The effects of corporate governance mechanisms on the financial leverage–profitability relation

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the moderating effects of corporate governance mechanisms on the financial leverage–profitability relation in emerging market firms. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines the impacts by estimating the empirical model in which a firm’s accounting profitability is a dependent variable, while financial leverage, board size, board independence, CEO duality, CEO ownership, state ownership and the interaction variables are predictors. The paper uses the panel data set of 295 listed firms in Vietnam in the period 2011-2015 and two key econometric methods for panel data, namely, the two-stage least square instrumental variable and general moments method. Findings The paper finds the evidence for the significant and positive effect of board size, board independence and state ownership on the financial leverage–profitability relation. The effect of CEO duality on the financial leverage–profitability relation tends to be negative, and the impact CEO ownership inclines to be positive, although both of them are statistically insignificant. The results are consistent across different estimation methods. Originality/value This paper is the first investigating the moderating effect of various corporate governance mechanisms on the financial leverage–profitability relationship in emerging market firms

Debt financing and firm performance: The moderating role of board independence

This article investigates the moderating role of board independence in the relationship between debt financing and performance of emerging market firms. We have used an empirical model in which the firm’s accounting profitability is a dependent variable and the independent variables are debt financing, board independence, the interaction variable made of debt financing and board independence as well as various control variables. Our analysis is based on a panel data set of 300 listed firms in Vietnam between 2013 and 2017. Our study finds that debt financing has a significantly negative effect and that board independence reduces the adverse impact of debt financing on accounting profitability. Our results are consistent across different estimation models and methods

The Molecular Epidemiology of Enteric Fever in South and Southeast Asia

Typhoid fever is a life-threating systemic infection caused by Salmonella enterica sub-species enterica serovars Typhi (S. Typhi) and Paratyphi A (S. Paratyphi A). While the disease is mainly travel-associated in developed countries, it still causes significant burden in the poorest areas in developing countries where safe water and adequate sanitation and food hygiene remain limited. Typhoid management largely relies on antimicrobial therapy; however, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in these causative pathogens has become a global threat, compromising the effectiveness of the treatment therapy and signifying the burden of this disease. Understanding the epidemiology of typhoid fever in different endemic settings as well as the impact of AMR on the disease outcome is crucial for disease control and management. First, this thesis utilized whole genome sequences of S. Typhi combined with clinical data from a randomized controlled trial to investigate the impact of AMR and bacterial genotype on the disease outcome. A novel subclade of ciprofloxacin-resistant H58 S. Typhi associated with increased treatment failure was identified and these organisms were likely widespread in Indian subcontinent. Subsequently, this study combined bacterial genomics with conventional epidemiological tools to reveal the population structure and spatiotemporal dynamics of S. Paratyphi A isolates in Nepal. The Nepalese S. Paratyphi A population was highly dynamic with evidences of regular inter-country transmission, clonal expansion and replacement of distinct genotypes during the study period. A number of localized spatiotemporal clusters of S. Paratyphi A cases were also identified. A molecular epidemiological investigation was also performed to provide insights into the AMR, epidemiological features and population structure and dynamics of S. Typhi in rural areas of Siem Reap, Cambodia. A substantial burden of pediatric typhoid fever was revealed and communes with high-risk of infection were identified. Multidrug resistant H58 S. Typhi with reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones was dominant in this setting. This study also investigated the phylogenetic relationship between acute and carriage S. Typhi isolates in Nepal and deciphered the genetic characteristics associated with carriage isolates. My study suggested that typhoid carriage was likely not an important source of new infections in endemic area

The Rising Dominance of Shigella sonnei: An Intercontinental Shift in the Etiology of Bacillary Dysentery.

Shigellosis is the major global cause of dysentery. Shigella sonnei, which has historically been more commonly isolated in developed countries, is undergoing an unprecedented expansion across industrializing regions in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The precise reasons underpinning the epidemiological distribution of the various Shigella species and this global surge in S. sonnei are unclear but may be due to three major environmental pressures. First, natural passive immunization with the bacterium Plesiomonas shigelloides is hypothesized to protect populations with poor water supplies against S. sonnei. Improving the quality of drinking water supplies would, therefore, result in a reduction in P. shigelloides exposure and a subsequent reduction in environmental immunization against S. sonnei. Secondly, the ubiquitous amoeba species Acanthamoeba castellanii has been shown to phagocytize S. sonnei efficiently and symbiotically, thus allowing the bacteria access to a protected niche in which to withstand chlorination and other harsh environmental conditions in temperate countries. Finally, S. sonnei has emerged from Europe and begun to spread globally only relatively recently. A strong selective pressure from localized antimicrobial use additionally appears to have had a dramatic impact on the evolution of the S. sonnei population. We hypothesize that S. sonnei, which exhibits an exceptional ability to acquire antimicrobial resistance genes from commensal and pathogenic bacteria, has a competitive advantage over S. flexneri, particularly in areas with poorly regulated antimicrobial use. Continuing improvement in the quality of global drinking water supplies alongside the rapid development of antimicrobial resistance predicts the burden and international distribution of S. sonnei will only continue to grow. An effective vaccine against S. sonnei is overdue and may become one of our only weapons against this increasingly dominant and problematic gastrointestinal pathogen

