The interaction between leverage and cash-balance dynamics : An empirical study of time-series variation in leverage and cash-balance ratios in publicly listed firms in the Nordics

This paper investigates whether time-series variation in leverage can be linked to hypothetical cash-balance squeezes for Nordic firms. The methodology in this paper is based on the article by DeAngelo, H., Concalves, A. S., & Stulz, A. S. (2022). We uncover that high time-series variation in leverage and cash-balance ratios is the norm for firms facing hypothetical cash squeezes in the period January 2000 to December 2021. Capital expenditures are found to be the main users of funds and the primary driver of time-series variation in leverage ratios. Overall, we document an empirical link between leverage and cash-balance dynamics. Over extended time periods, cash ratios display wide variations that closely resemble and complement the dynamics of capital structure. The interactions between leverage and cash dynamics align with the predictions of the internal-versus-external funding regime outlined in Myers & Majluf (1984). When cash ratios remain stable, leverage tends to be highly volatile, and vice versa. Net-debt ratios are almost always volatile. As internal funds (cash balances) become scarce, most firms significantly increase their leverage. The latter is especially true for firms delisted due to bankruptcy or liquidation. In sum, we report that there exists an interaction between leverage and cash balances. Consequently, researchers and companies should start to consider the two financial items as co-dependent rather than univariate variables. The research in this paper is placed in the intersection between the research fields of capital structures and cash balances, providing valuable insights to the small research field of leverage and cash dynamics.nhhma

Symbolsk makt i den statlige diskursen om IPLOS

Fokus for denne studien er IPLOS (individbasert pleie- og omsorgsstatistikk). Forskrift om pseudonymt register for individbasert pleie- og omsorgsstatistikk (IPLOS-registeret) ble vedtatt i februar 2006, og fra mars samme år ble det obligatorisk å registrere IPLOS-data på alle de rundt 200 000 brukerene av kommunale sosial – og helsetjenester i landet. Gjennom nærlesing av ’Veilederen’ er forvaltningens maktspråk analysert ved å benytte diskurs- og maktteori. Hensikten med oppgaven har ikke vært å finne svar, men å løfte fram mulige måter å lese IPLOS på, et ønske om å stille kritiske spørsmål ved rådende helsefaglige diskurser - eller meningsmonopol. Analysen har til formål å avnaturalisere språkmakten i IPLOS ved å vise hvordan teksten myndiggjør seg selv og hvordan den er tuftet på et bestemt menneskesyn.Analysen er inspirert av ulike vitenskapsfilosofer, ikke minst Bourdieu og hans teorier knyttet til kulturell kapital og symbolsk makt. Ved at noen sannheter tas for gitt (doxa) blir vi ute av stand til, blant annet å se hvordan språkhandlinger bidrar til å skape virkelighet. Analysen viser at IPLOS- språket representer en skjult og symbolsk makt. IPLOS fremstår som et ”objektivt” eller ”nøytralt” registreringssystem. Analysen viser imidlertid at i det relasjonelle samspillet, mellom den som gir og de som søker og mottaker disse tjenestene, er teksten formidler av en virksom maktdynamikk. Biomedisinsk hegemoni innen helsefagfeltet bidrar til at denne siden av omsorgsmakten et utematisert. Ulike ideologier og tenkemåter står mot hverandre i et system som IPLOS; prinsipper om autonomi, brukermedvirkning og respekten for menneskets individualitet og egenverd står mot en markedstenkning som vektlegger effektivitet, økonomisering og kontroll. Analysen viser at det er økonomiserings/effektiviseringsdiskursen som preger språket i IPLOS. ’Veilederen’ fremstår som en manual med et byråkratisk språk, der gjennomsnittsmennesket og konformitet er et ideal for menneskelig funksjon. Gjennom språket blir mangfold, spontanitet, uforutsigbarhet, følelser og relasjonelle forhold marginalisert. Den som registreres tas ut av kontekst og tingliggjøres. Individet presses inn i en statisk rolle som er forhåndsdefinert av andre

Occupational health and safety in agriculture– a brief report on organization, legislation and support in selected european countries

