Investment and financing constraints around the Korean financial crisis

This paper examines investment behavior and the effects of financing constraints among Korean manufacturing companies before and after the 1997 financial crisis using a firm-level panel data. I estimate the Q and sales accelerator models considering the possibility of cash constraint of investment by categorizing firms based on their age, size and affiliations to the Korean industrial conglomerates (i.e., chaebols). The results indicate that Q becomes a key determinant of investment decision while the sales variable becomes less important after the crisis began. Q remains to be important for bigger and more mature firms even after the 1997 crisis and becomes significant to smaller and relatively younger ones. It suggests that there could have been a shift from the quantity (sales) to the quality (Q) as the key component of firm’s investment. The effect of cash balance becomes statistically and economically significant in the post-crisis period reflecting increase in financial stress among corporations. Moreover, firms ’ financing constraints, as measured by their cash balances, turn out to be more binding among financially “weaker ” groups such as younger or smaller firms. While these results are consistent with the predictions of the “pecking order ” theory of corporate financing, I also find, somewhat surprisingly, that the effects of cash on investment demand are stronger for chaebol-affiliated firms than for non-affiliates. This suggests that government regulation of chaebol companies may need to be reconsidered because they also face binding finance constraints and no longer have a large advantage in financing their business projects

Genome-wide analysis to predict protein sequence variations that change phosphorylation sites or their corresponding kinases

We define phosphovariants as genetic variations that change phosphorylation sites or their interacting kinases. Considering the essential role of phosphorylation in protein functions, it is highly likely that phosphovariants change protein functions and may constitute a proportion of the mechanisms by which genetic variations cause individual differences or diseases. We categorized phosphovariants into three subtypes and developed a system that predicts them. Our method can be used to screen important polymorphisms and help to identify the mechanisms of genetic diseases

Method of Extracting Is-A and Part-Of Relations Using Pattern Pairs in Mass Corpus

PACLIC 23 / City University of Hong Kong / 3-5 December 200

Multimodality cardiovascular imaging in pulmonary embolism

Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity andmortality. To select appropriate therapeutic strategy and/or to minimize the mortality and morbidity,rapid and correct identification of life-threatening APE is very important. Also, right ventricular (RV)failure usually precedes acute hemodynamic compromise or death, and thus the identification of RVfailure is another important step in risk stratification or treatment of APE. With advances in diagnosisand treatment, the prognosis of APE has been dramatically improving in most cases, but inadequatetherapy or recurrent episodes of pulmonary embolism (PE) may result in negative outcomes or, so called,chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). CTEPH is a condition characterized byremaining chronic thromboembolic material in the pulmonary vasculature and subsequent chronicpulmonary hypertension.Various imaging modalities include chest computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA),echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and nuclear imaging and each are used for the assessmentof varying status of PE. Assessment of thromboembolic burden by chest CTPA is the first step inthe diagnosis of PE. Hemodynamic assessment can be achieved by echocardiography and also by chestCTPA. Nuclear imaging is useful in discriminating CTEPH from APE.Better perspectives on diagnosis, risk stratification and decision making in PE can be provided bycombining multimodality CV imaging. Here, the advantages or pitfalls of each imaging modality indiagnosis, risk stratification, or management of PE will be discussed

Semi-automatic Filtering of Translation Errors in Triangle Corpus

The meaning that Justice has after a conflict in a society might vary regarding the political development and cultural and shared values of a certain society. Rawls, in his Theory of Justice gives his idea of what justice is and presents two principles of justice that he argues are required to live in a good society: a first principle that secures equal rights and liberties for all individuals and a second egalitarian principle that restrains the consequences of economic inequalities within societies. He also introduces the concept of “overlapping consensus” which I will use regarding the idea of Reconciliation, at the end of this paper. In the cases presented in this paper (i.e. Argentina and South Africa), essential human rights were violated, therefore wrongdoers made the society unjust. The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the conditions that are necessary to re-establish justice when a society goes through a conflict. I will introduce some ideas concerning that issue: ideas of retribution, reparation and reconciliation. These are seen as different paths for several countries when trying to tackle to the matter of achieving justice. In my view, this question can be answered appealing first to an intuitive conception of moral justice that may exist at an individual and collective level, as well. The ethical dilemmas both levels have are in relation to the harm done, punishments and how to balance them, limiting, for instance, the punishment in order to accomplish a just and a better society. I will also present how shared values can result from a process of reconciliation, which is considered as the ideal alternative to achieve justice. However, when the equilibrium between members of a community is broken, some people claim that punishment can restore that lost equilibrium that existed before in the community. Nevertheless, peace, reconciliation and justice cannot be constructed under the basis of silence. One way to keep memory alive is to let survivors, for instance, narrate what they have lived through; telling stories also creates a new space to share with others their experiences, revealing their fears and emotions. Regarding this theme, I will present the NUNCA MAS (Never Again) report, which is fundamental as it gives some testimonies, facts and proposals that will help to reach a consensus and therefore, future reconciliations. Why is important to achieve justice? Because then members of a certain community will be able to interact in the present with common shared values and thus, deal with the past. Not to consider reconciliation as one important step to achieve justice, and only think in terms of punishment, instead of giving way to peace and justice, could perhaps promote the possibility of further conflicts. To consider both punishment and reconciliation might just be one possible blueprint in the long and difficult way of searching for a just society