French IPO returns and subsequent security offerings:Signaling hypothesis versus market feedback hypothesis

In this article, we look at two competing hypotheses to explain IPO underpricing in France when a seasoned offering follows the IPO. The first hypothesis assumes that the initial underpricing is a signal from a high quality firm in the anticipation of a subsequent equity issue at a higher price. The second competing hypothesis assumes that the market transmits to managers their valuation of the company. Our database examines two types of subsequent risky issuances: on the one hand, stocks and on the other hand, hybrid issuances (such as convertible bonds, bonds with attached warrants, and stocks with attached warrants). Further, in the French market, firms may be introduced through different mechanisms, which are not equally compatible with both hypotheses. We show that the initial underpricing is greater if a stock issuance rather than other security offerings of a convertible nature subsequently follow the IPO. We find evidence in favor of the signaling hypothesis in the case of fixed price IPOs. For the auction-like procedures, we show that the initial investors' demand, rather than post-IPO performance, determines the type of security that is issued, but has no effect on the financing decision itself. The market feedback hypothesis is therefore only weakly supported: a poor market message does not keep managers from expanding, but rather encourages them to use stage financing rather than straight equity.IPOs, seasoned equity offerings, convertible bond issues, signaling hypothesis, market-feedback hypothesis

Représentations du système de justice criminelle : Essai de typologie

IMAGE OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM TYPOLOGY STUDYThe present crisis in criminal justice — in France as in many other countries — shows two remarkable characteristics. On the one hand, the crisis is universal and is one that concerns the function assigned or credited to this system of criminal justice in society ; this places the system's image in some doubt in various sectors of society. On the other hand, this crisis defies all attempts at partial reform. Many schools of criminal policy have tried them in vain. Criminology has begun to rediscover that the science of crime and of the criminal — the progression from concept to commission of the act — also involves the reaction of society to the criminal phenomenon. But only too often, this progression is regarded as a poorly specified interaction, quite commonplace, or as a breakdown in simple technology. Only an integrated scientific approach — inclusive of the concept of the social image — can say something new and decisive in such a situation.This study belongs to one of the many research projects which the scientific programme of the S.E.P.C. is organizing, that devoted to the image of criminal justice in society.A questionnaire was distributed to a sample population in France, limited in size, but sufficient to validate the anticipated analysis (200). Each person was chosen according to several criteria (sex, age, socio-professional category, place of residence) in order to make sure of the presence of all the characteristics anticipated. The ecological variable was controlled by interviewing persons in four sectors of the 15th arrondissement of Paris (wealthy older district, middle class older district, renovated wealthy district, renovated middle class national housing), in the suburbs of Paris (Bobigny cottages and Bobigny national housing), at Epinal and in the region of Auch.The authors established a hypothesis according to which the organization of the dependent variable rests on a typology of conformism.The authors thought that the dimension of conformism was complex and tried to outline its components. According to their results, there is a resistance to change. It seems to be closely linked — even though in a wide variety of