Introduction and objective: Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in Europe, with a high level of accidents affecting the sustainability and viability of the sector. International conventions, EU directives and national legislation build the fundamental basis for prevention. The aim of the study is to describe and categorize national mechanisms of occupational safety and health (OSH) for agricultural workers in Europe, to assess the extent of implementing safety regulation, the body in charge, and to give examples of health and safety initiatives. Material and methods: Results of a questionnaire-survey on basic safety regulations on farms sent by e-mail to the representatives of 30 participating European countries in the context of the Sacurima COST action network (CA 16123) are presented. Due to the complexity, only selected countries are described in this study highlighting the regulative bodies, occupational health services or specific training offers, as well as the complexity of the mechanisms. Results: One of the most serious issues and deficits of EU OSH regulation is the exclusion of self-employed farmers who compose nearly 90% of the farming population. This leads to serious under-reporting of accidents, and because one of the most common measures for the performance of health and safety initiatives are the injury and ill health statistics, better registration systems are urgently needed in almost all countries as a basis for preventive efforts. Conclusions: The results of the study provide a basis for raising awareness about the current OSH systems in Europe, and the importance of developing sector specific OSH strategies. The proposed activities should assist in tackling high accident rates and poor occupational health for self-employed farmers.publishedVersio

KEWPIE: a dynamical cascade code for decaying exited compound nuclei

A new dynamical cascade code for decaying hot nuclei is proposed and specially adapted to the synthesis of super-heavy nuclei. For such a case, the interesting channel is the tiny fraction that will decay through particles emission, thus the code avoids classical Monte-Carlo methods and proposes a new numerical scheme. The time dependence is explicitely taken into account in order to cope with the fact that fission decay rate might not be constant. The code allows to evaluate both statistical and dynamical observables. Results are successfully compared to experimental data.Comment: 15 pages, 3 Figures, Submitted to Comp. Phys. Co

Increased Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines and Endothelin-1 in Alveolar Macrophages from Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

BACKGROUND: Pathophysiological interactions between heart and lungs in heart failure (HF) are well recognized. We investigated whether expression of different factors known to be increased in the myocardium and/or the circulation in HF is also increased in alveolar macrophages in HF. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Lung function, hemodynamic parameters, gene expression in alveolar macrophages, and plasma levels in the pulmonary and femoral arteries of HF patients (n = 20) were compared to control subjects (n = 16). Our principal findings were: (1) Lung function was significantly lower in HF patients compared to controls (P<0.05). (2) mRNA levels of ET-1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were increased in alveolar macrophages from HF patients. (3) Plasma levels of ET-1, TNFα, IL-6 and MCP-1 were significantly increased in HF patients, whereas our data indicate a net pulmonary release of MCP-1 into the circulation in HF. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Several important cytokines and ET-1 are induced in alveolar macrophages in human HF. Further studies should clarify whether increased synthesis of these factors affects pulmonary remodeling and, directly or indirectly, adversely affects the failing myocardium

Discovery of Isotopes of the Transuranium Elements with 93 <= Z <= 98

One hundred and five isotopes of the transuranium elements neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium have so far been observed; the discovery of these isotopes is discussed. For each isotope a brief summary of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.Comment: To be published in Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Table

Element No. 102

By the use of a radically new method they have succeeded in identifying unambiguously an isotope of element 102. In other careful experiments conducted over a period of many months they find that they are unable to confirm the element 102 discovery work of Fields et al. reported in 1957. The experiments at Berkeley were performed with the new heavy ion linear accelerator (HILAC) over a period of several weeks and culinated the chemical identification of an isotope of fermium (Fm{sup 250}) as the daughter of an alpha-particle-emitting isotope of element 102 (102{sup 254}). The method used to detect the isotope of element 102 was essentially a continuous milking experiment wherein the atoms of the daughter element 100 were separated from the parent element 102 by taking advantage of the recoil due to the element 102 alpha particle decay. The target consisted of a mixture of isotopes of curium (95% Cm{sup 244} and 4.5% Cm{sup 246}) mounted on a very thin nickel foil. The target was approximately 0.5 mg/cm{sup 2} thick and was covered with 75 {micro}gm/cm{sup 2} aluminum to prevent curium 'knockover'. The curium was bombarded with mono-energetic C{sup 12} ions at energies from 60 to 100 Mev. The transmuted atoms were knocked into helium gas to absorb the considerable recoil energy. It was found that with a sufficient electric field strength practically all of these positively charged atoms could be attracted to a moving negatively charged metallic belt placed directly beneath the target. These atoms would then be carried on this conveyer belt under a foil which was charged negatively relative to the belt. Approximately half of the atoms undergoing alpha decay would cause their daughter atoms to recoil from the surface of the belt to the catcher foil. The catcher foil was cut transversely to the direction of the belt motion into five equal length sections after a time of bombardement suited to the half-life of the daughter atom to be examined. The five foils were then alpha-pulse-analyzed simultaneously in a multiplex assembly consisting of five Frisch grid chambers, amplifiers, a single Wilkinson type 'kick-sorter', and a printer. With this equipment it was easily possible to make all the desired measurements for identifying the atoms caught on the catcher foils and thus to measure the half-life of the parent of the recoiling atoms. The method was first successfully used in bombardments of Pu{sup 240} with C{sup 12} ions to identify a new isotope of element 100, Fm{sup 248}. It was shown to have a half-life of 0.6 minutes by analysis of the amounts of the 20-minute Cf{sup 244} caught on the catcher foils

