Investor Protection and Interest Group Politics

We model how lobbying by interest groups affects the level of investor protection. In our model, insiders in existing public companies, institutional investors (financial intermediaries), and entrepreneurs who plan to take companies public in the future, compete for influence over the politicians setting the level of investor protection. We identify conditions under which this lobbying game has an inefficiently low equilibrium level of investor protection. Factors that operate to reduce investor protection below its efficient level include the ability of corporate insiders to use the corporate assets they control to influence politicians, as well as the inability of institutional investors to capture the full value that efficient investor protection would produce for outside investors. The interest that entrepreneurs (and existing public firms) have in raising equity capital in the future reduces but does not eliminate the distortions arising from insiders' interest in extracting rents from the capital public firms already have. Our analysis generates testable predictions, and can explain existing empirical evidence, regarding the way in which investor protection varies over time and around the world.

Generalised Moore spectra in a triangulated category

In this paper we consider a construction in an arbitrary triangulated category T which resembles the notion of a Moore spectrum in algebraic topology. Namely, given a compact object C of T satisfying some finite tilting assumptions, we obtain a functor which "approximates" objects of the module category of the endomorphism algebra of C in T. This generalises and extends a construction of Jorgensen in connection with lifts of certain homological functors of derived categories. We show that this new functor is well-behaved with respect to short exact sequences and distinguished triangles, and as a consequence we obtain a new way of embedding the module category in a triangulated category. As an example of the theory, we recover Keller's canonical embedding of the module category of a path algebra of a quiver with no oriented cycles into its u-cluster category for u>1.Comment: 26 pages, improvement to exposition of the proof of Theorem 3.

Matrix factorizations for nonaffine LG-models

We propose a natural definition of a category of matrix factorizations for nonaffine Landau-Ginzburg models. For any LG-model we construct a fully faithful functor from the category of matrix factorizations defined in this way to the triangulated category of singularities of the corresponding fiber. We also show that this functor is an equivalence if the total space of the LG-model is smooth.Comment: 12 pages, minor corrections of TEX fil

Bounded derived categories of very simple manifolds

An unrepresentable cohomological functor of finite type of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves of a compact complex manifold of dimension greater than one with no proper closed subvariety is given explicitly in categorical terms. This is a partial generalization of an impressive result due to Bondal and Van den Bergh.Comment: 11 pages one important references is added, proof of lemma 2.1 (2) and many typos are correcte

Derived categories of cubic fourfolds

We discuss the structure of the derived category of coherent sheaves on cubic fourfolds of three types: Pfaffian cubics, cubics containing a plane and singular cubics, and discuss its relation to the rationality of these cubics.Comment: 18 page

Outcomes of haematology/oncology patients admitted to intensive care unit at The Canberra Hospital

BACKGROUND: Outcomes for haematology/oncology patients have improved; however, determining their suitability for intensive care unit (ICU) admission remains challenging and controversial. AIM: Examine outcomes of patients admitted to an Australian tertiary hospital ICU and explore potential prognostic factors. METHODS: A retrospective review of patients with haematological and solid tumour malignancies non-electively admitted to The Canberra Hospital (TCH) ICU, between January 2008 and December 2012. Patient demographics, cancer details, reasons for ICU admission and Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores were collected, and survival rates calculated and correlated with potential prognostic factors. RESULTS Of 205 patients, 113 (55%) had haematological malignancies, and 92 (45%) had solid tumours: 58% male and mean age 60.3 years (standard deviation (SD) 13.4). Eighty-two per cent of solid tumour patients had metastatic disease and 55% received palliative chemotherapy. Primary reasons for ICU admission included sepsis (59%), respiratory distress (37%) and hypotension/shock (18%). Mean APACHE II score was 20.1(SD 0.55); mean length of stay in ICU, 4 days (SD 5.2); ICU survival was 76% with 62% and 41% alive at 30 days and 6 months respectively. Overall 1-year survival was 36%. High APACHE II scores and ≥2 organs failing were significant risk factors for 30-day mortality. CONCLUSION: Short-term outcomes were similar to contemporary studies from a general tertiary hospital setting and better than historical data. Sixty-two per cent of patients were alive 30 days post-ICU admission, with a significant minority alive at 12 months, confirming some patients achieved worthwhile outcomes. Further research is needed to ensure appropriate patient selection and to explore quality of life post ICU

