The cross-listing decision and the home bias in international equity investments

This paper examines the relationship between the choice of the destination market for cross-listing and the home bias of investors. We use two measures of home bias, the domestic bias (the degree of overinvestment in the home market), and the foreign bias (the degree of over-/under-investment in a foreign market). First, we find a strong relationship between the domestic bias of investors and cross-listing decisions of firms. In particular, the level of cross-listing activity of firms from a particular market is negatively related to the domestic bias of the home market investors, while the level of cross-listing activity of firms towards a particular market is negatively related to the domestic bias of the host market investors. Second, we find a strong relationship between the foreign bias and cross-listings. In particular, the level of cross-listing activity from one market to another is positively related to the foreign bias in investments allocation of the home market investors as well as of the host market investors. Overall, these results suggest that corporate managers, when making a cross-listing decision, may be prone to the same behavioral/familiarity bias as investors

Insider trading, regulation and the components of the Bid-Ask Spread

Insiders pose a risk to providers of liquidity, who require compensation for this and consequentially widen spreads. In this paper we investigate the relationship between insider trading regulation and the cost of trading by decomposing the components of the spread before and after the enactment of strict new laws. We find a significant decrease in information asymmetry, which is mainly observed in illiquid and high prechange information asymmetry companies. Results are robust to model specification. We also see a decrease in the contribution of information asymmetry to price volatility. Overall, our results may have implications for markets with similar characteristics

Improvement of refuse collection in Kitwe: A participatory approach

This project set out to define the refuse collection problem in Kitwe and to propose ways of improving the same. Through a household survey, interviews with relevant institutions and a physical survey of the town, it was established that the Kitwe City Council is not able to provide an adequate refuse collection service to its residents. Less than 10% of generated waste is collected. The rest is either burnt or scattered around the town in illegal pits, piles, road kerbs and even drainage systems. The situation contributes to environmental degradation, poor public health conditions, high risks of epidemics and a generally aesthetically unpleasant environment. The reasons for this situation include among others, inadequate financing mechanisms, inadequate technical capacity, failure to enforce existing legislation, poor participation of stakeholders and a general weakness in existing institutional structures. Some major strong points were identified through the surveys and they included users’ willingness to pay for and private sector willingness to be involved in refuse collection. Building on these the study proposes to improve refuse collection through a participatory approach in which the council ceases to be a service provider and becomes a facilitator and regulator. The Council is expected to facilitate and control the activities of the private sector through contracts and licensing procedures. Collection and management of waste is handled by the private sector through both contract arrangement based on open tendering as well as open competition; and by community based organisations who oversee the collection of waste from source to primary collection points. Secondary collection is to be undertaken as a collaborative effort between the council and the private sector. The council retains a minimal collection role in selected areas only as a way of utilising existing capital outlet. Individual users are expected to pay for collection in order to sustain the proposed system. User fees are billed with other services such as water as a means of achieving compliance. The study goes further and suggests that certain technical, financial and manpower capacities together with organisational capacities will have to be developed if the new system is to succeed. Among the major recommendations are improvement in solid waste data collection and management, improved road networks, development of a sanitary landfill, development of a regulatory and institutional framework for operation of all stakeholders, improved revenue collection systems, development of proper contract management procedures, environmental awareness campaigns, and establishment of appropriate operational standards. Recognising the difficulties of introducing new systems, the study ends by recommending that the council should proceed on an incremental (experimental) basis starting with implementing of those ideas which are more readily acceptable to society

Do criminal sanctions deter insider trading?

Many developed markets have taken what appears to be a tough stance on illegal insider trading through the use of criminal sanctions. Although criminal sanctions represent a much greater penalty than civil sanctions, the higher burden of proof required makes their enforceability weaker. This trade-off between severity and enforceability makes the impact of criminal sanctions ambiguous. In this paper, we empirically examine this issue by studying the deterrence of insider trading following the introduction of criminal sanctions in a developed market. Significant changes in sanction regimes are rare, especially when criminal sanctions are introduced without other changes. In February 2008, New Zealand introduced criminal sanctions for insider trading. This change of law offers a unique setting in which to examine the deterrence effect of criminalization. Using measures for the cost of trading, degree of information asymmetry, and probability of informed trading, we find that the enactment of this law led to a worsening in these measures. These findings suggest that the weaker enforceability of criminalization outweighs the associated increased severity of the penalties

