Notes on the Performance and Cultivation of some Lesser Known Eastern Himalayan Plants

Staff from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have made four expeditions to eastern Nepal and Bhutan during the years 1985-1991. Brief descriptions and notes on observations, performance and cultivation are given for seven species from this region. The species described are Spiraea hemicryptophyta Grierson, Streptopus parasimplex Hara & Ohashi, Rubus calophyllus C.B.Clarke, Berberis thomsoniana Schneider, Sorbus kurzii (Prain) C.K. Schneider, Gaultheria tricophylla Royle and Theropogon pallidus (Kunth) Maxim

Plates

No abstrac

Risk Shifts Following Sarbanes-Oxley: Influences of Disclosure and Governance

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) aimed to improve financial reporting by enhancing corporate disclosure and governance. We find statistically significant increases, from before to after the passage of SOX, in total return variance, market risk and idiosyncratic risk. The risk increases are consistent with predictions that the legislation would cause firms to disclose more negative information, resulting in increased investment risk. However, in cross-sectional tests, post-SOX improvements in information certainty, board independence and monitoring are associated with smaller increases or greater decreases in risk. If SOX is responsible for these improvements, its effects are consistent with its purpose. Copyright (c) 2008, The Eastern Finance Association.