder. Alternativa bränslen marknadsförs globalt samtidigt som de stigande bensinpriserna stimulerar inflationen. Några av de varor som drabbas av denna inflation är grundläggande livsmedelsprodukter och syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera huruvida de högre priserna på majs och socker påverkar den expanderande etanolproduktionen. Uppsatsen fokuserar på de två stora grödor som används som insatsvaror vid framställningen av etanol: majs (i USA) och sockerrör (i Brasilien). Ekonometriska tester genomfördes för att erhålla variablernas elasticiteter med hjälp av den cross-sectional data som behandlades. Genom log-linear modellen utfördes det ett antal regressioner för att hitta ett samband mellan grödornas priser och etanolproduktionen. Därutöver genomfördes tester för att hitta sambandet mellan grödornas utbud och etanol med hjälp av samma modell. Det upptäcktes att både pris och utbudet av majs påverkar etanolproduktionen. Sockerrörspriser har ingen signifikant inverkan på etanolproduktionen medan utbudet av sockerrör har en signifikant, om än svag, relation till etanol. Följaktligen kan etanols tillväxt i  bränslemarknaden tolkas som ett resultat av en stigande majsinsats snarare än sockerinstats vid etanolframställningen.</p>

Older patients suffer from a greater number of medical morbidities, consume a greater number of prescribed medications, and report lower levels of quality of life than their younger counterparts. The objectives of this study were to determine whether there is 1) an association between medical morbidity and symptom burden or 2) an association between medication use and symptom burden. This was a cross-sectional study of the symptoms, medical morbidities, and medications reported by 159 community-dwelling male patients 65 years of age or older. Correlations were drawn using linear regression analysis. On average, the participants in this study suffered from 2.56 +/- 1.36 medical morbidities, were prescribed 7.91+/- 2.83 medications, and reported 3.17 symptoms at any severity. The results of this study demonstrated a direct correlation between number of medical morbidities and symptom burden (R2 = 0.94). Our study did not find a significant correlation between medication use and symptom burden (R2 = 0.20). The findings of this study suggest that the number of medical morbidities has a stronger negative impact on symptom burden than the number of medications used. Thus, when attempting to improve quality of life for older patients, physicians should focus on the treatment and alleviations of symptoms associated with medical morbidity.

Water has cultural and spiritual values to indigenous people. These beliefs expose them to unsafe water sources and make them vulnerable to waterborne diseases. This background is not taken into account when countries write their water legislations, therefor imposing a management of water not readily accepted by them. The Embera group is one of the indigenous groups from the Republic of Panama, who have strong water beliefs. They live along the shore of rivers in houses built on high stilts away from urban areas. The purpose of this cross-sectional community based study is to describe through a survey the relation between the water beliefs of Embera communities living inside the Chagres National Park and the health of women and children. A house to house visit was performed in two of the five Embera communities that reside inside the Chagres National Park to enroll them and complete the survey. Sixteen Embera households with 71 family members agreed to participate. Results showed that 18.5% were children under 5 years of age and 14.1% their corresponding mothers. One hundred percent of the households rely on rural aqueduct as their source of water, with no treatment performed to this water. Women that completed elementary school or had higher education level accounted for 53.4%. Analysis of frequency of more than three diarrheal episodes in children under 5 years of age with mother's education level and months of breastfeeding had no statistical significance (X2 of 1.935, p-value of >0.05; X2 of 0.258, p-value of >0.05). When the frequency of diarrheal episodes in women and their education level was analyzed a statistically significant association was found (X2 of 6.429, p-value of 0.011). Five (38.5%) out of 13 children under 5 years of age in these communities had complete immunization calendar for their ages, but 10 (76.9%) have completed immunization for Rotavirus. No deaths due to diarrhea were reported in any member of the household. Marginalization in this type of communities is frequent since they settle in vast areas far from access to safe roads, safe water, basic sanitation and health services. A similar study can be applied to the 5 communities living in the area to have a clear view of their water beliefs, diseases and needs in order to concentrate efforts to close any gaps.

In recent years, increasing attention has turned toward the effect of health information or health knowledge on nutrient intake. In determining the effect of health information on nutrient demand, researchers face the estimation problem of dealing with the endogeneity of health information knowledge. The standard approach for dealing with this problem is an instrumental variables (IV) procedure. Unfortunately, recent research has demonstrated that the IV procedure may not be reliable in the types of data sets that contain health information and nutrient intakes because the instruments are not sufficiently correlated with the endogenous variables (i.e., instruments are weak). This thesis compares the reliability of the IV procedure (and the Hausman test) with a relatively new procedure, directed graphs, given weak instruments. The goal is to determine if the method of directed graphs performs better in identifying an endogenous variable and also relevant instruments. The performance of the Hausman test and directed graphs are first assessed through conducting a Monte-Carlo sampling experiment containing weak instruments. Because the structure of the model is known in the Monte-Carlo experiment, these results are used as a guideline to determine which procedure would be more reliable in a real world setting. The procedures are then applied to a real-world cross-sectional dataset on nutrient intake. This thesis provides empirical evidence that neither the IV estimator (and Hausman test) or the directed graphs are reliable when instruments are weak, as in a cross-sectional dataset.

