Watersheds in Canada are under increasing threats due to the cumulative environmental effects from natural and anthropogenic sources. Cumulative effect assessment (CEA), however, if done at all is typically done on a project-by-project basis. This project-based approach to CEA is not sufficient to address the cumulative effects of multiple stressors in a watershed or a region. As a result, there is now a general consensus that CEA must extend from the project to the more regional scale. The problem, however, is that while the science of how to do watershed CEA (W-CEA) is progressing, the appropriate institutional arrangements to sustain W-CEA have not been addressed. Based on a case study of the South Saskatchewan Watershed (SSW), this research is aimed to identify the institutional requirements necessary to support and sustain W-CEA.<p> The research methods include document reviews and semi-structured interviews with regulators, administrators, watershed coordinators, practitioners, and academics knowledgeable on cumulative effect assessment and project-based environmental assessments (EAs). The findings from this research are presented thematically. First, participants perspectives on cumulative effects, the current state of CEA practice, and general challenges to project-based approaches to CEA are presented. The concept of WCEA is then examined, with a discussion on the need for linking project-based CEA and W-CEA. This is followed by the institutional requirements for W-CEA. The Chapter concludes with foreseeable challenges to implementing W-CEA, as identified by research participants.<p> The key findings include that cumulative effect assessments under project-based EAs are rarely undertaken in the SSW, and the project-based EA approach is faced with considerable challenges. The project-based EA challenges suggested by interview participants are similar to the ones discussed in the literature, and are primarily related to the lack of guidance to proponents regarding boundaries of assessments and thresholds, the lack of data from other project EAs, and the lack of capacity of both proponents and regulators to achieve a good CEA under project EA. These challenges could be addressed by establishing regional objectives at a broader scale, which could provide better context to project-based approaches. Further, interview results revealed several opportunities for the government to take the lead in implementing and sustaining W-CEA, but a multistakeholder approach is essential to W-CEA success. The results also suggest that the establishments of thresholds and data management are necessary components of W-CEA, but that the need for legislation concerning such thresholds and W-CEA initiatives is not agreed upon. At the same time, research results emphasize that the coordination and education among various stakeholders will be difficult to achieve. The lack of financial commitment, political will, and difficulties in establishing cause-effect relationships currently impede the implementation of W-CEA.

The objective of this research is to test human capital theory via the earnings announcements through the returns within the for-profit education and training services industry. This theory posits that enrollment levels would rise during recessionary periods and this should be reflected in better earnings announcements of the education firms. Data was retrieved from the Compustat, CRSP, Thompson IBES, Google Finance, and Yahoo! Finance databases spanning the recessionary years of 2008 through 2010. The first hypothesis utilized a price index weighted by the education firms' market capitalization and the Russell 3000 Index as a proxy for the market to assess the daily returns of the education industry relative to the market. The second and third hypotheses involved assessing the quality of the earnings announcements within the education industry on a Friday vs. non-Friday report basis. The fourth hypothesis explored the actual EPS vs. forecasted EPS in consecutive quarters to test for differences in the earnings of that are better-than and those that are the same-or-worse than expected. The final hypothesis utilized the cumulative abnormal returns and cumulative excessive returns methodologies to compare the performance of the periods before and after the announcements. No support for the first four hypotheses was found. Consistent with expectations established by other research using CAR and CER methodologies, the fifth hypothesis was supported. Support for human capital theory was not found because four hypotheses were unsupported. This study was limited to U.S. education firms that were publicly traded on major U.S. exchanges. No private for-profit or non-profit firms were included in this study. Knowledge was gained by exploring the earnings announcements of the education industry for evidence of human capital theory. The absence of support for the theory within the industry during a recession could be an indicator of other issues affecting the industry that need to be researched further before any conclusions can be reached. This study extends the research in earnings announcements by examining the relationship the education industry has with the market. It also contributes to the work in human capital theory by testing the education industry's performance during recessionary years.

Abstract In 2019 e-commerce market become one of the most important part to push the global economic growth especially in China and US. In 2020 Covid-19 has widely spread around the world which caused a severe economic crisis, but e-commerce market has gained benefit from it. In this study will discuss how e-commerce will perform in future and how e-commerce reacts and defend in this crisis. This study used method of discounted cash flow to track the fundamental information of EC market as representative of Alibaba and Amazon, also used event study method to test influence of COVID-19 in the whole industry

