The Elephant in the Room: Helping Delaware Courts Develop Law to End Systemic Short-Term Bias in Corporate Decision-Making

Short-termism in corporate decision-making is as problematic for long-term investors as relying on a three-mile radar on a supertanker. It is totally inadequate for handling the long-term risks and opportunities faced by the modern corporation. Yet recent empirical research shows that up to 85% of the S&P 1500 have no long-term planning. This is costing pension funds and other long-term investors dearly. For instance, the small minority of companies that do long-term planning and risk management had a long-term profitability that was 81% higher than their peers during the 2001–2014 period—with less stock volatility that costs investors dearly as well. This corporate short-termism mindset is even more troubling given that at least half of the value of the companies in the S&P 1500 is generated by expectations for realization of future value. Long-term investors therefore face a long-term expectations pipeline of hoped-for returns without a plan by corporations to back it up. The tragic result: this short-termism mindset appears to have a substantial depressing impact on long-term market returns while increasing long-term risk exposure. Both have contributed to the significantly underfunded status of many pension funds today. Delaware courts, the primary referees of corporate director fiduciary duties in the United States, are so frustrated with the persistent effects of short-term pressures—including corporate fraud and compliance breaches—that they are actively encouraging investors to bring the right cases to help change the rules. This Article examines the effects of short-termism and the Delaware judiciary’s responses to it. It then shows how existing Delaware law could be extended to address the underlying causes of corporate short-term bias, rather than merely imposing punishment on the symptoms

The Quantum theory of damping and the Raman Effect

The basis of this dissertation is a review of the quantum mechanical formulation of damping and stimulation, particularly in non-linear optical processes. The basic problems of the quantum theory of damping are discussed, and the formalism for the quantum theory is introduced. The study of a particular example, that of a damped simple harmonic oscillator, provides an introduction to the handling of the basic tool, the master equation. The physical aspects of the non-linear processes are contained in the systems' photon statistics, and the master equation provides several approaches for obtaining these. This theory is then used to formulate a quantum mechanical model of Raman scattering by phonons, and to thus obtain the photon statistics of the scattered radiation

Post-Outburst Observations of V1647 Ori: Detection of a Brief Warm, Molecular Outflow

We present new observations of the fundamental ro-vibrational CO spectrum of V1647 Ori, the young star whose recent outburst illuminated McNeil's Nebula. Previous spectra, acquired during outburst in 2004 February and July, had shown the CO emission lines to be broad and centrally peaked-similar to the CO spectrum of a typical classical T Tauri star. In this paper, we present CO spectra acquired shortly after the luminosity of the source returned to its pre-outburst level (2006 February) and roughly one year later (2006 December and 2007 February). The spectrum taken in 2006 February revealed blue-shifted CO absorption lines superimposed on the previously observed CO emission lines. The projected velocity, column density, and temperature of this outflowing gas was 30 km/s, 3^{+2}_{-1}E18 cm^{-2$, and 700^{+300}_{-100} K, respectively. The absorption lines were not observed in the 2006 December and 2007 February data, and so their strengths must have decreased in the interim by a factor of 9 or more. We discuss three mechanisms that could give rise to this unusual outflow.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Time Required for Lameness Detection on an Embedded Microcomputer Based Force Plate in a Lab Based Setting

The objective of this study was to determine the minimum time required for the embedded microcomputer based force plate (force plate) to detect lameness. The force plate can be placed under an electronic sow feeder or a gestation stall to routinely assess lameness. Previous work with the force plate has required sows to remain standing in a gestation stall for longer than a typical feeding time allotment of 9 minutes to measure the force applied to each foot. Comparing sows’ weight distribution across time showed that an adjustment period is required before force distribution measurements are consistent, as the sows adapts to the force plate. When using a 30 second adjustment period, sows only needed to stand on the force plate for 210 seconds in order to have a consistent reading across time. This could create a labor reduction during research trials, and allow more data to be used from a commercial setting, than when using the previous times

The TREAT-NMD advisory committee for therapeutics (TACT): an innovative de-risking model to foster orphan drug development

Despite multiple publications on potential therapies for neuromuscular diseases (NMD) in cell and animal models only a handful reach clinical trials. The ability to prioritise drug development according to objective criteria is particularly critical in rare diseases with large unmet needs and a limited numbers of patients who can be enrolled into clinical trials. TREAT-NMD Advisory Committee for Therapeutics (TACT) was established to provide independent and objective guidance on the preclinical and development pathway of potential therapies (whether novel or repurposed) for NMD. We present our experience in the establishment and operation of the TACT. TACT provides a unique resource of recognized experts from multiple disciplines. The goal of each TACT review is to help the sponsor to position the candidate compound along a realistic and well-informed plan to clinical trials, and eventual registration. The reviews and subsequent recommendations are focused on generating meaningful and rigorous data that can enable clear go/no-go decisions and facilitate longer term funding or partnering opportunities. The review process thereby acts to comment on viability, de-risking the process of proceeding on a development programme. To date TACT has held 10 review meeting and reviewed 29 program applications in several rare neuromuscular diseases: Of the 29 programs reviewed, 19 were from industry and 10 were from academia; 15 were for novel compounds and 14 were for repurposed drugs; 16 were small molecules and 13 were biologics; 14 were preclinical stage applications and 15 were clinical stage applications. 3 had received Orphan drug designation from European Medicines Agency and 3 from Food and Drug Administration. A number of recurrent themes emerged over the course of the reviews and we found that applicants frequently require advice and education on issues concerned with preclinical standard operating procedures, interactions with regulatory agencies, formulation, repurposing, clinical trial design, manufacturing and ethics. Over the 5 years since its establishment TACT has amassed a body of experience that can be extrapolated to other groups of rare diseases to improve the community's chances of successfully bringing new rare disease drugs to registration and ultimately to marke

COVID-19, frailty and long-term care: Implications for policy and practice

Older adults have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many outbreaks occurring in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs). We discuss this vulnerability among LTCF residents using an ecological framework, on levels spanning from the individual to families and caregivers, institutions, health services and systems, communities, and contextual government policies. Challenges abound for fully understanding the burden of COVID-19 in LTCF, including differences in nomenclature, data collection systems, cultural differences, varied social welfare models, and (often) under-resourcing of the LTC sector. Registration of cases and deaths may be limited by testing capacity and policy, record-keeping and reporting procedures. Hospitalization and death rates may be inaccurate depending on atypical presentations and whether or not residents' goals of care include escalation of care and transfer to hospital. Given the important contribution of frailty, use of the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is discussed as a readily implementable measure, as are lessons learned from the study of frailty in relation to influenza. Biomarkers hold emerging promise in helping to predict disease severity and address the puzzle of why some frail LTCF residents are resilient to COVID-19, either remaining test-negative despite exposure or having asymptomatic infection, while others experience the full range of illness severity including critical illness and death. Strong and coordinated surveillance and research focused on LTCFs and their frail residents is required. These efforts should include widespread assessment of frailty using feasible and readily implementable tools such as the CFS, and rigorous reporting of morbidity and mortality in LTCFs