Basel II and fostering the disclosure of banks\' internal credit ratings

ISSN:1566-7529ISSN:1741-620

Corporate governance and national institutions: A review and emerging research agenda

We present a critique of corporate governance research grounded in agency theory and propose that cross-national comparison of corporate governance should consider how the nature and extent of agency relationships differ across different institutional contexts. Building on prior governance studies grounded in sociology and organizational theory we argue that performance outcomes of boards of directors, ownership concentration, and executive incentives may differ depending on the legal system and institutional characteristics in a specific country. Institutions may also affect the extent of complimentarity/substitution among different firm-level governance practices producing patterned variations in firm-level governance mechanisms. Our discussion suggests that researchers need to develop more holistic, institutionally embedded governance framework to analyze organizational outcomes of various governance practices

Intercellular Signaling in Cardiac Development and Disease: The NOTCH pathway

The heart is the first organ to develop in the embryo, and its formation is an exquisitely regulated process. Inherited mutations in genes required for cardiac development may cause congenital heart disease (CHD), manifested in the newborn or in the adult. Notch is an ancient, highly conserved signaling pathway that communicates adjacent cells to regulate cell fate specification, differentiation, and tissue patterning. Mutations in Notch signaling elements result in cardiac abnormalities in mice and humans, demonstrating an essential role for Notch in heart development. Recent work has shown that endocardial Notch activity orchestrates the early events as well as the patterning and morphogenesis of the ventricular chambers in the mouse and that inactivating mutations in the NOTCH pathway regulator MIND BOMB-1 (MIB1) cause left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC), a cardiomyopathy of poorly understood etiology. Here, we review these data that shed some light on the etiology of LVNC that at least in the case of that caused by MIB1 mutations has a developmental basis.J.L. de la Pompa is funded by grants SAF2013-45543, RD12/0042/0005 (RIC), and RD12/0019/0003 (TERCEL) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and grant FP7-ITN 215761 (NotchIT) from the European Commission. G. Luxan had a PhD fellowship from the MINECO (FPI Program, ref. BES-2008-002904) and G. D’Amato holds a PhD fellowship associated with grant FP7-ITN 215761 (NotchIT). The CNIC is supported by the MINECO and the Pro-CNIC Foundation.S

Continental degassing of 4He by surficial discharge of deep groundwater

Radiogenic He is produced by the decay of uranium and thorium in the Earth’s mantle and crust. From here, it is degassed to the atmosphere and eventually escapes to space. Assuming that all of the 4He produced is degassed, about 70% of the total He degassed from Earth comes from the continental crust. However, the outgoing flux of crustal He has not been directly measured at the Earth’s surface and the migration pathways are poorly understood. Here we present measurements of helium isotopes and the long-lived cosmogenic radio-isotope Kr in the deep, continental-scale Guarani aquifer in Brazil and show that crustal He reaches the atmosphere primarily by the surficial discharge of deep groundwater. We estimate that He in Guarani groundwater discharge accounts for about 20% of the assumed global flux from continental crust, and that other large aquifers may account for about 33%. Old groundwater ages suggest that He in the Guarani aquifer accumulates over half- to one-millionyear timescales. We conclude that He degassing from the continents is regulated by groundwater discharge, rather than episodic tectonic events, and suggest that the assumed steady state between crustal production and degassing of He, and its resulting atmospheric residence time, should be re-examined