A Generalized Newton Method for Subgradient Systems

This paper proposes and develops a new Newton-type algorithm to solve subdifferential inclusions defined by subgradients of extended-real-valued prox-regular functions. The proposed algorithm is formulated in terms of the second-order subdifferential of such functions that enjoys extensive calculus rules and can be efficiently computed for broad classes of extended-real-valued functions. Based on this and on metric regularity and subregularity properties of subgradient mappings, we establish verifiable conditions ensuring well-posedness of the proposed algorithm and its local superlinear convergence. The obtained results are also new for the class of equations defined by continuously differentiable functions with Lipschitzian derivatives ($\mathcal{C}^{1,1}$ functions), which is the underlying case of our consideration. The developed algorithm for prox-regular functions is formulated in terms of proximal mappings related to and reduces to Moreau envelopes. Besides numerous illustrative examples and comparison with known algorithms for $\mathcal{C}^{1,1}$ functions and generalized equations, the paper presents applications of the proposed algorithm to the practically important class of Lasso problems arising in statistics and machine learning.Comment: 35 page

Architecture Parallel for the Renewable Energy System

This chapter present one possible evolution is the parallel topology on the high-voltage bus for the renewable energy system. The system is not connected to a chain of photovoltaic (PV) modules and the different sources renewable. This evolution retains all the advantages of this system, while increasing the level of discretization of the Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT). So it is no longer a chain of PV modules that works at its MPPT but each PV module. In addition, this greater discretization allows a finer control and monitoring of operation and a faster detection of defects. The main interest of parallel step-up voltage systems, in this case, lies in the fact that the use of relatively high DC voltages is possible in these architectures distributed

Coderivative-Based Newton Methods in Structured Nonconvex and Nonsmooth Optimization

This paper proposes and develops new Newton-type methods to solve structured nonconvex and nonsmooth optimization problems with justifying their fast local and global convergence by means of advanced tools of variational analysis and generalized differentiation. The objective functions belong to a broad class of prox-regular functions with specification to constrained optimization of nonconvex structured sums. We also develop a novel line search method, which is an extension of the proximal gradient algorithm while allowing us to globalize the proposed coderivative-based Newton methods by incorporating the machinery of forward-backward envelopes. Further applications and numerical experiments are conducted for the $\ell_0$-$\ell_2$ regularized least-square model appearing in statistics and machine learning

Effect of shear deformations due to bending and warping on the buckling resistances of thin-walled steel beams

The present paper successfully develops a closed form solution based on a shear deformation theory for elastic lateral-torsional buckling analyses of simply supported thin-walled steel beams. The theory captures the shear effects caused by transverse bending, lateral bending and warping deformations. The closed form solution is successfully validated against 3 dimensional finite element analyses conducted in commercial software. Through various comparisons between the buckling resistances based on a non-shear deformation theory and the buckling resistances based on the present shear deformation theory, the present study finds that (i) the effect of shear deformations on the buckling resistances decreases when the beam span increases, (ii) the effect of shear deformations on the buckling resistance is sensitive with the change of the flange width, and (iii) the effect of shear deformations in general is also influenced by the change of the section depth, and the flange and web thicknesses

Epidemiology and Clinical Features of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Ho Chi Minh City and the Centre for Tropical Diseases; Viet Nam

Dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) is one of the major infectious diseases in Viet Nam. In the south of Viet Nam, DHF occurs all the year round. The number of DHF cases has been recorded as the greatest one among many countries in the world (1983: 77,087 cases and 1,301 deaths; 1987: 83,905 cases and 904 deaths). The DHF morbidity rate in children in south of Viet Nam was high (380.73/100,000 population in the 1983 epidemic and 378.37/100,000 population in the 1987 epidemic). The mortality rate in Ho Chi Minh city (1981-1990) is 1.05 (/100,000 population) and the mean mortality rate (/total of cases) is 0.55%. The majority of confirmed cases were children of 5-9 years old. In the DHF with shock, hepatomegaly relates to the severe grades. In the traetment of DHF without shock, patients were given fluid to drink on the first day to prevent shock