Поняття та види суб’єктів освітніх правовідносин

Розглядається поняття суб’єктів освітніх правовідносин, пропонується авторське визначення та класифікація, розкривається суть окремих їх видів.Рассматривается понятие субъектов образовательных правоотношений, предлагается авторское определение и классификация, раскрывается смысл отдельных их видов.The concept of subjects of educational legal relationships is examined in the article, authorial determination and classification are offered, essence of their separate kinds opens up

Environmental Particle Emissions due to Automated Drilling of Polypropylene Composites and Nanocomposites Reinforced with Talc, Montmorillonite and Wollastonite

In this study, the effect on nanoparticle emissions due to drilling on Polypropylene (PP) reinforced with 20% talc, 5% montmorillonite (MMT) and 5% Wollastonite (WO) is investigated. The study is the first to explore the nanoparticle release from WO and talc reinforced composites and compares the results to previously researched MMT. With 5% WO, equivalent tensile properties with a 10 % weight reduction were obtained relative to the reference 20% talc sample. The materials were fabricated through injection moulding. The nanorelease studies were undertaken using the controlled drilling methodology for nanoparticle exposure assessment developed within the European Commission funded SIRENA Life 11 ENV/ES/506 project. Measurements were taken using CPC and DMS50 equipment for real-time characterization and measurements. The particle number concentration (of particles <1000nm) and particle size distribution (4.87nm - 562.34nm) of the particles emitted during drilling were evaluated to investigate the effect of the silicate fillers on the particles released. The nano-filled samples exhibited a 33% decrease (MMT sample) or a 30% increase (WO sample) on the average particle number concentration released in comparison to the neat polypropylene sample. The size distribution data displayed a substantial percentage of the particles released from the PP, PP/WO and PP/MMT samples to be between 5-20nm, whereas the PP/talc sample emitted larger particle diameters.The work is funded by and part of the European Commission Life project named Simulation of the release of nanomaterials from consumer products for environmental exposure assessment (SIRENA, Pr. No. LIFE 11 ENV/ES/596). The access and use of the facilities at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) was funded by QualityNano Project through Transnational Access (TA Application VITO-TAF-382 and VITO-TAF-500) under the European Commission, Grant Agreement No: INFRA-2010-262163. Kristof is also thankful for partial funding by the School of Engineering at Robert Gordon University for his studentship

DC-SIMD: dynamic communication for SIMD processors

SIMD (single instruction multiple data)-type processors have been found very efficient in image processing applications, because their repetitive structure is able to exploit the huge amount of data-level parallelism in pixel-type operations, operating at a relatively low energy consumption rate. However, current SIMD architectures lack support for dynamic communication between processing elements, which is needed to efficiently map a set of non-linear algorithms. An architecture for dynamic communication support has been proposed, but this architecture needs large amounts of buffering to function properly. In this paper, three architectures supporting dynamic communication without the need of large amounts of buffering are presented, requiring 98% less buffer space. Cycle-true communication architecture simulators have been developed to accurately predict the performance of the different architectures. Simulations with several test algorithms have shown a performance improvement of up to 5x compared to a locally connected SIMD-processor. Also, detailed area models have been developed, estimating the three proposed architectures to have an area overhead of 30-70% compared to a locally connected SIMD architecture (like the IMAP). When memory is taken into account as well, the overhead is estimated to be 13-28%

