No description available.

This research examines the duration effect and interaction effect of advertising and performance in the mutual fund industry. And we examine these effects by using the method of ordinary least squares to know how advertising and performance influence the fund investors¡¦ investment strategies. Our empirical study of the mutual fund industry shows that there is a duration effect between advertising and fund inflows, and this effect lags two periods. We also find that the interaction effect of advertising and performance is significant, with no significant effect for advertising. This result refers that there is a complement relationship between advertising and performance. Furthermore, it indicates that advertising likes a catalyst to convey the information about fund performance in attracting investors, and the performance is a major factor to construct advertising reliability.

published_or_final_version / Electrical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Worldwide, diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 years old. Data on diarrhea of extended duration is limited. We described the characteristics associated with acute, prolonged acute and persistent diarrhea in Kenyan children less than 5 years of age participating in the Global Enterics Multicenter Study. Children presenting at a clinic were enrolled if they met the case definition for acute moderate-to-severe diarrhea defined as >3 loose stools in the last 24 hrs, within 7 days of illness onset, with >1 of the following: sunken eyes, skin tenting, dysentery, IV rehydration, or hospitalization. To determine diarrhea duration, the child’s caretaker was asked to recall the number of days the child had diarrhea in the 7 days pre-enrollment, and to record each day of diarrhea post-enrollment on a form for 14 days. Stool specimens were collected at enrollment, and the post-enrollment form was collected during a home visit. We defined acute diarrhea (AD) as <6 days>duration, prolonged acute diarrhea (ProD) as 7-13 days, and persistent diarrhea (PD) as >14 days. From January 31, 2008 to January 24, 2010, 557 children with acute moderate-to-severe diarrhea were enrolled. Using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Cox Proportional Hazards Model we examined the relationship between the duration of diarrhea by gender, age, and various etiologic agents. We found no association between gender and the duration of diarrhea. Age was associated with diarrhea of extended duration; children less than or equal to 11 months of age were 1.3 times more likely to experience diarrhea of longer duration than their counterparts. We found Cryptosporidium to be more associated with ProAD and PD. Children infected with Cryptosporidium were 1.5 to 1.7 times more likely to have diarrhea with a longer duration than their counterparts. Based on these results, interventions related to diarrhea and diarrhea of extended duration should focus more closely on young children, especially children less than 24 months of age.

This population-based retrospective cohort study describes breastfeeding patterns and identifies the determinants of longer exclusive breastfeeding among 4,533 mother-infants pairs in two regions of Nova Scotia, Canada between 2006 and 2009. Multivariate logistic and proportional hazard regression analyses were used to model breastfeeding practices. While 64.1% (95% CI=62.7-65.5) of mothers initiated breastfeeding, only 10.4% (9.5-11.4) of mothers exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months; 21% (19.7-22.3) of mothers continued to breastfeed at six months, but not exclusively. Six risk factors are independently associated with poorer breastfeeding practices: lower maternal education, no partner, higher pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking during pregnancy, no breast contact between dyads within one hour of birth, and no intention of breastfeeding. Rates of exclusive breastfeeding remain lower in these districts than elsewhere in Canada. Understanding determinants of longer exclusive breastfeeding is critical to assist policy makers and health care providers in better supporting mothers and newborns.

No description available.

Political duration has been investigated with rigour at the cross-national level of analysis and increasingly at the Canadian level. Canada proves to be an interesting case in the cross-national literature. However, the Canadian provincial level of analysis has not been examined within the political duration literature. Studies of political duration have typically focused on cabinet, government, leader and individual legislator duration while neglecting party duration. Yet, it is important to consider the length of time a party spends in power because of its influence on the policy process. Legislators, governments and parties can become apathetic after long periods in power, which can stagnate policy development. Some parties have governed for exceptionally long periods of time in the provinces while other parties have ceased to hold office after just one term. Why is it that some parties last longer than others? Using event-history modelling and multiple logistic regression this thesis examines three different research questions: 1) What accounts for the variation in party government survival 2) What factors explain individual government survival in Canada for the period, 1945-2012 3) What factors contribute to election survival, in order to explain the duration story. I test the variables that have been identified in the cross-national literature as affecting political duration in the Canadian provinces. Cox proportional hazard models are used to test the variables in the first and second research question, while a multiple logistic regression is used to test what factors contribute to election survival. The thesis finds that leadership change, fractionalization and minority status have an effect on duration. The findings in this thesis confirm that, like Canada, the provinces are exceptional cases. While some of the identified explanatory variables affect political duration in the provinces, the usual variables do not completely explain the political duration story in the Canadian provinces.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona, 1984. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-146).

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, November, 1993. / Title from PDF t.p.