The Information Content of Directors’ Trades: Empirical Analysis of the Australian Market

We examine the trading activities of directors in shares of their own companies on the Australian Stock Exchange during the July-December 2005 period. We find that directors of small companies in particular earn abnormal return after both their ‘Purchase’ and as well as their ‘Sale’ trade. Directors of these companies have an uncanny ability to time the market by trading when mispricing is greatest, and are able to predict the future performance of their firms in short run. For directors of medium and large companies, we find evidence that ‘Sale’ trades are the ones which work as loss avoiders. Outsiders recognise to some extent that directors’ trades are informative, however they are slow to incorporate the new information into prices, refuting much of the market efficiency literature.

#MeToo as Catalyst: A Glimpse into 21st Century Activism

The Twitter hashtag #MeToo has provided an accessible medium for users to share their personal experiences and make public the prevalence of sexual harassment, assault, and violence against women. This online phenomenon, which has largely involved posting on Twitter and “retweeting” to share other’s posts has revealed crucial information about the scope and nature of sexual harassment and misconduct. More specifically, social media has served as a central forum for this unprecedented global conversation, where previously silenced voices have been amplified, supporters around the world have been united, and resistance has gained steam. This Essay discusses the #MeToo movement within the broader context of social media activism, explaining how this unique form of collective action is rapidly evolving. We offer empirical insights into the types of conversations taking place under the hashtag and the extent to which the movement is leading to broader social change. While it is unclear which changes are sustainable over time, it is clear that the hashtag #MeToo has converted an online phenomenon into tangible change, sparking legal, political, and social changes in the short run. This Essay provides data to illustrate some of these changes, which demonstrate how posting online can serve as an impetus, momentum, and legitimacy for broader movement activity and changes offline more characteristic of traditional movement strategies

Defining participatory video from practice

In this chapter we explore the common threads within different strands of participatory video by considering some examples of practice. Taken together these reveal a rich diversity of purpose and application. Participatory video has been used as a term to describe some quite distinct practices, and conversely, there are instances of the use of video in social settings that seem to be closely related to participatory video without being described as such. This makes it difficult to immediately pin down what the term means, and indeed it is said that there is no common understanding of participatory video. To scholars the diversity of participatory video practice presents two separate issues. The first is that it is necessary to bear in mind that participatory video has been applied in many more ways outside of academic research and education than inside. Even if one is only interested in participatory video solely as a component of research, an understanding of non-academic practice is likely to enrich and enhance methodological choices. The second is that participatory video is a rich site for a pragmatic and phronetic scholarship that questions social experiences to explore what works and to what end. The question here is what lessons can be learned from diverse practices, and how to apply this learning elsewhere. Thus with participatory video, as with any practice, scholarship has a role to play in terms of providing a platform for considered and critical reflection, a space to consider the significance of what is and of what could be. Effective reflection rests on some basic taxonomic work in order to gain an overview of the field. We therefore have selected three vignettes to show some key features of participatory video in practice, with an eye to establishing a broad baseline. These examples are drawn from our personal research in two cases and some background research in the third. For the purpose of this chapter, breadth is more appropriate if we are interested in to explore the range of extant practice, and the vignettes are simple outlines to provide illustration for an exploratory discussion rather than fully developed case studies with all of the detailed evidence presented

Total syntheses of conformationally-locked difluorinated pentopyranose analogues and a pentopyranosyl phosphate mimetic

Trifluoroethanol has been elaborated, via a telescoped sequence involving a metalated difluoroenol, a difluoroallylic alcohol, [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement, and ultimately an RCM reaction and requiring minimal intermediate purification, to a number of cyclooctenone intermediates. Epoxidation of these intermediates followed by transannular ring opening or dihydroxylation, then transannular hemiacetalization delivers novel bicyclic analogues of pentopyranoses, which were elaborated (in one case) to an analogue of a glycosyl phosphate

#BlackLivesMatter: From Protest to Policy

We find that the protests of 2020 did indeed begin a paradigm shift in the social awareness of racialized police violence, and this important and significant social change has in turn already inspired political change and some degree of legal and policy change. However, the movement remains in a precarious position and it is uncertain how enduring these changes will be. While many state legislators and local officials have responded to the protests with policy reforms, policy action at the federal level is mostly stalled. In addition, it is unclear whether the state and local policy changes will lead to the deeper and lasting structural changes sought by the movement. We are also observing substantial backlash policy that threatens to not only derail current racial justice efforts, but also exacerbate the underlying inequalities that the movement opposes

A revised chronostratigraphic framework for International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 355 sites in Laxmi Basin, eastern Arabian Sea

AbstractInternational Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 355 drilled Sites U1456 and U1457 in Laxmi Basin (eastern Arabian Sea) to document the impact of the South Asian monsoon on weathering and erosion of the Himalaya. We revised the chronostratigraphic framework for these sites using a combination of biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy and strontium isotope stratigraphy. The sedimentary section at the two sites is similar and we divided it into six units bounded by unconformities or emplaced as a mass-transport deposit (MTD). Unit 1 underlies the MTD, and is of early–middle Miocene age at Site U1456 and early Paleocene age at Site U1457. An unconformity (U1) created by emplacement of the MTD (unit 2) during the late Miocene Epoch (at c. 9.83–9.69 Ma) separates units 1 and 2 and is identified by a marked change in lithology. Unit 3 consists of hemipelagic sediment with thin interbeds of graded sandstone of late Miocene age, separated from unit 4 by a second unconformity (U2) of 0.5–0.9 Myr duration. Unit 4 consists of upper Miocene interbedded mudstone and sandstone and hemipelagic chalk deposited between c. 8 and 6 Ma. A c. 1.4–1.6 Myr hiatus (U3) encompasses the Miocene–Pliocene boundary and separates unit 4 from unit 5. Unit 5 includes upper Pliocene – lower Pleistocene siliciclastic sediment that is separated from unit 6 by a c. 0.45 Myr hiatus (U4) in the lower Pleistocene sediments. Unit 6 includes a thick package of rapidly deposited Pleistocene sand and mud overlain by predominantly hemipelagic sediment deposited since c. 1.2 Ma