Institutional investors and corporate governance

The growing dominance of equity holdings by institutional investors, both domestic and international, is casting a sharp focus on their activities and owners and monitors of firms. It is suggested that whereas some general considerations arise in all cases, it is useful to separate discussion of the developments in the Anglo Saxon countries and continental Europe/Japan. The former is showing an increase in direct influence of institutions in place of the previous reliance on the takeover mechanism to discipline managers. This has arguably led to improved corporate performance. The latter remain more firmly in the bank-relationship based governance paradigm. On the other hand, such differences should not be exaggerated, and some convergence is discernible on a modified form of the Anglo Saxon paradigm where institutions are the primary actors in corporate governance generally. In Europe, EMU will provide a major spur to such convergence

Revisiting the Afterlife: The Inadequacies of Heaven and Hell

This paper deals with some of the ambiguities that are associated with the intermediate and final states after death. Whereas many in the church have dismissed these concepts as myths of the ancients, this discussion shows how the grounding of such beliefs in the Hebrew mindset was the key to Jesus’ own teachings about the afterlife. The argument begins by developing a biblical anthropology over against the modern naturalistic anthropologies that have largely dominated the philosophical and theological scenes. From here we look at the Old Testament concept of the afterlife, and how the modern view that the Hebrews were ambivalent about such a concept is plainly false. Then it is argued that the New Testament doctrines of heaven and hell, which become very specific at this point, are thoroughly indebted to Jewish underpinnings. Without this foundation there would be no clear divisions within the realms of the dead, but because Jesus and his followers assume the validity of the Old Testament material they are able to flesh out such eschatological questions as where Jesus went after death, and where the saint and reprobate will go today. Far from being a stale theological issue, this study has direct bearing upon how one evangelizes today. For when the specific concepts are grasped, the believer will realize that the lost are not going to hell, at least not yet

Compact, electromagnetic multiple-stream multiple-stream pump for liquid metals - Design concept

Pump provides independent liquid-metal streams at a uniform flow rate. The toroidal magnet structure can accomodate any reasonable number of pump circuits. The power requirement is suited to the output voltage of the basic thermionic diode output

TAMING THE TECHNOLOGICAL TYGERTHE REGULATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS -A SURVEY OF SOME CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES--PART TWO

This article reviews the significance placed on environmental factors in nuclear plant licensing during -the 1960s, first considering the effect of recent legislation and the status of current controversies, and then briefly discussing proposals for legislation and developments that can be expected in the near future

TAMING THE TECHNOLOGICAL TYGERTHE REGULATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS -A SURVEY OF SOME CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES--PART ONE

This article reviews the significance placed on environmental factors in nuclear plant licensing during -the 1960s, first considering the effect of recent legislation and the status of current controversies, and then briefly discussing proposals for legislation and developments that can be expected in the near future

Overworked. Underpaid.

I am two people right now. Split between a constant feeling of having a deep pit in your stomach from fear of not having finished something. Until that pit is anxiousness and for a second you have to take a few deep breaths because you know yourself. “Shit, I forgot to eat.” And the anxious feeling is gone because you forgot something as little as eating. My eyes are on fire. I rub them and take another sip of coffee. I heard my friends talking about how they took Adderall to finish their papers. I was desperate and so I turned and asked my friend, “Can you give me Tylenol and tell me its Adderall?” “Why? I can just give you Adderall” he responded, as if what I said didn’t make sense. His arm reached out towards me with a small pill between his fingers. For a second, I thought I may have needed it, reached out- “What am I doing?” [excerpt

Hearing Emergence: Towards Sound-Based Self-Organisation

A fascination for models derived from natural organisation of organisms has a long history of influence in the arts. This paper discusses emergence as a complex behaviour and its manifestations in the sonic domain. We address issues inherent in the use of visual/spatial metaphors for sonic representation and propose an approach based on sound interaction within biological complex systems

Natural Selection: A Stethoscopic Amphibious Installation.

This paper discusses emergence as a complex behaviour in the sound domain and presents a design strategy that was used in the creation of the sound installation Natural Selection to encourage the perception of sonic emergence. The interactions in Natural Selection are based on an algorithm derived from an innately sonic emergent ecological system found in nature, that of mating choices by female frogs within a calling male frog chorus. This paper outlines the design and implementation of the installation and describes the research behind its design, most notably the notion of embodiment within a sonic environment and its importance to the perception of sonic emergence

Productivity and equity returns: A century of evidence for 9 OECD countries

The share market boom in the 1990s is often linked to the acceleration in labour productivity over the same period. This paper explores the suggestions that labour productivity may be an inaccurate measure of firm’s cash flow which underlies equity valuations, and that innovations in productivity in the 1990s may have had only have temporary effects on capital productivity, the key element of the more correct measure of cash flow. Using a century of data for the OECD countries it is shown empirically that the link of productivity to share returns is indeed strongest for capital productivity, but generally the link is weaker that is sometimes maintained in the literature