The vast majority of cross-border mergers involve private firms outside of the United States. We analyze a sample of 56,978 cross-border mergers between 1990 and 2007. We find that geography, the ...quality of accounting disclosure, and bilateral trade increase the likelihood of mergers between two countries. Valuation appears to play a role in motivating mergers: firms in countries whose stock market has increased in value, whose currency has recently appreciated, and that have a relatively high market-to-book value tend to be purchasers, while firms from weaker-performing economies tend to be targets.
Managers often claim that target firms are financially constrained prior to being acquired and that these constraints are eased following the acquisition. Using a large sample of European ...acquisitions, we document that the level of cash that target firms hold, the sensitivity of cash to cash flow, and the sensitivity of investment to cash flow all decline, while investment increases following the acquisition. These effects are stronger in deals that are more likely to be associated with financing improvements. Our findings suggest that acquisitions relieve financial frictions in target firms, especially when the target firm is relatively small.
Ergene River is heavily utilized for irrigation of fields to grow the main stocks of rice, wheat, and sunflower of Turkey also exported to Europe; therefore, monitoring the river's water quality is ...crucial for public health. Although the river quality is routinely monitored, the evaluation of pollution based on micropollutants is limited. In this study, we measured 222 organic micropollutants in 300 samples collected from 75 different locations on the Ergene River between August 2017 and May 2018 using direct injection liquid chromatography-tandem spectrometry with optimized scheduled multiple reaction monitoring. In total, 165 micropollutants were detected at a range of concentrations between 1.90 ng/L and 1824.55 μg/L. Sixty-three chemical substances were recurrent micropollutants that were detected at least one location in all seasons. Among them, 41 chemical substances were identified as the core micropollutants of the Ergene River using data-driven clustering methods. Hexa(methoxymethyl)melamine, benzotriazoles, and benzalkonium chlorides were frequently detected core micropollutants with an industrial origin. Besides, diuron, carbendazim, and cadusafos were common pesticides in the river. Core micropollutants were further categorized based on their type of source and environmental behavior using Kurtosis of concentration and load data obtained for each micropollutant. As a result, the majority of the core micropollutants are recalcitrant chemicals either released from a specific source located upstream of the river or have urban and agricultural sources dispersed on the watershed. In this study, we assessed the current state of pollution in the Ergene River at the micropollutant level with a very high spatial resolution and developed a statistical approach to categorize micropollutants that can be used to monitor the extent of pollution and track pollution sources in the river.
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•In total, 165 organic contaminants were detected in Ergene River in four seasons.•41 chemicals were classified as core micropollutants with limited biodegradability.•Kurtosis is a useful statistical parameter to evaluate contaminant source and behavior.•Core micropollutants are good tracers of pollution sources on a river.
X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and compressive strength measurements were performed to fully characterize metakaolin-based ...geopolymers with molar Si/Al ratios of 1.12, 1.77 and 2.20 in order to establish structure–performance relationships in this system. XRD results showed that the geopolymer samples with Si/Al ratio of 1.12 contained crystalline components, namely zeolite A and/or sodalite phases, whereas geopolymers with Si/Al ratio of 1.77 and 2.20 were ‘X-ray amorphous’ with minor amount of quartz content. The microstructure as revealed from SEM verified that geopolymer with Si/Al ratio of 1.12 consisted of crystalline components whereas samples with Si/Al ratio of 1.77 and 2.20 included amorphous microstructures. The position and width of the main band in FTIR spectra is found to systematically increase with increasing molar Si/Al ratio. The intensity of this band decreased with increasing Si content in the system indicating increased geopolymerization. This increase was related with formation of a three dimensional structure with stronger bonding environment with increasing SiO2 incorporation in geopolymer matrix. Compressive strength of these samples were also found to increase systematically with increasing molar Si/Al ratio. The evolution of the structural characteristics obtained from spectroscopy, diffraction and microscopy are shown to be directly correlated with the results of compressive strength measurements performed on these geopolymers.
Wide-necked bifurcation aneurysms (WNBAs) make up 26-36% of all brain aneurysms. Treatments for WNBAs pose unique challenges due to the need to preserve major bifurcation vessels while achieving a ...durable occlusion of the aneurysm. Intrasaccular flow disruption is an innovative technique for the treatment of WNBAs. The Woven EndoBridge (WEB) device is the only United States Food and Drug Administration approved intrasaccular flow disruption device. In this review article we discuss various aspects of treating WNBAs with the WEB device, including indications for use, aneurysm/device selection strategies, antiplatelet therapy requirement, procedural technique, potential complications and bailouts, and management strategies for residual/recurrent aneurysms after initial WEB treatment.
Objectives
Asthma and postinfectious bronchiolitis obliterans (PIBO) have similar clinical findings, and PIBO may be misdiagnosed with asthma. This study aimed to determine the clinical features of ...PIBO in children and the causes of delay in its diagnosis.
Methods
We retrospectively evaluated all patients diagnosed with PIBO in four pediatric pulmonology centers between 2007 and 2018. In total, 64 PIBO patients were retrospectively reviewed. We compared the clinical and laboratory differences between PIBO patients who had initially been misdiagnosed with asthma and correctly diagnosed with PIBO.
Results
Of the 64 patients, 22 (34.4%) had initially been misdiagnosed with asthma. Adenovirus was the most common infectious agent in children. The age upon diagnosis was older, and the symptom duration was significantly longer in patients misdiagnosed with asthma (P < .05). There were no statistical differences in terms of sex, history of prematurity, duration of hospitalization, treatment, history of oxygen or mechanical ventilation support, pulmonary function test (PFT) results and asthma‐predisposing findings between the two groups (P > .05).
Conclusions
Patients with PIBO who had initially been misdiagnosed with asthma were correctly diagnosed at older ages and had longer symptom duration. Asthma may mask PIBO diagnosis by the similarity of symptoms and the clinical response to inhaled β2‐agonist or steroid treatment. PFTs may not help clinicians because of the age of children. The delay in the diagnosis of PIBO is probably attributable to the fact that some clinicians fail to include PIBO in the differential diagnosis when there is no clinical response to asthma medication.
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