circumstances — with an optimism/pessimism dimension (where manicheism seems to be identified as one of the circumstances). To tell the truth, the authors do not know if resistance to change and optimism/pessimism are two autonomous, albeit connected dimensions, or two components of conformism. They will come back to this in future studies. They conclude by saying that conformism is clearly related to the image of criminal justice.INTERPRETACIONES DEL SISTEMA DE JUSTICIA CRIMINAL ENSAYO DE TIPOLOGIALa crisis actual de la justicia criminal — en Francia como en muchos otros paises — presenta dos caracteristicas remarcables. De una parte ella es global, es una crisis de la funcion asignada o reconocida a este sistema dentro de la sociedad ; lo cual supone el estudio de las interpretaciones de la justicia penal dentro de los diferentes grupos sociales. Por otra parte, esta crisis resiste remarcablemente bien a todas las tentativas de reforma parciales desarrolladas desde hace algun tiempo. Numerosas escuelas de politica criminal las han tratado en vano. La criminologia ha comenzado tambien a redescubrir que, ciencia del crimen y del criminal, y por consiguiente del paso al acto lo era tambien de la reaccion social frente al fenomeno criminal. Pero frecuentemente esta conversion es examinada de manera incompleta, como un interaccionismo mal especificado, por consiguiente facilmente trivial o como una degradacion en simple tecnologia. Solo un estudio cientifico integrativo — incluyendo entre otras la idea de las interpretaciones sociales — puede tener la ambicion de aportar algo nuevo y decisivo en semejante situacion. Este estudio pertenece a una de las baterias de investigacion entre las cuales se organiza el programa cientifico del S.E.P.C., dedicado : a la imagen 1 de la justicia criminal en la sociedad.Un cuestionario ha sido administrado a una poblacion francesa de limitado tamano pero suficiente sin embargo para autorizar los analisis previstos (200). Cada individuo ha sido escogido en funcion de varios criterios (sexo, edad, categoria socio-profesional, lugar de vivienda) a fin de asegurar la presencia — de manera contrastada — de todas las caracteristicas consideradas, la variable ecologica ha sido controlada interviniendo dentro de los cuatro sectores del 15° distrito de Paris (tradicional rico, tradicional modesto, nuevo rico, nuevo HLM) en los alrededores parisinos (Bobigny HLM, y Bobigny de chalets), en Epinal y en la region de Auch. Los autores habian presupuesto la hipotesis segun la cual la organizacion de la variable dependiente reposaria sobre una dimension de conformismo. Sus ideas sobre este punto estan ahora mas claras aunque todavia las interrogantes se mantienen, que convendra reducirlas posteriormente.Tanto la base de la tipologia del analisis escalado como el cruzamiento de los tipos por las notas de escala, permiten considerar que esta hipotesis aparece verosimil al termino de la presente fase de investigacion y que sera posible volver a tomar posteriormente.Pero es necesario ir mas alla del resultado global : los autores suponian que la dimension conformismo era compleja y han intentado bosquejar los componentes. Saben ahora que hay primeramente una resistancia al cambio a un nivel general y que sobrepasa considerablemente el objeto de este estudio. Pero aparece como combinandose estrechamente — segun una gran variedad de oportunidades — con una dimension optimista-pesimista (donde parecia integrarse el maniqueisme como una oportunidad). A decir verdad, los autores no saben si la resistencia al cambio y el optimismo-pesimismo son dos dimensiones autonomas aunque ligadas o dos componentes de un conformismo. Se volvera a estudiar este aspecto. Pero es necesario completar diciendo que aparece — siempre al nivel del fundamento de la organizacion tipologica — un conformismo mucho mas especifico — y quizas relativamente autonomo — y que refiere al objeto de estudio, la justicia criminal.DARSTELLUNGEN