Protecting Directors and Officers from Liability Arising from Aggressive Earnings Management

A lingering topic in corporate governance is whether corporate directors should be protected against shareholder lawsuits and whether such protection reduces the incentives of directors to monitor appropriately the behaviour of corporate officers. To achieve this goal, we examine whether corporations whose corporate managers’ wealth is protected under a directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policy (D&O insurance hereafter) are more to report accounting results aggressively. Using discretionary accruals as our measure of accounting aggressiveness, the results in our paper suggest that the magnitude of discretionary accruals has no real impact on the demand for D&O insurance, be it on the decision to purchase insurance or on the amount of limit chosen. The positivity of discretionary accruals appears, however, to have an impact on the decision to purchase insurance. Surprisingly, although these insurance policies protect directors and officers in the event they make a “mistake” in their role as representatives of the company, directors do not seem to see this as an invitation to be a little less careful when overseeing the firm’s accounting practices. Un sujet qui demeure d’actualité quand on pense à la gouvernance des entreprises est le niveau de protection auquel les dirigeants devraient avoir droit en cas de poursuite par les actionnaires. Pour atteindre ce but, nous examinons s’il y a un lien entre la gestion agressive des courus discrétionnaires et la demande d’assurance de la responsabilité civile des administrateurs et dirigeants d’entreprise (ARCAD ci-après). Nous trouvons dans la présente étude que la taille des courus ne semble avoir aucun impact sur la demande d’assurance, que ce soit le fait même d’avoir un contrat ou la limite de la police. Le fait que les courus soient positifs semble toutefois avoir un impact sur le fait que les entreprises possèdent une ARCAD ou non. Nous demeurons perplexes de voir que même si l’ARCAD protège les dirigeants contre le coût de poursuites au civile, ces mêmes dirigeants ne voient pas cela comme une invitation au laxisme dans la supervision des pratiques comptables des entreprises.directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policy, aggressive accounting practices, earnings management , ARCAD, pratiques comptables agressives, résultats financiers de gestion.

Influence of the 3D Printing Process Settings on Tensile Strength of PLA and HT-PLA

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is presently the most common utilized 3D printing technology. Since this printing technology makes the bodies anisotropic, therefore, investigate the process with different settings is worthwhile. Tensile test specimens of two plastics have been carried out to examine the mechanical properties. Polylactic acid (PLA) and High Temperature PLA (HT-PLA) are the used materials for this purpose. A total of seventy-two test pieces of the two used polymers were printed and evaluated. Three parameters were examined in twelve different settings when printing the tensile test specimens. The considered settings are; six raster directions, three build orientations and two filling factors. The differences in stress-strain curves, tensile strength values and elongation at break were compared among the tested samples. The broken specimens after the tensile test are illustrated, which gave insight into how the test pieces printed with different parameters were fractured. The optimum printing setting is represented at crossed 45/−45° raster direction, X orientation and 100 % fill factor, where the highest tensile strength of 59.7 MPa at HT-PLA and the largest elongation of about 3.5 % at PLA were measured

Early career psychiatrists' preferences on e-learning: Viewpoint from the EPA Committee on Education.

This work was supported by a grant from the European Psychiatric Association (EPA)

Tribological Behaviour Comparison of ABS Polymer Manufactured Using Turning and 3D Printing

Additive and subtractive manufacturing of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) were employed for fabricating samples. The Additive manufacturing was represented through 3D printing, whereas subtractive manufacturing carried out by Turning. Some developments have been applied for enhancing the performance of the 3D printer. Tribological measurements of the turned and 3D printed specimens have been achieved. Studying the difference between static and dynamic friction factors and the examination of wear values were included. A comparison of the tribological behaviour of the turned and 3D printed ABS polymer has been investigated

Simulation of laser drilling of Inconel X-750 and Ti-5Al-2.5Sn sheets using COMSOL

