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Terms modified by Risky Selected AbstractsCorporate Investment Incentives and Accounting-Based Debt Covenants,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 4 2003Alan V. S. Douglas Abstract This paper studies the conditions under which accounting-based debt covenants increase firm value in a setting that incorporates the conflicting incentives of shareholders, bondholders, and managers. We construct a model in which debt is needed to discipline managerial investment decisions despite endogenous compensation contracts. We show that accounting covenants increase value when (1) debt serves as a credible commitment to penalize poor investment decisions; (2) the firm faces other (exogenous) sources of uncertainty that can make debt risky despite good investment decisions; and (3) accounting information serves as a contractible proxy for firm's economic performance. In these circumstances, accounting covenants ensure that shareholders do not offer compensation schemes that would encourage bondholder wealth expropriation when the debt becomes risky. A covenant specifying a required level of accounting performance provides additional bondholder power when performance is low. An accounting-based dividend covenant allows a disbursement to maintain investment incentives when performance is high without allowing dividend-based expropriation. The optimal covenants depend on the reliability of accounting information, and the interaction between accounting performance and the different incentive conflicts provides new insight into the empirical literature on accounting-based covenants. [source] Towards a New Logic for Front End Management: From Drug Discovery to Drug Design in Pharmaceutical R&DCREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Maria Elmquist Under pressure to innovate and be cost-effective at the same time, R&D departments are being challenged to develop new organizations and processes for Front End activities. This is especially true in the pharmaceutical industry. As drug development becomes more risky and costly, the discovery departments of pharmaceutical companies are increasingly being compelled to provide strong drug candidates for efficient development processes and quick market launches. It is argued that the Fuzzy Front End consists less of the discovery or recognition of opportunities than of the building of expanded concepts: the notion of concept generation is revisited, suggesting the need for a new logic for organizing Front End activities in order to support sustainable innovative product development. Based on an in-depth empirical study at a European pharmaceutical company, this paper contributes to improved understanding of the actual management practices used in the Front End. Using a design reasoning model (the C-K model), it also adds to the growing body of literature on the management of Front End activities in new product development processes. [source] What Is the mechanism of SIDS?DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Clues from epidemiology Abstract The cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is unknown. Many mechanisms have been postulated, although thermal stress, rebreathing of expired gases and infection/inflammation seem the most viable hypotheses for the causation of SIDS. Deaths from SIDS have reduced dramatically following the recommendation not to place infants to sleep prone. Epidemiological data have shown that prone sleeping position is more risky in winter, colder latitudes, higher altitudes, if the infant is unwell or has excessive bedding or clothing. This suggests prone sleeping position involves either directly or indirectly a thermal mechanism. SIDS caused by an infective/inflammatory mechanism might be associated with deaths occurring during the night. Rebreathing of expired gases, airway obstruction, long QT syndrome and other genetic conditions may explain a small number of sudden unexpected deaths in infancy. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 215,222, 2009 [source] Deliberate induction of alcohol tolerance: empirical introduction to a novel health riskADDICTION, Issue 10 2010Julia A. Martinez ABSTRACT Aims Alcohol tolerance is a hallmark indicator of alcohol dependence. Even so, the allure of peers' admiration for having the ability to drink heavily may lead some adolescents and young adults to practice, or ,train', to increase their tolerance (particularly at US colleges, where heavy drinking is highly prevalent and central to the social culture). This is a potential health hazard that has not been documented empirically. Thus, we initiated a study of tolerance ,training' and its association to risky and heavy drinking. Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional online survey of 990 college student life-time drinkers at a large Midwestern US university. Findings Of the sample, 9.9% (n = 97) reported deliberately ,training' to increase tolerance. On average, they reported increasing from approximately seven to 10 US standard drinks in a night prior to ,training' to 12,15 drinks at the end of ,training,' over approximately 2,3 weeks' duration. Although the proportion of frequent binge drinking among ,non-trainers' (34.4%) was similar to national rates, ,trainers' were much more likely to be frequent bingers (76.3%; OR = 6.15). Conclusions A number of students report deliberately inducing alcohol tolerance, probably directly increasing the risk for alcohol poisoning and other acute harms and/or dependence. This phenomenon might additionally be applicable to other populations, and deserves further study and attention as a potential personal and public health risk. Prevention efforts might aim to reduce the perceived importance of heavy-drinking abilities. [source] The senescence of Daphnia from risky and safe habitatsECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 2 2001Dudycha Evaluating life history in an ecological context is critical for understanding the diversity of life histories found in nature. Lifespan and senescence differ greatly among taxa, but their ecological context is not well known. Life history theory proposes that senescence is ultimately caused by a reduction of the effectiveness of natural selection as organisms age. A key prediction is that different levels of extrinsic mortality risk lead to the evolution of different senescence patterns. I quantified both mortality risk and investment in late-life fitness of Daphnia pulex-pulicaria, a common freshwater zooplankter. I found that Daphnia from high-risk pond habitats invest relatively little in late-life fitness, whereas those from low-risk lake habitats invest relatively more in late-life fitness. This suggests that ecological approaches can be useful for understanding senescence variation. [source] Precautionary Bidding in AuctionsECONOMETRICA, Issue 1 2004Péter Esö We analyze bidding behavior in auctions when risk-averse buyers bid for a good whose value is risky. We show that when the risk in the valuations increases, DARA bidders will reduce their bids by more than the appropriate increase in the risk premium. Ceteris paribus, buyers will be better off bidding for a more risky object in first price, second price, and English auctions with affiliated common (interdependent) values. This "precautionary bidding" effect arises because the expected marginal utility of income increases with risk, so buyers are reluctant to bid so highly. We also show that precautionary bidding behavior can make DARA bidders prefer bidding in a common values setting to bidding in a private values one when risk-neutral or CARA bidders would be indifferent. Thus the potential for a "winner's curse" can be a blessing for rational DARA bidders. [source] The Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test (CUPIT): development, reliability, concurrent and predictive validity among adolescents and adultsADDICTION, Issue 4 2010Jan Bashford ABSTRACT Aims To describe the empirical construction and initial validation of the Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test (CUPIT), a brief self-report screening instrument for detection of currently and potentially problematic cannabis use. Design In a three-phase prospective design an item pool of candidate questions was generated from a literature review and extensive expert consultation. The CUPIT internal structure, cross-sectional and longitudinal psychometric properties were then systematically tested among heterogeneous past-year users. Participants Volunteer participants were 212 high-risk adolescents (n = 138) and adults (n = 74) aged 13,61 years from multiple community settings. Measurements The comprehensive assessment battery included several established measures of cannabis-related pathology for CUPIT validation, with DSM-IV/ICD-10 diagnoses of cannabis use disorders as criterion standard. Findings Sixteen items loading highly on two subscales derived from principal components analysis exhibited good to excellent test,retest (0.89,0.99) and internal consistency reliability (0.92, 0.83), and highly significant ability to discriminate diagnostic subgroups along the severity continuum (non-problematic, risky, problematic use). Twelve months later, baseline CUPIT scores demonstrated highly significant longitudinal predictive utility for respondents' follow-up diagnostic group membership. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis identified a CUPIT score of 12 to be the optimal cut-point for maximizing sensitivity for both currently diagnosable cannabis use disorder and those at risk of meeting diagnostic criteria in the following 12 months. Conclusions The CUPIT is a brief cannabis screener that is reliable, valid and acceptable for use across diverse community settings and consumers of all ages. The CUPIT has clear potential to assist with achievement of public health goals to reduce cannabis-related harms in the community. [source] Debt v. Foreign Direct Investment: The Impact of Sovereign Risk on the Structure of International Capital FlowsECONOMICA, Issue 273 2002Monika Schnitzer The paper compares the two standard forms of international investment in developing countries, debt and foreign direct investment (FDI), from a finance perspective. The sovereign risks associated with debt finance are shown to be generally less severe than the ones that come with FDI. FDI is chosen only if the foreign investor is more efficient in running the project, if the project is risky, and if the foreign investor has a good outside option which deters creeping expropriation. The sovereign risk problem of FDI can be alleviated if the host country and the foreign investor form a joint venture. [source] Determinants of continuity