DES KRIMINALJUSTIZSYSTEMS VERSUCH EINER TYPOLOGIEDie gegenwartige Krisis der Kriminaljustiz sowohl in Frankreich, als auch in anderen Landern-zeigt zwei bemerkenswerte Eigentumlichkeiten. Einerseits ist sie allumfassend, es ist eine Krisis der Funktion, die diesem1. La imagen costituye, en efecto, el nivel operativo de una investigacion sobre las interpretaciones sociales.System in der Gesellschaft zugeschrieben und festgesetzt ist ; diese Tatsache bringt das Problem der Darstellungen der Straf Justiz in den verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen aufs Tapet. Andererseits widersteht diese Krisis ausserordentlich gut allen, seit einiger Zeit entstandenen, partiellen Reformversuchen. Gar vergeblich haben sich mehrere kriminalpolitische Schulen damit abgetragen. Auch steht die Kriminalpolitik vor der Wiederentdeckung, dass sie nicht nur die Wissenschaft des Verbrechens und des Verbrechers — also des Ubergangs zur Tat —, sondern auch die der gesellschaftlichen Reaktion auf das strafrechtliche Phanomen ist. Doch viel zu oft wird diese Konversion unvollstandigerweise als eine wenig spezielle Wechselbeziehung, also leicht trivial oder gar als eine Erniedrigung zur einfachen Technologie aufgefasst. Jedoch nur eine integrative wissenschaftliche Annaherung-die under anderem die Idee der sozialen Darstellungen einbegreift-kann den Ehrgeiz hegen, etwas Neues und Entscheidendes in der gegebenen Lage zu sagen.Als Bestandteil einer jener Forschungsbatterien, zwischen denen das wissenschaftliche Program der S. E. P. C. organisiert wird, stellt sich dieses Studium die Aufgabe, das Bild der Kriminaljustiz in der Gesselschaft zu untersuchen.Ein Fragebogen wurde einer franzosischen Bevolkerung von begrenztem Ausmass (doch gross genug, um die vorausgesehenen Analysen zu autorisieren — 200) verabreicht. Die Wahl jedes Individuums wurde von mehreren Kriterien (Geschlecht, Alter, Gesellschafts — und Berufskategorie, Wohnort) bestimmt, um die Anwesenheit aller moglichen Charakteristiken in gegensatzlicher Weise in den Vordergrund zu stellen. Der okologische Veranderungsfaktor wurde durch Ausfragen in vier verschiedenen Gegenden des 15. Stadtbezirks von Paris (alt wohlhabend, alt bescheiden, renoviert wohlhabend, renoviert HLM = niedrige-Miete-Wohnungen), in einem Vorort von Paris (Bobigny HLM und im Privathausviertel von Bobigny), in Epinal und in der Gegend von Auch kontrolliert.Die Autoren hatten die Hypothese angenommen, gemass der die Organisation der Abhangigkeitsvariabel auf einem Konformitataspekt beruhe. Sie sehen jetzt ein wenig deutlicher in diesem Punkt, obwohl noch Fragen bleiben, die man spater beantworten wird.Sowohl der typologische Unterbau, als auch die Skalaranalyse und die Typenkreuzung durch den Punktmasstab erstatten die Annahme, dass am Ende des gegenwartigen Forschungstadiums diese Hypothese wahrscheinlich sei und auch, dass es moglich ware, sie auf einer spateren Entwicklungsstufe wiederaufzunehmen.Es empfiehlt sich jedoch, dieses globale Ergebnis zu uberholen : die Autoren setzten die Komplexitat des Konformitatsaspekts voraus und versuchten, seine Bestandteile zu skizzieren. Sie wissen jetzt, dass vorerst ein allgemeiner Widerstand gegen die Auderung besteht, ein Widerstand, der betrachtlich das Studiumsobjekt ubertritt. Er erscheint jedochobwohl in einer Mannigfalt von Opportunitaten-aufs Engste mit einem Optimismus/Pessimismusaspekt vereinigt (hierhin scheint sich auch der Mani-cheismus als Opportunitat zu integrieren). Allerdings wissen die Autoren nicht, ob der Widerstand gegen Anderung und der Optimismus/Pessimismus, obwohl verbunden, zwei autonome Aspekte oder zwei Bestandteile einer Konformitat sind, Darauf wird man noch zuruckkommen. Schliesslich empfiehlt es sich, hinzufugen, dass auf der Ebene der typologischen Organisations — basis eine viel speziellere und vielleicht verhaltnismassig autonome Konformitat besteht, und die sich auf das Objekt, die Kriminal Justiz, bezieht

