If at first you don't succeed: an experimental investigation of the impact of repetition options on corporate takeovers

This paper models, and experimentally simulates, the free-rider problem in a takeover when the raider has the option to “resolicit,” that is, to make a new offer after an offer has been rejected. In theory, the option to resolicit, by lowering offer credibility, increases the dissipative losses associated with free riding. In practice, the outcomes of our experiment, while quite closely tracking theory in the effective absence of an option to resolicit, differed dramatically from theory when a significant probability of resolicitation was introduced: The option to resolicit reduced the costs of free riding fairly substantially. Both the raider offers and the shareholder tendering responses generally exceeded equilibrium predictions.Corporations - Finance ; Game theory

Barriers for developing more robust organic arable farming systems in practice

There is a gap between the scientific idea of robust and economically viable organic arable farming systems with optimized crop rotations for nutrient and pest management and how these systems look like in practice. In order to explore this gap, we visited and interviewed ten organic arable farms in Denmark. Our main findings are: 1) Organic arable farming operates in a very dynamic and changing environment in terms of prizing and market opportunities, and the main focus of the farm managements was the coping strategy within this changing environment; 2) The farming systems were continuously changing and developing, buying and renting more land, changing manure agreements and other forms of cooperation and arrangements; 3) Short term profit was paid much more attention than more theoretical expectation on long term profit or opportunities in relation to optimizing the production system. This again seems logical in relation to the very dynamic world that the farmers have to operate within; 4) Most of the farmers do not see their farm as a coherent system but as a coordination of a series of separate operations, which means that most decisions are taken with specific reference to the individual field in at the present situation without considering the long-term effects. Management focus is thus much more on solving problems as they are occurring, by adjusting their practice, than it is on developing a robust system preventing problems to occur. This partial focus is also strongly supported by the way in which extension services mostly operate

Board structures around the world: An experimental investigation

We model and experimentally examine the board structure-performance relationship. We examine single-tiered boards, two-tiered boards, insider-controlled boards, and outsider-controlled boards. We find that even insider-controlled boards frequently adopt institutionally preferred rather than self-interested policies. Two-tiered boards adopt institutionally preferred policies more frequently, but tend to destroy value by being too conservative, frequently rejecting good projects. Outsidercontrolled single-tiered boards, both when they have multiple insiders and only a single insider, adopt institutionally preferred policies most frequently. In those board designs where the efficient Nash equilibrium produces strictly higher payoffs to all agents than the coalition-proof equilibria, agents tend to select the efficient Nash equilibria.

Corporate board composition, protocols, and voting behavior: experimental evidence

We model experimentally the governance of an institution. The optimal management of this institution depends on the information possessed by insiders. However, insiders, whose interests are not aligned with the interests of the institution, may choose to use their information to further personal rather than institutional ends. Researchers (e.g., Palfrey 1990) and the business press have both argued that multiagent mechanisms, which inject trustworthy but uninformed “watchdog” agents into the governance process and impose penalties for conflicting recommendations, can implement institutionally preferred outcomes. Our laboratory experiments strongly support this conclusion. In the experimental treatments in which watchdog agents were included, the intuitionally preferred allocation was implemented in the vast majority of cases. Surprisingly, implementation occurred even in the absence of penalties for conflicting recommendations.Corporations - Finance ; Game theory

The practice of telemedicine and challenges to the regulatory authorities

The practice of telemedicine is viewed as a possible solution to the human resources crisis in health care in South Africa and internationally. Reports on its successful implementation and combating of health-related problems are readily available from both developed and developing countries. Even though these reports indicate that telemedicine seems to have addressed the problem related to the shortage of health care personnel, it is still posing a challenge to regulatory authorities such as the Health Professions Council of South Africa. The regulatory authorities are there to ensure that quality health care service is delivered and that the patient will be protected from possible mismanagement by the health care practitioners involved. Misconduct can occur through improper clinical care or excessive billing. Policies and guidelines from both developing and developed countries were reviewed to highlight how telemedicine is regulated elsewhere. The focus was on the ethical implications of telemedicine practice. Telemedicine has proved itself to be a possible solution to the human resources crisis, especially in developing countries or where there are vast rural communities. Success of telemedicine has been reported in a number of developed and developing countries as a way of alleviating the human resources crisis and providing quality health care to needy communities

