No abstract

This paper investigates the issue of whether financial reports appear to convey information on risk on a consistent basis across international capital markets. Data collected from a sample of Japanese financial analysts are compared to previously reported data from U . S.analysts. The results indicate that traditional accounting measures of risk explain substantial variation in the average risk perceptions of financial analysts in both the U.S. and Japan; however, while accounting risk measures were found to explain significant variation in expost beta for the U.S. sample, this was not found to be the case for the Japanese sample.The implications of these cross-national differences and similarities are discussed.If corporate financial reporting is to be adequately supportive of investment decision making, then it must provide information useful to the formation of investor risk and return assessments. Whether this is in fact the case, however, has been the subject of considerable interest and speculation. Ronen and Sorter (1972), for example, criticize accounting reports by suggesting that accounting information does not explicitly deal with considerations of risk.Accounting information may, however, assist decision makers in the formation of risk assessments in an implicit manner. The findings of Beaver, Kettler, and Scholes (1970), Eskew (1979) and Elgers (1980), for example, suggest that this is in fact the case. They observed that accountingdetermined measures of risk are associated with market price-based risk measures.This study also investigates the relationship between market risk and accounting risk, but attempts to extend this consideration in two ways.* The constructive comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged. All errors remain the responsibility of the authors.

Oscillation of magnetically stable-axis with respect to a static field below 20 kOe occurred for various solids without spontaneous magnetic moment. The oscillation was caused by anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility Á. According to theoretical consideration on the origin of diamagnetic and paramagnetic anisotropy, Á values of ordinary solid is expected to range over 6 orders of magnitude. These Á values can be obtained from period of the above-mentioned oscillation; small Á values were detectable because effect of restoration torque of a fiber that suspended the sample was excluded in the measurement. Á above 1 Â 10 À9 emu/g were detected at terrestrial gravity in a field below B ¼ 20 kOe. The fiber itself was excluded by floating a sample in microgravity, for the purpose of detecting Á below 1 Â 10 À9 emu/g. Alignment of micron-sized crystals dispersed in fluid at room temperature is achieved below 2 Tesla for most of the solids since their Á value is above 1 Â 10 À9 emu/g. Efficiency of magnetic alignment is enhanced considerably for ordinary oxide when resultant Á is increased by paramagnetic impurity ions up to level of 10 À5 emu/g.

This article presents a new method to represent the design and construction process in a systematic way and to develop a support system of management for concurrent engineering. We define activities included in the total process of a standard project, make an adjacency matrix about the relationship among activities, and structure the activities with a reachability matrix. As a result, the process consisting of several complicated interactions among activities was found. These interactions can be classified into three patterns. We constructed a new process model by dividing the information flow into nine categories. Moreover, the effectiveness of the model as a tool for concurrent engineering is discussed from four points of view, and the relationship between concurrent engineering and project objectives is analyzed. This article shows the results matrix calculation first and then describes its contribution to concurrent engineering.