The Shocking Impact of Corporate Scandal on Directors\u27 and Officers\u27 Liability

Directors and officers liability (hereinafter D&O) serves as a deterrent to corporate wrongdoing. Recent cycles of corporate scandal have impacted the tools used to manage the risk that D&O liability creates. The impact of these scandals is a shock, which is a sudden event that alters the market profoundly. Market alteration has counter intuitively resulted in increased availability of D&O insurance at a lower price, despite an increase in D&O liability. With increased D&O coverage offerings at lower costs, the market has become soft, making coverage readily available. Carriers are competing for insureds and there is now a risk of undermining the deterrent effect that D&O liability provides. This paper explores whether D&O liability\u27s deterrent effect has been jeopardized in this soft D&O insurance marke

Microfluidic mixer with automated electrode switching for sensing applications

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQAn electronic tongue (e-tongue) is a multisensory system usually applied to complex liquid media that uses computational/statistical tools to group information generated by sensing units into recognition patterns, which allow the identification/distinctio81110FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ2014/50869-62015/14836-92017/06985-0Sem informaçãoSem informaçãoWe would like to thank all the staff from Additive Manufacturing Laboratory (AddLab), especially to Peter Bruno and Peter Szczesniak (MEAM/SEAS/UPenn) for all the help and support during the year that Maria L. Braunger spent as a visiting scholar at UPen

Influência do sítio no desenvolvimento do Pinus taeda L.aos 22 anos: estado nutricional das plantas.

A análise de solo, freqüentemente usada na agricultura, tem provado ser pouco útil em prever o crescimento de espécies florestais pela dificuldade em determinar com precisão a camada do solo de maior absorção dos nutrientes para a amostragem. Para avaliar a influência do sítio no crescimento do Pinus taeda, foram selecionados, em área de plantio comercial da Klabin S.A., no município de Telêmaco Borba (PR), oito sítios com essa espécie aos 22 anos de idade, diferenciados pelo tipo de solo (latossolo e cambissolo), textura (argilosa e média) e vegetação original. Foram realizadas avaliações dendrométricas de 50 árvores por sítio, e selecionadas 3 árvores médias por sítio, nas quais foram medidas alturas totais, altura para serraria e para celulose e DAP. Também foram coletados discos em seis posições e acículas no terço superior da copa dessas árvores, para análise do estado nutricional. A concentração de K foi maior nas acículas, na casca e no alburno das árvores dos sítios mais produtivos. Os sítios mais produtivos apresentaram os menores teores de Ca nas acículas das árvores, e estes mostraram uma correlação linear positiva muito forte (r = 0,80) com a porosidade total do solo, evidenciando uma dependência da aeração do solo para absorção de Ca. O teor de Zn nas acículas dos sítios mais produtivos foi muito maior e mostrou as maiores correlações lineares positivas com as variáveis de crescimento. A relação P/Zn nas acículas das plantas apresenta correlação linear negativa forte com o crescimento das árvores

Influência do sítio no desenvolvimento do Pinus taeda aos 22 anos: 1. características físico-hídricas e químicas do solo.

Para avaliar a influência do sítio no crescimento de Pinus taeda, foram selecionados, em área de plantio comercial, no município de Telêmaco Borba (PR), oito sítios com essa espécie aos 22 anos de idade, diferenciados pelo tipo de solo (Latossolo e Cambissolo), textura (argilosa e média) e vegetação original (campo e floresta). Para a caracterização dos sítios, foram realizadas avaliações dendrométricas de 50 árvores por sítio e coleta de solo em 3 profundidades para análises. Selecionaram-se 3 árvores médias por sítio, nas quais foram medidas altura total, altura para serraria e para celulose e DAP. O principal fator que influenciou o volume de madeira para serraria foi a fase de vegetação original, sendo os maiores DAPs encontrados em áreas provenientes de floresta. Na área de Cambissolo textura média fase floresta foi encontrado o maior volume de madeira para serraria, e o menor na área de Cambissolo textura média fase campo. Os sítios mais produtivos apresentaram maiores teores de K e P, pH mais elevado, maior saturação por bases e menor saturação por Al. Esses mesmos sítios apresentaram menor porosidade total e macroporosidade, maior densidade do solo e maior teor de água disponível, que melhor se correlacionou com as variáveis de crescimento

Eigenschaften und Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Dränfiltern aus Xylit – Können organische Dränfilter zum Nitratabbau beitragen?