Outcomes in Trials for Management of Caries Lesions (OuTMaC):protocol

Background Clinical trials on caries lesion management use an abundance of outcomes, hampering comparison or combination of different study results and their efficient translation into clinical practice. Core outcome sets are an agreed standardized collection of outcomes which should be measured and reported in all trials for a specific clinical area. We aim to develop a core outcome set for trials investigating management of caries lesions in primary or permanent teeth conducted in primary or secondary care encompassing all stages of disease. Methods To identify existing outcomes, trials on prevention and trials on management of caries lesions will be screened systematically in four databases. Screening, extraction and deduplication will be performed by two researchers until consensus is reached. The definition of the core outcome set will by based on an e-Delhi consensus process involving key stakeholders namely patients, dentists, clinical researchers, health economists, statisticians, policy-makers and industry representatives. For the first stage of the Delphi process, a patient panel and a separate panel consisting of researchers, clinicians, teachers, industry affiliated researchers, policy-makers, and other interested parties will be held. An inclusive approach will be taken to involve panelists from a wide variety of socio-economic and geographic backgrounds. Results from the first round will be summarized and fed back to individuals for the second round, where panels will be combined and allowed to modify their scoring in light of the full panel’s opinion. Necessity for a third round will be dependent on the outcome of the first two. Agreement will be measured via defined consensus rules; up to a maximum of seven outcomes. If resources allow, we will investigate features that influence decision making for different groups. Discussion By using an explicit, transparent and inclusive multi-step consensus process, the planned core outcome set should be justifiable, relevant and comprehensive. The dissemination and application of this core outcome set should improve clinical trials on managing caries lesions and allow comparison, synthesis and implementation of scientific data. Trial registration Registered 12 April 2015 at COMET (http://www.comet-initiative.org

A fine-tuned global distribution dataset of marine forests

Species distribution records are a prerequisite to follow climate-induced range shifts across space and time. However, synthesizing information from various sources such as peer-reviewed literature, herbaria, digital repositories and citizen science initiatives is not only costly and time consuming, but also challenging, as data may contain thematic and taxonomic errors and generally lack standardized formats. We address this gap for important marine ecosystem-structuring species of large brown algae and seagrasses. We gathered distribution records from various sources and provide a fine-tuned dataset with ~2.8 million dereplicated records, taxonomically standardized for 682 species, and considering important physiological and biogeographical traits. Specifically, a flagging system was implemented to signal potentially incorrect records reported on land, in regions with limiting light conditions for photosynthesis, and outside the known distribution of species, as inferred from the most recent published literature. We document the procedure and provide a dataset in tabular format based on Darwin Core Standard (DwC), alongside with a set of functions in R language for data management and visualization.FCT: (SFRH/BPD/111003/2015) / (SFRH/BSAB/150485/2019) / (SFRH/BD/144878/2019)(PTDC/MAREST/6053/2014) / MARFOR (BIODIVERSA/004/2015) / UIDB/04326/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Novel relationships among DNA methylation, histone modifications and gene expression in Ascobulus

By studying Ascobolus strains methylated in various portions of the native met2 gene or of the hph transgene, we generalized our previous observation that methylation of the downstream portion of a gene promotes its stable silencing and triggers the production of truncated transcripts which rarely extend through the methylated region. In contrast, methylation of the promoter region does not promote efficient gene silencing. The chromatin state of met2 methylated strains was investigated after partial micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion. We show that MNase sensitive sites present along the unmethylated regions are no longer observed along the methylated ones. These chromatin changes are not due to the absence of transcription. They are associated, in both met2 and hph, with modifications of core histones corresponding, on the N terminus of histone H3, to an increase of dimethylation of lysine 9 and a decrease of dimethylation of lysine 4. Contrary to other organisms, these changes are independent of the transcriptional state of the genes, and furthermore, no decrease in acetylation of histone H4 is observed in silenced genes

Monolithic integration of a high power semiconductor master oscillator power amplifier

We present a high power semiconductor Master Oscillator Power Amplifier monolithically integrated on InP, which includes a modulation section. This device can be used for random-modulation-continuous wave lidar systems or free-space communications

High-brightness all semiconductor laser at 1.57 µm for space-borne lidar measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide: device design and analysis of requirements

