Is the Imposition of Fiduciary Responsibilities Running from Managers, Directors, and Majority Shareholders to Minority Shareholders Economically Efficient

The following article will address the issue of the extent to which minority shareholders should be recognized to have a legal right which reflects the responsibilities of the management to the shareholders as a group. It will then address the issue of whether the imposition of fiduciary duties as traditionally defined furthers the goal of protecting minority shareholders. It concludes that while minority shareholders need more protection than the corporate structure (absent the imposition of extrinsic duties) can give them, the imposition of fiduciary duties is not a proper response. In order to explore these issues, the article will analyze the behavior of the controlling shareholder(s) in a close corporation; it will then analyze the behavior which the minority shareholder(s) would try to impose upon the controlling corporation; these behaviors will then be compared in terms of economic efficiency; finally the economic efficiency of allowing minority shareholders an enforceable right to change corporate policy will be discussed

Evaluating epistemic uncertainty under incomplete assessments

The thesis of this study is to propose an extended methodology for laboratory based Information Retrieval evaluation under incomplete relevance assessments. This new methodology aims to identify potential uncertainty during system comparison that may result from incompleteness. The adoption of this methodology is advantageous, because the detection of epistemic uncertainty - the amount of knowledge (or ignorance) we have about the estimate of a system's performance - during the evaluation process can guide and direct researchers when evaluating new systems over existing and future test collections. Across a series of experiments we demonstrate how this methodology can lead towards a finer grained analysis of systems. In particular, we show through experimentation how the current practice in Information Retrieval evaluation of using a measurement depth larger than the pooling depth increases uncertainty during system comparison

The Practitioner\u27s Corner: An exploration of municipal active living charter development and advocacy

Background: Numerous municipal active living-­‐related charters have been adopted to promote physical activity in Canada throughout the past decade. Despite this trend, there are few published critical examinations of the process through which charters are developed and used. Purpose: Thus, the purpose of this study was to establish greater understanding of active living charter development and advocacy. Methods: Semi-­‐structured interviews were conducted with eight primary contributors to different active living-­‐related charters across Ontario, Canada. Interview questions explored participants’ experiences developing and advocating for an active living charter. Interviews were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding. Results and Conclusions: Participants consistently described a process whereby an impetus triggered the development of a charter, which was subsequently adopted by regional or municipal council. Continued advocacy to develop awareness of the charter and to promote desired outcomes in the community was valued and the capacity of the working group as well as the local political context played pivotal roles in determining how the charter was implemented. Outcomes were, however, only objectively evaluated in one case that was described – evaluation being a process that many participants thought was omitted in regard to their own charter. This work provides practical guidance for health professionals developing regional active living charters as a component of broader advocacy efforts

Prognostic modelling utilizing a high fidelity pressurized water reactor simulator

Within power generation, aging assets and an emphasis on more efficient operation of power systems and improved maintenance decision methods has led to a growing focus on asset prognostics. The main challenge facing the implementation of successful asset prognostics in power generation is the lack of available run-to-failure data. This paper proposes to overcome this issue by use of full-scope high-fidelity simulators to generate the run-to-failure data required. From this simulated failure data a similarity-based prognostic approach is developed for estimating the remaining useful life of a valve asset. Case study data is generated by initializing prebuilt industrial failure models within a 970 MW pressurized water reactor simulation. Such full-scope high-fidelity simulators are mainly operated for training purposes, allowing personnel to gain experience of standard operation as well as failures within a safe, simulated operating environment. This paper repurposes such a high-fidelity simulator to generate the type of data and affects that would be produced in the event of a fault. The fault scenario is then run multiple times to generate a library of failure events. This library of events was then split into training and test batches for building the prognostic model. Results are presented and conclusions drawn about the success of the technique and the use of high-fidelity simulators in this manner

