When target CEOs contract with acquirers: evidence from bank mergers and acquisitions

This paper investigates the impact of the target chief executive officer’s (CEO) postmerger position on the purchase premium and target shareholders’ abnormal returns around the announcement of the deal in a sample of bank mergers during the period 1990–2004. We find evidence that the target shareholders’ returns are negatively related to the postmerger position of their CEO. However, these lower returns are not matched by higher returns to the acquirer’s shareholders, suggesting little or no wealth transfers. Additionally, our evidence suggests that the target CEO becoming a senior officer of the combined firm does not boost the overall value of the merger transaction.

The relationship between the size of a contact lens and the percentage of the corneal cylinder used with a toric base curve contact lens to provide an optimum fit

The relationship between the size of a contact lens and the percentage of the corneal cylinder used with a toric base curve contact lens to provide an optimum fi

Parents' Support for School-Entry Requirements for Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: A National Study

The number of states proposing school-entry requirements for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has increased over the last decade. However, data are currently limited regarding parents' support of such laws. We sought to obtain the first national estimates of parents' support of HPV vaccination school-entry requirements

Provider communication and HPV vaccination: The impact of recommendation quality

Receiving a healthcare provider’s recommendation is a strong predictor of HPV vaccination, but little is known empirically about which types of recommendation are most influential. Thus, we sought to investigate the relationship between recommendation quality and HPV vaccination among U.S. adolescents

Precautionary Behavior in Response to Perceived Threat of Pandemic Influenza

Public transportation was regarded as the most risky place and home as the least risky

Overproduction of Phospholipids by the Kennedy Pathway Leads to Hypervirulence in Candida albicans

Candida albicans is an opportunistic human fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening systemic infections, as well as oral mucosal infections. Phospholipids are crucial for pathogenesis in C. albicans, as disruption of phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) biosynthesis within the cytidine diphosphate diacylglycerol (CDP-DAG) pathway causes avirulence in a mouse model of systemic infection. The synthesis of PE by this pathway plays a crucial role in virulence, but it was unknown if downstream conversion of PE to phosphatidylcholine (PC) is required for pathogenicity. Therefore, the enzymes responsible for methylating PE to PC, Pem1 and Pem2, were disrupted. The resulting pem1Δ/Δ pem2Δ/Δ mutant was not less virulent in mice, but rather hypervirulent. Since the pem1Δ/Δ pem2Δ/Δ mutant accumulated PE, this led to the hypothesis that increased PE synthesis increases virulence. To test this, the alternative Kennedy pathway for PE/PC synthesis was exploited. This pathway makes PE and PC from exogenous ethanolamine and choline, respectively, using three enzymatic steps. In contrast to Saccharomyces cerevisiae, C. albicans was found to use one enzyme, Ept1, for the final enzymatic step (ethanolamine/cholinephosphotransferase) that generates both PE and PC. EPT1 was overexpressed, which resulted in increases in both PE and PC synthesis. Moreover, the EPT1 overexpression strain is hypervirulent in mice and causes them to succumb to system infection more rapidly than wild-type. In contrast, disruption of EPT1 causes loss of PE and PC synthesis by the Kennedy pathway, and decreased kidney fungal burden during the mouse systemic infection model, indicating a mild loss of virulence. In addition, the ept1Δ/Δ mutant exhibits decreased cytotoxicity against oral epithelial cells in vitro, whereas the EPT1 overexpression strain exhibits increased cytotoxicity. Taken altogether, our data indicate that mutations that result in increased PE synthesis cause greater virulence and mutations that decrease PE synthesis attenuate virulence

A review of DNA risk alleles to determine epigenetic repair of mRNA expression to prove therapeutic effectiveness in reward deficiency syndrome (RDS): Embracing Precision Behavioral Management

This is a review of research on Precision Behavioral Management of substance use disorder (SUD). America is experiencing a high prevalence of substance use disorder, primarily involving legal and illegal opioid use. A 3000% increase in treatment for substance abuse has occurred between 2000 and 2016. Unfortunately, present day treatment of opioid abuse involves providing replacement therapy with powerful opioids to, at best, induce harm reduction, not prophylaxis. These interventions do not enhance gene expression and restore the balance of the brain reward system\u27s neurotransmitters. We are proposing a generalized approach called Precision Behavioral Management . This approach includes 1) using the Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (GARS, a 10 candidate polymorphic gene panel shown to predict ASI-alcohol and drug severity) to assess early pre-disposition to substance use disorder; 2) using a validated reward deficiency syndrome (RDS) questionnaire; 3) utilization of the Comprehensive Analysis of Reported Drugs (CARD™) to assess treatment compliance and abstinence from illicit drugs during treatment, and, importantly; 4) utilization of a Pro-dopamine regulator (KB220) (via IV or oral [KB220Z] delivery systems) to optimize gene expression, restore the balance of the Brain Reward Cascade\u27s neurotransmitter systems and prevent relapse by induction of dopamine homeostasis, and; 5) utilization of targeted DNA polymorphic reward genes to direct mRNA genetic expression profiling during the treatment process. Incorporation of these events can be applied to not only the under-considered African-American RDS community, but all victims of RDS, as a demonstration of a paradigm shift that uniquely provides a novel putative standard of care based on DNA guided precision nutrition therapy to induce dopamine homeostasis and rebalance neurotransmitters in the Brain Reward Cascade. We are also developing a Reward Deficiency Syndrome Diagnostic Criteria (RDSDC) to assist in potential tertiary treatment

Muonium Decay

Modifications of the mu+ lifetime in matter due to muonium (M = mu+ e-) formation and other medium effects are examined. Muonium and free mu+ decay spectra are found to differ at O(alpha m_e/m_mu) from Doppler broadening and O(alpha^2 m_e/m_mu) from the Coulomb bound state potential. However, both types of corrections are shown to cancel in the total decay rate due to Lorentz and gauge invariance respectively, leaving a very small time dilation lifetime difference, (tau_M - tau_mu+)/tau_mu+ = alpha^2 m_e^2/ 2m_mu^2 \simeq 6\times 10^-10, as the dominant bound state effect. It is argued that other medium effects on the stopped mu+ lifetime are similarly suppressed.Comment: 14 pages, revte

Graphical Perception of Continuous Quantitative Maps: the Effects of Spatial Frequency and Colormap Design

Continuous 'pseudocolor' maps visualize how a quantitative attribute varies smoothly over space. These maps are widely used by experts and lay citizens alike for communicating scientific and geographical data. A critical challenge for designers of these maps is selecting a color scheme that is both effective and aesthetically pleasing. Although there exist empirically grounded guidelines for color choice in segmented maps (e.g., choropleths), continuous maps are significantly understudied, and their color-coding guidelines are largely based on expert opinion and design heuristics--many of these guidelines have yet to be verified experimentally. We conducted a series of crowdsourced experiments to investigate how the perception of continuous maps is affected by colormap characteristics and spatial frequency (a measure of data complexity). We find that spatial frequency significantly impacts the effectiveness of color encodes, but the precise effect is task-dependent. While rainbow schemes afforded the highest accuracy in quantity estimation irrespective of spatial complexity, divergent colormaps significantly outperformed other schemes in tasks requiring the perception of high-frequency patterns. We interpret these results in relation to current practices and devise new and more granular guidelines for color mapping in continuous maps