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This paper examines the effect of management forecasts on analyst forecasts in Japan. Almost all listed firms in Japan provide management forecasts. Thus, it is possible to investigate the relationship between management and analyst forecasts for Japanese firms without any special consideration of reasons behind the issuance of management forecasts. We first show that management forecasts provided by managers at the time of release of the prior year's annual and current semi-annual financial results are slightly higher than analyst forecasts. The results suggest that managers have incentives to provide forecasts that exceed analyst forecasts. We then analyze the daily differences between management and analyst forecasts to investigate any convergence between the two forecasts upon the release of management forecasts. We conclude that analysts herd around management forecasts in Japan and tend to trust management forecasts because they believe that managers in Japanese firms are highly disciplined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preliminary and small-scale laboratory testing at the scale of 1 and 10 m2 of the concept of using chemical herding agents to thicken oil slicks among loose pack ice for the purpose of in-situ burning was completed in 2004. The encouraging results obtained from these tests prompted further research to be carried out. This paper will present the results of additional testing at larger scales at CRREL and at Ohmsett. The additional phases of the work involved: 1. Conducting a test program at the scale of 100 m2 in the Ice Engineering Research Facility Test Basin at the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in November 2005. 2. Conducting a test program at the scale of 1,000 m2 at Ohmsett in natural or artificial pack ice in February 2006. A series of burn tests at the scale of 50 m2 with herders and crude oil in a pit containing broken sea ice is planned for November 2006 in Prudhoe Bay, AK. The results of the first two phases of the testing will be presented and the plans for the November burn tests will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global financial crisis brought a serious collapse involving a ˵systemic″ meltdown. Internet technology and globalization have increased the chances for interaction between countries and people. The global economy has become more complex than ever before. Mark Buchanan [12] indicated that agent-based computer models will prevent another financial crisis and has been particularly influential in contributing insights. There are two reasons why culture-sensitive agent on the financial market has become so important. Therefore, the aim of this article is to establish a culture-sensitive agent and forecast the process of change regarding herding behavior in the financial market. We based our study on the Kirman΄s Ant Model[4,5] and Hofstede΄s Natational Culture[11] to establish our culture-sensitive agent based model. Kirman΄s Ant Model is quite famous and describes financial market herding behavior from the expectations of the future of financial investors. Hofstede΄s cultural consequence used the staff of IBM in 72 different countries to understand the cultural difference. As a result, this paper focuses on one of the five dimensions of culture from Hofstede: individualism versus collectivism and creates a culture-sensitive agent and predicts the process of change regarding herding behavior in the financial market. To conclude, this study will be of importance in explaining the herding behavior with cultural factors, as well as in providing researchers with a clearer understanding of how herding beliefs of people about different cultures relate to their finance market strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]