Detailed Modeling and Reliability Analysis of Fault-Tolerant Processor Arrays

Recent advances in VLSI/WSI technology have led to the design of processor arrays with a large number of processing elements confined in small areas. The use of redundancy to increase fault-tolerance has the effect of reducing the ratio of area dedicated to processing elements over the area occupied by other resources in the array. The assumption of fault-free hardware support (switches, buses, interconnection links, etc.,), leads at best to conservative reliability estimates. However, detailed modeling entails not only an explosive growth in the model state space but also a difficult model construction process. To address the latter problem, a systematic method to construct Markov models for the reliability evaluation of processor arrays is proposed. This method is based on the premise that the fault behavior of a processor array can be modeled by a Stochastic Petri Net (SPN). However, in order to obtain a more compact representation, a set of attributes is associated with each transition in the Petri net model. This representation is referred to as a Modified Stochastic Petri Net (MSPN) model. A MSPN allows the construction of the corresponding Markov model as the reachability graph is being generated. The Markov model generated can include the effect of failures of several different components of the array as well as the effect of a peculiar distribution of faults when the reconfiguration occurs. Specific reconfiguration schemes such as Successive Row Elimination (SRE), Alternate Row-Column Elimination (ARCE) and Direct Reconfiguration (DR), are analyze

The contribution of leaching to the rapid release of nutrients and carbon in the early decay of wetland vegetation

Our goal was to quantify the coupled process of litter turnover and leaching as a source of nutrients and fixed carbon in oligotrophic, nutrient-limited wetlands. We conducted poisoned and non-poisoned incubations of leaf material from four different perennial wetland plants (Eleocharis spp., Cladium jamaicense, Rhizophora mangle and Spartina alterniflora) collected from different oligotrophic freshwater and estuarine wetland settings. Total phosphorus (TP) release from the P-limited Everglades plant species (Eleocharis spp., C. jamaicense and R. mangle) was much lower than TP release by the salt marsh plant S. alterniflora from N-limited North Inlet (SC). For most species and sampling times, total organic carbon (TOC) and TP leaching losses were much greater in poisoned than non-poisoned treatments, likely as a result of epiphytic microbial activity. Therefore, a substantial portion of the C and P leached from these wetland plant species was bio-available to microbial communities. Even the microbes associated with S. alterniflora from N-limited North Inlet showed indications of P-limitation early in the leaching process, as P was removed from the water column. Leaves of R. mangle released much more TOC per gram of litter than the other species, likely contributing to the greater waterborne [DOC] observed by others in the mangrove ecotone of Everglades National Park. Between the two freshwater Everglades plants, C. jamaicense leached nearly twice as much P than Eleocharis spp. In scaling this to the landscape level, our observed leaching losses combined with higher litter production of C. jamaicense compared to Eleocharis spp. resulted in a substantially greater P leaching from plant litter to the water column and epiphytic microbes. In conclusion, leaching of fresh plant litter can be an important autochthonous source of nutrients in freshwater and estuarine wetland ecosystems

The Evolving Role of Opioid Treatment in Chronic Pain Management

Opioids for chronic pain management have become increasingly controversial, yet many patients continue to be treated with high doses for prolonged periods of time. The miscon‐ ception between patients and providers alike is that these drugs can be taken without conse‐ quences. This liberalized thinking is far from the clinical practice of just two decades ago

The Effect of Increasing Salinity and Forest Mortality on Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorus Mineralization in Tidal Freshwater Forested Wetlands

Tidal freshwater wetlands are sensitive to sea level rise and increased salinity, although little information is known about the impact of salinification on nutrient biogeochemistry in tidal freshwater forested wetlands. We quantified soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) mineralization using seasonal in situincubations of modified resin cores along spatial gradients of chronic salinification (from continuously freshwater tidal forest to salt impacted tidal forest to oligohaline marsh) and in hummocks and hollows of the continuously freshwater tidal forest along the blackwater Waccamaw River and alluvial Savannah River. Salinification increased rates of net N and P mineralization fluxes and turnover in tidal freshwater forested wetland soils, most likely through tree stress and senescence (for N) and conversion to oligohaline marsh (for P). Stimulation of N and P mineralization by chronic salinification was apparently unrelated to inputs of sulfate (for N and P) or direct effects of increased soil conductivity (for N). In addition, the tidal wetland soils of the alluvial river mineralized more P relative to N than the blackwater river. Finally, hummocks had much greater nitrification fluxes than hollows at the continuously freshwater tidal forested wetland sites. These findings add to knowledge of the responses of tidal freshwater ecosystems to sea level rise and salinification that is necessary to predict the consequences of state changes in coastal ecosystem structure and function due to global change, including potential impacts on estuarine eutrophication