StarCraft 2 Replay Analysis

This data was used in Thompson et al. (2013). We aggregated screen movements into screen-fixations using a Salvucci & Goldberg (2000) dispersion-threshold algorithm, and defined Perception Action Cycles (PACs) as fixations with at least one action. Time is recorded in terms of timestamps in the StarCraft 2 replay file. When the game is played on \u27faster\u27, 1 real-time second is equivalent to roughly 88.5 timestamps. A list of possible game actions is discussed in Thompson, Blair, Chen, & Henrey (2013). Skip league conditional inference forest classification was used (Bronze-Gold;Silver-Platinum;Gold-Diamond;Platinum-Masters;Diamond-Professional) to show changing patterns of variable importance with skill. Predicted attribute: League (Ordinal

Conceptualising and prototyping a decision support system for safer urban unmanned aerial vehicle operations

Currently, there is limited discourse surrounding the safe operational planning of UAVs within complex multi-stakeholder urban environments. This paper conceptualises a methodology for prototyping a decision support system for urban UAV flight operations planning. The proposition is based on integrating urban 3-dimensional data with the physical factors of UAV flight operations. A simulated, holistic understanding of UAV usage in urban space emerges, enabling better informed decisions by planners around safe flight operations. The feasibility, applicability and benefits of the decision support system and associated policy implications for urban planners and UAV users are discussed scoping further development of this approach

Altered Ecosystem Nitrogen Dynamics as a Consequence of Land Cover Change in Tallgrass Prairie

ABSTRACT.-Inre cent decades, substantial areas of North American tallgrass prairie have been lost to the establishment and expansion of woodlands and forests, including those dominated by eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana). This shift in dominant plant life form, from C4 grasses to coniferous trees, may be accompanied by changes in productivity, standing stocks of biomass and nutrients and biogeochemical cycles. The goal of this study was to quantify and compare major pools and fluxes of nitrogen in recently established (5 80 y) redcedar forests and adjacent native grasslands. Three former grassland sites in the Flint Hills region of Kansas that developed closed-canopy redcedar forests in the recent past were paired with adjacent grassland sites on similar soil type and topographic position (n = 3 sites/land cover type), and selected soil and plant nitrogen pools and fluxes were measured in replicate plots (n = 6/site) along transects in each forest or grassland site over a 20-mo period. We found few significant differences in median soil inorganic N pools or net N mineralization rates between the forest and grassland sites, though there was a trend for greater concentrations of inorganic N in grassland sites on most sample dates, and cumulative growing season net N mineralization averaged 15% less in forest sites (14.3 kg N-ha-1\u27yr-1) than in grassland sites (16.9 kg N-ha-\u27.yr-1). Mean aboveground plant productivity of forest sites (9162 kg ha-1 yr-1) was about 2.5X greater than that of comparable grasslands (similar soils and topographic position), in spite of similar levels of soil N availability. This resulted in an ecosystem-level nitrogen use efficiency (ANPP:litterfall N) in forests that was more than double that of the grasslands they replaced. Additional changes in N cycling associated with redcedar forest development included large accumulations of N in aboveground biomass and transfer to the forest floor via litterfall; redcedar aboveground biomass contained 617 kg N/ ha, forest floor litter N was 253 kg N/ha, and litterfall N flux was 41 kg ha-l\u27yr-1. These are substantial increases in aboveground biomass N accumulation, surface litter N inputs, and surface litter N accumulation compared to the native grasslands characteristic of this region. These fundamental shifts in ecosystem patterns and processes have the potential to alter regional biogeochemistry and both nitrogen and carbon storage throughout areas of the eastern Central Plains where coverage of redcedars is increasing

The current state of biomarker research for Friedreich's ataxia: a report from the 2018 FARA biomarker meeting

The 2018 FARA Biomarker Meeting highlighted the current state of development of biomarkers for Friedreich's ataxia. A mass spectroscopy assay to sensitively measure mature frataxin (reduction of which is the root cause of disease) is being developed. Biomarkers to monitor neurological disease progression include imaging, electrophysiological measures and measures of nerve function, which may be measured either in serum and/or through imaging-based technologies. Potential pharmacodynamic biomarkers include metabolic and protein biomarkers and markers of nerve damage. Cardiac imaging and serum biomarkers may reflect cardiac disease progression. Considerable progress has been made in the development of biomarkers for various contexts of use, but further work is needed in terms of larger longitudinal multisite studies, and identification of novel biomarkers for additional use cases