A role for the terminal C5-C9 complement pathway in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic progressive interstitial lung disease characterized by damage to the alveolar epithelium, leading to fibrosis and excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix in the interstitium of the lung. In the present study we performed high-resolution proteomic profiling of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from IPF patients and controls, and found that the complement pathway was highly upregulated in IPF. The proteins C5, C6, C7, C8, and C9, all of which are part of the complement end product, TCC, were all upregulated. We also found that TCC levels were increased in plasma among IPF patients compared to controls, after adjustment for age, sex and BMI [mean (SD) 0.62 (0.24) vs. 0.33 (0.10), p = 0.031]. These findings suggest a role for the complement system in the pathogenesis of IPF

En pennespiss lett som glemsel : en lesning av Dubravka Ugresics Muzej bezuvjetne predaje (Museum for betingelsesløs overgivelse)

Muzej bezuvjetne predaje – Museum for betingelsesløs overgivelse er den første boken som Dubravka Ugresic har utgitt på norsk. Den er hennes mest kjente tekst utenfor det tidligere Jugoslavia. Teksten er fortalt av en forteller som på et tidspunkt befinner seg i Berlin, i eksil fra restene av tidligere Jugoslavia. Fortelleren er forfatter og til forveksling lik den historiske forfatteren. Dette grepet er med på å opprettholde en spenning når fortelleren legger sin fortelling for dagen. Det er en fortelling som i stor grad dreier seg om å minnes bruddstykker fra et tapt hjemland. Jeg har undersøkt hvordan hun gjør dette ved å presentere teksten som en selvbiografi, et familiealbum og et museum. Eller mer presist: jeg har sett på hvordan forholdet mellom glemsel og erindring preger det at hun søker å representere en tapt fortid. Alle disse presentasjonene forholder seg til det å skulle gjøre den fraværende (tapte) tiden nærværende. Dette knytter seg til et nostalgisk prosjekt. Teksten artikulerer både at forholdet mellom glemsel og erindring i presentasjonene er ambivalent og tvetydig, og at det er nødvendig å artikulere en historie som er truet av repressiv glemsel fra en ny politisk tid. I forbindelse med selvbiografien har jeg lagt vekt på de Mans forståelse av det selvbiografiske som et retorisk grep i teksten, Kristevas forståelse av selvskrivning som en mulighet til å finne et hjem i eksil og Starobinskis forståelse av nostalgien som en lengsel mot en tapt tid. Når jeg går over til familiealbumet er det Adornos syn på montasjen som formprinsipp og Walter Benjamins syn på erindringen som bilde, som er mitt hovedanliggende. Til sist når det er snakk om museet er det Ugresics refleksjoner rundt kollektiv amnesi, samt Walter Benjamins forestilling om historien som en erindringsprosess i montasjeform som er et viktig teoretisk utgangspunkt for diskusjonen

Differential Expression and Function of Stamp Family Proteins in Adipocyte Differentiation

Six transmembrane protein of prostate (Stamp) proteins play an important role in prostate cancer cell growth. Recently, we found that Stamp2 has a critical role in the integration of inflammatory and metabolic signals in adipose tissue where it is highly expressed and regulated by nutritional and metabolic cues. In this study, we show that all Stamp family members are differentially regulated during adipogenesis: whereas Stamp1 expression is significantly decreased upon differentiation, Stamp2 expression is increased. In contrast, Stamp3 expression is modestly changed in adipocytes compared to preadipocytes, and has a biphasic expression pattern during the course of differentiation. Suppression of Stamp1 or Stamp2 expression both led to inhibition of 3T3-L1 differentiation in concert with diminished expression of the key regulators of adipogenesis - CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (C/ebpa) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Ppar?). Upon Stamp1 knockdown, mitotic clonal expansion was also inhibited. In contrast, Stamp2 knockdown did not affect mitotic clonal expansion, but resulted in a marked decrease in superoxide production that is known to affect adipogenesis. These results suggest that Stamp1 and Stamp2 play critical roles in adipogenesis, but through different mechanisms. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License