State Ownership and Corporate Governance

State ownership of publicly-traded corporations remains pervasive around the world, and has been increasing in recent years. Existing literature focuses on the implications of government ownership for corporate governance and performance at the firm level. This Article, by contrast, explores the different but equally important question of whether the presence of the state as a shareholder can impose negative externalities on the corporate law regime available to the private sector. Drawing from historical experiments with government ownership in the United States, Brazil, China, and Europe, this study shows that the conflict of interest stemming from the state’s dual role as a shareholder and regulator can influence the content of corporate laws to the detriment of outside investor protection and efficiency. It thus addresses a gap in the literature on the political economy of corporate governance by incorporating the political role of the state as shareholder as another mechanism to explain the relationship between corporate ownership structures and legal investor protection. Finally, this Article explores the promise of different institutional arrangements to constrain the impact of the state’s interests as a shareholder on the corporate governance environment, and concludes by offering several policy recommendations

State Strategies for Turning Around Low-Performing Schools and Districts

Based on discussions at a March 2009 symposium, offers policy guidance on turnaround strategies that address underlying causes of low performance, provide resources for transformative change, improve mutual accountability, and support collaboration

Group-Like algebras and Hadamard matrices

We give a description in terms of square matrices of the family of group-like algebras with $S*id=id*S=u\epsilon$. In the case that $S=id$ and $char\Bbbk$ is not 2 and does not divide the dimension of the algebra, this translation take us to Hadamard matrices and, particularly, to examples of biFrobenius algebras satisfying $S*id=id*S=u\epsilon$ and that are not Hopf algebras. Finally, we generalize some known results on separability and coseparability valid for finite dimensional Hopf algebras to this special class of biFrobenius algebras with $S*id=id*S=u\epsilon$, presenting a version of Maschke's theorem for this family

Factorization of simple modules for certain pointed Hopf algebras

We study the representations of two types of pointed Hopf algebras: restricted two-parameter quantum groups, and the Drinfel'd doubles of rank one pointed Hopf algebras of nilpotent type. We study, in particular, under what conditions a simple module can be factored as the tensor product of a one dimensional module with a module that is naturally a module for the quotient by central group-like elements.Comment: 24 page

Conformal symmetry algebra of the quark potential and degeneracies in the hadron spectra

The essence of the potential algebra concept [3] is that quantum mechanical free motions of scalar particles on curved surfaces of given isometry algebras can be mapped on 1D Schroedinger equations with particular potentials. As long as the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a curved surface is proportional to one of the Casimir invariants of the isometry algebra, free motion on the surface is described by means of the eigenvalue problem of that very Casimir operator and the excitation modes are classified according to the irreps of the algebra of interest. In consequence, also the spectra of the equivalent Schroedinger operators are classified according to the same irreps. We here use the potential algebra concept as a guidance in the search for an interaction describing conformal degeneracies. For this purpose we subject the so(4) isometry algebra of the S^3 ball to a particular non-unitary similarity transformation and obtain a deformed isometry copy to S^3 such that free motion on the copy is equivalent to a cotangent perturbed motion on S^3, and to the 1D Schroedinger operator with the trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential as well. The latter presents itself especially well suited for quark-system studies insofar as its Taylor series decomposition begins with a Cornell-type potential and in accord with lattice QCD predictions. We fit the strength of the cotangent potential to the spectra of the unflavored high-lying mesons and obtain a value compatible with the light dilaton mass. We conclude that while the conformal group symmetry of QCD following from AdS_5/CFT_4 may be broken by the dilaton mass, it still may be preserved as a symmetry algebra of the potential, thus explaining the observed conformal degeneracies in the unflavored hadron spectra, both baryons and mesons.Comment: Invited talk presented at "Beauty in Physics:Theory and Experiment", May 14-May 18, Cocoyoc, Mexico, dedicated to the 70th birthday of Francesco Yachell

Incorporating sub-universes to address the issue of chagas in different educational contexts

Although Chagas has been traditionally addressed just from a biomedical point of view, due to its multiple factors and the diverse actors involved, it is necessary to consider it as a really complex problem characterized by four large dimensions: biomedical, epidemiological, sociocultural, and politico-economic. A comprehensive analysis of the problem is thus needed, in order to obtain effective and long-term solutions, appropriate to the different contexts where Chagas exist. In this text we share our ideas and experiences that we have applied to activities, didactic materials and resources that aim at creating a comprehensive view of this environmental and health issue, by providing elements and actors that are usually disregarded. Art, science and popular knowledge get dynamically combined in a group of proposals developed to provide all of us with the opportunity to observe and feel beyond dichotomies and traditional approaches.Fil: Sanmartino, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos; Argentin

Reworking the Unworkable: Halliburton II and the Court\u27s Reexamination of Fraud on the Market

This commentary previews the upcoming Supreme Court case Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co. in which the Court is called upon to reexamine the controversial fraud-on-the-market rule. This rule, a cornerstone of securities litigation for the past two decades, allows the court to presume that securities fraud plaintiffs relied on a misstatement or omission if the security affected is traded on an efficient market. The subject of intense debate for years, this commentary reviews and analyzes precedent and predicts the case\u27s likely outcome--that the Court will not expressly overrule the fraud-on-the-market rule, but will nevertheless modify it to place more of an evidentiary burden on securities fraud plaintiffs

Rock influences spatial memory in adult rats, while classical music do not

Music can be used as a therapeutic tool and has several effects in cognitive and physiologicalfunctions. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of different musical pieces in spatialmemory in adult male rats. A T maze was used to investigate spatial memory, with 2h and6h inter trial interval between training and testing phases. Before training, animals wereexposed to an active or relaxing musical stimulus corresponding to rock and classical pieces.It was found that in the experiment with 2h interval, animals explore more the novel arm incomparison with the other arm, which indicated that animals still had a good spatial memory.This was not observed in rats that were exposed to the relaxing rock piece, which couldindicate that this stimulus diminished memory. With the 6h interval the rats explored botharms equally, except animals that were exposed to the activating rock piece of music whichindicated a slightly enhance in memory. Thus, there were found different effects of musiccorresponding to the time of interval and the stimulus characteristics. This data providesinformation to use music as a possible treatment to modulate memory.Fil: Psyrdellis, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Diaz Abrahan, Veronika Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Cetratelli, Camila. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Justel, Nadia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin