The Impact of Foreign Liabilities on Small Firms: Firm-Level Evidence from the Korean Crisis

Using Korean firm-level data on publicly-listed and privately-held firms together with firm exit data, we find strong evidence of the balance-sheet effect for small firms at both the intensive and extensive margins. During the crisis, small firms with more short-term foreign debt are more likely to go bankrupt, and experience larger sales declines conditional on survival. The extensive margin accounts for a large fraction of small firms’ adjustment during the crisis. Consistent with many studies in the literature, large firms with larger exposure to foreign debt paradoxically have better performance during the crisis at both the intensive and extensive margin.

Development and validation of a LC-MS/MS method for detection and quantification of 18 antidepressants in whole blood

Antidepressants are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in America, with researchers reporting one in six Americans take some form of psychiatric drugs-mostly antidepressants (NBC News, 2016). Antidepressants are often present in combination with other drugs in suicides and drug-related deaths, so a sensitive and specific method to detect and quantify antidepressants is necessary. We developed a method for the detection and quantification of 18 different antidepressants in whole blood, with a range of 2.5-900 ng/mL and LOQ of 2.5 ng/mL. Three hundred uL of blood was used and the analytes were extracted using solid-phase extraction and analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), monitoring two transitions per analyte. The method was validated and applied to 10 positive authentic samples, and blind proficiency testing was additionally performed to test the method’s ability to successfully quantitate the analytes

The regional distribution of public expendictures in the UK : an exposition and critique of the Barnett formula

The Barnett formula is the official basis upon which increments to public funds are allocated to the devolved regions of the UK for those parts of the budget that are administered locally. There is considerable controversy surrounding the implications of its strict application for the relevant regions. The existing literature focuses primarily on the equity of the spatial changes to government per capita expenditure that would accompany such a change. In contrast, in this paper we attempt to quantify the system-wide economic consequences-the real, relative resource squeeze that accompanies the financial relative squeeze-on one devolved region, Scotland. The analysis uses a multisectoral regional computable general equilibrium modelling approach. We highlight the importance of population endogeneity, particularly since the population proportions used in the formula are now regularly updated

The Impact of Foreign Liabilities on Small Firms: Firm-Level Evidence from the Korean Crisis

Using Korean firm-level data on publicly-listed and privately-held firms together with firm exit data, we find strong evidence of the balance-sheet effect for small firms at both the intensive and extensive margins. During the crisis, small firms with more short-term foreign debt are more likely to go bankrupt, and experience larger sales declines conditional on survival. The extensive margin accounts for a large fraction of small firmsÕ adjustment during the crisis. Consistent with many studies in the literature, large firms with larger exposure to foreign debt paradoxically have better performance during the crisis at both the intensive and extensive margin.financial crisis, firm-level data, balance-sheet effects, Korean economy

All the world's my stage.

All The World's My Stage is the action-filled comedy of Kimberly Peterson's woefully isolated and loveless life. Middle-aged and single, her most recent love affair only exists in her dreams with her favorite movie star. While searching for inspiration for her next romance novel, she happens across the goddess Bali, trapped in a cheap statue in the local antique shop. In exchange for freedom from her tawdry prison, Bali promises to help Kim find true love. Life on the run from Bali's evil twin sister and her mafia of Mau priestesses sure makes Kim's life more exciting. Things heat up when she partners with Gregorian Laydon, the super-sexy love god, who joins Kim's quest to rescue Bali from her enemies. Between vengeful deities and everyone concealing personal secrets, Kim's emotions go on a roller-coaster ride, making it hard to know which way is up. However, Kim courageously faces these challenges head on to: solve the puzzle of her past, save Bali, and win Greg's love, despite all obstacles. All The World's My Stage shows the importance of self-reliance in a world that relies so heavily on partnerships. Kim's independence is the reason she can survive in this chaotic world of gods, warriors, and clairvoyance, as well as, finally allowing herself to fall in love. This is the story of strong will versus immortal gods, and the virtues that humanity holds over omnipotence. Love, we see, really does conquer all

VR Investigation on Caregivers’ Tolerance towards Communication and Processing Failures

This article was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Robots are increasingly used in healthcare to support caregivers in their daily work routines. To ensure an effortless and easy interaction between caregivers and robots, communication via natural language is expected from robots. However, robotic speech bears a large potential for technical failures, which includes processing and communication failures. It is therefore necessary to investigate how caregivers perceive and respond to robots with erroneous communication. We recruited thirty caregivers, who interacted in a virtual reality setting with a robot. It was investigated whether different kinds of failures are more likely to be forgiven with technical or human-like justifications. Furthermore, we determined how tolerant caregivers are with a robot constantly returning a process failure and whether this depends on the robot’s response pattern (constant vs. variable). Participants showed the same forgiveness towards the two justifications. However, females liked the human-like justification more and males liked the technical justification more. Providing justifications with any reasonable content seems sufficient to achieve positive effects. Robots with a constant response pattern were liked more, although both patterns achieved the same tolerance threshold from caregivers, which was around seven failed requests. Due to the experimental setup, the tolerance for communication failures was probably increased and should be adjusted in real-life situations

Implementation and Outcomes of the New York State YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program: A Multisite Community-Based Translation, 20102012

Weight loss and physical activity achieved through the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) have been shown to reduce type 2 diabetes risk among individuals with prediabetes. The New York State Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) delivered the 16-week evidence-based model at 14 YMCAs. A mixed methods process and outcomes evaluation was conducted

Breast density classification with deep convolutional neural networks

Breast density classification is an essential part of breast cancer screening. Although a lot of prior work considered this problem as a task for learning algorithms, to our knowledge, all of them used small and not clinically realistic data both for training and evaluation of their models. In this work, we explore the limits of this task with a data set coming from over 200,000 breast cancer screening exams. We use this data to train and evaluate a strong convolutional neural network classifier. In a reader study, we find that our model can perform this task comparably to a human expert

Competitive Sets for Lodging Properties

This article illustrates the differences in the composition, characteristics, and performance evaluation of competitive sets of hotels determined using two methods—the common product type classification scheme and the less commonly used cluster analysis based on average daily rate (ADR) as the clustering variable. The analysis examined annual ADR, occupancy, and revenue per available room (RevPAR) for a group of hotels in a portion of a single U.S. metropolitan market. The comparison of the two methods shows the following: the average variability of ADR and RevPAR is less for the cluster-based competitors than it is for competitor groups determined using product type; most clusters contain a variety of product types (confirming that competition occurs across product types); most product types are categorized into different clusters; and the average RevPAR difference between the particular hotel and its reference competitive group is less for the ADR-cluster-based reference group than it is for the product type reference group, indicating that the performance of hotels within cluster competitive groups is more similar than in product type competitive groups. Comparing competing hotels based on the two methods can provide information regarding the extent of congruence between the hotel’s intended competitive position and its position as seen by customers