and change over 10 years in young women's smokingADDICTION, Issue 3 2009Liane McDermott ABSTRACT Aims To examine prospectively continuity and change in smoking behaviour and associated attributes over a 10-year period. Design, setting and participants Participants (initially aged 18,23 years) in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health completed postal questionnaires in 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2006. The analysis sample was 6840 women who participated in all surveys and provided complete smoking data. Measurements Outcome variables were transitions in smoking behaviour between surveys 1 and 2, 2 and 3, 3 and 4 and 1 and 4. Attributes that differentiated continuing smokers from quitters, relapsers from ex-smokers and adopters from never smokers were examined for each survey period. Explanatory variables included previous smoking history, demographic, psychosocial, life-style risk behaviour and life-stage transition factors. Findings Over 10 years, 23% of participants either quit, re-started, adopted or experimented with smoking. Recent illicit drug use and risky or high-risk drinking predicted continued smoking, relapse and smoking adoption. Marriage or being in a committed relationship was associated significantly with quitting, remaining an ex-smoker and not adopting smoking. Living in a rural or remote area and lower educational attainment were associated with continued smoking; moderate and high physical activity levels were associated positively with remaining an ex-smoker. Conclusions Life-style and life-stage factors are significant determinants of young women's smoking behaviour. Future research needs to examine the inter-relationships between tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use, and to identify the determinants of continued smoking among women living in rural and remote areas. Cessation strategies could examine the role of physical activity in relapse prevention. [source] Alcohol consumption patterns and risk factors among childhood cancer survivors compared to siblings and general population peersADDICTION, Issue 7 2008E. Anne Lown ABSTRACT Aims This study describes alcohol consumption among adult survivors of pediatric cancer compared to sibling controls and a national sample of healthy peers. Risk factors for heavy drinking among survivors are described. Design, setting and participants Cross-sectional data were utilized from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study including adult survivors of pediatric cancer (n = 10 398) and a sibling cohort (n = 3034). Comparison data were drawn from the National Alcohol Survey (n = 4774). Measurement Alcohol consumption, demographic, cancer diagnosis, treatment and psychosocial factors were measured. Findings Compared to peers, survivors were slightly less likely to be risky [adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) = 0.9; confidence interval (CI) 0.8,1.0] and heavy drinkers (ORadj = 0.8; CI 0.7,0.9) and more likely to be current drinkers. Compared to siblings, survivors were less likely to be current, risky and heavy drinkers. Risk factors for survivors' heavy drinking included being age 18,21 years (ORadj = 2.0; 95% CI 1.5,2.6), male (ORadj = 2.1; 95% CI 1.8,2.6), having high school education or less (ORadj = 3.4; 95% CI 2.7,4.4) and drinking initiation before age 14 (ORadj = 6.9; 95% CI 4.4,10.8). Among survivors, symptoms of depression, anxiety or somatization, fair or poor self-assessed health, activity limitations and anxiety about cancer were associated with heavy drinking. Cognitively compromising treatment, brain tumors and older age at diagnosis were protective. Conclusions Adult survivors of childhood cancer show only a modest reduction in alcohol consumption compared to peers despite their more vulnerable health status. Distress and poorer health are associated with survivor heavy drinking. Screening for alcohol consumption should be instituted in long-term follow-up care and interventions among survivors and siblings should be established to reduce risk for early drinking. [source] Effects of home access and availability of alcohol on young adolescents' alcohol useADDICTION, Issue 10 2007Kelli A. Komro ABSTRACT Aims The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of parental provision of alcohol and home alcohol accessibility on the trajectories of young adolescent alcohol use and intentions. Design Data were part of a longitudinal study of alcohol use among multi-ethnic urban young adolescents who were assigned randomly to the control group of a prevention trial. Setting Data were collected from a cohort of youth, and their parents, who attended public schools in Chicago, Illinois (2002,2005). Participants The sample comprised the 1388 students, and their parents, who had been assigned randomly to the control group and were present and completed surveys at baseline, in the beginning of 6th grade (age 12). The sample was primarily low-income, and African American and Hispanic. Measurements Students completed self-report questionnaires when in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades (age 12,14 years; response rates 91,96%). Parents of the 6th grade students also completed questionnaires (70% response rate). Findings Student report, at age 12, of parental provision of alcohol and home alcohol availability, and parental report of