The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Corporate Dividend Policy in Indonesia: The Static and Dynamic Panel Data Approaches

This research examines the effect of the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic on dividend policy in Indonesia. The purposive sampling method was used to collect data from corporates listed on the IDX from 2014 to 2020 and analyzed using static and dynamic panel data approaches. The fixed-effect models (FEM) were selected for the static panel data regression. Meanwhile, the first difference-generalized method of moments (FD-GMM) and system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) were used for determine the robustness of the estimated dynamic panel data. The results showed that the crisis due to the pandemic led to higher dividend distribution on SYS-GMM. Furthermore, companies maintained the dividend level as a positive signal for investors which lifted the sluggish trade condition in the capital market. Profitability and previous year dividends positively affect dividend policy robustly. Furthermore, the results showed that age affects dividend policy on FD-GMM. Financial leverage has a robust effect, and firm size has an effect on FD-GMM in different directions, while investment opportunity does not affect dividend policy. Statistically, the FEM selected that violates the best linear unbiased estimation was proven to form parameters that were not much different from the estimates produced by the dynamic model, both from the coefficient of influence direction and significance, and the omitted variable bias occurs as evidenced in the robust test with dynamic model was solved. This research is also used as a reference for considering investors’ investment decisions in the new normal condition. Therefore, dividend policy can be considered as a positive signal to investors with the ability to stock trading activities in the capital market.

Performance Analysis of ACO-OFDM NOMA for VLC Communication

Visible light communication (VLC) is seeking a lot of attention in the recent years due to high bandwidth, low cost, ease of implementation. VLC can be used for illumination as well as communication at the same time. Light emitting diode (LED) acts as a transmitter for data transmission and photo detector is used at the receiver side. Intensity Modulation (IM) is used to convert electrical signal into optical signal where only real and positive signal need to be transmitted. Optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM) is used in the VLC to enhance the bandwidth limitation due to LED. Using OOFDM for VLC does not provide the massive connectivity in an multi-user environment. A Non orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is the further expansion where user can use both the time and frequency resources but distinguished in power domain with successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the receiver to decode the signal of each user. Also, Asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) is used to get positive signal with enhanced spectral efficiency. The proposed method is evaluated analytically and using simulation in terms of bit error rate (BER).

The Capital Market Response to The Announcement of The 2019-2024 Indonesia Onward Cabinet System

This research aims to examine capital market response to the 2019-2024 Indonesia Onward Cabinet System announced by President Jokowi. This event study research used market estimation model to estimate the expected return with an estimated period of 100 days and window period of seven days. There were 90 companies that are the member of Kompas Index 100 as the sample used in this research. T-test was used to analyze the data. The result shows that the announcement System of Indonesia Onward Cabinet 2019-2024 was responded positively and significantly by capital market. The result supports signaling theory in which the announcement of the 2019-2024 Indonesia Onward Cabinet System gave positive signal (influence) on capital market.

Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin Type 9 Inhibitors Induced Neurocognitive Disorder: A Pharmacovigilance Study by Analyzing the Data from the U.S. FDA Adverse Event Reporting System

PurposeThe neurocognitive disorder is a rare adverse event associated with Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin Type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors in the randomized controlled trail (RCTs), there was limited evidence to prove their relation. This study aimed to assessing their association by detecting adverse signal in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).MethodsThe disproportionality analysis was conducted to detect the potential adverse signal between neurocognitive disorders and PCSK9 inhibitors. The adverse event reports from the first quarter of 2004 to the second quarter of 2020 were extracted from the FAERS database.ResultsThere were 81,272 adverse reports correlated with the usage of the PCSK9 inhibitors, of which 152 reports corresponded with our inclusion criteria. Among them, there were 106 and 46 neurocognitive disorder reports related to the usage of Evolocumab and Alirocumab, respectively. The total ROR value presented negative disproportionality, however, Alirocumab has generated a positive signal with a higher ROR value in comparison with Evolocumab. Moreover, there were 61.19% of adverse reports were submitted by healthcare professionals. As for the outcome events, 7.79% of patients had initial or prolonged hospitalization and 3.90% suffered a disability.ConclusionThe pharmacovigilance research helps to find out more about PCSK9 inhibitor-related neurocognitive disorders. Although the positive signal was identified in Alirocumab in this study, it still required further research to prove the association between neurocognitive disorder and PCSK9 inhibitors. In addition, the tenable mechanism should be explored, which can improve the insight of this neotype lipid-lowering medicine.

Analysis of avian Usutu virus infections in Germany from 2011 to 2018 with focus on dsRNA detection to demonstrate viral infections

Usutu virus (USUV) is a zoonotic arbovirus causing avian mass mortalities. The first outbreak in North-Western Germany occurred in 2018. This retrospective analysis focused on combining virological and pathological findings in birds and immunohistochemistry. 25 common blackbirds, one great grey owl, and one kingfisher collected from 2011 to 2018 and positive for USUV by qRT-PCR were investigated. Macroscopically, most USUV infected birds showed splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. Histopathological lesions included necrosis and lymphohistiocytic inflammation within spleen, Bursa fabricii, liver, heart, brain, lung and intestine. Immunohistochemistry revealed USUV antigen positive cells in heart, spleen, pancreas, lung, brain, proventriculus/gizzard, Bursa fabricii, kidney, intestine, skeletal muscle, and liver. Analysis of viral genome allocated the virus to Europe 3 or Africa 2 lineage. This study investigated whether immunohistochemical detection of double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) serves as an alternative tool to detect viral intermediates. Tissue samples of six animals with confirmed USUV infection by qRT-PCR but lacking viral antigen in liver and spleen, were further examined immunohistochemically. Two animals exhibited a positive signal for dsRNA. This could indicate either an early state of infection without sufficient formation of virus translation products, occurrence of another concurrent virus infection or endogenous dsRNA not related to infectious pathogens and should be investigated in more detail in future studies.