This study aims to investigate the simulation of laser drilling processes on Inconel X-750 and Ti-5Al-2.5Sn sheets. To this end, COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 software was employed to carry out the virtual experiments. A JK 701 pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used for drilling through the entire depth of Inconel X-750 and Ti-5Al-2.5Sn plates with a thickness of 2 mm and 3 mm, using laser pulses of a millisecond in time. The laser parameters varied in different combinations for well-controlled drilling through the entire thickness of the plates. Effects of laser peak power (10-20 kW) and pulse duration (0.5-2.5 ms) have been determined via studying the temperature distribution on the cross-section of the images taken in the simulation tests. Characterizing the optimum conditions obtained from the combination of parameters that improve the hole quality is an essential objective in this paper. The results suggest that the hole's diameter and depth have increased linearly as the laser beam's peak power and pulse duration are elevated. An improvement in the hole's taper ratio (the best value is 0.72) was observed as the laser beam pulse duration was longer, since an isosceles trapezoid shape was formed instead of a conical. The pulse duration exhibited more impact on the crater depth progression than the peak power. This work's outcomes might be helpful for researchers in terms of the optimum parameters proposed when studying the laser drilling of the mentioned alloys experimentally. The procedure and findings of this study are not presented elsewhere

Optimal Pacing for Running 400 m and 800 m Track Races

Physicists seeking to understand complex biological systems often find it rewarding to create simple "toy models" that reproduce system behavior. Here a toy model is used to understand a puzzling phenomenon from the sport of track and field. Races are almost always won, and records set, in 400 m and 800 m running events by people who run the first half of the race faster than the second half, which is not true of shorter races, nor of longer. There is general agreement that performance in the 400 m and 800 m is limited somehow by the amount of anaerobic metabolism that can be tolerated in the working muscles in the legs. A toy model of anaerobic metabolism is presented, from which an optimal pacing strategy is analytically calculated via the Euler-Lagrange equation. This optimal strategy is then modified to account for the fact that the runner starts the race from rest; this modification is shown to result in the best possible outcome by use of an elementary variational technique that supplements what is found in undergraduate textbooks. The toy model reproduces the pacing strategies of elite 400 m and 800 m runners better than existing models do. The toy model also gives some insight into training strategies that improve performance.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the American Journal of Physic

Appropriateness of oral anticoagulants for long-term treatment of atrial fibrillation in older people: results of an evidence-based review and international consensus validation process (OAC-FORTA 2016)

Background: Age appropriateness of anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation is uncertain. Objective: To review oral anticoagulants for the treatment of atrial fibrillation in older (age >65 years) people and to classify appropriate and inappropriate drugs based on efficacy, safety and tolerability using the Fit-fOR-The-Aged (FORTA) classification. Methods: We performed a structured comprehensive review of controlled clinical trials and summaries of individual product characteristics to assess study and total patient numbers, quality of major outcome data and data of geriatric relevance. The resulting evidence was discussed in a round table with an interdisciplinary panel of ten European experts. Decisions on age appropriateness were made using a Delphi process. Results: For the eight drugs included, 380 citations were identified. The primary outcome results were reported in 32 clinical trials with explicit and relevant data on older people. Though over 24,000 patients aged >75/80 years were studied for warfarin, data on geriatric syndromes were rare (two studies reporting on frailty/falls/mental status) and missing for all other compounds. Apixaban was rated FORTA-A (highly beneficial). Other non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (including low/high-intensity dabigatran and high-intensity edoxaban) and warfarin were assigned to FORTA-B (beneficial). Phenprocoumon, acenocoumarol and fluindione were rated FORTA-C (questionable), mainly reflecting the absence of data. Conclusions: All non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants and warfarin were classified as beneficial or very beneficial in older persons (FORTA-A or -B), underlining the overall positive assessment of the risk/benefit ratio for these drugs. For other vitamin-K antagonists regionally used in Europe, the lack of evidence should challenge current practice

Prediction on the wear rate of epoxy composites reinforced micro-filler of the natural material residue using Taguchi – neural network