The availability of suitable laser sources is one of the main challenges in future space missions for accurate measurement of atmospheric CO2. The main objective of the European project BRITESPACE is to demonstrate the feasibility of an all-semiconductor laser source to be used as a space-borne laser transmitter in an Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) lidar system. We present here the proposed transmitter and system architectures, the initial device design and the results of the simulations performed in order to estimate the source requirements in terms of power, beam quality, and spectral properties to achieve the required measurement accuracy. The laser transmitter is based on two InGaAsP/InP monolithic Master Oscillator Power Amplifiers (MOPAs), providing the ON and OFF wavelengths close to the selected absorption line around 1.57 µm. Each MOPA consists of a frequency stabilized Distributed Feedback (DFB) master oscillator, a modulator section, and a tapered semiconductor amplifier optimized to maximize the optical output power. The design of the space-compliant laser module includes the beam forming optics and the thermoelectric coolers.The proposed system replaces the conventional pulsed source with a modulated continuous wave source using the Random Modulation-Continuous Wave (RM-CW) approach, allowing the designed semiconductor MOPA to be applicable in such applications. The system requirements for obtaining a CO2 retrieval accuracy of 1 ppmv and a spatial resolution of less than 10 meters have been defined. Envelope estimated of the returns indicate that the average power needed is of a few watts and that the main noise source is the ambient noise

Laser module based on monolithically integrated MOPAs at 1.5 µm for space-borne lidar applications

Space-borne lidar systems require laser transmitters with very good performance in terms of output power, beam quality, conversion efficiency, long term reliability and environmental compatibility. Atmospheric gas sensing additionally requires spectral purity and stability. Solid state lasers are considered the most mature technology for space lidar applications, at expenses of a relatively large size and low conversion efficiency [1]- [3]. Fiber lasers present very high power levels and very good beam quality, but they require specific attention due to their sensitivity to radiation. In this sense, progresses have been made to develop high power fiber amplifiers for different space applications [4]-[6]. Recently, a new generation of high brightness semiconductor lasers based on tapered geometry has demonstrated relatively high average power levels together with a good beam quality [7]-[10]. These devices are emerging candidates for its direct use in space lidar systems

High brightness semiconductor lasers as transmitters for space lidar systems

High brightness semiconductor lasers are potential transmitters for future space lidar systems. In the framework of the European Project BRITESPACE, we propose an all-semiconductor laser source for an Integrated Path Differential Absorption lidar system for column-averaged measurements of atmospheric CO2 in future satellite missions. The complete system architecture has to be adapted to the particular emission properties of these devices using a Random Modulated Continuous Wave approach. We present the initial experimental results of the InGaAsP/InP monolithic Master Oscillator Power Amplifiers, providing the ON and OFF wavelengths close to the selected absorption line around 1572 nm

A systematic review of outcome measures used in clinical trials of treatment interventions following traumatic dental injuries

Background: Traumatic dental injuries (TDI) are common, andappropriate treatment will maximize the chances of maintaining teeth infunction while safeguarding their longevity and aesthetics. Subjectively, itappears that outcome measures used in studies investigating TDI arenumerous and diverse. Objectives: To undertake a systematic review ofthe outcomes used in clinical trials of treatment interventions followingTDI. Data sources: The MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Con-trolled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and EMBASEdatabases were searched up to June 2014. Reference lists of eligible studieswere cross-checked to identify additional studies and strategies to identifygrey literature and ongoing trials were employed. Study selection: Twoauthors independently assessed studies for inclusion and undertook dataextraction. The study designs included were as follows: systematic reviewswith/without meta-analyses, randomized and pseudo-randomized con-trolled trials and controlled clinical trials. There were no language restric-tions. Results: Ten studies confined to two types of TDI were included:avulsion (5) and non-vital immature permanent incisor teeth (5). The out-comes reported predominantly concentrated on injury activity and thephysical consequence of injury. There was little consistency between studiesfor the length of follow up, the time points at which outcomes were evalu-ated or the methods used to measure them. Conclusions: There is signifi-cant heterogeneity in outcomes reported for TDI in the literature. Thesefindings preclude meaningful meta-analysis between studies. Future clinicalstudies need to consider collecting a more consistent and wider range ofoutcomes, which should include one or more from each of the followingdomains: health resources utilisation, adverse effects and quality of life andfamily outcome. There is a clear need for the development of a Core Out-come Set for TDI using robust and established methodology, thus optimiz-ing the value of future research