Apakah Corporate Governance ikut Mempengaruhi Tingkat Underpricing Perusahaan?

Companies that have the potential will continue to improve by making innovations, being creative and innovating. So that it is expected to obtain qualified funding. This qualified funding will certainly be referred to by looking at the corporate governance structure and the level of underpricing for companies conducting Initial Public Offering (IPO). In achieving the company's goals, many theories put forward by experts. One of them is signaling theory. This theory explains that the existence of a good corporate governance structure, when a company conducts an IPO. This is a positive signal for investors to get involved in a company. Important points in corporate governance include the number of commissioners, dependent commissioners, ownership concentration and institutional ownership. The method used is comparative causal research using multiple regression analysis. Sample 62 observations in companies that have IPO from 2011 to 2016. The results show the number of members of the board of commissioners, the level of independence of the board of commissioners has a significant effect on underpricing. however, the concentration of ownership and institutional ownership has no significant effect on underpricing.

SuperSelective primer pairs for sensitive detection of rare somatic mutations

SuperSelective primers, by virtue of their unique design, enable the selective exponential amplification of rare DNA fragments containing somatic mutations in the presence of abundant closely related wild-type DNA fragments. However, when a SuperSelective primer is used in conjunction with a conventional reverse primer, linear amplification of the abundant wild-type fragments occurs, and this may lead to a late arising signal that can be confused with the late arising signal from the rare mutant fragments. We have discovered that the use of a pair of SuperSelective primers, one specific for the target mutation in a plus strand, and the other specific for the same mutation in the complementary minus strand, but both possessing 3′-terminal nucleotides that are complementary to the mutation, significantly suppresses the linear amplification of the related wild-type sequence, and prevents the generation of false mutant sequences due to mis-incorporation by the DNA polymerase. As a consequence, the absence of mutant fragments in a sample does not give rise to a false-positive signal, and the presence of mutant fragments in a sample is clearly distinguishable as a true-positive signal. The use of SuperSelective primer pairs should enhance the sensitivity of multiplex PCR assays that identify and quantitate somatic mutations in liquid biopsies obtained from patients with cancer, thereby enabling the choice of a targeted therapy, the determination of its effectiveness over time, and the substitution of a more appropriate therapy as new mutations arise.

Expression of Endogenous Putative TSH Binding Protein in Orbit

Thyroid stimulating antibodies (TSAB) cause Graves’ disease and contribute to Graves’ Orbitopathy (GO) pathogenesis. We hypothesise that the presence of TSH binding proteins (truncated TSHR variants (TSHRv)) and/or nonclassical ligands such as thyrostimulin (α2β5) might provide a mechanism to protect against or exacerbate GO. We analysed primary human orbital preadipocyte-fibroblasts (OF) from GO patients and people free of GO (non-GO). Transcript (QPCR) and protein (western blot) expression levels of TSHRv were measured through an adipogenesis differentiation process. Cyclic-AMP production by TSHR activation was studied using luciferase-reporter and RIA assays. After differentiation, TSHRv levels in OF from GO were significantly higher than non-GO (p = 0.039), and confirmed in ex vivo analysis of orbital adipose samples. TSHRv western blot revealed a positive signal at 46 kDa in cell lysates and culture media (CM) from non-GO and GO-OF. Cyclic-AMP decreased from basal levels when OF were stimulated with TSH or Monoclonal TSAB (M22) before differentiation protocol, but increased in differentiated cells, and was inversely correlated with the TSHRv:TSHR ratio (Spearman correlation: TSH r = −0.55, p = 0.23, M22 r = 0.87, p = 0.03). In the bioassay, TSH/M22 induced luciferase-light was lower in CM from differentiated GO-OF than non-GO, suggesting that secreted TSHRv had neutralised their effects. α2 transcripts were present but reduced during adipogenesis (p < 0.005) with no difference observed between non-GO and GO. β5 transcripts were at the limit of detection. Our work demonstrated that TSHRv transcripts are expressed as protein, are more abundant in GO than non-GO OF and have the capacity to regulate signalling via the TSHR.

Optimizing voting order on sequential juries: a median voter theorem and beyond

We consider an odd-sized “jury”, which votes sequentially between two equiprobable states of Nature (say A and B, or Innocent and Guilty), with the majority opinion determining the verdict. Jurors have private information in the form of a signal in $$[-1,+1]$$ [ - 1 , + 1 ] , with higher signals indicating A more likely. Each juror has an ability in [0, 1], which is proportional to the probability of A given a positive signal, an analog of Condorcet’s p for binary signals. We assume that jurors vote honestly for the alternative they view more likely, given their signal and prior voting, because they are experts who want to enhance their reputation (after their vote and actual state of Nature is revealed). For a fixed set of jury abilities, the reliability of the verdict depends on the voting order. For a jury of size three, the optimal ordering is always as follows: middle ability first, then highest ability, then lowest. For sufficiently heterogeneous juries, sequential voting is more reliable than simultaneous voting and is in fact optimal (allowing for non-honest voting). When average ability is fixed, verdict reliability is increasing in heterogeneity. For medium-sized juries, we find through simulation that the median ability juror should still vote first and the remaining ones should have increasing and then decreasing abilities.