Are all regulatory compliant independent director appointments the same? An analysis of Taiwanese board appointments

Globally many regulators adopted a rules-based approach to independent director appointments stipulating ‘independence’ criteria. This paper investigates whether partitioning a regulatory compliant sample of independent director appointments by prior affiliation to the board influences the relationship between ownership and control rights, and performance. We report a significant positive relationship between board independence and controlling shareholders’ cash-flow rights for firms where the appointee had prior affiliation to the board, but no performance improvement. Firms where the regulatory compliant independent directors had no prior-affiliation to the board experienced significant improvement in firms’ next period Return-on-Assets. Appointing affiliated directors is indicative diminished board quality, which is consistent with the empirical evidence that controlling shareholders determine board quality to accommodate tunneling to extract the private benefits of control to compensate for significant additional costs associated with concentrated ownership (Yeh and Woidtke, 2005; Luo et al, 2012; Liu et al, 2015). The positive association between performance and unaffiliated independent directors suggests a desire to introduce expertise to receive benefits via improved firm performance which is consistent with the literature, mostly from studies of emerging markets, reporting a causal link from independent directors to firm performance (Choi et al, 2007; Dahya et al. 2008; Liu et al, 2015)

Are all regulatory compliant independent director appointments the same? An analysis of Taiwanese board appointments

Globally many regulators adopted a rules-based approach to independent director appointments stipulating ‘independence’ criteria. This paper investigates whether partitioning a regulatory compliant sample of independent director appointments by prior affiliation to the board influences the relationship between ownership and control rights, and performance. We report a significant positive relationship between board independence and controlling shareholders’ cash-flow rights for firms where the appointee had prior affiliation to the board, but no performance improvement. Firms where the regulatory compliant independent directors had no prior-affiliation to the board experienced significant improvement in firms’ next period Return-on-Assets. Appointing affiliated directors is indicative diminished board quality, which is consistent with the empirical evidence that controlling shareholders determine board quality to accommodate tunneling to extract the private benefits of control to compensate for significant additional costs associated with concentrated ownership (Yeh and Woidtke, 2005; Luo et al, 2012; Liu et al, 2015). The positive association between performance and unaffiliated independent directors suggests a desire to introduce expertise to receive benefits via improved firm performance which is consistent with the literature, mostly from studies of emerging markets, reporting a causal link from independent directors to firm performance (Choi et al, 2007; Dahya et al. 2008; Liu et al, 2015)

Accelerated colorimetric immunosensingusing surface-modified porous monolithsand gold nanoparticles

A rapid and sensitive immunoassay platform integrating polymerized monoliths and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has been developed. The porous monoliths are photopolymerized in situ within a silica capillary and serve as solid support for high-mass transport and high-density capture antibody immobilization to create a shorter diffusion length for antibody–antigen interactions, resulting in a rapid assay and low reagent consumption. AuNPs are modified with detection antibodies and are utilized as signals for colorimetric immunoassays without the need for enzyme, substrate and sophisticated equipment for quantitative measurements. This platform has been verified by performing a human IgG sandwich immunoassay with a detection limit of 0.1 ng ml−1. In addition, a single assay can be completed in 1 h, which is more efficient than traditional immunoassays that require several hours to complete

Steroids from the Soft Coral Sinularia crassa

One new sterol, crassarosterol A (1), and four new steroidal glycosides, crassarosterosides A–D (2–5) were isolated from the Formosan soft coral Sinularia crassa. The absolute configuration of 1 was determined using the Mosher’s method. The absolute configurations for the sugar moieties of 2–5 were determined by HPLC analysis on the o-tolylthiocarbamates derived from the liberated sugar after acid hydrolysis. Compounds 2 and 4 could significantly inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory iNOS protein at 10 µM. In contrast, 1–3 were found to stimulate the expression of COX-2 protein at this concentration. Steroids 1 and 4 also showed cytotoxicity toward the selected human liver cancer cells

Bioactive Cembranoids from the Soft Coral Sinularia crassa

Eight new cembranoids, crassarines A–H (1–8) were isolated from the Formosan soft coral Sinularia crassa. Compounds 1–3 represent the rare cembranoids with a 1,12-oxa-bridged tetrahydrofuran ring, while 4 and 5 are the firstly discovered 1,11-oxa-bridged tetrahydropyranocembranoids. The absolute configuration of 6 was determined using the Mosher’s method. Compounds 6 and 8 were found to significantly inhibit the expression of both pro-inflammatory iNOS and COX-2 proteins at 10 μM, respectively, while compounds 4–8 were found to be non-cytotoxic toward the selected human liver cancer cells