The Unanticipated Effects of Insider Trading Regulation

Using a sample of 2,827 firms from 21 countries we examine whether insider trading laws achieve the primary objective for which they are introduced – protecting uninformed investors from private information-based trading. We find that when control is concentrated in the hands of a large shareholder, insider trading regulation is less effective in reducing private information-based trading if investor protection is poor. We suggest that controlling shareholders who are banned from trading may resort to covert expropriation of firm resources, creating more information asymmetry and thereby encouraging private information trading by informed outsiders. Consistent with this, we find evidence that when the rights of controlling shareholders are high, insider trading restrictions are associated with greater earnings opacity.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40081/3/wp695.pd

The Unanticipated Effects of Insider Trading Regulation

Using a sample of 2,827 firms from 21 countries we examine whether insider trading laws achieve the primary objective for which they are introduced – protecting uninformed investors from private information-based trading. We find that when control is concentrated in the hands of a large shareholder, insider trading regulation is less effective in reducing private information-based trading if investor protection is poor. We suggest that controlling shareholders who are banned from trading may resort to covert expropriation of firm resources, creating more information asymmetry and thereby encouraging private information trading by informed outsiders. Consistent with this, we find evidence that when the rights of controlling shareholders are high, insider trading restrictions are associated with greater earnings opacity.Insider Trading Regulation, Ownership, Private Information Trading, Earnings Opacity

Volumetric and Viscometric Studies of Molecular Interactions in Binary N,N-Dimethylacetamide + Benzyl Alcohol Mixtures at Different Temperatures

The densities, ρ, and viscosities, η, of pure N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) and benzyl alcohol (BA), and nine of their binary mixtures covering the entire composition range have been measured at 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45°C. The experimental ρ and η values were correlated with composition and temperature by using some empirical relations. The excess volumes, VE, deviation in viscosities, Δη , excess Gibbs energies of activation of viscous flow, ΔG*E, and paal molar volumes, Vo1 and Vo2 ,of DMA in BA and BA in DMA, respectively, at infinite dilution have been evaluated from the experimental data. The variations of these parameters with composition and temperature indicate the presence of specific interactions, namely hydrogen bonding and dipole-dipole forces between unlike molecules, which decrease with rise in temperature. Furthermore, the enthalpies, ΔH*, and entropies, ΔS*, of activation of viscous flow have also been obtained by using the Eyring viscosity equation and fitting the results to some empirical relations. The ΔH* values were found to be dependent on temperature. The dependencies of ΔH* and ΔS* on the compositions of the mixtures have been discussed.Keywords: Density, viscosity, binary mixtures, molecular interactions

Perception of patients with type 2 diabetic mellitus towards insulin therapy

Insulin therapy is one of the prominent treatment methods to regulate the glucose level in blood. However, there are certain patients who refuse to even begin the insulin therapy. It is importance to identify patients’ perception and their acceptance of insulin therapy. Purpose of this study is to determine the perception of patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus towards insulin therapy. and to identify the differences in perception based on the respondents’ age, gender, occupations and educational level. Methods: This is a quantitative descriptive study and was done in one of diabetic clinic in Kota Kinabalu, involving 50 patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and was not on insulin therapy. Participants were recruited via purposive convenience sampling. Questionnaires were used as research instrument. Results: Majority of the participants (80%) have negative perceptions towards insulin therapy and 84% refused insulin therapy because it would interfere with their working time and routine. Acceptance of insulin therapy among the female patients (Mean = 3.0) was better than the male patients (Mean = 2.8). Patients with high educational level were more positive in accepting insulin therapy (SM > 0.5). Age and occupation factor were categorized as the strong influential factors (SM < 0.5) in determining the patients’ perception towards insulin therapy. The significant mean (mean ± SD) for gender and educational factor showed more than 0.5 hence suggests positive perception in accepting insulin therapy. While, the significant mean (mean ± SD) for age and occupation factor showed less than 0.5 thus suggests negative perception in accepting insulin therapy. Conclusion: Participants have negative perceptions towards insulin therapy and these negative perceptions may possibly deter them from receiving insulin therapy. Appropriate health education and counselling is necessary to help them change their negative perceptions

