Judicial Discretion in Corporate Bankruptcy

We study a demand and supply model of judicial discretion in corporate bankruptcy. On the supply side, we assume that bankruptcy courts may be biased for debtors or creditors, and subject to career concerns. On the demand side, we assume that debtors (and creditors) can engage in forum shopping at some cost. A key finding is that stronger creditor protection in reorganization improves judicial incentives to resolve financial distress efficiently, preventing a "race to the bottom" towards inefficient uses of judicial discretion. The comparative statics of our model shed light on a wealth of evidence on U.S. bankruptcy and yield novel predictions on how bankruptcy codes should affect firm-level outcomes.Judicial Discretion, Corporate Bankruptcy

Optimal Resolutions of Financial Distress by Contract

We study theoretically the possibility for the parties to efficiently resolve financial distress by contract as opposed to exclusively rely on state intervention. We characterize which financial contracts are optimal depending on investor protection against fraud, and how efficient is the resulting resolution of financial distress. We find that when investor protection is strong, issuing a convertible debt security to a large, secured creditor who has the exclusive right to reorganize or liquidate the firm yields the first best. Conversion of debt into equity upon default allows contracts to collateralize the whole firm to that creditor, not just certain physical assets, thereby inducing him to internalize the upside from efficient reorganization. Concentration of liquidation rights on such creditor avoids costly inter-creditor conflicts. When instead investor protection is weak, the only feasible debt structure has standard foreclosure rights, even if it induces over-liquidation. The normative implications are that lifting legal restrictions on floating charge financing, convertibles and concentration of liquidation rights, and increasing investor protection against fraud should improve the efficiency of resolutions of financial distress.Corporate Bankruptcy, Creditor Protection, Financial Contracting

A look at the inner structure of the 2-adic ring C*-algebra and its automorphism groups

We undertake a systematic study of the so-called 2-adic ring C\u87-algebra Q2. This is the universal C\u87-algebra generated by a unitary U and an isometry S2 such that S2U = U2S2 and S2S\u87 2+US2S\u87 2U\u87 = 1. Notably, it contains a copy of the Cuntz algebra O2 = C\u87(S1;S2) through the injective homomorphism mapping S1 to US2. Among the main results, the relative commutant C\u87(S2)\u9c 9 Q2 is shown to be trivial. This in turn leads to a rigidity property enjoyed by the inclusion O2 ` Q2, namely the endomorphisms of Q2 that restrict to the identity on O2 are actually the identity on the whole Q2. Moreover, there is no conditional expectation from Q2 onto O2. As for the inner structure of Q2, the diagonal subalgebra D2 and C\u87(U) are both proved to be maximal abelian in Q2. The maximality of the latter allows a thorough investigation of several classes of endomorphisms and automorphisms of Q2. In particular, the semigroup of the endomorphisms xing U turns out to be a maximal abelian subgroup of Aut(Q2) topologically isomorphic with C(T;T). Finally, it is shown by an explicit construction that Out(Q2) is uncountable and non- abelian

Validation of ankle strength measurements by means of a hand-held dynamometer in adult healthy subjects

Uniaxial Hand-Held Dynamometer (HHD) is a low-cost device widely adopted in clinical practice to measure muscle force. HHD measurements depend on operator’s ability and joint movements. The aim of the work is to validate the use of a commercial HHD in both dorsiflexion and plantarflexion ankle strength measurements quantifying the effects of HHD misplacements and unwanted foot’s movements on the measurements. We used an optoelectronic system and a multicomponent load cell to quantify the sources of error in the manual assessment of the ankle strength due to both the operator’s ability to hold still the HHD and the transversal components of the exerted force that are usually neglected in clinical routine. Results showed that foot’s movements and angular misplacements of HHD on sagittal and horizontal planes were relevant sources of inaccuracy on the strength assessment. Moreover, ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion force measurements presented an inaccuracy less than 2% and higher than 10%, respectively. In conclusion, the manual use of a uniaxial HHD is not recommend ed for the assessment of ankle plantarflexion strength; on the contrary, it can be allowed asking the operator to pay strong attention to the HHD positioning in ankle dorsiflexion strength measurements

Diagonal automorphisms of the 22-adic ring C∗C^*-algebra

The $2$-adic ring $C^*$-algebra $\mathcal{Q}_2$ naturally contains a copy of the Cuntz algebra $\mathcal{O}_2$ and, a fortiori, also of its diagonal subalgebra $\mathcal{D}_2$ with Cantor spectrum. This paper is aimed at studying the group ${\rm Aut}_{\mathcal{D}_2}(\mathcal{Q}_2)$ of the automorphisms of $\mathcal{Q}_2$ fixing $\mathcal{D}_2$ pointwise. It turns out that any such automorphism leaves $\mathcal{O}_2$ globally invariant. Furthermore, the subgroup ${\rm Aut}_{\mathcal{D}_2}(\mathcal{Q}_2)$ is shown to be maximal abelian in ${\rm Aut}(\mathcal{Q}_2)$. Saying exactly what the group is amounts to understanding when an automorphism of $\mathcal{O}_2$ that fixes $\mathcal{D}_2$ pointwise extends to $\mathcal{Q}_2$. A complete answer is given for all localized automorphisms: these will extend if and only if they are the composition of a localized inner automorphism with a gauge automorphism.Comment: Improved exposition and corrected some typos and inaccuracie

Analysis of knee strength measurements performed by a hand-held multicomponent dynamometer and optoelectronic system

The quantification of muscle weakness is useful to evaluate the health status and performance of patients and athletes. In this paper, we proposed a novel methodology to investigate and to quantify the effects induced by inaccuracy sources occurring when using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) for knee strength measurements. The validation methodology is based on the comparison between the output of a one-component commercial HHD and the outputs of a six-component load cell, comparable in dimension and mass. An optoelectronic system was used to measure HHD positioning angles and displacements. The setup allowed to investigate the effects induced by: 1) the operator's ability to place and to hold still the HHD and 2) ignoring the transversal components of the force exchanged. The main finding was that the use of a single component HHD induced an overall inaccuracy of 5% in the strength measurements if the angular misplacements are kept within the values found in this paper (≤15°) and with a knee range of motion ≤22°. Extension trials were the most critical due to the higher force exerted, i.e., 249.4 ± 27.3 versus 146.4 ± 23.9 N of knee flexion. The most relevant source of inaccuracy was identified in the angular displacement on the horizontal plane