providing alcohol to their child and the accessibility of alcohol in the home, were associated with significant increases in the trajectories of young adolescent alcohol use and intentions from ages 12,14 years. Student report of receiving alcohol from their parent or taking it from home during their last drinking occasion were the most robust predictors of increases in alcohol use and intentions over time. Conclusions Results indicate that it is risky for parents to allow children to drink during early adolescence. When these findings are considered together with the risks associated with early onset of alcohol use, it is clear that parents can play an important role in prevention. [source] Anakinra in two adolescent female patients suffering from colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever: effective but riskyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION, Issue 11 2007R. Gattringer No abstract is available for this article. [source] Managerial Risk-Taking Incentives and Executive Stock Option Repricing: A Study of US Casino ExecutivesFINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2005Daniel A. Rogers I examine the relation between managerial incentives from holdings of company stock and options and stock option repricing. Because options provide incentives to increase both risk and stock price, firms must realize that as options go underwater, executives might face incentives to invest in risky, negative NPV projects. Repricing may alleviate such incentives. I examine repricing activity by firms in the US gaming industry and find that risk-taking incentives from options are positively related to the incidence of executive option repricing. The results support the hypothesis that repricing assists firms in alleviating excessive risk-taking incentives of senior management. [source] Letter to the Editor: Why is influenza virus more risky for pregnant women?INFLUENZA AND OTHER RESPIRATORY VIRUSES, Issue 5 2010Maria Grazia Cusi No abstract is available for this article. [source] Evidence from the United States on the Effect of Auditor Involvement in Assessing Internal Control over Financial ReportingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 2 2009Jean C. Bedard Securities regulators around the world are considering the costs and benefits of alternative policies for providing information to financial markets on corporate internal control. These policy options differ on the level of auditor involvement, among other dimensions. We examine the association of relative auditor involvement and auditor characteristics with Section 302 internal control disclosures made by US ,non-accelerated filers' from 2003 to 2005. We find more material weaknesses disclosed in the fourth quarter, when there is relatively more auditor involvement, relative to the first three quarters. Clients of larger audit firms have higher disclosure rates (although they are probably less risky due to more stringent client acceptance standards), but this difference is due to fourth quarter disclosures. Audit firms with Section 404 experience also have greater material weakness disclosure, implying process improvement associated with knowledge sharing across engagements. Collectively, our results shed light on ways to increase the effectiveness of internal control regulation. [source] Reconceptualizing risk perception: perceiving Majority World citizens at risk from ,Northern' consumptionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 3 2006Sue L.T. McGregorArticle first published online: 3 APR 200 Abstract The premise of this paper is that the consumption behaviour of ,Northern' citizens places Majority World citizens at great risk. A theoretical evolution suggested in this paper is the extension of the notion of risky consumption to include the impact of consumption on the human security of others. Until people can envision that their consumption behaviour places others at risk of exposure to harm, they will not see the need to perceive, assess and manage the risk. The paper tenders a preliminary reconceptualization of risk perception, using the conventional consumer behaviour model constructs of personal, distribution channel and situational factors. From this new perspective, instead of judging whether the good or service is risky for a ,Northern' citizen to consume, risk perception scholars would examine people's perceptions of whether their consumption places fellow citizens at risk, the people labouring and producing the goods and services. [source] Mega-projects in New York, London and AmsterdamINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008SUSAN S. FAINSTEIN Abstract Recently we have witnessed the mounting of very large development projects (mega-projects) in European and American cities. There is a striking physical similarity among the schemes and also a convergence embodied in private-sector involvement and market orientation. They differ, however, as to whether they provide affordable units and tie together physical and social goals. This article investigates new mega-projects in New York, London, and Amsterdam. The dissimilarities among them indicate the extent of variability in contemporary property capitalism. The comparison shows that public-private partnerships can provide public benefits, but also shows that these large projects are risky for both public and private