Prevalensi Penyakit Gondok Endemik Pada Anak-anak Sekolah Dasar Di Beberapa Daerah Di Sumatera, Jawa Dan Bali

Suatu penyelidikan gondok endemik pada anak-anak Sekolah Dasar dilakukan di empat propinsi di beberapa daerah yang dikenal sebagai daerah endemik dalam bulan Juli dan Nopember 1972. Pemeriksaan dilakukan terhadap sejumlah 6703 anak-anak sekolah dari 46 Sekolah Dasar yang terdapat di 39 desa diberbagai tempat di propinsi Sumatera Utara, Sumatera Barat, Jawa Timur dan Bali.Penyelidikan ini menunjukkan bahwa angka prevalensi penyakit gondok pada anak sekolah di keempat propinsi berkisar antara 62.1% di Sumatera Utara dan 89.4% di Sumatera Barat. Walaupun Sumatera Barat menunjukkan angka prevalensi tertinggi, persentase gondok yang tampak pada anak-anak di Jawa Timur adalah yang tertinggi. Tidak seorangpun dari anak-anak yang diperiksa mempunyai gondok yang tergolong tingkat 3.Penelitian yang mendalam dan intensif dianjurkan sebelum dilaksanakan program pencegahan gondok endemik dengan iodisasi garam

Multilinear Wavelets: A Statistical Shape Space for Human Faces

We present a statistical model for $3$D human faces in varying expression, which decomposes the surface of the face using a wavelet transform, and learns many localized, decorrelated multilinear models on the resulting coefficients. Using this model we are able to reconstruct faces from noisy and occluded $3$D face scans, and facial motion sequences. Accurate reconstruction of face shape is important for applications such as tele-presence and gaming. The localized and multi-scale nature of our model allows for recovery of fine-scale detail while retaining robustness to severe noise and occlusion, and is computationally efficient and scalable. We validate these properties experimentally on challenging data in the form of static scans and motion sequences. We show that in comparison to a global multilinear model, our model better preserves fine detail and is computationally faster, while in comparison to a localized PCA model, our model better handles variation in expression, is faster, and allows us to fix identity parameters for a given subject.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures; accepted to ECCV 201

Lipohypertrophy prevalence and its associated risk factors in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes in North Borneo, Malaysia

Background: Insulin-treated diabetes patients are at high risk of developing lipohypertrophy, which can negatively impact treatment outcomes. Early detection of lipohypertrophy is crucial to preventing blood glucose fluctuation. Unfortunately, this clinical issue is often overlooked by nurses, causing the development of vascular complications, which leads to an increase in the morbidity and mortality of the type 2 diabetes mellitus population.Objective: This study was conducted to identify lipohypertrophy prevalence and to establish the association between the presence of lipohypertrophy and its associated risk factors, including years on injection, total injection in a day, total insulin unit per day, often change needle, insulin injection site and move to a different area.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 128 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who received insulin therapy in an outpatient diabetic clinic. Questionnaires on socio-demographic and lipohypertrophy-associated risk factors were distributed among patients, and lipohypertrophy-assessment was done using a checklist. Descriptive statistics and Pearson Chi-square were used for statistical analysis.Results: The prevalence of lipohypertrophy was 51.6% (95% CI: 42.6, 60.5). Swelling on fatty tissue (46.1%) exhibited the highest percentage of lipohypertrophy features during the assessment. Pearson Chi-Square revealed a significant relationship between the presence of LH and BMI categories (χ2 = 10.059, df = 3, p = 0.018), duration of injection (χ2 = 15.001, df = 3, p = 0.002), frequency of needle replacement (χ2 = 9.525, df = 3, p = 0.023) and rotation of injection site (χ2 = 5.914, df = 1, p = 0.015).Conclusion: The high prevalence of lipohypertrophy indicates a need for a prevention strategy. Thus, nurses should play an important role in educating patients regarding the proper administration of insulin injections and performing a routine lipohypertrophy assessment and health education on the correct method of insulin injection