The abrasive wear rate of epoxy composites reinforced with fillers sourced from recycled natural waste consisting of pollen of palm (PPW) and seashells (SSW) was studied. Due to the importance of polymer composites used in the tribological couplings of machinery structures, as well as their possible use in brake pads as alternative materials for harmful components in environmentally polluted asbestos, the current research seeks to develop the tribological properties of composite materials reinforced with natural fillers and environmentally friendly. The research investigated the effect of two factors, the weight percentage of natural filler wt. % (0.5 %,1 %, and 1.5 %) and testing loads (1000 g, 2000 g, 3000 g) upon the wear resistance of epoxy composites. The importance of developing epoxy compounds is evident, especially since their work does not require lubricating conditions in various industrial fields, and therefore the development of their bonding properties will increase their operational life and achieve economic benefit for the industrial sector and the environment at the same time. The epoxy composites were subjected to abrasive wear tests under dry friction conditions using a pin-on-disc system. Signal-to-noise (S/N) analysis is adopted to study the influence of the two factors, wt. % and test loads, upon the tribological wear resistance of epoxy composites. A predictive model depending on the regression equation was developed to predict the wear resistance of epoxy composites. The results showed an improvement in the wear resistance of the composite material compared to the epoxy sample without filling by about 47 %. The optimum condition for wear resistance of epoxy composites has been achieved with a weight ratio of (1.5 %) and an applied load of 1000 

Genome-wide DNA methylation meta-analysis in the brains of suicide completers

Suicide is the second leading cause of death globally among young people representing a significant global health burden. Although the molecular correlates of suicide remains poorly understood, it has been hypothesised that epigenomic processes may play a role. The objective of this study was to identify suicide-associated DNA methylation changes in the human brain by utilising previously published and unpublished methylomic datasets. We analysed prefrontal cortex (PFC, n = 211) and cerebellum (CER, n = 114) DNA methylation profiles from suicide completers and non-psychiatric, sudden-death controls, meta-analysing data from independent cohorts for each brain region separately. We report evidence for altered DNA methylation at several genetic loci in suicide cases compared to controls in both brain regions with suicide-associated differentially methylated positions enriched among functional pathways relevant to psychiatric phenotypes and suicidality, including nervous system development (PFC) and regulation of long-term synaptic depression (CER). In addition, we examined the functional consequences of variable DNA methylation within a PFC suicide-associated differentially methylated region (PSORS1C3 DMR) using a dual luciferase assay and examined expression of nearby genes. DNA methylation within this region was associated with decreased expression of firefly luciferase but was not associated with expression of nearby genes, PSORS1C3 and POU5F1. Our data suggest that suicide is associated with DNA methylation, offering novel insights into the molecular pathology associated with suicidality.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.NA/Fondation Brain Canada (Fondation Neuro Canada) MR/K013807/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom NIMH 1R21MH094771/U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) MR/K013807/1/Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (Brain & Behavior Research Foundation) MR/K013807/1/RCUK | MRC | Medical Research Foundation NA/Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture (FRQSC) R21 MH094771/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United Statespublished version, accepted version, submitted versio

Tribological Properties of Medical Material (MED610) Used in 3D Printing PJM Technology

The development of modern manufacturing technologies related to the ongoing industrial revolution Industry 4.0, is largely related to the dynamic development of materials chemistry. This means that currently 3D printing technologies allow the production of physical models using newer materials with better properties and application in new industrial sectors. The article presents the results of tribological tests of the bio-medical material under the trade name MED610, which shows biocompatibility for medical and dental purposes. The paper presents the results of measurements of tribological models of samples designed and manufactured in the shape of rings. Using the variable friction parameters, the wear process was described in the pressure-rotational speed (P-V) system. Moreover, the friction coefficient and wear measured by using the linear method were analyzed. The paper also presents a metrological analysis carried out with the application of an optical profilometer on the surface of the samples after pressing at the contact point of the surface during the test. The preliminary review of the test results showed that the MED610 material exhibited relatively good abrasion resistance. However, it cannot be employed for heavily loaded friction nodes, and in the PV diagram even at a relatively small value, the sample models were destroyed