The Overpricing Problem: Moral Hazard and Franchises

We hypothesize that moral hazard is an important factor in explaining the under performance of firms, identified by Ritter (1991), following initial public offerings (IPOs). We test this hypothesis by comparing post-IPO returns of franchised and non-franchised firms. Franchised IPOs, whose franchise agreements mitigate the moral hazard problems that arise from the dilution of ownership following an IPO, outperform their non-franchised, matched counterpart IPOs over five years in the aftermarket.IPO; moral hazard; overpricing; franchises

VISION 2020: The Right to Sight in 7 Years?

Editorial/No abstrac

Polymeric Frameworks as Organic Semiconductors with Controlled Electronic Properties

The rational assembly of monomers, in principle, enables the design of a specific periodicity of polymeric frameworks, leading to a tailored set of electronic structure properties in these solid-state materials. The further development of these emerging systems requires a combination of both experimental and theoretical studies. Here, we investigated the electronic structures of two-dimensional polymeric frameworks based on triazine and benzene rings, by means of electrochemical techniques. The experimental density of states was obtained from quasi-open-circuit voltage measurements through galvanostatic intermittent titration technique, which we show to be in excellent agreement with first principles calculations performed for two and three-dimensional structures of these polymeric frameworks. These findings suggest that the electronic properties do not only depend on the number of stacked layers but also on the ratio of the different aromatic rings

XMM-Newton observations of the merging galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301

We studied the intracluster medium of the galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301 using deep XMM-Newton observations. The cluster hosts a remarkable 2-Mpc long, ~50-kpc wide radio relic that has been nicknamed the "Sausage". A smaller, more irregular counter-relic is also present, along with a faint giant radio halo. We analysed the distribution of the ICM physical properties, and searched for shocks by trying to identify density and temperature discontinuities. East of the southern relic, we find evidence of shock compression corresponding to a Mach number of 1.3, and speculate that the shock extends beyond the length of the radio structure. The ICM temperature increases at the northern relic. More puzzling, we find a "wall" of hot gas east of the cluster centre. A partial elliptical ring of hot plasma appears to be present around the merger. While radio observations and numerical simulations predict a simple merger geometry, the X-ray results point towards a more complex merger scenario.Comment: Extensively revised and expanded, with 18 pages and 17 figure

A discursive approach to the analysis of politeness data

This paper aims to provide an exemplification of the way that the discursive approach can work in relation to the analysis of data. As such, it argues for the validity of the discursive approach to politeness. Because the discursive approach has been seen as difficult to employ in the analysis of data, in recent years, there has been a proliferation of research returning to Brown and Levinson’s approach. Although discursive approaches to politeness have functioned successfully as a critique of Brown and Levinson’s work, they are not seen as a means of analyzing politeness and impoliteness in their own right. By tracing the development of the discursive approach to politeness, and by addressing the critiques that there have been, we argue that although the critical role of the discursive approach is paramount to the development of the field, discursive approaches are more than just a critique, and should be seen as constituting an approach to the analysis of politeness as well. As a case in point, we illustrate what a discursive approach consists of through analysing an intercultural interaction between a group of close friends of Dutch and Italian origin

Genome-wide saturation mutagenesis of Burkholderia pseudomallei K96243 predicts essential genes and novel targets for antimicrobial development.

UNLABELLED: Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis, an often fatal infectious disease for which there is no vaccine. B. pseudomallei is listed as a tier 1 select agent, and as current therapeutic options are limited due to its natural resistance to most antibiotics, the development of new antimicrobial therapies is imperative. To identify drug targets and better understand the complex B. pseudomallei genome, we sought a genome-wide approach to identify lethal gene targets. As B. pseudomallei has an unusually large genome spread over two chromosomes, an extensive screen was required to achieve a comprehensive analysis. Here we describe transposon-directed insertion site sequencing (TraDIS) of a library of over 10(6) transposon insertion mutants, which provides the level of genome saturation required to identify essential genes. Using this technique, we have identified a set of 505 genes that are predicted to be essential in B. pseudomallei K96243. To validate our screen, three genes predicted to be essential, pyrH, accA, and sodB, and a gene predicted to be nonessential, bpss0370, were independently investigated through the generation of conditional mutants. The conditional mutants confirmed the TraDIS predictions, showing that we have generated a list of genes predicted to be essential and demonstrating that this technique can be used to analyze complex genomes and thus be more widely applied. IMPORTANCE: Burkholderia pseudomallei is a lethal human pathogen that is considered a potential bioterrorism threat and has limited treatment options due to an unusually high natural resistance to most antibiotics. We have identified a set of genes that are required for bacterial growth and thus are excellent candidates against which to develop potential novel antibiotics. To validate our approach, we constructed four mutants in which gene expression can be turned on and off conditionally to confirm that these genes are required for the bacteria to survive

Nonthermal emission from the radio relic of the galaxy cluster A2256

We aim to obtain a consistent description of non-thermal emissions from Abell 2256 and to give a prediction for a gamma-ray emission from this galaxy cluster. Assuming that a radio relic illuminates a localization of an ongoing merger, and that both radio and non-thermal part of hard X-ray emission are due to electron component of cosmic rays filling the relic, we derived from radio and hard X-ray properties of the relic in A2256 the magnetic field strength and number densities for relativistic electrons and protons. Due to the interpretation of the radio relic as a structure formed just where a shock front is, we discuss a gamma-ray emission at the cluster periphery. The estimated strength of the magnetic field in the relic is equal to 0.05 \muG, while the amplitude of the electron number density varies from 3 x 10^{-4} to 3 x 10^{-5} cm^{-3} (respectively for the relic thickness of 50 to 500 kpc). We got a substantial degree of non-equipartition between cosmic rays and magnetic field in the relic region, where the CR pressure is approaching that of thermal gas. Our prediction for LOFAR is a synchrotron flux from the relic region of the order of \sim 6 Jy at 60MHz and \sim 10 Jy at 30MHz. The lower limit of the gamma-ray flux from the relic region calculated for a hadronic channel is of the order of 10^{-12} erg cm^{-2}.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in A