participants, must primarily be oriented toward profitability, and produce a landscape that does not encourage urbanity. Whether the gains from increased competitiveness are spread throughout the society depends on the size of the direct governmental commitment to public benefits. This is greatest in the Netherlands, where the welfare state, albeit shrunken, lives on; it is least in the United States, where the small size of national expenditures on housing and social welfare means that low-income people must depend almost wholly on trickle-down effects to gain from new development. Résumé Les très grands projets d'aménagement (mégaprojets) se multiplient dernièrement dans les villes d'Europe et d'Amérique. On est frappé par une similarité physique entre les programmes, mais aussi par une convergence observable dans l'implication du secteur privé et dans une orientation-marché. Ils diffèrent pourtant par leur capacité ou non à procurer des unités accessibles financièrement et à associer des objectifs physiques et sociaux. L'article étudie de nouveaux mégaprojets à New-York, Londres et Amsterdam. Les divergences entre eux indiquent l'étendue de la variabilité du capitalisme immobilier contemporain. La comparaison établit que les partenariats public-privé peuvent produire des bénéfices publics, et montre aussi que ces grands projets sont risqués pour les participants publics et privés, qu'ils doivent surtout rechercher la rentabilité et qu'ils génèrent un paysage peu favorable à l'urbanité. La répartition, sur toute la société, des gains tirés d'une compétitivité accrue dépend de l'ampleur de l'engagement direct des gouvernements à l'égard des bénéfices publics. Le cas le plus flagrant est celui des Pays-Bas, où l'État-providence subsiste, bien que diminué; le plus limité est celui des États-Unis, où la faible ampleur des dépenses nationales de logement et de protection sociale signifie que les populations à bas revenu dépendent presque totalement des effets de propagation pour bénéficier d'un nouvel aménagement. [source] The Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons from the BalkansINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2008Alan J. Kuperman This article explores a perverse consequence of the emerging norm of humanitarian intervention, or "Responsibility to Protect," contrary to its intent of protecting civilians from genocide and ethnic cleansing. The root of the problem is that such genocidal violence often represents state retaliation against a substate group for rebellion (such as an armed secession) by some of its members. The emerging norm, by raising expectations of diplomatic and military intervention to protect these groups, unintentionally fosters rebellion by lowering its expected cost and increasing its likelihood of success. In practice, intervention does sometimes help rebels attain their political goals, but usually it is too late or inadequate to avert retaliation against civilians. Thus, the emerging norm resembles an imperfect insurance policy against genocidal violence. It creates moral hazard that encourages the excessively risky or fraudulent behavior of rebellion by members of groups that are vulnerable to genocidal retaliation, but it cannot fully protect against the backlash. The emerging norm thereby causes some genocidal violence that otherwise would not occur. Bosnia and Kosovo illustrate that in at least two recent cases the moral-hazard hypothesis explains why members of a vulnerable group rebelled and thereby triggered genocidal retaliation. The article concludes by exploring whether potential interveners could mitigate genocidal violence by modifying their intervention policies to reduce moral hazard. [source] Prospect Theory and the Cuban Missile CrisisINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2001Mark L. Haas This article tests the predictions of expected-utility and prospect theories against the most important dimensions of the Cuban missile crisis. Largely through use of the most recently released information on the crisis from the American and Soviet governments, I attempt to ascertain the anticipated benefits, costs, and probabilities of success associated with each of the major policy choices that the key leaders in both superpowers perceived before each of the major decisions throughout the crisis was made. Using this information and the logic of extensive-form game-theoretic models of choice, I construct a baseline for expected-utility theory that helps us to understand when prospect or expected-utility theory provides the better explanation for a particular decision. Prospect theory predicts that when individuals perceive themselves to be experiencing losses at the time they make a decision, and when their probability estimates associated with their principal policy options are in the moderate to high range, they will tend to make excessively risky, non,value maximizing choices. I find that the evidence for the Cuban missile crisis supports this prediction for the most important decisions made by both Khrushchev and Kennedy. [source] Initial Evidence on the Role of Accounting Earnings in the Bond MarketJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009PETER D. EASTON ABSTRACT We document that: (1) the incidence of bond trade increases during the days surrounding earnings announcements, (2) there is a bond-price reaction to the