Venture Capital and Corporate Governance

We consider data from 16 Asian countries, 16 European countries and the US to investigate the relationship between venture capital and corporate governance. There are five main findings. First, the variable measuring law and order is negatively related to the importance of venture capital finance. Second, the allocation of investment across different stages and different industries depends more on macroeconomic factors than on corporate governance variables. Third, in Low-GDP countries the allocation of venture capital is greater for low technology industries than for high technology industries. Fourth, venture capital boomed and became significant in many countries during the stock market boom or "bubble" of the late 1990's. Finally, a comparison of Asian and European venture capital shows that in Asia there was more investment in early stage projects while in Europe there was more investment in late stage projects. Also, in Europe there was more investment in medical and biotechnology industries.

Beauty Contests, Bubbles and Iterated Expectations in Asset Markets

In a financial market where traders are risk averse and short lived, and prices are noisy, asset prices today depend on the average expectation today of tomorrow's price. Thus (iterating this relationship) the date 1 price equals the date 1 average expectation of the date 2 average expectation of the date 3 price. This will not in general equal the date 1 average expectation of the date 3 price. We show how this failure of the law of iterated expectations for average belief can help understand the role of higher order beliefs in a fully rational asset pricing model and explain over-reaction to (noisy) public information.Beauty Contests, Bubbles and iterated expectations in Asset Markets

Dynamics in a supercooled liquid of symmetric dumbbells: Reorientational hopping for small molecular elongations

We present extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a liquid of symmetric dumbbells, for constant packing fraction, as a function of temperature and molecular elongation. For large elongations, translational and rotational degrees of freedom freeze at the same temperature. For small elongations only the even rotational degrees of freedom remain coupled to translational motions and arrest at a finite common temperature. The odd rotational degrees of freedom remain ergodic at all investigated temperature and the temperature dependence of the corresponding characteristic time is well described by an Arrhenius law. Finally, we discuss the evidence in favor of the presence of a type-A transition temperature for the odd rotational degrees of freedom, distinct from the type-B transition associated with the arrest of the translational and even rotational ones, as predicted by the mode-coupling theory for the glass transition.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Quantum state transfer through a spin chain in a multi-excitation subspace

We investigate the quality of quantum state transfer through a uniformly coupled antiferromagnetic spin chain in a multi-excitation subspace. The fidelity of state transfer using multi-excitation channels is found to compare well with communication protocols based on the ground state of a spin chain with ferromagnetic interactions. Our numerical results support the conjecture that the fidelity of state transfer through a multi-excitation subspace only depends on the number of initial excitations present in the chain and is independent of the excitation ordering. Based on these results, we describe a communication scheme which requires little effort for preparation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Differentiating Sensitivity of Post-Stimulus Undershoot under Diffusion Weighting: Implication of Vascular and Neuronal Hierarchy

The widely used blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal during brain activation, as measured in typical fMRI methods, is composed of several distinct phases, the last of which, and perhaps the least understood, is the post-stimulus undershoot. Although this undershoot has been consistently observed, its hemodynamic and metabolic sources are still under debate, as evidences for sustained blood volume increases and metabolic activities have been presented. In order to help differentiate the origins of the undershoot from vascular and neuronal perspectives, we applied progressing diffusion weighting gradients to investigate the BOLD signals during visual stimulation. Three distinct regions were established and found to have fundamentally different properties in post-stimulus signal undershoot. The first region, with a small but focal spatial extent, shows a clear undershoot with decreasing magnitude under increasing diffusion weighting, which is inferred to represent intravascular signal from larger vessels with large apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC), or high mobility. The second region, with a large continuous spatial extent in which some surrounds the first region while some spreads beyond, also shows a clear undershoot but no change in undershoot amplitude with progressing diffusion weighting. This would indicate a source based on extravascular and small vessel signal with smaller ADC, or lower mobility. The third region shows no significant undershoot, and is largely confined to higher order visual areas. Given their intermediate ADC, it would likely include both large and small vessels. Thus the consistent observation of this third region would argue against a vascular origin but support a metabolic basis for the post-stimulus undershoot, and would appear to indicate a lack of sustained metabolic rate likely due to a lower oxygen metabolism in these higher visual areas. Our results are the first, to our knowledge, to suggest that the post-stimulus undershoots have a spatial dependence on the vascular and neuronal hierarchy, and that progressing flow-sensitized diffusion weighting can help delineate these dependences

(E)-N-[4-(Methyl­sulfon­yl)benzyl­idene]aniline

The mol­ecule of the title compound, C14H13NO2S, displays a trans configuration with respect to the C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the two aromatic ring planes is 62.07 (18)°

Ethyl 2-benzyl­sulfanyl-7-(2-chloro­phen­yl)-5-methyl-4,7-dihydro-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-6-carboxyl­ate

In the title compound, C22H21ClN4O2S, the bicyclic triazolopyrimidine ring system is nearly planar, and oriented at dihedral angles of 89.45 (3)° with respect to the chlorobenzene ring and 87.03 (3)° with respect to the terminal phenyl ring. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are linked by π–π stacking inter­actions between the triazolopyrimidine rings [centroid–centroid distances of 3.88 (1) and 3.63 (1) Å]

1-(3,4-Dihydroxy­phen­yl)-2-(4-fluoro­phen­yl)ethanone

In the title compound, C14H11FO3, the dihedral angle between the aromatic rings is 69.11 (8)°. An intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond is present. Inter­molecular O—H⋯O inter­actions help to establish the packing