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IMPORTANCE The cost of bilateral cochlear implantation (BCI) is usually not reimbursed by insurance companies because of a lack of well-designed studies reporting the benefits of a second cochlear implant. OBJECTIVE To determine the benefits of simultaneous BCI compared with unilateral cochlear implantation (UCI) in adults with postlingual deafness. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A multicenter randomized clinical trial was performed. The study took place in 5 Dutch tertiary referral centers: the University Medical Centers of Utrecht, Maastricht, Groningen, Leiden, and Nijmegen. Forty patients eligible for cochlear implantation met the study criteria and were included from January 12, 2010, through November 2, 2012. The main inclusion criteria were postlingual onset of hearing loss, age of 18 to 70 years, duration of hearing loss of less than 20 years, and a marginal hearing aid benefit. Two participants withdrew from the study before implantation. Nineteen participants were randomized to undergo UCI and 19 to undergo BCI. INTERVENTIONS The BCI group received 2 cochlear implants during 1 surgery. The UCI group received 1 cochlear implant. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was the Utrecht Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving levels (speech in noise, both presented from straight ahead). Secondary outcomes were consonant-vowel-consonant words in silence, speech-intelligibility test with spatially separated sources (speech in noise from different directions), sound localization, and quality of hearing questionnaires. Before any data were collected, the hypothesis was that the BCI group would perform better on the objective and subjective tests that concerned speech intelligibility in noise and spatial hearing. RESULTS Thirty-eight patients were included in the study. Fifteen patients in the BCI group used hearing aids before implantation compared with 19 in the UCI group. Otherwise, there were no significant differences between the groups' baseline characteristics. At 1-year follow-up, there were no significant differences between groups on the Utrecht Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving levels (9.1 dB, UCI group; 8.2 dB, BCI group; P = .39) or the consonant-vowel-consonant test (median percentage correct score 85.0% in the UCI group and 86.8% in the BCI group; P = .21). The BCI group performed significantly better than the UCI group when noise came from different directions (median speech reception threshold in noise, 14.4 dB, BCI group; 5.6 dB, BCI group; P <.001). The BCI group was better able to localize sounds (median correct score of 50.0% at 60 degrees, UCI group; 96.7%, BCI group; P CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This randomized clinical trial demonstrates a significant benefit of simultaneous BCI above UCI in daily listening situations for adults with postlingual deafness

The Developmental Trajectory of Empathy and Its Association with Early Symptoms of Psychopathology in Children with and without Hearing Loss

Empathy enables people to share, understand, and show concern for others’ emotions. However, this capacity may be more difficult to acquire for children with hearing loss, due to limited social access, and the effect of hearing on empathic maturation has been unexplored. This four-wave longitudinal study investigated the development of empathy in children with and without hearing loss, and how this development is associated with early symptoms of psychopathology. Seventy-one children with hearing loss and cochlear implants (CI), and 272 typically-hearing (TH) children, participated (aged 1–5 years at Time 1). Parents rated their children’s empathic skills (affective empathy, attention to others’ emotions, prosocial actions, and emotion acknowledgment) and psychopathological symptoms (internalizing and externalizing behaviors). Children with CI and TH children were rated similarly on most of the empathic skills. Yet, fewer prosocial actions were reported in children with CI than in TH children. In both groups, affective empathy decreased with age, while prosocial actions and emotion acknowledgment increased with age and stabilized when children entered primary schools. Attention to emotions increased with age in children with CI, yet remained stable in TH children. Moreover, higher levels of affective empathy, lower levels of emotion acknowledgment, and a larger increase in attention to emotions over time were associated with more psychopathological symptoms in both groups. These findings highlight the importance of social access from which children with CI can learn to process others’ emotions more adaptively. Notably, interventions for psychopathology that tackle empathic responses may be beneficial for both groups, alike

Emotions in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Typically Hearing Children

For deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children living in an environment where their access to linguistic input and social interactions is compromised, learning emotions could be difficult, which may further affect social functioning. To understand the role of emotion in DHH children’s social life, this study investigated emotional functioning (i.e., emotion recognition, empathy, emotion expression), and its relation with social functioning (i.e., social competence and externalizing behaviors), in 55 DHH children and 74 children with typical hearing (aged 3–10 years; M_{age} = 6.04). Parental reports on children’s emotional and social functioning and factors related to DHH children’s hearing were collected. Results showed similar levels of emotional and social functioning in children with and without hearing loss. Use of auditory intervention and speech perception did not correlate with any measures in DHH children. In both groups, higher levels of empathy related to higher social competence and fewer externalizing behaviors; emotion recognition and positive emotion expression were unrelated to either aspect of social functioning. Higher levels of negative emotion expression related to lower social competence in both groups, but to more externalizing behaviors in DHH children only. DHH children in less linguistically accessible environments may not have adequate knowledge for appropriately expressing negative emotions socially