announcement of earnings, and (3) there is a positive association between annual bond returns and both annual changes in earnings and annual analysts' forecast errors. All of these effects are larger when earnings convey bad news or when the underlying bond is more risky. Taken together, our results suggest that the nonlinear payoff structure of bond securities affects the role of accounting earnings in the bond market. [source] The Global Financial Crisis and the Efficient Market Hypothesis: What Have We Learned?JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 4 2009Ray Ball The sharp economic downturn and turmoil in the financial markets, commonly referred to as the "global financial crisis," has spawned an impressive outpouring of blame. The efficient market hypothesis (EMH),the idea that competitive financial markets exploit all available information when setting security prices,has been singled out for particular attention. Like all successful theories, the EMH has major limitations, even as it continues to provide the foundation for not only past accomplishment, but future advances in the field of finance. Despite the theory's undoubted limitations, the claim that it is responsible for the current worldwide crisis seems wildly exaggerated. This essay shows the misreading of the theory and logical inconsistencies involved in popular arguments that EMH played a significant role in (1) the formation of the real estate and stock market bubbles, (2) investment practitioners' miscalculation of risks, and (3) the failure of regulators to recognize the bubbles and avert the crisis. At the same time, the author argues that the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other large financial institutions, far from resulting from excessive faith in efficient markets, reflects a failure to heed the lessons of efficient markets. In the author's words, "To me, Lehman's demise conclusively demonstrates that, in a competitive capital market, if you take massive risky positions financed with extraordinary leverage, you are bound to lose big one day,no matter how large and venerable you are." Finally, behavioral finance, widely considered as challenging and even supplanting efficient markets theory, is viewed in this article as complementing if not reinforcing efficient markets theory. As the author says, "it takes a theory to beat a theory." Behavioralism, for all its important contributions to finance literature, is described as not a theory but rather "a collection of ideas and results", one that depends for its existence on the theory of efficient markets. [source] Bookbuidling, Auctions, and the Future of the IPO ProcessJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 1 2005William J. Wilhelm Jr. Auction theorists predict that bookbuilding, long the standard process for selling equity IPOs in the U.S., is about to give way to an Internet-based IPO auction process that is both more efficient and more fair. The promise of auctions is that, by using an electronic platform that gives all investors the opportunity to bid on IPOs, the underpricing of IPOs and commissions to underwriters will be reduced, leading to an increase in net proceeds to issuers. Largely missing from such arguments, however, is an appreciation of why bookbuilding has dominated U.S. practice (and continues to supplant auctions in IPOs in most countries outside the U.S) and the role of undepricing in the IPO process. Rather than canvassing all investors, bookbuilding involves eliciting expressions of interest from institutional investors, and then allocating shares mainly according to the strength of their professed interest. In contrast to auctions, which allocate shares according to a set of explicit rules, bookbuilding involves a set of implicit "rules" that provide considerable room for judgment by the underwriter. This does not mean that the rules are arbitrary or not well understood by participants, particularly after thousands of IPOs conducted over the better part of two centuries. But to manage the exchange of information between issuers and investors, and the potential conflicts of interest in representing both groups, such rules must be administered by an intermediary with a considerable stake in protecting its reputation for fair dealing. Investment banks that deal with both issuers and the investment community on a regular basis are well positioned to perform this function. The underpricing of IPOs is best viewed not as a transfer of wealth from issuers to favored investors but rather as compensation to the large influential investors that play a major role in the price discovery process. By opening the process to all comers, auctions will discourage these large investors from bidding aggressively because less sophisticated investors will be able to "free ride" on their research and due diligence. To the extent this happens, auctions may suc ceed in reducing underpricing (in fact, they may even lead to over pricing), but they will also reduce the net proceeds for issuers. Nevertheless, recent advances in communications technology and auction theory will undoubtedly reshape current securities underwriting practices. In particular, Internet auctions are likely to replace bookbuilding in debt IPOs and less risky equity issues (say, IPOs of LBOs). But the argument that Bookbuilding will be completely cast aside in favor of largely