Reverse Cross-Listings - The Coming Race to List in Emerging Markets and an Enhanced Understanding of Classical Bonding

This paper examines the implications for the traditional legal bonding hypothesis arising from future reverse cross-listings, meaning the cross-listing by issuers from jurisdictions with stronger investor protections into capital markets and on exchanges where investor protections are deemed less robust. We use as examples the first Indian Depositary Receipt or IDR IPO in May 2010, and IPOs we believe will complete on a future Shanghai Stock Exchange international board . This analysis serves to dilute one of the long-standing negative implications of the traditional legal bonding account -- that reverse cross-listings by issuers from jurisdictions with stronger investor protections into weaker investor protection markets exhibit abnormal negative price effects, allegedly because of market expectations that the foreign listing will facilitate conduct impermissible in the home market. More importantly, this analysis allows for a more nuanced understanding of the bonding hypothesis along either vector, and why firms cross-list into foreign jurisdictions, regardless of the receiving legal and regulatory environment. Those other factors include: the simple quest for capital, the possibility of higher initial valuations in capital controls-segmented markets and eventually higher secondary market values with the easing of such controls and thus enhanced global liquidity, the reduced cost ensured by listing in a less burdensome regulatory and enforcement environment, and a cluster of reasons which we describe as consumer-commercial markets bonding , distinct from the legal and regulatory system bonding that has featured so long in the traditional legal bonding hypothesis. This consumer-commercial markets bonding includes the advertising of goods, services and corporate identity into a given consumer market, identification of the issuer as a global firm but with local identity and ownership, demonstrated commitment to key markets and the customers and regulators connected with those markets, a tipping of the hat to the sovereign legal-regulatory establishment of the receiving jurisdiction, and appeals to the receiving market\u27s regulators for the provision of franchise or licensing benefits

The Development of Modern Corporate Governance in China and India

Corporate governance reform has become a topic of considerable debate both in the US and in many emerging markets. Indeed, the discussion is important because these reforms may have potentially long-standing effects upon the global allocation of capital, and in understanding the ways in which governance norms are communicated across markets and nations in an ever-globalizing world. In this chapter we examine the corporate governance reform efforts of the world\u27s two biggest and fastest growing emerging markets, the People\u27s Republic of China (PRC or China) and India. In the process we find that our understanding of how and why corporate governance reform comes about, where it leads, and what value it has can vary significantly, but still shares some commonalities that are of considerable theoretical and practical importance. The inquiry commenced in this chapter is inspired by certain key facts. First, China and India are growing at a remarkable and unprecedented pace and seem to have survived the 2008-9 Global Financial Crisis better than most other economies. Second, China and India are not Western countries, but have been heavily influenced by globalized Anglo-American notions of corporate law, corporate governance norms, and securities regulation. Third, China and India are presently two of the most popular destinations·for foreign capital in the world - whether via foreign direct investment (FDI) in essentially private (or pre-public) transactions or public capital markets transactions. Fourth, both India and China have undergone, and are progressing through, incredibly important (indeed world -changing) programs of economic reform and restructuring. At the same time they are increasingly - in the Chinese phrase - opening to the outside world. These are the shared facts of our inquiry, which of course are met by many deep differences, in particular relating to the history, internal organization and political and economic structures of the two great nation­civilizations. However, we believe that the common facts recited above - rapid economic development, significant private and public foreign investment, economic, structural and legal/regulatory reform, speedy recovery from the Global Financial Crisis, and a shared interest in (if not implementation of) in essentially Anglo-American corporate law norms -provide an interesting and rich platform for consideration of popular or contested corporate governance and corporate governance reform precepts

Asymmetric triplex metallohelices with high and selective activity against cancer cells

Small cationic amphiphilic α-helical peptides are emerging as agents for the treatment of cancer and infection, but they are costly and display unfavourable pharmacokinetics. Helical coordination complexes may offer a three-dimensional scaffold for the synthesis of mimetic architectures. However, the high symmetry and modest functionality of current systems offer little scope to tailor the structure to interact with specific biomolecular targets, or to create libraries for phenotypic screens. Here, we report the highly stereoselective asymmetric self-assembly of very stable, functionalized metallohelices. Their anti-parallel head-to-head-to-tail ‘triplex’ strand arrangement creates an amphipathic functional topology akin to that of the active sub-units of, for example, host-defence peptides and ​p53. The metallohelices display high, structure-dependent toxicity to the human colon carcinoma cell-line HCT116 ​p53++, causing dramatic changes in the cell cycle without DNA damage. They have lower toxicity to human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MDA-MB-468) and, most remarkably, they show no significant toxicity to the bacteria methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. At a glanc

Tackling climate change with blockchain

Concern about the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is not holding back blockchain developers from leveraging the technology for action on climate change. Although blockchain technology is enabling individuals and businesses to manage their carbon emissions, the social and environmental costs and benefits of doing so remain unclear

