Universal Banking and Conflicts of Interest: Evidence from German Initial Public Offerings

This paper investigates conflicts of interest associated with relationship banking. Using a sample of 270 German initial public offerings (IPOs), we ask if universal-bankunderwritten IPOs perform differently from IPOs underwritten by specialized investment banks. We find that universal-bank affiliation is correlated with higher first-day returns (underpricing) but uncorrelated with long-term performance. This suggests that underpricing compensates for potential conflicts of interest. The results also suggest that preexisting bank relationships, rather than issuer characteristics, may determine the choice of underwriter

The influence of landscape context on the production of cultural ecosystem services

Recent efforts to apply sustainability concepts to entire landscapes have seen increasing interest in approaches that connect socioeconomic and biophysical systems. Evaluating these connections through a cultural ecosystem services lens clarifies how different spatiotemporal scales and levels of organisation influence the production of cultural benefits. Currently, however, the effects of multi-level and multi-scale ecological variation on the production of cultural benefits have not yet been disentangled. Objectives To quantify the amount of variation in cultural ecosystem service provision by birds to birders that is due to landscape-level attributes. Methods We used data from 293 birding routes and 101 different birders in South African National Parks to explore the general relationships between birder responses to bird species and environmental conditions, bird-related observations, the biophysical attributes of the landscape and their effect on bird-related cultural benefits. Results Biophysical attributes (particularly biome, vegetation type, and variance in elevation) significantly increased the percentage of variance explained in birder benefits from 57 to 65%, demonstrating that birder benefits are derived from multi-level (birds to ecosystems) and multi-scale (site to landscape) social and ecological interactions. Conclusions Landscape attributes influence people's perceptions of cultural ecosystem service provision by individual species. Recognition of the complex, localised and inextricable linkage of cultural ecosystem services to biophysical attributes can improve our understanding of the landscape characteristics that affect the supply and demand of cultural ecosystem services

The role of socio-demographic characteristics in mediating relationships between people and nature

Research on ecosystem services has focused on their availability or supply and often takes a socially-aggregated approach that assumes a single human community of identical beneficiaries. However, people's ability to derive benefits from ecosystem services can differ strongly across societal groups. Access to ecosystem services can be related to socio-demographic characteristics such as material wealth, gender, education and age. Developing environmental management that does not have unequal impacts on different groups thus depends on taking a socially-disaggregated approach to assessing perceptions of ecosystem services. We explored how socio-demographic characteristics relate to cultural functional groups based on perceived bird traits. Using perception data on 491 bird species from 401 respondents along urban-rural gradients in South Africa, we found that socio-demographic characteristics are strongly associated with cultural functional groups based on perceived bird traits. Our results provide a starting point for understanding heterogeneity in the benefits from avian ecosystem services and how perceptions of cultural functional groups vary across societal groups

Retrofitting the Southeast. The Cool Energy House

The Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings has provided the technical engineering and building science support for a highly visible demonstration home in connection with the National Association of Home Builders' International Builders Show. The two previous projects, the Las Vegas net-zero ReVISION House and the 2011 VISION and ReVISION Houses in Orlando, met goals for energy efficiency, cost effectiveness, and information dissemination through multiple web-based venues. This project, which was unveiled at the 2012 International Builders Show in Orlando on February 9, is the deep energy retrofit Cool Energy House (CEH). The CEH began as a mid-1990s two-story traditional specification house of about 4,000 ft2 in the upscale Orlando suburb of Windermere

Evaluation of the U.S. EPA/OSWER Preliminary Remediation Goal for Perchlorate in Groundwater: Focus on Exposure to Nursing Infants

BACKGROUND: Perchlorate is a common contaminant of drinking water and food. It competes with iodide for uptake into the thyroid, thus interfering with thyroid hormone production. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) set a groundwater preliminary remediation goal (PRG) of 24.5 μg/L to prevent exposure of pregnant women that would affect the fetus. This does not account for the greater exposure that is possible in nursing infants or for the relative source contribution (RSC), a factor normally used to lower the PRG due to nonwater exposures. OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to assess whether the OSWER PRG protects infants against exposures from breast-feeding, and to evaluate the perchlorate RSC. METHODS: We used Monte Carlo analysis to simulate nursing infant exposures associated with the OSWER PRG when combined with background perchlorate. RESULTS: The PRG can lead to a 7-fold increase in breast milk concentration, causing 90% of nursing infants to exceed the reference dose (RfD) (average exceedance, 2.8-fold). Drinking-water perchlorate must be < 6.9 μg/L to keep the median, and < 1.3 μg/L to keep the 90th-percentile nursing infant exposure below the RfD. This is 3.6- to 19-fold below the PRG. Analysis of biomonitoring data suggests an RSC of 0.7 for pregnant women and of 0.2 for nursing infants. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that the RfD itself needs to be reevaluated because of hormonal effects in the general population. CONCLUSIONS: The OSWER PRG for perchlorate can be improved by considering infant exposures, by incorporating an RSC, and by being responsive to any changes in the RfD resulting from the new CDC data