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The construction and operation of hydroelectric projects consist of multiple activities in a single watershed, which can generate significant impacts on the surrounding biophysical environment and on the health and well-being of local communities. The impacts of those activities may be insignificant individually, yet together may have an important cumulative effect. The impacts of hydroelectric development on human health and well-being have been widely documented. Current practices of cumulative effects assessment (CEA), however, as conducted under project-based environmental assessment (EA), often fail to address the deeper issues of human health and social well-being. This thesis was developed to examine how health effects, including cumulative health effects, are considered within regulatory EA practices in the hydroelectric sector in Manitoba. This was achieved by reviewing the EAs of three recent hydroelectric projects –Wuskwatim Generating Station, Bipole III Transmission Project, and Keeyask Hydroelectric Generating Station – located in the Nelson River watershed in northern Manitoba. Results indicate that the consideration of human health issues in EA has gradually improved over time; however, the assessment of health impacts was invariably limited to physical health components and often lacked due consideration of broader social health issues. The inadequacy of the practice of health impact assessment (HIA) was also evident by the lack of health-related indicators and the poor consistency in the use of indicators across projects and over time for measuring and predicting changes in the health conditions of the communities due to project development. An in-depth analysis regarding the assessment of cumulative health effects was carried out in the CEA of the most recent hydroelectric development – the Keeyask project. The findings show that cumulative health effects were not adequately considered in each of the basic components of CEA – scoping, retrospective analysis, prospective analysis, and management measures. Improving the consideration of health in EA requires paying more attention to broader range of health determinants, including both biophysical and social determinants and their interconnectedness in EA. Moreover, there is a need to improve greater consistency in the use of health indicators across projects and over time. It can be assisted by developing standardized terms of reference (ToR) for project proponents to ensure the consideration and monitoring of those indicators used for development projects built within the same geographic region and affecting the same communities and environments. Approaching cumulative health effects in a more regional and strategic framework of CEA, beyond the scale of individual projects, is likely to provide the best mechanism to understand and monitor the cumulative impacts of project development on the health and well-being of the affected communities.

In today's society there is an increasing globalization. This may create a challenge for publicly- owned firms to make its stocks more attractive in the market for the investors all around the world. One method firms could use to attract new investors is through engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities; which has in the recent years received a lot of notable attention. On the occasion that there exist different types of CSR activities it would be beneficial for firms to receive broader knowledge about the different impacts that the different activities have on a firm's stock price. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the literature by investigating if different types of CSR activities have different degree of impact on a firm’s stock price; and if so, which type of activity that would be more preferable for firms to undertake in order to increase their stock price. The effect of a firm’s engagement in CSR activities was studied by the use of an event study. The event study was centered on a firm’s announcements of CSR activities of type environmental, ethical and philanthropic. All the firms considered in the study are American firms and they were all listed on the New York stock exchange (NYSE). The time period used in the study were the years between 2006 and 2016. However, the year of 2008 was excluded because of the financial crisis. To measure whether CSR has an effect on a firm’s stock price a t-test was conducted based on the cumulative average abnormal return (CAAR). A sign test was also performed based on the number of positive CAR’s in the estimation window compared to those in the event window. The cumulative abnormal return (CAR) was also considered in order to draw further conclusions. The study found that a firm’s engagement in CSR did overall, have a positive effect on a firm’s stock price. Further, by studying the results from the various activities; the results show that a firm’s engagement in environmental and ethical CSR activities also have a positive effect on the stock price. Meanwhile, it appeared that philanthropic CSR had no impact on the stock price. To answer the question of which type of CSR activities that is the most beneficial for a firm to engage in if they intend to increase its stock price is to invest in environmental CSR activities.

Behavioral economic theory describes a relation between response requirement and magnitude of reinforcement, and combines these variables into one independent variable (unit price) affecting operant behavior. This study investigated the relative effects of cumulative feedback on consumption for money as a commodity. Subjects were exposed to ranges of unit prices with or without a cumulative feedback bar on the computer screen indicating monetary earnings. For all participants in this study, consumption of money was a decreasing function of unit prices and the results from the present study are consistent with the behavioral economic prediction that increasing the unit price of a commodity will decrease consumption of that commodity. Analyses of demand curves, elasticity coefficients and response rates suggested differences between Feedback and No Feedback groups, although these were small and not statistically significant. The small differences observed were consistent with a behavior strengthening effect of feedback.

