Coventry University

About: Coventry University is a education organization based out in Coventry, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 4964 authors who have published 12700 publications receiving 255898 citations. The organization is also known as: Lanchester Polytechnic & Coventry Polytechnic.

Diversity and biogeography of testate amoebae

Abstract: Testate amoebae are amoeboid protists inhabiting a test (shell) They occur globally in soils, wetlands and freshwater, especially peats and mosses They are of ancient origin, dating from at least the Mesozoic, with possible ancestors as old as the Neoproterozoic Approximately 2,000 taxa have been described—a number which could easily rise to 4,000 with comprehensive recording Whilst many protists appear to be cosmopolitan as morphospecies, some of the larger testate species (exceeding 100 μm) have long been considered, controversially, to be geographically restricted Definitive conclusions have often been confounded by gaps in distributional data and misidentification Recent increases in recording from previously little known regions, and the rise of molecular taxonomy, have started to resolve outstanding issues—processes still far from complete Accordingly, biogeographical studies have concentrated on “flagship” species—those which can be identified with certainty and are sufficiently recorded to determine their ecological ranges Apodera vas (Certes) has been proved to be largely restricted to the Gondwanaland continents and sub-Antarctic islands, but absent from the Holartic despite the availability of much suitable habitat An early analysis postulated a Mesozoic origin of the species and a distribution influenced by continental drift Recent molecular evidence could imply a later origin Either way, its current distribution is clearly influenced by the pattern of global wind currents and lack of lowland tropical habitat By contrast a “Gondwana-tropical” group of species appears to be restricted to latitudes unaffected by glaciation Instances of local endemism, such as restriction to a single island, are also known, which await molecular evidence for substantiation

A Web-Based System for Home Monitoring of Patients With Parkinson's Disease Using Wearable Sensors

Abstract: This letter introduces MercuryLive, a platform to enable home monitoring of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using wearable sensors. MercuryLive contains three tiers: a resource-aware data collection engine that relies upon wearable sensors, web services for live streaming and storage of sensor data, and a web-based graphical user interface client with video conferencing capability. Besides, the platform has the capability of analyzing sensor (i.e., accelerometer) data to reliably estimate clinical scores capturing the severity of tremor, bradykinesia, and dyskinesia. Testing results showed an average data latency of less than 400 ms and video latency of about 200 ms with video frame rate of about 13 frames/s when 800 kb/s of bandwidth were available and we used a 40% video compression, and data feature upload requiring 1 min of extra time following a 10 min interactive session. These results indicate that the proposed platform is suitable to monitor patients with PD to facilitate the titration of medications in the late stages of the disease.

International Evidence on the Non-Linear Impact of Leverage on Corporate Cash Holdings

Abstract: This paper investigates cash holding behaviour of firms from France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US using data for 4,069 companies over the period 1996-2000. Our focus is particularly on the relation between cash holdings and leverage. We argue that the impact of leverage on cash balances of firms is likely to be non-monotonic. To the extent that leverage of firms acts as a proxy for their ability to issue debt one would expect a negative (substitution effect) relation between leverage and cash holdings. However, as leverage increases firms are likely to accumulate larger cash reserves to minimise the risk of financial distress and costly bankruptcy. Thus, one would expect a positive (precautionary effect) relationship between cash holdings and leverage at high levels of leverage. Our findings provide strong and robust support for a significant non-linear relation between cash holdings and leverage. Additionally, our results show that the impact of leverage on cash holdings partly depends on country-specific characteristics such as the degree of creditor protection, shareholder protection, and ownership concentration.