The power of the pen: Handwritten fonts promote haptic engagement

Consumers are increasingly bombarded with merchandise and offers, making clear the need for visually distinctive and sensorially engaging product packaging design. The current research demonstrates that the use of handwritten fonts on product packaging elicits an approach tendency and enhances haptic engagement, which influences product evaluation and choice likelihood. A pilot study quantifies the use of handwritten fonts in four grocery product categories to establish that the study of handwritten fonts as a packaging design element is a worthy one with managerial significance. Four experiments are then presented. Studies 1 and 2 use real products to show that a product label with a handwritten (vs. typewritten) font elicits haptic engagement and, enhanced product evaluations (Study 2). Study 3 identifies a boundary condition such that the focal effect is observed only for benign (safe and enjoyable) product categories, but not for risky (unsafe and dangerous) ones. Study 4 relies on a simulated store setup with actual products to illustrate the differential preference for products with a handwritten (vs. typewritten) font when choosing between brands in a benign (vs. risky) product category.     

浅谈分离式立交满堂支架的受力验算

分离式立交在工程实际中应用广泛,施工中对满堂支架的强度、刚度、稳定性的要求较高,本文以某工程为例,验算该支架能否满足工程施工的要求。     

试论国家加大工程质量整治行动

调动全社会各部门、各级领导高度重视工程质量的整治行动,抓住建筑市场混乱的源头和要害,还建筑业一个健康、规范、有序的建筑市场新秩序。     

平铝压条碾压装置的设计分析

为解决车用平铝压条生产效率低,装配困难的问题,本文设计了一套平铝压条碾压装置,阐述了该装置的结构布置及工作原理。经使用验证,该装置结构简单,易操作,同时提高了平铝压条装配工艺水平,降低了工人的劳动强度。     

住宅小区安装工程预结算造价确定与控制

本文从现阶段住宅小区安装工程预结算存在的问题出发,提出住宅小区安装工程预结算造价确定与控制对策。     

El efecto fin de mes en los principales mercados accionarios latinoamericanos

In equity markets, it is common to find calendar anomalies, which have been the subject of several studies in recent decades, even some of them showing that over time these anomalies have disappeared. In this context, this paper analyzes one of these anomalies, the end-of-the-month effect, in both return and volatility in six Latin American stock markets, namely Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Argentina during the period of 1993-2011. The importance of the evidence for the existence of this anomaly is to allow testing whether the effect has been disappearing over time. The findings of this research show the existence of positive abnormal returns and abnormal volatilities on days associated with the change of months for most of the countries under analysis. This research was performed according to three different periods defined in the literature to analyze the impact of the end-of-the-month effect. This research not only examines the key indexes of each market, but also the individual stocks of each, giving a much larger and demanding sample, which can lead to better conclusions about the existence of the phenomenon. Also, the transaction volume analysis is included to validate some hypotheses related with the high cash flow in the turn-of-month period.     

Measuring the effects of preservation on farm profits in a continuous treatment setting

Despite billions of dollars of public appropriations to state purchase of development rights (PDR) programmes, there has been limited evaluation of the effects of these investments on the economic performance of preserved farms. This article estimates dose-response functions to evaluate the effects of enrolment in New Jersey’s PDR programme on farm profitability. The generalized propensity score method in a continuous treatment setting is used to address selection bias arising from voluntary programme participation. Treatment effects are measured across treatment levels to determine whether farm profitability is affected differently across levels of programme participation. Our findings reveal that, relative to unpreserved farms, profit per acre tends to increase along lower treatment levels. The profit per acre of preserved farms in the 1–40% treatment range is, on average, $407 higher than that of unpreserved farms in the full sample. Positive profit differentials averaging between $317 and $472 per acre are also observed in the 1–20%, 1–40% and 1–60% treatment quintiles in the farming occupation sample. We do not observe statistically significant profitability differentials when treatment effects are averaged across all positive treatment values.     

FINANCING URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE: KNOWNS,UNKNOWNS, AND A WAY FORWARD

Improved urban infrastructure is widely believed to be essential in facilitating economic growth and in improving the lives of urban dwellers, both in developed and in developing countries. This paper focuses on several dimensions of urban infrastructure finance: finance for major infrastructure improvements in major economic centers, finance for expansion of basic municipal services in secondary cities and towns, and intergovernmental systems for financing investments with impacts beyond jurisdictional limits. It reviews what is “known” about current practices in these areas, using international evidence and case studies and summarizing international best practices. It also indicates areas in which knowledge gaps remain. Despite these “unknowns,” there are avenues by which our understanding of infrastructure schemes can be enhanced, and some suggestions for a research agenda on financing urban infrastructure are offered in the concluding section.     

利用逐步判别分析方法识别碳酸盐岩地层岩性的方法探讨——以川东上余家坝构造石炭系地层为例

碳酸盐岩储层岩性组成复杂,仅仅依靠少量的岩心、岩屑和几条常规的测井曲线资料很难准确地展现储层岩性的纵向及横向分布特征,从而影响对储层空间分布的预测。本文以上余家坝石炭系石炭系地层的岩心、岩屑录井资料为分析样本,结合对应的常规测井资料并对其进行数学处理,处理后共有12个参数供逐步判别函数筛选,经过多次的引入与剔除,建立了各类岩石的判别函数。其中灰岩、灰质云岩、云岩选择了9个参数;云质灰岩选择了10个参数。将岩性判别结果与取心井段的岩性对照,每类岩性的判别符合率都在85.39%以上,综合符合率为91.49%。说明本方法对目的层段碳酸盐岩储层岩性的识别是可行的。     

Value of hedge and expected returns

We demonstrate how it is possible to generate value for an investor with a hedge attached to the buy-and-hold strategy of an S&P 500 index fund. We study the S&P 500 index portfolio (not including dividends) and the value-weighted S&P 500 index portfolio (including dividends) of the Center for Research in Securities Prices for 1967:01–2011:12, using the capacity utilization and the unemployment rates in real time to determine if a hedge position should be initiated or closed. A hedge is initiated if the capacity utilization, the unemployment rate or a combination of the two signals a contraction in the real economy. The hedge position is closed if it signals otherwise an expansion. We use utility gains (Campbell and Thompson 2008), the manipulation-proof performance measure (MPPM) statistics (Ingersoll et al. 2007) and the P-Sharpe ratio (Bailey and López de Prado 2012) to evaluate the performance of a particular hedge strategy. The empirical results show that there are infinitely many hedges that can generate positive utility gains, higher MPPM statistics and higher P-Sharpe ratios.