Worldline Superfield Actions for N=2 Superparticles

We propose doubly supersymmetric actions in terms of n=2(D-2) worldline superfields for N=2 superparticles in D=3,4 and Type IIA D=6 superspaces. These actions are obtained by dimensional reduction of superfield actions for N=1 superparticles in D=4,6 and 10, respectively. We show that in all these models geometrodynamical constraints on target superspace coordinates do not put the theory on the mass shell, so the actions constructed consistently describe the dynamics of the corresponding N=2 superparticles. We also find that in contrast to the IIA D=6 superparticle a chiral IIB D=6 superparticle, which is not obtainable by dimensional reduction from N=1, D=10, is described by superfield constraints which produce dynamical equations. This implies that for the IIB D=6 superparticle the doubly supersymmetric action does not exist in the conventional form.Comment: Latex, 20 pp. Minor corrections, acknowledgements adde

Gorenstein homological algebra and universal coefficient theorems

We study criteria for a ring—or more generally, for a small category—to be Gorenstein and for a module over it to be of finite projective dimension. The goal is to unify the universal coefficient theorems found in the literature and to develop machinery for proving new ones. Among the universal coefficient theorems covered by our methods we find, besides all the classic examples, several exotic examples arising from the KK-theory of C*-algebras and also Neeman’s Brown–Adams representability theorem for compactly generated categories

Cohomological descent theory for a morphism of stacks and for equivariant derived categories

In the paper we answer the following question: for a morphism of varieties (or, more generally, stacks), when the derived category of the base can be recovered from the derived category of the covering variety by means of descent theory? As a corollary, we show that for an action of a reductive group on a scheme, the derived category of equivariant sheaves is equivalent to the category of objects, equipped with an action of the group, in the ordinary derived category.Comment: 28 page

The use of dried blood spot sampling for the measurement of HbA1c: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The use of dried blood spot (DBS) sampling is an alternative to traditional venous blood collection, and particularly useful for people living in rural and remote areas, and for those who are infirm, house-bound or time-poor. The objective of this study was to assess whether the measurement of glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in DBS samples provided comparative and acceptably precise results. METHODS: Venous and capillary blood samples were collected from 115 adult participants. After proper instruction, each participant punctured his/her own finger and collected capillary blood samples on pieces of a proprietary cellulose filter paper. Each filter paper was subsequently placed inside a breathable envelope, stored at room temperature, and processed on the same day (D0), four (D4), seven (D7) and fourteen (D14) days after collection. HbA1c was measured in duplicates/triplicates in whole venous blood (WB), capillary blood (capDBS) and venous blood placed on the matrix paper (venDBS), by turbidimetric inhibition immunoassay. Intra-assay coefficients of variation (CV) were calculated. DBS values were compared to WB results using linear regression, Bland-Altman plots and cross-validation models. RESULTS: Eleven and 56 patients had type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, respectively. Mean HbA1c levels were 6.22 ± 1.11 % for WB samples (n = 115). The median intra-assay CV was lower than 3 % for WB and capDBS on all days. Results from capDBS and venDBS showed high correlation and agreement to WB results, with narrow 95 % limits of agreement (except for results from D14 samples), as observed in Bland-Altman plots. When capDBS values were applied to equations derived from regression analyses, results approached those of WB values. A cross-validation model showed that capDBS results on D0, D4 and D7 were close to the WB results, with prediction intervals that were narrow enough to be clinically acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: The measurement of HbA1c from DBS samples provided results that were comparable to results from WB samples, if measured up to seven days after collection. Intra-assay coefficients of variation were low, results were in agreement with the gold-standard, and prediction intervals were clinically acceptable. The measurement of HbA1c through DBS sampling may be considered in situations where traditional venipuncture is not available.This study was funded by MyHealthTest Pty, including the article-processing charge