untested alternatives fails to appreciate a successful institutional response to major market imperfections, some of which can never be wholly eliminated. Especially in the case of risky (first-time) equity IPOs, there will continue to be an important role for managing the information exchange between issuers and investors that is critical to the IPO process. [source] Managers' and Subordinates' Evaluations of Feedback Strategies: The Critical Contribution of Voice,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2008Alf Lizzio This study investigated 87 managers' and 91 subordinates' evaluations of a range of strategies for delivering performance feedback in the workplace. The managers and subordinates rated 8 written vignettes describing different feedback strategies on a number of variables (perceived effectiveness, perceived risk, level of enactment demand, and congruence of strategy for managers). Feedback strategies that used an invitation for the subordinate to reply to the negative feedback were evaluated as more effective and managerially congruent, and less risky than were the other strategies. However, strategies requiring bidirectional communication (e.g., invitations to reply), as opposed to unidirectional communication (e.g., praise), were generally perceived as more demanding to enact. [source] Development and Evaluation of a Measure of Dangerous, Aggressive, Negative Emotional, and Risky Driving,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2003Chris S. Dula The Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) was created to measure drivers' self-reported likelihood to drive dangerously. Each DDDI scale (DDDI Total, Aggressive Driving, Negative Emotional Driving, and Risky Driving scales) had strong internal reliability and there was also evidence for the construct validity of the scales. The DDDI was used to examine the relation between dangerous and aggressive driving and dispositional aggression and anger among 119 college students. Males reported significantly more aggressive, risky, and angry driving than did females. Males and females reported similar levels of dangerous driving and negative emotions while driving. Dangerous driving was positively related to traffic citations and causing accidents. The DDDI will be useful as a research instrument to examine dangerous driving. [source] Did ciguatera prompt the late Holocene Polynesian voyages of discovery?JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 8 2009Teina Rongo Abstract The famous Polynesian voyages characterized an intensive network of cultural exchange and colonization that was particularly active from ad 1000 to 1450. But, why would large groups of people leave their homelands to voyage into the unknown? Oceanic voyages are risky, albeit less so today than in the past. Landfalls were not guaranteed improvements over ports of departure. Taking the Cook Islands as an example, we ask whether harmful algal blooms that result in ciguatera fish poisoning in humans prompted past and present emigration pulses of peoples from within Polynesia. We take a multipronged approach to examine our hypothesis, involving: (1) archaeological evidence, (2) ciguatera fish poisoning reports since the 1940s, and (3) climate and temperature oscillations using palaeodatasets. The archaeological records of fish bones and hooks show abrupt changes in fishing practices in post- ad 1450 records. Sudden dietary shifts are not linked to overfishing, but may be a sign of ciguatera fish poisoning and adjustment of fishing preference. While fishes form the staple diet of Polynesians, such poisoning renders fishes unusable. We show that ciguatera fish poisoning events coincide with Pacific Decadal Oscillations and suggest that the celebrated Polynesian voyages across the Pacific Ocean may not have been random episodes of discovery to colonize new lands, but rather voyages of necessity. A modern analogue (in the 1990s) was the shift towards processed foods in the Cook Islands during ciguatera fish poisoning events, and mass emigration of islanders to New Zealand and Australia. [source] Conservative management of an extensive renal graft subcapsular hematoma arising during living donor nephrectomy.JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ULTRASOUND, Issue 3 2010Role of Doppler sonographic posttransplant follow-up Abstract We report a case of subcapsular hematoma (SH) of a kidney graft arising during minimal-incision living-donor nephrectomy. SH covered at least two-thirds of the cortical surface. Capsulotomy was not done because it was deemed too risky. In the immediate postoperative period, a rapid deterioration of graft function was observed associated with Doppler sonographic evidence of graft compression. However, in the following days, spontaneous resolution of SH and progressive improvement of Doppler findings was observed, which preceded full recovery of graft function. Conservative management seemed a valid approach of this complication in this case where Doppler sonography proved essential for the follow-up. