Investment and Internal Finance: Asymmetric Information or Managerial Discretion?

This paper examines the relation between cash-flow availability and investment spending in theNetherlands. In particular, we are interested whether managerial discretion and/or asymmetricinformation drive the positive relation between cash-flow and investment spending. This relation ispositive for both firms with low and high investment opportunities. It is however significantly larger forfirms with low investment opportunities suggesting that the managerial-discretion problem is mostimportant in the Dutch setting. Effective corporate-governance may reduce this agency problem.Specific to the Netherlands, firms with low shareholder influence posit a higher cash-flow-investmentsensitivity. The relevance of asymmetric information is confirmed as smaller firms and firms frominformation-sensitive industries show a larger cash-flow-investment sensitivity.The Netherlands;asymmetric information;Investment;financial constraints;managerial discretion

Styrene-divinylbenzene copolymers. II. The conservation of porosity in styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer matrices and derived ion-exchange resins

The collapse of pores in styrene-divinylbenzene copolymers and corresponding ion-exchange resins was studied during the removal of solvating liquids. The process can be followed in a most simple way by measuring the volume of the bead-shaped copolymers upon drying. Other parameters observed during drying were the apparent density and incidently the internal surface. The collapse of pores is considered to be a result of cohesional forces when solvated polymer chains are approaching each other by loss of solvent. The effect will thus be more pronounced in gel-type networks than in porous ones. In porous networks, the effect will be stronger in smaller pores than in larger ones. It is shown that crosslinks, increasing the rigidity of the structures, will favor the conservation of porosity. In ion-exchange resins the pore stability is best when the material is in its lowest state of hydration. Generally, the collapse of pores is a reversible process. The collapsed material can in most cases be reswollen by the proper choice of solvent

Sustainable Soesterkwartier

The municipality of Amersfoort wants to construct an endurable and sustainable eco-town in the Soesterkwartier neighbourhood, by taking future climate change into account. The impact of climate change at the location of the proposed eco-town was studied by a literature review

Fluency in dialogue: Turn‐taking behavior shapes perceived fluency in native and nonnative speech

Fluency is an important part of research on second language learning, but most research on language proficiency typically has not included oral fluency as part of interaction, even though natural communication usually occurs in conversations. The present study considered aspects of turn-taking behavior as part of the construct of fluency and investigated whether these aspects differentially influence perceived fluency ratings of native and non-native speech. Results from two experiments using acoustically manipulated speech showed that, in native speech, too ‘eager’ (interrupting a question with a fast answer) and too ‘reluctant’ answers (answering slowly after a long turn gap) negatively affected fluency ratings. However, in non-native speech, only too ‘reluctant’ answers led to lower fluency ratings. Thus, we demonstrate that acoustic properties of dialogue are perceived as part of fluency. By adding to our current understanding of dialogue fluency, these lab-based findings carry implications for language teaching and assessmen

An analytical solution for the elastoplastic response of a continuous fiber composite under uniaxial loading

A continuous fiber composite is modelled by a two-element composite cylinder in order to predict the elastoplastic response of the composite under a monotonically increasing tensile loading parallel to fibers. The fibers and matrix are assumed to be elastic-perfectly plastic materials obeying Hill's and Tresca's yield criteria, respectively. Here, the composite behavior when the fibers yield prior to the matrix is investigated

Excited Heavy Baryon Masses from the 1/N_c Expansion of HQET

The mass spectra of the L=1 orbitally excited heavy baryons with light quarks in both the spin-flavor symmetric and the mixed representations are studied by the $1/N_c$ expansion method in the framework of the heavy quark effective theory. The mixing effect between the baryons in the two representations is also considered. The general pattern of the spectrum is predicted which will be verified by the experiments in the near future.Comment: 9 pages, latex, no figure, uses sprocl.sty (included). Talk by Chun Liu at the workshop on Non-Perturbative Methods and Lattice QCD (Guangzhou, May 15-21, 2000

Within- and between-pen transmission of Classical Swine Fever Virus: a new method to estimate the basic reproduction ratio from transmission experiments

We present a method to estimate basic reproduction ratio R0 from transmission experiments. By using previously published data of experiments with Classical Swine Fever Virus more extensively, we obtained smaller confidence intervals than the martingale method used in the original papers. Moreover, our method allows simultaneous estimation of a reproduction ratio within pens R0w and a modified reproduction ratio between pens R'0b. Resulting estimates of R0w and R'0b for weaner pigs were 100 (95% CI 54.4-186) and 7.77 (4.68-12.9), respectively. For slaughter pigs they were 15.5 (6.20-38.7) and 3.39 (1.54-7.45), respectively. We believe, because of the smaller confidence intervals we were able to obtain, that the method presented here is better suited for use in future experiments

Fluorescence-based proteasome activity profiling

With the proteasome emerging as a therapeutic target for cancer treatment, accurate tools for monitoring proteasome (inhibitor) activity are in demand. In this chapter, we describe the synthesis and use of a fluorescent proteasome activity probe that allows for accurate profiling of proteasomal activity in cell lysates, intact cells, and murine and human patient-derived material, with high sensitivity using SDS-PAGE. The probe allows for direct scanning of the gel for fluorescent emission of the distinct proteasomal subunits and circumvents the use of Western blot analysis. Due to its suitable biochemical and biophysical properties, the fluorescent probe can also be used for confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry-based experiments