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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a recent innovation in the uranium market, the Global X Uranium Exchange-Traded Fund (URA), on the trading characteristics of constituent and non-constituent stocks.

The authors analyse bid-ask spread measures, relative effective spreads and adverse selection costs to assess changes in information asymmetry among uranium stocks. The authors also study abnormal returns to assess the impact of URA on the market.

Over a three-month period, following the introduction of URA, the authors find uranium stocks display decreased bid-ask spread measures, driven by reductions in information asymmetry. Relative effective spreads decrease by 36% after the introduction of URA, and adverse selection costs decline by 24% over the same period. Uranium stocks experience a significant positive abnormal return of 5.0% the day after the introduction of URA with subsequent price reversals. These suggest that the introduction of URA prompted uninformed traders to rebalance portfolios and migrate to the less information-sensitive Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), causing temporary deviations in trading characteristics.

The authors demonstrate that the introduction of new financial securities to the market can have a significant impact on the trading characteristics of related equities. As URA is the only ETF in the uranium sector, the authors thereby avoid the influence of multiple ETFs that may have impacted previous studies.

Magnet effect entails a hypothesis in market microstructure entailing a systemic likelihood of prices being sucked toward the theoretical threshold. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of magnet effect in Bursa Malaysia via overnight returns.

This study investigates the existence of magnet effect via overnight returns in Bursa Malaysia by utilizing historical daily price data from 1994 to 2017 by probabilistic regression approaches. The authors divide the study period into three distinct regimes based on regulatory limit mechanisms.

Based on demarcated regimes, the authors find evidence of magnet effect in Bursa Malaysia throughout all regimes, with a heightened magnitude detected between 2002 and 2013. Moreover, upper limit scenarios exhibit a greater propensity for magnet effect. The authors end the paper with implications of the findings for portfolio managers, intraday traders, and policymakers.

The research is the first of its kind in attempting to measure the magnet effect in Malaysia via overnight jumps.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have aroused focus in medicinal chemistry in recent decades, especially for biomedical applications. Considering the exceptional abilities to immobilize any guest of medical interest (antibodies, enzymes, etc.), MIPs is attractive to substantial research efforts in complementing the quest of biomimetic recognition systems. This study aims to review the key-concepts of molecular imprinting, particularly emphasizes on the conformational adaptability of MIPs beyond the usual description of molecular recognition. The optimal morphological integrity was also outlined in this review to acknowledge the successful sensing activities by MIPs.

This review highlighted the fundamental mechanisms and underlying challenges of MIPs from the preparation stage to sensor applications. The progress of electrochemical and optical sensing using molecularly imprinted assays has also been furnished, with the evolvement of molecular imprinting as a research hotspot.

The lack of standard synthesis protocol has brought about an intriguing open question in the selection of building blocks that are biocompatible to the imprint species of medical interest. Thus, in this paper, the shortcomings associated with the applications of MIPs in electrochemical and optical sensing were addressed using the existing literature besides pointing out possible solutions. Future perspectives in the vast development of MIPs also been postulated in this paper.

The present review intends to furnish the underlying mechanisms of MIPs in biomedical diagnostics, with the aim in electrochemical and optical sensing while hypothesizing on future possibilities.

Molecular imprinting is a generic technology, which introduces recognition properties into synthetic polymers using appropriate templates. Over the last two decades molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have become a focus of interest for scientists engaged in the development of biological and chemical sensors. This is due to the many and considerable advantages they possess in comparison to natural receptors, enzymes and antibodies such as superior stability, low cost and ease of preparation. This brief review covers recent achievements and potential applications of imprinted sensors with specific reference to the environment and biotechnology.

When agents first become active investors in financial markets, they are relatively inexperienced. Much of the literature focuses on the incentives of presumably sophisticated informed agents to produce information, and not on the nave agents. However, unsophisticated agents are important aspects of financial markets and worth analyzing further. In this paper, we provide a theoretical perspective that addresses the issue of how many nave traders would one expect in a financial market where policy makers try to educate the nave agents.We show that such policy balances the effects of nave trades on corporate investment and liquidity, as well as the monetary cost of increasing financial sophistication. The optimal proportion of nave agents varies with the value of information, the noise in private signals, and the inherent sensitivity of corporate investment to prices.We also show that the policy tool of encouraging insider trading can deter nave investors and thus improve corporate governance and the efficacy of corporate investment.

The purpose of this paper is to present an introductory overview of graphene, its properties and potential for use in interconnection applications.

This short paper has been written to provide those working on interconnect applications in the PCB and semiconductor sectors with an introductory overview of graphene and its properties. This has been achieved through a review of the published literature.

Graphene has unique properties that make it of interest for potential use in interconnection applications and, in the last few years, some workers have begun to demonstrate the possibilities for this novel material.

