Is rated debt arm's length? : evidence from mergers and acquisitions

In this paper we challenge the view that corporate bonds are always arm’s length debt. We analyze the effect of bond ratings on the stock price return to acquirers in M&A transactions, which tend to have significant effects on creditor wealth. We find acquirers abnormal returns to be higher if they are unrated, controlling for a wide variety of other effects identified in the literature. Tracing the difference in returns to distinct managerial decisions, we find that, everything else constant, rated firms increase their leverage in takeover transactions by less than their unrated counterparts. Consistent with a significant role for rating agencies, we find monitoring effects to be strongest when acquirer bonds are rated at the borderline between investment grade and junk. Finally, we are able to empirically exclude a large number of alternative explanations for the empirical regularities that we uncover. JEL Classification: G21, G24, G32, G34 Keywords: Acquisitions, Credit Ratings, Mergers and Acquisitions, Arm’s Length Debt, Abnormal Return

Weakly-supervised localization of diabetic retinopathy lesions in retinal fundus images

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) show impressive performance for image classification and detection, extending heavily to the medical image domain. Nevertheless, medical experts are sceptical in these predictions as the nonlinear multilayer structure resulting in a classification outcome is not directly graspable. Recently, approaches have been shown which help the user to understand the discriminative regions within an image which are decisive for the CNN to conclude to a certain class. Although these approaches could help to build trust in the CNNs predictions, they are only slightly shown to work with medical image data which often poses a challenge as the decision for a class relies on different lesion areas scattered around the entire image. Using the DiaretDB1 dataset, we show that on retina images different lesion areas fundamental for diabetic retinopathy are detected on an image level with high accuracy, comparable or exceeding supervised methods. On lesion level, we achieve few false positives with high sensitivity, though, the network is solely trained on image-level labels which do not include information about existing lesions. Classifying between diseased and healthy images, we achieve an AUC of 0.954 on the DiaretDB1.Comment: Accepted in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 201

Frequency of neuroimaging for pediatric minor brain injury is determined by the primary treating medical department

To investigate the use of neuroimaging in children and adolescents with minor brain injury in pediatric and non-pediatric departments.In this observational cohort study data were extracted from a large German statutory health insurance (AOK Plus Dresden ∼3.1 million clients) in a 7-year period (2010-2016). All patients with International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code S06.0 (concussion; minor brain injury; commotio cerebri) aged ≤ 18 years were included. Demographic and clinical data were analyzed by logistic regression analysis for associations with the use of CT and MRI (independent variables: gender, age, length of stay, pediatric vs non-pediatric department, university vs non-university hospital).A total of 14,805 children with minor brain injuries (mean age 6.0 ± 5.6; 45.5% females) were included. Treatment was provided by different medical departments: Pediatrics (N = 8717; 59%), Pediatric Surgery (N = 3582, 24%), General Surgery (N = 2197, 15%), Orthopedic Trauma Surgery (N = 309, 2.1%). Patients admitted to pediatric departments (Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery) underwent head CT-imaging significantly less frequently (3.8%) compared to patients treated in non-pediatric departments (18.5%; P < .001; General Surgery: 15.6%; Orthopedic Trauma Surgery: 39.2%). Logistic regression confirmed a significantly higher odds ratio (OR) for the use of cranial CT by the non-pediatric departments (OR: 3.2 [95-%-CI: 2.72-3.76]).CT was significantly less frequently used in pediatric departments. Educational efforts and quality improvement initiatives on physicians, especially in non-pediatric departments may be an effective approach to decreasing rates of CT after minor traumatic brain injuries

Grenzen der klassischen Störaussendungs- und Störfestigkeitsmessungen: Beeinflussung des Störspektrums durch nichtlineare Elemente

