To what extent are investment bank-differentiating factors relevant for firms floating moderate-sized IPOs?

One explanation provided for the relatively high and increasingly stable spreads for moderate-sized IPOs ($20-$80 million) documented in Chen and Ritter (2000) is that issuing firms focus less on price and more on a combination of investment bank-differentiating factors (such as underwriter prestige, analyst coverage, industry expertise, under-pricing, price stabilization activities, liquidity provision, and so on,) and banks use industry-based differentiation as a source of market power. Using a new approach developed in a model of firm location choice due to Ellison and Glaeser (1997), this paper presents some evidence on the combined relevance of such bank-differentiating factors, over and above bank size, for firms choosing investment banks for floating IPOs. For moderate-sized IPOs, there is a little, but not much evidence that such factors are a good explanation for high and increasingly stable spreads. Other than in a few of the largest industries, bank-differentiating factors are not significantly relevant for a large proportion of industries. Moreover, one aggregate measure of differentiation is declining over time.Investment Banking, Initial Public Offering, Differentiating Factors, Concentration, 7 percent puzzle

A Case Study Of Four Years Documenting The Changes In The Process Of Self-reporting Academic Program Plans Alongside The Perceptions of Program Coordinators

Major Advisors: Suzanne Martin, Ph.D., Laura Blasi, Ph.D. Universities in the United States of America are faced with numerous challenges concerning quality assurance such as the quest for Continuous Quality Improvement. Implementation of technology has been a priority of many developing institutions of higher education. A large metropolitan institution of higher education has put into practice a technology based, on-line program quality assessment system, for its academic and administrative programs. This dissertation was a study of the changes reported over four years, 2001-2005, within ten initial teacher preparation undergraduate programs at the College of Education at this institution. Using a mixed method approach, this study addressed the following primary questions: 1. Since the system was introduced; a. Has the process of monitoring quality in the academic units changed? b. If changes have occurred in the program plans, how have they been documented and implemented? 2. What are the limitations/benefits of the system, as perceived by its users? This study is a case for its readers to understand the process of quality improvement as practiced in a college of education within a metropolitan university

Quantifying Vulnerability of Agricultural Systems in India to Weather Extremes

Extreme weather events are expected to increase globally due to climate change thereby posing substantial risks to agricultural communities. The implications are especially high for tropical countries like India as the heavy dependence of agricultural sector to uncertain monsoons makes its agriculture highly vulnerable to weather variability and extremes. In this dissertation, we examine the vulnerability of agricultural systems in India to extreme weather events. To this end, we first develop an indicator of vulnerability using the partial moments model which captures two important dimensions of vulnerability - the likelihood of an agricultural system falling below some critical threshold as well as the extent of the loss below the threshold. We then demonstrate the usefulness of this indicator for policymakers with an empirical application to India by examining both the vulnerability of crop yields to weather extremes as well as the household vulnerability to poverty. The estimation results using a panel data of rice yields from thirty Indian villages indicate that extreme and severe dry events have a positive and significant effect on vulnerability in rainfed farms but not in irrigated farms. These results provide evidence of irrigation as an adaptive mechanism for farmers. When examining agricultural household’s vulnerability to poverty, we find similar effects of weather extremes with the household most vulnerable to poverty when exposed to an extreme dry event. We also find statistical evidence that crop diversification has a negative effect on vulnerability and is an important risk-mitigating tool employed by farm households. We next examine the vulnerability of Indian agriculture at a more aggregated level by exploiting a district-level panel data for forty years. Similar to the farm-level analysis, we find extreme and severe dry events to be the main drivers of vulnerability whereas irrigation and high-yield variety (HYV) seeds are found to increase resilience. We discuss the implications of our results for policymakers by examining the impacts under various hypothetical climate and technological scenarios

Inverse Heat Conduction Problem in a Semi-Infinite Circular Plate and its Thermal Deflection by Quasi-Static Approach

This paper concerns the inverse heat conduction problem in a semi-infinite thin circular plate subjected to an arbitrary known temperature under unsteady condition and the behavior of thermal deflection has been discussed on the outer curved surface with the help of mathematical modeling. The solutions are obtained in an analytical form by using the integral transform technique

Inverse Heat Conduction Problem in a Semi-Infinite Cylinder and its Thermal Stresses by Quasi-Static Approach