This is a short introductory paper and only gives a limited overview of graphene, its properties and applications. It is based on information published in the literature and, while some examples are cited, it does not represent a comprehensive review.

The paper seeks to give an overview of what graphene is and how its unique properties offer potential for interconnection related applications. References provide the opportunity to investigate the properties of this material in more detail.

High levels of turnover in financial markets are consistent with the notion that trading, like gambling, yields direct utility to some agents. The purpose of this paper is to show that the presence of these agents attenuates covariance risk pricing and volatility, and implies a negative relation between volume and future returns. Since psychological literature indicates that the desirability of a gamble arises from the ex ante volatility of the outcome, the authors propose that agents derive greater utility from trading more volatile stocks. These stocks earn lower average returns in equilibrium, although the risk premium on the market portfolio is positive. The authors then consider a dynamic setting where agents’ utility from trading increases when they make positive profits in earlier rounds (e.g. due to an endowment effect). This leads to “bubbles,” i.e. disproportionate jumps in asset returns as a function of past prices, higher volume in up markets relative to down markets, as well as a leverage effect, wherein down markets are followed by higher volatility than up markets.

Analytical.

The presence of gamblers attenuates covariance risk pricing and volatility, and implies a negative relation between volume and future returns. If gamblers prefer more volatile stocks, these stocks earn lower average returns in equilibrium. If agents’ utility from trading increases when they make positive profits in earlier rounds (e.g. to an endowment effect), this leads to higher volume and lower volatility in up markets relative to down markets.

No paper has previously modeled agents who derive direct utility from trading.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether children’s online play and participation in massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) is leading to the development of virtual retail shopping motivations and behaviours. This exploratory study also examines the influence of age-related differences in children’s social and consumer development vs adults and gender on this.

The study was conducted using two focus groups and ten in-depth interviews with 20 French children between the ages of eight and 12 years.

Results show that children’s online play and participation in MMORPG communities is leading to the development of virtual retail shopping motivations and behaviour through the purchase of virtual tools and accessories by all children using virtual in-game money. But these motivations are very gender specific due to the overarching importance of gender-specific motivations for achievement. Boys engage in virtual retail shopping because they need in-game progress and power gains, while girls engage in virtual retail shopping because they need social status enhancement.

Research should be conducted on children in different age groups. All aspects of the process and consequences of children’s participation in online gaming communities should be examined more comprehensively. Quantitative research is required. Results may also vary with country and cultural context.

First, children between eight and 12 years of age are active consumers (influencers and buyers) for all companies. MMORPGs provide the perfect setting for better understanding of children’s motivations and behaviour regarding virtual retail shopping because they provide virtual in-game money for different achievements that children use to engage in such behaviour. Second, MMORPG companies can benefit by taking into account gender differences in children’s motivations and the importance of the games’ social dimensions and interactions when designing the games.

First, the risks of playing computer games for children in terms of playing violent games and leading a virtual life must be considered and studied carefully by public policy officials. Second, public policy officials that look into online gaming should take into account gender differences in children’s motivations and the importance of the games’ social dimensions and interactions when monitoring online games. These are issues that are not only developing children’s abilities as social actors but may well be promoting excessive materialism aided by the formation of online peer groups.

This is the first study on children’s online play and participation in MMORPGs in the consumer context and will help us to understand children’s mind-set and motivations for retail activities in this unique retail setting. The study results show that children’s online play and participation in MMORPGs is leading to the development of virtual retail shopping motivations and behaviour that are very gender specific unlike adults.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight to practitioners who wish to forecast market returns based on event occurrences.

Using 64 distinct events that reoccurred from 2007 to 2016 in six different nations of both developing and developed economies, this study used an event study methodology to test whether or not sentiment impacted market returns.

This study found that investor sentiment did impact market returns. Furthermore, events that were in developed economies or were negative impacted the market returns more than events that are in developing economies or positive. The study also provides important information on the speed of price adjustment to new information. The events selected include festive holidays, bombings, natural disasters and sports matches, among other events which had been found to alter mood. This paper also found no empirical difference between using the statistical mean and economic capital asset pricing models. However, the Wilcoxon rank test did provide more significant events than the more conservative Corrado rank test.

Most comprehensive investor sentiment impact on market returns paper using an event study methodology. The results have implications for those who wish to forecast market returns based on event occurrences.

Screen‐printed electrodes are widely used in the construction of sensors. The use of graphite material is preferred due to its simple technological processing and low cost. Different graphite pastes are compared for hydrogen peroxide detection. The slope of the calibration curve, linearity and limit of detection have been compared for different pastes and technologies of graphite electrode preparation. The influence of the structure of the paste on response is discussed. Physical methods of sensitivity enhancement are proposed. All results are compared with platinum electrode as technological reference.