Ein zu prüfendes System wird als elektromagnetisch verträglich bezeichnet, wenn es zufriedenstellend in seiner vorgesehenen elektromagnetischen Umwelt arbeitet und dort nur in einem zulässigen Maß zum Störgeschehen beiträgt. [1] Der Beitrag zum Störgeschehen wird mit Störaussendungsmessungen nachgewiesen, welche je nach Prüfling und Umgebung, z.B. durch CISPR-Normen, vorgegeben sind. Auf gleiche Weise sind Störfestigkeitsmessungen definiert, welche die Prüfbedingungen, zum Nachweis der ausreichenden Festigkeit gegenüber einwirkenden Störgrößen, vorschreiben. Besteht das zu prüfende System beide Messungen gemäß der zugehörigen Vorschrift, gilt es als elektromagnetisch verträglich bezüglich der Umgebung, für die es vorgesehen ist. Darauf aufbauend kann der Hersteller in der EU eine CE-Kennzeichnung an seinem System anbringen und es innerhalb der Europäischen Union vertreiben. Störaussendungs- und Störfestigkeitsmessungen werden separat durchgeführt. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass die Ergebnisse überlagert weiterhin ihre Gültigkeit behalten. Außerhalb des Prüflabors liegen allerdings andere Bedingungen vor und zusätzliche Effekte des Prüflings können zum Vorschein kommen. Zum Beispiel gibt die Störfestigkeitsnorm [2] nur einzelne Störträgerfrequenzen vor, welche mit einer 1 kHz Sinuswelle und einer Tiefe von 80 % amplitudenmoduliert sind. Tatsächlich muss damit gerechnet werden, dass heute eine Vielzahl von Störfrequenzen, ggf. mit diversen unterschiedlichen Modulationstypen, zeitgleich auf das System einwirken. Dies kann, wenn nichtlineare Elemente im System verbaut sind, zu Wechselwirkungen der einwirkenden Einzelfrequenzen führen. Dies sind zum Beispiel Harmonische des Grundstörsignals oder Intermodulationsprodukte (IM). Diese Mischprodukte können nicht nur das System selbst, sondern ebenfalls die Umgebung beeinflussen und ggf. Störungen verursachen. Eine allgemeine Betrachtung des Prüflings als Koppel- oder Mischelement ist in den Prüfnormen bis auf wenige Ausnahmen unüblich. Diese Arbeit präsentiert Ergebnisse, welche die beschriebenen Wechselwirkungen aufzeigen. Es wird das verwendete Messverfahren erläutert und die Probleme, welche bei der Messung von nichtlinearen Effekten auftreten können, aufgezeigt. Bei den verwendeten Prüflingen handelt es sich um handelsübliche USB-Schaltnetzteile. Diese beinhalten eingangsseitig eine B2 Gleichrichter-Brücke mit angeschlossenem Kondensator um die anliegende 230 V-Netzwechselspannung gleichzurichten

“Clicking“ fragment leads to novel dual-binding cholinesterase inhibitors

Cholinesterase inhibitors are potent therapeutics in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Among them, dual binding ligands have recently gained a lot of attention. We discovered novel dual-binding cholinesterase inhibitors, using “clickable” fragments, which bind to either catalytic active site (CAS) or peripheral anionic site (PAS) of the enzyme. Copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition allowed to effectively synthesize a series of final heterodimers, and modeling and kinetic studies confirmed their ability to bind to both CAS and PAS. A potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitor with IC50 = 18 nM (compound 23g) was discovered. A target-guided approach to link fragments by the enzyme itself was tested using butyrylcholinesterase

BusyBee Web : towards comprehensive and differential composition-based metagenomic binning

Despite recent methodology and reference database improvements for taxonomic profiling tools, metagenomic assembly and genomic binning remain important pillars of metagenomic analysis workflows. In case reference information is lacking, genomic binning is considered to be a state-of-the-art method in mixed culture metagenomic data analysis. In this light, our previously published tool BusyBee Web implements a composition-based binning method efficient enough to function as a rapid online utility. Handling assembled contigs and long nanopore generated reads alike, the webserver provides a wide range of supplementary annotations and visualizations. Half a decade after the initial publication, we revisited existing functionality, added comprehensive visualizations, and increased the number of data analysis customization options for further experimentation. The webserver now allows for visualizationsupported differential analysis of samples, which is computationally expensive and typically only performed in coverage-based binning methods. Further, users may now optionally check their uploaded samples for plasmid sequences using PLSDB as a reference database. Lastly, a new application programming interface with a supporting python package was implemented, to allow power users fully automated access to the resource and integration into existing workflows

Symmetry Tests of the Electroweak Interaction from Muon Capture on 3He

Precision measurements in muon capture on 3He to the triton channel provide for interesting tests of the charged electroweak interaction, whether within the Standard Model or beyond it. Based on the statistical capture rate and the triton asymmetry, both the object of recent and on-going experiments using polarised 3He targets, examples of such tests are presented, and shown to lead to stringent complementary constraints for which further dedicated experimental as well as theoretical efforts are required.Comment: 13 pages, uses Elsevier's LaTeX packag

Advancing Pharmacist Collaborative Care within Academic Health Systems.

INTRODUCTION:The scope of pharmacy practice has evolved over the last few decades to focus on the optimization of medication therapy. Despite this positive impact, the lack of reimbursement remains a significant barrier to the implementation of innovative pharmacist practice models. SUMMARY:We describe the successful development, implementation and outcomes of three types of pharmacist collaborative care models: (1) a pharmacist with physician oversight, (2) pharmacist-interprofessional teams and (3) physician-pharmacist teams. The outcome measurement of these pharmacist care models varied from the design phase to patient volume measurement and to comprehensive quality dashboards. All of these practice models have been successfully funded by affiliated health systems or grants. CONCLUSIONS:The expansion of pharmacist services delivered by clinical faculty has several benefits to affiliated health systems: (1) significant improvements in patient care quality, (2) access to experts in specialty areas, and (3) the dissemination of outcomes with national and international recognition, increasing the visibility of the health system

η\eta-pairing as a mechanism of superconductivity in models of strongly correlated electrons

We consider extended versions of the Hubbard model which contain additional interactions between nearest neighbours. In this letter we show that a large class of these models has a superconducting ground state in arbitrary dimensions. In some special cases we are able to find the complete phase diagram. The superconducting phase exist even for moderate repulsive values of the Hubbard interaction $U$.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex, ITP-SB-94-18, 1 PS figure appende