Xylit ist unvollständig inkohltes Pflanzenmaterial und Bestandteil von Braunkohle. Die Eigenschaften und Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Xylit sind bislang wenig erforscht. In dieser Arbeit wurden die Eigenschaften eines Dränfilters auf Xylitbasis im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Filtermaterialien getestet. Über Dräne werden erhebliche Mengen an Stickstoff in Oberflächengewässer eingetragen. Es stellte sich die Frage, ob sich die über Dränfilter in den Unterboden eingebrachte organische Substanz in Verbindung mit einer Anhebung des Wasserstandes zur Reduzierung des Nitrataustrages nutzen lässt. Es wurde daher geprüft, ob Xylit, aber auch weitere organische Dränfiltermaterialien, zum denitrifikativen Nitratabbau im Boden beitragen können. Die Versuche zeigen, dass Xylit im Vergleich zu Kokos und Stroh eine höhere Lebensdauer, aber auch eine geringere Nitratabbauleistung aufweist. Die hydraulischen Eigenschaften von Kokos- und Xylitfiltern sind vergleichbar und gut. Eine Kombination von Xylit und Kokos gewährleistet eine hohe Langlebigkeit des Filters bei gleichzeitig gutem Nitratabbau, der durch Wasserüberstau deutlich begünstigt wird (33 % NO3-N-Abbau in 196 Tagen). Kurzfristig erzielt Stroh/Wolle einen starken Nitratabbau. Hierbei besteht jedoch zumindest vorübergehend die Gefahr erhöhter NH4-Austräge. Bei hoher mikrobiologischer Aktivität sinkt das Redoxpotential stark ab, die Nitrifikation wird gehemmt und eine NO3-Reduktion zu NH4 (Nitratammonifikation) wird möglich

What makes SMEs more likely to collaborate? Analysing the role of regional policy

The last twenty years have witnessed the diffusion of regional innovation policies supporting networks of innovators. The underlying aim of these policies is to encourage firms, particularly SMEs, to undertake collaborations with organisations possessing complementary knowledge. Focusing on a set of SMEs that have participated, over time, in several innovation networks funded by the same regional government, the paper investigates how their relationships have evolved with respect to the following aspects: (i) reiteration of pre-existing relationships as opposed to experimentation of new relationships; (ii) collaboration with organisations possessing complementary rather than similar knowledge and competencies; (iii) creation of local relationships rather than experimentation of extra-local collaborations; (iv) reliance upon intermediaries to connect with other organisations. Our findings reveal that the involvement in these policy-supported networks changed the firms’ relational patterns, leading them to collaborate with a wider variety of agents than those with whom they were linked before the policies. Sectoral heterogeneity had a negative effect on the probability to collaborate, while co-localisation increased the likelihood to collaborate. Mutual involvement with intermediaries also had a positive effect. However, in the case of firm-to-university relationships only specialized intermediaries were likely to perform a positive role and, therefore, encourage networking

Government policy failure in public support for research and development

peer-reviewedPromoting Research and Development (R&D) and innovative activity is a key element of the EU Lisbon Agenda and is seen as playing a central part in stimulating economic development. In this paper we argue that, even allowing for benevolent policy-makers, informational asymmetries can lead to a misallocation of public support for R&D, hence government policy failure, with the potential to exacerbate preexisting market failures. Initially, we explore alternative allocation mechanisms for public support, which can help to minimize the scale of these government policy failures. Of these mechanisms (grants, tax credits, or allocation rules based on past performance), our results suggest that none is universally most efficient. Rather, the effectiveness of each allocation rule depends on the severity of financial constraints and on the level of innovative capabilities of the firms themselves.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe

R&D policy instruments – a critical review of what we do and don’t know

In recent years, the term ‘policy instrument’ has been used more frequently with regard to R&D policy and innovation policy. What does this term mean? Where did it come from? What do we know about it, both with regard to the general field of policy studies but also in the specific context of R&D policy? This article examines the development of the notion of policy instruments as part of a body of research known as ‘policy design’. Over the last 50 years, there has been substantial progress in setting policy design on a more systematic basis, with the development of established concepts and analytical frameworks, including various taxonomies of policy instruments. However, with just a few exceptions, this body of research seems to have had little impact in the world of R&D policy. The paper reviews the literature on R&D policy instruments. It identifies a number of challenges for R&D policy instruments in the light of four transitions – the shift from linear to systemic thinking about R&D and innovation, the shift from national governments to multi-level governance, the shift from individual actors to collaborations and networks, and the shift from individual policies to policy mixes. It sets out a research agenda for the study of R&D policy instruments, before ending with a number of conclusions