In 2001, a population-based cross-sectional study was conducted to compare levels of total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in residents of Calcasieu Parish and Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. A demographic, lifestyle, and food consumption questionnaire was collected for each participant. Overall, weighted geometric means and medians of total serum PCB concentrations in residents of Calcasieu and Lafayette Parishes were similar among all risk subgroups. However, 15-29 year olds had higher total serum PCB weighted geometric means in Calcasieu (64.4 ppb) than did this age group in Lafayette (46.6 ppb) (p=0.0059); conversely, in the 60 and older age group, geometric means of 293.7 ppb and 392.5 ppb were observed for Calcasieu and Lafayette, respectively (p=0.0059). In general, total PCB serum levels in Calcasieu and in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana residents were similar to each other and to levels observed in the U.S. general population in this time period.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlation between income inequality and economic growth in a cross-section of 90 countries from 2002 to 2006. The controversial Kuznets Hypothesis, the economic model that hypothesizes the relationship between inequality and per capita income is an inverted U-shaped curve, is scrutinized and investigated to consider its viability and accuracy. A multiple linear regression model is estimated and the viability of the regression model is supported by several statistical tests. Based on the estimated model, a negative correlation between growth and inequality has been found.

Forensiese assesseringstegnieke wat tydens ondersoeke na kinder seksuele misbruik benut word, het in n hoë mate mettertyd ontwikkel. Navorsing het n waardevolle bydrae gelewer tot effektiewe en geskikte assesseringstegnieke. Verdere navorsing is egter nodig om die bestaande tegnieke te ondersoek. Die persoon wat by forensiese assesserings betrokke is, kan baat vind by die leiding wat navorsing bied. Op grond hiervan het die navorser ondersoek ingestel na die forensiese assesseringstegnieke wat tans in die praktyk deur forensiese maatskaplike werkers benut word. Gedurende die ondersoek is verskeie tegnieke wat tydens forensiese assesseringsonderhoude benut word, geïdentifiseer en bespreek. Die sistematiese aanrakingseksplorasie is vir die doel van hierdie studie deur die navorser uitgesonder. Hierdie tegniek is aan die hand van n gevallestudie bestudeer en bespreek. Ondersoek is ook ingestel na die menings van maatskaplike werkers wat in die forensiese veld werksaam is, asook dié van justisie–amptenare, onder wie landdroste en staatsaanklaers, wat in die hof vir seksuele misdrywe werksaam is, ten opsigte van die benutting van die sistematiese aanrakingseksplorasie. Die justisie–amptenare was aanvanklik nie vertroud met die tegniek nie. Nadat literatuur vir bestudering aan hulle beskikbaar gestel is, is vasgestel dat hulle ontvanklik is vir en positief staan teenoor die benutting van die sistematiese aanrakingseksplorasie. Die ondersoek het ten doel gehad: * Om deur middel van n literatuurstudie die forensiese assesseringstegnieke wat tans in die praktyk benut word, te identifiseer en te bespreek; en * Om die sistematiese aanrakingseksplorasietegniek aan die hand van n literatuurstudie en empiriese navorsing te evalueer. Samevattend kan gestel word dat die tegnieke, soos in hierdie navorsing bespreek, deel behoort uit te maak van die protokol van die professionele persoon wat die seksueel misbruikte kind assesseer. Hierdie navorsing het bevind dat die sistematiese aanrakingseksplorasie n waardevolle forensiese assesseringstegniek is ten opsigte van die seksueel misbruikte kind. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Physiology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

60 % of Canadians have suboptimal vitamin D (<75 nmol/L) and 25% are obese. Obesity has been reported to be a risk factor for low vitamin D, but there is uncertainty about the magnitude of the association. Linear regression was performed using data from the nationally representative cross-sectional Canadian Health Measures Survey (2007-2009). Height, weight, waist circumference (WC), and vitamin D levels were directly measured. There were 5298 participants aged 6 to 79 years. Using a conservative p value of 0.001, body mass index (BMI) category obese / obese I was positively associated and WC was inversely associated with vitamin D level in crude analysis. WC was inversely associated with vitamin D level in multivariate analysis. The pattern of relationship is not the same as other studies, yet this was a large study with direct measurements. There may be issues with linearity of relationships or subgroups disturbing the relationship.