Evaluation of two lyophilized molecular assays to rapidly detect foot-and-mouth disease virus directly from clinical samples in field settings

Accurate, timely diagnosis is essential for the control, monitoring and eradication of foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD). Clinical samples from suspect cases are normally tested at reference laboratories. However, transport of samples to these centralized facilities can be a lengthy process that can impose delays on critical decision making. These concerns have motivated work to evaluate simple‐to‐use technologies, including molecular‐based diagnostic platforms, that can be deployed closer to suspect cases of FMD. In this context, FMD virus (FMDV)‐specific reverse transcription loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (RT‐LAMP) and real‐time RT‐PCR (rRT‐PCR) assays, compatible with simple sample preparation methods and in situ visualization, have been developed which share equivalent analytical sensitivity with laboratory‐based rRT‐PCR. However, the lack of robust ‘ready‐to‐use kits’ that utilize stabilized reagents limits the deployment of these tests into field settings. To address this gap, this study describes the performance of lyophilized rRT‐PCR and RT‐LAMP assays to detect FMDV. Both of these assays are compatible with the use of fluorescence to monitor amplification in real‐time, and for the RT‐LAMP assays end point detection could also be achieved using molecular lateral flow devices. Lyophilization of reagents did not adversely affect the performance of the assays. Importantly, when these assays were deployed into challenging laboratory and field settings within East Africa they proved to be reliable in their ability to detect FMDV in a range of clinical samples from acutely infected as well as convalescent cattle. These data support the use of highly sensitive molecular assays into field settings for simple and rapid detection of FMDV

A categorical foundation for Bayesian probability

Given two measurable spaces $H$ and $D$ with countably generated $\sigma$-algebras, a perfect prior probability measure $P_H$ on $H$ and a sampling distribution $S: H \rightarrow D$, there is a corresponding inference map $I: D \rightarrow H$ which is unique up to a set of measure zero. Thus, given a data measurement $\mu: 1 \rightarrow D$, a posterior probability $\widehat{P_H}= I \circ \mu$ can be computed. This procedure is iterative: with each updated probability $P_H$, we obtain a new joint distribution which in turn yields a new inference map $I$ and the process repeats with each additional measurement. The main result uses an existence theorem for regular conditional probabilities by Faden, which holds in more generality than the setting of Polish spaces. This less stringent setting then allows for non-trivial decision rules (Eilenberg--Moore algebras) on finite (as well as non finite) spaces, and also provides for a common framework for decision theory and Bayesian probability.Comment: 15 pages; revised setting to more clearly explain how to incorporate perfect measures and the Giry monad; to appear in Applied Categorical Structure

Evidence of association with type 1 diabetes in the SLC11A1 gene region

BackgroundLinkage and congenic strain analyses using the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse as a model for human type 1 autoimmune diabetes (T1D) have identified several NOD mouse Idd (insulin dependent diabetes) loci, including Slc11a1 (formerly known as Nramp1). Genetic variants in the orthologous region encompassing SLC11A1 in human chromosome 2q35 have been reported to be associated with various immune-related diseases including T1D. Here, we have conducted association analysis of this candidate gene region, and then investigated potential correlations between the most T1D-associated variant and RNA expression of the SLC11A1 gene and its splice isoform.MethodsNine SNPs (rs2276631, rs2279015, rs1809231, rs1059823, rs17235409 (D543N), rs17235416 (3'UTR), rs3731865 (INT4), rs7573065 (-237 C → T) and rs4674297) were genotyped using TaqMan genotyping assays and the polymorphic promoter microsatellite (GT)n was genotyped using PCR and fragment length analysis. A maximum of 8,863 T1D British cases and 10,841 British controls, all of white European descent, were used to test association using logistic regression. A maximum of 5,696 T1D families were also tested for association using the transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT). We considered P ≤ 0.005 as evidence of association given that we tested nine variants in total. Upon identification of the most T1D-associated variant, we investigated the correlation between its genotype and SLC11A1 expression overall or with splice isoform ratio using 42 PAXgene whole blood samples from healthy donors by quantitative PCR (qPCR).ResultsUsing the case-control collection, rs3731865 (INT4) was identified to be the variant most associated with T1D (P = 1.55 × 10-6). There was also some evidence of association at rs4674297 (P = 1.57 × 10-4). No evidence of disease association was obtained at any of the loci using the family collections (PTDT ≥ 0.13). We also did not observe a correlation between rs3731865 genotypes and SLC11A1 expression overall or with splice isoform expression.ConclusionWe conclude that rs3731685 (INT4) in the SLC11A1 gene may be associated with T1D susceptibility in the European ancestry population studied. We did not observe a difference in SLC11A1 expression at the RNA level based on the genotypes of rs3731865 in whole blood samples. However, a potential correlation cannot be ruled out in purified cell subsets especially monocytes or macrophages