Law and Finance in Transition Economies

This paper offers the first comprehensive analysis of legal change in the protection of shareholder and creditor rights in transition economies and its impact on the propensity of firms to raise external finance. Following La Porta et al. (1998), the paper constructs an expanded set of legal indices to capture a range of potential conflicts between different stakeholders of the firm. It supplements the analysis of the law on the books with an analysis of the effectiveness of legal institutions. Our main finding is that the effectiveness of legal institutions has a much stronger impact on external finance than does the law on the books, despite legal change that has substantially improved shareholder and creditor rights. This finding supports the proposition that legal transplants and extensive legal reforms are not sufficient for the evolution of effective legal and market institutions.shareholder and creditor rights, legal effectiveness, external finance, transition

Implementation of Critical Literacy for English Writing Classes in the Thai Context

Low motivation has always been a cause for concern in EFL teaching in Thailand. In fact, learners’ low English proficiency mainly results from their low motivation to learn. Research points to many factors to this problem, such as lack of exposure to an English environment, impractical curricula, and learners’ insufficient background knowledge; however, this paper finds that the absence of an interactive, student-centered approach in the writing classroom is the most impactful. Critical literacy has proved to be an effective way to increase learners’ motivation by promoting meaningful, independent learning, which, in turn, helps learners acknowledge the purposes and significance of acquiring English language skills. However, due to cultural differences, an adaptation of critical literacy or a middle ground between this approach and traditional teaching will provide more positive, effective outcomes in the Thai context

On the kinetic equation approach to pair production by time-dependent electric field

We investigate the quantum kinetic approach to pair production from vacuum by time-dependent electric field. Equivalence between this approach and the more familiar S-matrix approach is explicitly established for both scalar and fermion cases. For the particular case of a constant electric field exact solution for kinetic equations is provided and the accuracy of low-density approximation is estimated.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Supracondylar Fractures of the Humerus in Children: Review of Management and Controversies

Upper extremity fractures account for up to 90% of pediatric fractures. Among these fractures Supracondylar Humerus fractures are one of the commonest requiring surgical intervention and have a high prevalence of associated short term complications such as nerve injuries and long term complications such as cubitus varus. The epidemiology, classifications, clinical evaluation and complications of this fracture is hereby comprehensively reviewed along with controversies in management and available guidelines

Los Cinco Estadios de la Masculinidad: Un Modelo Nuevo para Entender las Masculinidades

The article uses the so-called “crisis of masculinity” as a jumping-off point for proposing a new model for understanding masculinities called the Five Stages of Masculinity. The five stages outlined in the article are: Stage 1, Unconscious Masculinity; Stage 2, Conscious Masculinity; Stage 3, Critical Masculinities; Stage 4, Multiple Masculinities; Stage 5, Beyond Masculinities. A content analysis of news and magazine articles is provided to give some initial indication as to the proportion of public conversations taking place at each stage. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the Five Stages of Masculinity for the study of men and masculinities, as well as some new thoughts on the nature of the crisis of masculinity via a mobilization of Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the “state of exception.”El artículo utiliza la llamada "crisis de la masculinidad" como punto de partida para proponer un nuevo modelo para la comprensión de las masculinidades, este nuevo modelo se concreta en cinco etapas. Las cinco etapas descritas en el artículo son: Etapa 1, masculinidad inconsciente; Etapa 2, masculinidad consciente; Etapa 3, masculinidades críticas; Etapa 4, masculinidades múltiples; Etapa 5, más allá de las masculinidades. De este modo, se proporciona un análisis de contenido de noticias y artículos de revistas para dar alguna indicación inicial como indicador de la proporción de conversaciones públicas que tienen lugar en cada etapa. El artículo concluye con un análisis de las implicaciones de las cinco etapas de la masculinidad para el estudio de los hombres y las masculinidades, así como algunas nuevas ideas sobre la naturaleza de la crisis de la masculinidad a través de una reformulación del concepto de Giorgio Agamben: "estado de excepción".