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound, 2010 [source] Estimation of the probability of fighting in fallow deer (Dama dama) during the rutAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 1 2007k Barto Abstract Fighting between males is a frequent component of the rutting behavior of Cervidae. Frequent conflicts are exhausting; fighting may be risky and can lead to serious injuries or even death. We focused on the process of assessment of the opponent's fighting ability and escalation of the combat, estimating the probability of fighting based on the encounter components such as groaning and parallel walk. In this study, we observed the agonistic behavior of fallow deer bucks (Dama dama) during the rut over four seasons. During this time, we recorded 205 encounters between bucks. Non-contact display, which allows contestants to assess their opponents fighting ability, occurred in 83% of the encounters. The highest predicted probability of a fight was found when both of the males vocalized and turned into the parallel walk. The chance of a clear outcome decreased when the males were fighting in comparison to when they did not fight. The initiator of the competitive encounter won 41% of the cases, while the attacked buck won 23% of the encounters. If the contestants avoided fighting, however, the initiator won 78% of encounters. Therefore, the initiator was more successful when no fight occurred compared to when the encounters escalated into fighting. In most cases where ritualized behavior occurred, one of the opponents left after vocalization or parallel walk occurred. Thus, vocalization and parallel walk increased the probability for a clear outcome. The probability of a fight was lowest in situations where the males displayed asymmetric behavior. Increased symmetry of the contestants' behavior was strongly correlated with a higher probability of a fight. Thus, these results indicate that fallow deer bucks use efficient tactic during the rut, which, in turn, minimizes the chance of injury while fighting during the breeding season. Aggr. Behav. 33:7,13, 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] KeyGraph as Risk Explorer in Earthquake,SequenceJOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2002Yukio Ohsawa KeyGraph, a document,indexing (keyword,extraction) algorithm, is applied for a new purpose: Extracting active faults with risks of near,future large earthquakes from earthquake,sequences. This paper presents KeyGraph as an extractor of causalities from an event,sequence. This validates KeyGraph as a tool for showing why and which active faults are risky, as well as for showing why and which words abstract a document. The risky faults that are empirically obtained by KeyGraph correspond closely to real earthquake occurrences and seismologists' risk estimation. [source] Problematizing special observation in psychiatry: Foucault, archaeology, genealogy, discourse and power/knowledgeJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 6 2006C. STEVENSON rmn ba(hons) msc phd Special observation by mental health professionals is the recommended approach for those people deemed as at risk or risky. Recent research and academic writing have challenged the benefits of observing people/patients who are defined as ,at risk', and a more human engagement process is being recommended. Despite this assault, practice has not changed substantively, suggesting a need for a thorough exploration and questioning of the practices and process. The paper outlines three Foucaultian approaches to historical analysis. It applies aspects of Foucault's archaeology/genealogy, discourse and power/knowledge to explore the practices of special observation as a means of controlling risk, especially suicide risk. We identify the regulatory function of the ,gaze', professional codes and government policy in relation to restricting professional practices. We argue that observation can be related to moral therapy, wherein the person relinquishes madness for responsibility through a disciplinary process and, in governing risk, a ,professional industry' is created. The regulation of statements about people with mental health issues are exposed and related to what can be said and done by professionals. Finally, we look at productive power in relation to observation, and how it is intimately related to resistance. We conclude with ,soft' recommendations for practice discursively produced through the writing of the paper. [source] Global schemas and local discourses in CosmopolitanJOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 4 2003David Machin This paper investigates the representation of female identity and practice in the U.K., Dutch, German, Spanish, Greek, Finnish, Indian and Taiwanese versions of Cosmopolitan magazine. It shows how a ,problem,solution' discourse schema underlies a range of articles that do not all use a problem,solution genre. While this schema is clearly global and occurs in all the versions of the magazine, it allows for local variation in terms of the kinds of problems and solutions it can accommodate. The schema is described as an interpretive framework which constructs social life as an individual struggle for survival in a world of risky and unstable relationships. The community of readers of the magazine is described as a globally dispersed and linguistically heterogeneous speech community which nevertheless shares an involvement with the same modalities and genres of language and the same linguistic constructions of reality and which can signify its allegiance to the values of the magazine through dress, grooming and other behaviours. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||