Understanding pathways to physical child abuse may aid in creating and implementing abuse prevention services. Yet studying child abuse in community samples of parents is fraught with challenges. One solution to these challenges is to examine markers of physical child abuse, rather than asking about abuse directly. The goal of the current investigation is to test a theoretical model of processes that increase the presence of four proximal risk factors, or markers, which have been linked to increased risk for physical child abuse in mothers of young children. The four markers of physical child abuse include: child abuse potential, over-reactive discipline, spanking acceptance, and mothers’ negative child perceptions. Positive associations between an accumulation socio-contextual risk and markers of physical abuse are hypothesized. An accumulation of socio-contextual risk is expected to indirectly predict markers of physical abuse by reducing parenting locus of control, or parents’ perceptions of control in the parent-child relationship. Furthermore, social support and children’s externalizing behavior problems are expected to diminish or intensify this mediated process, respectively. Participants included 85 mothers of young children (ages 1½ to 5 years) from diverse backgrounds. Of the four markers of abuse, cumulative risk and parenting locus of control were correlated only with mothers’ child abuse potential and no statistical association between cumulative risk and parenting locus of control was found. Limited support for moderation hypotheses emerged. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Both contextual risk and sensitive parenting have been associated with children’s social skills in early childhood (Brody, Stoneman, Smith & Gibson, 1999; Connell & Prinz, 2002; Oravecz, Koblinsky & Randolph, 2008, Trentacosta, 2008). However, it is not clear how sensitive parenting might impact children’s social skill development in the context of accumulation of risk. The current study tests two possible models. The first model, based on Rutters’ (1979) tests the theory that cumulative risk may moderate the relationship between sensitive parenting and social skills. The second model based on The Family Stress model (Conger, Conger, Elder, Lorenz, Simons & Whitbeck, 1992) tests the theory that sensitive parenting mediates the relationship between accumulation of risk and children’s social skills. The results supported the first model indicating that cumulative risk moderated the relationship between sensitive parenting and children’s social skills. When risk accumulated, there was a relationship between sensitive parenting and social skills where the highest level of sensitive parenting was associated with the highest level of social skills.

Background: Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the most common functional type of cardiomyopathy in children with significant morbidity and the leading indication for cardiac transplant over 5 years of age. Identification of baseline risk factors for failing medical management by etiologic grouping remain to be elucidated in a large populationbased study. The competing risk for heart death between all-cause mortality and heart transplantation is often overestimated in the literature and may obscure additional novel risk factors associated with poor clinical outcomes. Methods: The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Registry collected longitudinal data from 1731 children with DCM in North America from 1990 to 2007. Composite endpoint (CEP) was the earlier occurrence of death or heart transplant. Univariate and multivariate predictors were identified from demographic and echocardiographic data (expressed as z-scores) collected within 30 days of diagnosis. A competing risk analysis was performed calculating cumulative incidence and identifying novel prognostic factors. All analyses were performed by etiologic group. Results: Multivariate Cox regression identified the highest mortality risk among children with idiopathic disease (N=1192, CEP: 41%) when diagnosed over age 6 years, and with congestive heart failure (CHF) and decreased left ventricular fractional shortening (FS). Risk factors for those with myocarditis (N=272, CEP: 26%) were older age, CHF, and increased left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic dimension (EDD); while for neuromuscular disease (N=139, CEP: 40%), it was a decreased FS and increased EDD. Only univariate predictors were identified for children with familial isolated cardiomyopathy (N=79, CEP: 44%) including: CHF, increased EDD, end-systolic dimension, or LV mass, and decreased FS or ejection fraction), while for children with inborn errors of metabolism (N=43, CEP: 33%) risk factors included: a positive family history of cardiomyopathy or genetic syndromes. The group of children with malformation syndromes (N=6, CEP: 50%) was not large enough to model. Comparison of cause-specific event rates between Kaplan-Meier and cumulative incidence demonstrated an overestimation with the former method. Competing risk multivariate regression showed similar models to those for CEP, with the following exceptions: for neuromuscular disease, an increased EDD had a larger hazard ratio for transplant than for death; for idiopathic disease, an increased EDD was associated with transplant, but not with death, and growth retardation (height-for-age zscore) was associated with death but not transplant. Conclusions: Within etiologic grouping, demographics and echocardiographic values at diagnosis have varying predictive value. Generally, the presence of symptomatic disease in the form of CHF, echocardiographic evidence of more severe DCM, and increased age were indicative of worse outcomes. These results help to validate those from conflicting studies; however, they suggest that etiology modifies the importance of particular factors. Analysis of competing risk provides an alternate interpretation of studies with composite endpoints and assists in the transfer of clinically relevant information. For children with idiopathic and neuromuscular disease, the degree of dilation had a differential effect that has gone unrecognized. The novel finding of reduced stature and its effect on mortality suggests a potential for treatment and mitigation of poor outcomes in idiopathic DCM. Both increased dilation and reduced stature could be used to improve the triage process and refer children to cardiac transplantation who otherwise might die prematurely and unnecessarily. Subsequent studies on the utility of these factors and their effect on improving survival are warranted.