Internalizing Outsider Trading

Investing in the United States has become a hobby for many. Individual ownership of equity, moreover, has increased over the past decade due in part to the introduction of internet-based trading. While providing the possibility for greater returns compared with bank savings accounts, among other investment alternatives, the public capital markets also pose greater risks for investors. Many individual investors lack both the resources and the incentive to analyze the value of any particular security in the market. Such investors thus trade at a systematic disadvantage relative to more informed parties. In response, regulators have asserted that certain informational disparities cause uninformed investors to lose confidence in the market, thereby justifying stringent regulation. This Article analyzes the impact of information advantages in the market and proposes a unified approach to regulating such advantages. Informational disparities in the market arise from a number of different sources. An individual investor may contemplate a trade in a particular publicly traded company. Call the company whose securities are being traded the traded firm . In a world without regulatory prohibitions, individual investors first face the possibility that the traded firm itself will provide nonpublic material information to only a subset of investors in the market. Insiders at the traded firm, for example, may enjoy preferential access to confidential information about the company\u27s business prospects and expansion plans, among other things. Insiders may then exploit this information to profit from trades in the market at the expense of outside investors. The traded firm may also provide internal information to outside investors selectively; for example, giving nonpublic material information solely to a group of analysts that regularly follow the firm

Surface Inclination Influences Fall Risk and Lower Extremity Joint Moments During Walking

Falls present a large danger to the geriatric population, with one in three individuals over the age of 65 experiencing at least one fall annually. With most falls occurring while walking, the relationship between inclined walking and fall risk has not been fully explored. In this study, 16 healthy young participants (age: 26.8 ±5.4 years, height: 175.0±11.0 cm, weight: 68.2 ±19.9 kg) walked on a treadmill with level surface and 10 degrees incline/decline in a virtual environment laboratory. We found that gait parameters and lower extremity joint moments were affected by surface inclination. These observed changes in joint moments and gait parameters may present challenges to the older population especially with musculoskeletal disorders and thereby increase the risk of falls. This study offers new information on the effects of incline and decline surface walking compared to normal flat ground surface walking

Airborne Endotoxin Concentrations in Homes Burning Biomass Fuel

BACKGROUND: About half of the world's population is exposed to smoke from burning biomass fuels at home. The high airborne particulate levels in these homes and the health burden of exposure to this smoke are well described. Burning unprocessed biological material such as wood and dried animal dung may also produce high indoor endotoxin concentrations.OBJECTIVE: In this study we measured airborne endotoxin levels in homes burning different biomass fuels. Methods: Air sampling was carried out in homes burning wood or dried animal dung in Nepal (n = 31) and wood, charcoal, or crop residues in Malawi (n = 38). Filters were analyzed for endotoxin content expressed as airborne endotoxin concentration and endotoxin per mass of airborne particulate.RESULTS: Airborne endotoxin concentrations were high. Averaged over 24 hr in Malawian homes, median concentrations of total inhalable endotoxin were 24 endotoxin units (EU)/m(3) in charcoal-burning homes and 40 EU/m(3) in wood-burning homes. Short cooking-time samples collected in Nepal produced median values of 43 EU/m(3) in wood-burning homes and 365 EU/m(3) in dung-burning homes, suggesting increasing endotoxin levels with decreasing energy levels in unprocessed solid fuels.CONCLUSIONS: Airborne endotoxin concentrations in homes burning biomass fuels are orders of magnitude higher than those found in homes in developed countries where endotoxin exposure has been linked to respiratory illness in children. There is a need for work to identify the determinants of these high concentrations, interventions to reduce exposure, and health studies to examine the effects of these sustained, near-occupational levels of exposure experienced from early life

Insecticide resistance in Aedes aegypti populations from Ceará, Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Organophosphates and pyrethroids are used widely in Brazil to control <it>Aedes aegypti</it>, the main vector of dengue viruses, under the auspices of the National Programme for Dengue Control. Resistance to these insecticides is widespread throughout Brazil. In Ceará the vector is present in 98% of districts and resistance to temephos has been reported previously. Here we measure resistance to temephos and the pyrethroid cypermethrin in three populations from Ceará and use biochemical and molecular assays to characterise resistance mechanisms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Resistance to temephos varied widely across the three studied populations, with resistance ratios (RR₉₅) of 7.2, 30 and 192.7 in Juazeiro do Norte, Barbalha and Crato respectively. The high levels of resistance detected in Barbalha and Crato (RR₉₅≥ 30) imply a reduction of temephos efficacy, and indeed in simulated field tests reduced effectiveness was observed for the Barbalha population. Two populations (Crato and Barbalha) were also resistant to cypermethrin, whilst Juazeiro do Norte showed only an altered susceptibility. The <it>Ile1011Met kdr </it>mutation was detected in all three populations and <it>Val1016Ile </it>in Crato and Juazeiro do Norte. <it>1011Met </it>was significantly associated with resistance to cypermethrin in the Crato population. Biochemical tests showed that only the activity of esterases and GSTs, among the tested detoxification enzymes, was altered in these populations when compared with the Rockefeller strain.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results demonstrate that two <it>A. aegypti </it>populations from Ceará are under strong selection pressure by temephos, compromising the field effectiveness of this organophosphate. Our results also provide evidence that the process of reducing resistance to this larvicide in the field is difficult and slow and may require more than seven years for reversal. In addition, we show resistance to cypermethrin in two of the three populations studied, and for the first time the presence of the allele <it>1016Ile </it>in mosquito populations from northeastern Brazil. A significant association between <it>1011M</it>et and resistance was observed in one of the populations. Target-site mechanisms seem not to be implicated in temephos resistance, reinforcing the idea that for the studied populations, detoxification enzymes most likely play a major role in the resistance to this insecticide.</p

Simplified Models for LHC New Physics Searches

This document proposes a collection of simplified models relevant to the design of new-physics searches at the LHC and the characterization of their results. Both ATLAS and CMS have already presented some results in terms of simplified models, and we encourage them to continue and expand this effort, which supplements both signature-based results and benchmark model interpretations. A simplified model is defined by an effective Lagrangian describing the interactions of a small number of new particles. Simplified models can equally well be described by a small number of masses and cross-sections. These parameters are directly related to collider physics observables, making simplified models a particularly effective framework for evaluating searches and a useful starting point for characterizing positive signals of new physics. This document serves as an official summary of the results from the "Topologies for Early LHC Searches" workshop, held at SLAC in September of 2010, the purpose of which was to develop a set of representative models that can be used to cover all relevant phase space in experimental searches. Particular emphasis is placed on searches relevant for the first ~50-500 pb-1 of data and those motivated by supersymmetric models. This note largely summarizes material posted at http://lhcnewphysics.org/, which includes simplified model definitions, Monte Carlo material, and supporting contacts within the theory community. We also comment on future developments that may be useful as more data is gathered and analyzed by the experiments.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures. This document is the official summary of results from "Topologies for Early LHC Searches" workshop (SLAC, September 2010). Supplementary material can be found at http://lhcnewphysics.or