The safety of the food supply in the United States has become an issue of prominence in the minds of ordinary Americans. Several government agencies, including the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, are charged with the responsibility of preserving the safety of the food supply. Food is withdrawn from the market in a product recall when tainted or mislabeled and has the potential to harm the consumer in some manner. This research examines recall events issued by firms over the period of January, 2000 through October, 2009 in the United States. Utilizing economic and management theory to establish predictions, this study employs the Cox proportional hazard regression model to analyze the effects of firm size and branding on the risk of recall recurrence. The size of the firm was measured in both billions of dollars of sales and in thousands of employees. Branding by the firm was measured as a binary variable that expressed if a firm had a brand and as a count of the number of brands within a firm. This study also provides a descriptive statistical analysis and several findings based on the recall data specifically relating to annual occurrences, geographical locations of the firms involved, types of products recalled, and reasons for recall. We hypothesized that the increasing firm size would be associated with increased relative risk of a recall event while branding and an increasing portfolio of brands would be associated with decreased relative risk of a recall event. However, it was found that increased firm size and branding by the firm are associated with an increased risk of recall occurrence. The results of this research can have implications on food safety standards in both the public and private sectors.

The literature on marriage status and mortality have shown that the married individuals enjoy longer lives than their non-married counterparts. The few studies that included cohabitation have found cohabitants to have a longevity between the married and other non-married groups. There are indications that the cohabiting population is diverse in terms of mortality risk, however, very little is known about how the association is related to age and stages of the life course. This is the first study on mortality and cohabitation for the Swedish population, which is a highly relevant context since Sweden is one of the countries where cohabitation is the most widespread and it has been a forerunner in many family trends. Using Swedish register data this study investigates how different partnership statuses are related to mortality across stages of the life course. It uses cox proportional hazards regression for the years 2012 – 2018 for the adult Swedish born population. Cohabiters were found to have consistently lower mortality risk than all other partnership statuses but the married except premarital cohabiters aged 30-49 who showed no excess mortality compared to the married. Further, the study reproduced findings that the difference between the cohabiters and the married is larger for women compared to men. These results contribute to our understanding of who cohabits at different stages of life, and it underlines that future research must consider cohabiters not as a homogenous group but as a status with diverse meaning that changes across the life course.

<p>  </p> <p>During the construction of a bridge, more specifically a concrete bridge deck, there are sometimes defects in materials or workmanship, resulting in what is called a construction defect. These defects can have a large impact on the lifecycle performance of the bridge deck, potentially leading to more preventative and reactive maintenance actions over time and thus a larger monetary investment by the bridge owner. Bridge asset managers utilize prediction software to inform their annual budgetary needs, however this prediction software traditionally relies only on historical condition rating data for its predictions. When attempting to understand how deterioration of a bridge deck changes with the influence of construction defects, utilizing the current prediction software is not appropriate as there is not enough historical data available to ensure accuracy of the prediction. There are numerical modeling approaches available that capture the internal physical and chemical deterioration processes, and these models can account for the change in deterioration when construction defects are present. There are also numerical models available that capture the effect of external factors that may be affecting the deterioration patterns of the bridge deck, in parallel to the internal processes. The goal of this study is to combine a mechanistic model capturing the internal physical and chemical processes associated with deterioration of a concrete bridge deck, with a model that is built strictly from historical condition rating data, in order to predict the changes in condition rating prediction of a bridge deck for a standard construction case versus a substandard construction case. Being able to measure the change in prediction of deterioration when construction defects are present then allows for quantifying the additional cost that would be required to maintain the defective bridge deck which is also presented. </p>

本研究主要探討台灣上市櫃公司從事首次現金增資之決策受何種公司特徵所影響，並進一步探討進行其首次現金增資的宣告效果影響因素。 本研究針對1981年至2010年共30年期間於台灣上市上櫃之公司其首次現金增資之情形做為探討對象，採用Cox-proportional Hazard Regression檢定影響上市櫃公司進行首次現金增資時程之公司特徵。實證結果顯示，營收成長率越高、規模越大且獲利能力較差的公司會傾向越快進行首次現金增資。同時也針對上市櫃年度其市場情形加以探討，發現於市場處於熱市時上市櫃的公司傾向越快進行首次現金增資，顯示市場時機也會影響公司進行首次現金增資的決策。此外，對其首次現金增資之宣告效果進行迴歸分析同時以Heckman Two-Stage Model方法考慮樣本選擇偏誤之修正，結果發現規模越大的公司宣告效果越差而負債比率較大的公司宣告效果越佳。然而上市櫃後進行首次現金增資之時程與其增資宣告效果間則無顯著關係。 / This study examines how fast companies have their first seasonal equity offerings after their IPOs and further analyses the announcement effects of first SEOs. First, we adopt Cox-proportional Hazard Regression Model to see what firm characteristics make IPO firms decide to conduct first SEOs shortly after their IPOs. Using a sample of IPO firms in Taiwan from 1981 to 2010, we find firms that are larger, less profitable and higher growth potential would conduct their first SEOs faster. Also, market timing plays an important role for SEO decisions. Moreover, the announcement effect of their first SEOs shows that elapsed time to conduct first SEOs after IPOs has no influence on the cumulated abnormal returns. By correcting sampling bias, Heckman Two-Stage Model is adopted to reveal better explanation of the results.

Background: The landmark EXTREME trial established cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil and cetuximab (PFE) as first-line chemotherapy (1L-ChT) for recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). We were interested in outcome differences of R/M HNSCC in 1L-ChT and factors influencing outcome in certain subgroups, especially patients receiving PFE, and the value of PFE compared to other 1L-ChT regimens to provide real world evidence (RWE). Methods: For this retrospective monocentric study, 124 R/M HNSCC patients without curative surgical or radiotherapy options receiving at least one cycle of 1L-ChT were eligible. We analyzed their outcome using Kaplan-Meier plot and Cox regression to identify predictors for prolonged survival. Results: Subgroups benefiting significantly from PFE were patients suffering from an index HNSCC outside the oropharynx. The PFE regimen proved to be superior to all other 1L-ChT regimens in clinical routine. Significant outcome differences between PFE treatment within or outside controlled trials were not seen. Conclusion: This retrospective analysis provides RWE for factors linked to improved outcome. Subgroup analyses highlight the lasting value of PFE among the growing spectrum of 1L-ChT. Importantly, fit smokers with high level alcohol consumption benefit from PFE; considering the patient’s lifestyle factors, PFE should not be ignored in decision-making.