Longitudinal assessment of PCBs and chlorinated pesticides in pregnant women from Western Canada

BACKGROUND: Maternal exposures to organochlorines prior to pregnancy are considered a risk to neonatal welfare, specifically in relation to neurocognitive functions. There is growing interest in the evaluation of maternal blood testing as a marker for fetal exposure as well as the variable geographic distribution of these priority chemicals. METHODS: Three hundred and twenty-three women in the second trimester of pregnancy entered the study at a prenatal clinic providing genetic counselling information. Subjects who had an indication for genetic amniocentesis based on late maternal age were eligible to participate. Two hundred and thirty-eight completed an environmental questionnaire. A sample of amniotic fluid was taken for karyotype analysis in 323 women and blood samples during pregnancy (209), at birth (105) and from the umbilical cord (97) and breast milk (47) were also collected. These samples were tested for 29 PCB congeners and organochlorine pesticides. RESULTS: The concentrations of PCB 153 in these media were relatively low in relation to other studies. Σ PCBs measurements in samples taken during the second trimester of pregnancy, at birth and in the umbilical cord were strongly correlated. Specific measurements of PCB 153 and PCB 180 among those subjects with completed sampling of blood samples from mothers and cord samples were significantly correlated. The concentrations of PCBs and pesticides did not differ in relation to prior spontaneous abortion history. There were no organochlorines present in the amniotic fluid at the current level of quantification. CONCLUSION: Pregnant women from the Western Canada region of Calgary, Alberta are exposed to relatively low concentrations of organochlorines. Measurement of maternal blood during the second trimester of pregnancy can reliably estimate the fetal exposure to PCBs. This estimate is reliable for Group 2 and 3 PCBs as well as PCB 153 and PCB 180. The amniotic fluid does not contain measurable concentrations of pesticides and PCBs under the conditions of the levels of quantification

Synthesis of Acrylates and Methacrylates from Coal-Derived Syngas.

Research Triangle Institute (RTI), Eastman Chemical Company, and Bechtel collectively are developing a novel process for the synthesis of methyl methacrylate (MMA) from coal-derived syngas, under a contract from the U.S. Department of Energy/Federal Energy Technology Center (DOE/FETC). This three-step process consists of synthesis of a propionate, its condensation with formaldehyde, and esterification of resulting methacrylic acid (MAA) with methanol to produce MMA. Over the last quarter, RTI carried out activity tests on a pure (99 percent) Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} catalyst, received from Alfa Aesar, under the following experimental conditions: T=300 C; P=4 atm, 72:38:16:4:220 mmol/h, PA:H{sub 2}0:HCHO:CH{sub 3}0H:N{sub 2}; 5-g catalyst charge. For the pure material, the MAA yields (based on HCHO and PA) were at 8.8 and 1.5 percent, clearly inferior compared to those for a 10-percent Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5}/Si0{sub 2} catalyst (20.1 and 4.5 percent). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of pure Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} and 20-percent Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5}/Si0{sub 2} that while pure Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} is very highly crystalline, Si0{sub 2} support for an amorphous nature of the 20 percent Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5}/Si0{sub 2} catalyst the last quarter, RTI also began research on the use of dimethyl ether (DME), product of methanol dehydrocondensation, as an alternate feedstock in MMA synthesis. As a result, formaldehyde is generated either externally or in situ, from DME, in the process envisaged in the contract extension. The initial work on the DME extension of the contract focuses on a tradeoff analysis that will include a preliminary economic analysis of the DME and formaldehyde routes and catalyst synthesis and testing for DME partial oxidation and condensation reactions. Literature guides exist for DME partial oxidation catalysts; however, there are no precedent studies on catalyst development for DME-methyl propionate (MP) condensation reactions, thereby making DME-MP reaction studies a challenge. The design of a fixed-bed microreactor system for DME feedstock studies was also finalized over the last quarter. The system is designed to be operated either in DME partial oxidation mode (for formaldehyde synthesis) or DME-MP condensation mode (for MMA synthesis)

A Search for Charmless B→VVB\to VV Decays

We have studied two-body charmless decays of the $B$ meson into the final states $\rho^0 \rho^0$, $K^{*0} \rho^0$, $K^{*0} K^{*0}$, $K^{*0} \bar{K^{*0}}$, $K^{*+} \rho^0$, $K^{*+} \bar{K^{*0}}$, and $K^{*+} K^{*-}$ using only decay modes with charged daughter particles. Using 9.7 million $B \bar{B}$ pairs collected with the CLEO detector, we place 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions, $(0.46-7.0)\times 10^{-5}$, depending on final state and polarization.Comment: 8 pages postscript, also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

EU regulation of endocrine disruptors: a missed opportunity

The European Commission (EC) has missed a unique opportunity to develop a regulatory system that sets new standards in the protection against endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The proposed amendments to the European Union (EU) pesticide law and the criteria for the identification of endocrine disruptors that the EC published on June 15, 2016, after a delay of almost 3 years,1 ensure that hardly any endocrine disruptors used as pesticides will be barred from commerce