The present paper deals with the determination of unknown temperature and thermal stresses on the curved surface of a semi-infinite circular cylinder defined as 0 ≤ r ≤ a , 0 ≤ z ≤ ∞. The circular cylinder is subjected to an arbitrary known temperature under unsteady state condition. Initially, the cylinder is at zero temperature and temperature at the lower surface is held fixed at zero. The governing heat conduction equation has been solved by using the integral transform method. The results are obtained in series form in terms of Bessel’s functions. A mathematical model has been constructed for aluminum material and illustrates the results graphically

Advanced glycation end products modulate amyloidogenic APP processing and Tau phosphorylation: a mechanistic link between glycation and the development of Alzheimer’s disease

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as they induce neurodegeneration following interaction with the receptor for AGE (RAGE). This study aimed to establish a mechanistic link between AGE-RAGE signaling and AD pathology. AGE-induced changes in the neuro2a proteome were monitored by SWATH-MS. Western blotting and cell-based reporter assays were used to investigate AGE-RAGE regulated APP processing and tau phosphorylation in primary cortical neurons. Selected protein expression was validated in brain samples affected by AD. The AGE-RAGE axis altered proteome included increased expression of cathepsin B and asparagine endopeptidase (AEP), which mediated an increase in Aβ_1–42 formation and tau phosphorylation, respectively. Elevated cathepsin B, AEP, RAGE, and pTau levels were found in human AD brain, coincident with enhanced AGEs. This study demonstrates that the AGE-RAGE axis regulates Aβ_1–42 formation and tau phosphorylation via increased cathepsin B and AEP, providing a new molecular link between AGEs and AD pathology

Facilitators and barriers to the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose among adult population: qualitative analysis across six different states of India

IntroductionIndia launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive on 16th January 2021 by vaccinating the adult population above 18 years of age. This was followed by the introduction of an additional precaution dose. As on 18th October 2022, 1,02,66,96,808 (1.02 Billion) first dose and 94, 95, 39,516 (949 Million) second doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered. However, when compared to the uptake of the primary doses, the precaution dose uptake lagged behind with only 21,75, 12,721 (217 million) doses administered. Even though, the uptake of the primary doses remained optimal, irrespective of different interventions by the Government of India, the uptake of the precaution dose remained poor. In this context, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare wanted to understand the facilitators and Barriers for precaution dose uptake among adults so that future immunization campaigns could address these issues.MethodsAn exploratory qualitative study was conducted to assess the facilitators and barriers for COVID-19 precaution dose uptake at community level across 6 different states in India. From each of the states, two districts with the highest and lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose uptake were selected. In each of these districts, 2 block Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), one with high and one with low uptake were identified. Within these block PHCs, a PHC field area with high and low precaution dose uptakes was identified. From the identified sites a minimum of four IDIs, four FGDs were conducted among the community members. KIIs of the State Immunization Officers, District Immunisation Officers, PHC Medical Officers, healthcare workers like Accredited Social Health Activist/Auxiliary Nurse Midwife were also conducted. The data was audio recorded and it was transcribed, translated and analysed using framework approach.ResultsIt was observed that rise in COVID-19 cases prompted the community to take the precaution dose, this along with the cost of hospitalization and the number of productive days being lost as a result of being infected resulted in vaccine uptake. The fear of non-availability of COVID-19 vaccines latter on also prompted people for vaccine uptake. While the barriers were, poor accessibility to vaccination centers, long hours of travel, poor road connectivity and lack of transportation facilities. However, the most prominent barriers observed across all study sites was that a sense of pandemic fatigue and complacency had developed both among the providers as well as the beneficiaries. Other barriers include differences in vaccination schedules and longer duration between the primary doses of some vaccines. Media was identified to be both a barrier and facilitator for Covid-19 Precaution dose uptake. Even though media played an important role in disseminating information in the beginning of the campaign, it was soon followed by the circulation of both misinformation and disinformation.DiscussionThe study identified that dissemination of accurate information and community involvement at each stage of planning and implementation are crucial for the success of any campaign. Efforts should be constantly made to address and re-invent strategies that will be most suitable for the needs of the community. Therefore, in order to ensure successful vaccination campaigns, it is crucial that along with political will it is also important to have a decentralized approach with inter-sectoral coordination with different stakeholders such as healthcare workers, community members and the different departments such as the local self-governments, education department, law & order department etc. These lessons learnt from COVID-19 vaccination campaigns must not be forgotten and must be applied in future vaccination campaigns and while framing public health policies