Flotation costs represent a significant loss of capital to firms and are positively related to information asymmetry between managers and outside investors. We measure a firm's information asymmetry ...by its accounting information quality based on two extensions of the Dechow and Dichev 2002. The quality of accruals and earnings: the role of accrual estimation errors. Accounting Review 77, 35–59 earnings accruals model, which is a more direct approach to assessing the information available to outside investors than the more commonly used proxies. Our main hypothesis is that poor accounting information quality raises uncertainty about a firm's financial condition for outside investors, though not necessarily for insiders. This accounting effect lowers demand for a firm's new equity, thereby raising underwriting costs and risk. Using a large sample of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs), we show that poor accounting information quality is associated with higher flotation costs in terms of larger underwriting fees, larger negative SEO announcement effects, and a higher probability of SEO withdrawals. These results are robust to joint determination of offer size and flotation cost components and to adjustments for sample selection bias.
Before the arrival of Europeans to Cuba, the island was inhabited by two Native American groups, the Tainos and the Ciboneys. Most of the present archaeological, linguistic and ancient DNA evidence ...indicates a South American origin for these populations. In colonial times, Cuban Native American people were replaced by European settlers and slaves from Africa. It is still unknown however, to what extent their genetic pool intermingled with and was 'diluted' by the arrival of newcomers. In order to investigate the demographic processes that gave rise to the current Cuban population, we analyzed the hypervariable region I (HVS-I) and five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coding region in 245 individuals, and 40 Y-chromosome SNPs in 132 male individuals.
The Native American contribution to present-day Cubans accounted for 33% of the maternal lineages, whereas Africa and Eurasia contributed 45% and 22% of the lineages, respectively. This Native American substrate in Cuba cannot be traced back to a single origin within the American continent, as previously suggested by ancient DNA analyses. Strikingly, no Native American lineages were found for the Y-chromosome, for which the Eurasian and African contributions were around 80% and 20%, respectively.
While the ancestral Native American substrate is still appreciable in the maternal lineages, the extensive process of population admixture in Cuba has left no trace of the paternal Native American lineages, mirroring the strong sexual bias in the admixture processes taking place during colonial times.
lInside debt is positively associated with corporate innovation output.lExcessive inside debt compared to equity incentives adversely affects the CEO's incentives to innovate.
Given the nature of ...innovation, optimal incentive schemes to motivate innovation should exhibit substantial tolerance for failure in the short-term and reward for success in the long-term. Inside debt such as pension and deferred compensation is a long-term commitment contract and largely independent of CEOs’ short-term performance, making them more willing to engage in long-term innovation activities. This study examines the role of inside debt in a CEO's compensation package and shows that inside debt is positively associated with innovation. However, I also find that a high balance of inside debt compared to equity incentives, such as stock and stock option holdings adversely affects the CEO's incentives to innovate, implying important cross-sectional differences in a firm's optimal inside debt policies for innovation. The results are consistent after controlling for firm and manager fixed effects and reverse causality problems.
Intermittent preexcitation during sinus rhythm is indicative of an accessory pathway at a very low risk for sudden death. We present the case of a 49‐year‐old man with intermittent preexcitation who ...subsequently developed rapid atrial fibrillation with a shortest preexcited R–R interval of 230 milliseconds. Electrophysiology study showed intermittent preexcitation at baseline and 1:1 anterograde accessory pathway conduction to 220 milliseconds in the presence of 1 mcg/min isoproterenol infusion. The pathway was successfully ablated at the lateral mitral annulus. Accessory pathways highly sensitive to catecholamines may show intermittent preexcitation at baseline with potential for rapid conduction during atrial fibrillation and sudden death. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 24, pp. 347‐350, March 2013)
BACKGROUND—Although cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) can improve left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), it is not known whether a specific level of improvement will predict future ...implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy.
METHODS AND RESULTS—CRT-defibrillator (CRT-D) was implanted in 423 patients at 1 institution between October 2, 2001 and January 19, 2007. A retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between post–CRT-D LVEF and ICD therapy for ventricular tachyarrhythmias. A landmark population of 270 patients, with post–CRT-D LVEF measured and no ICD therapy within 1 year of device implantation, was followed for subsequent outcomes. Of these, 22 patients (8.2%) had subsequent appropriate ICD therapy over a median follow-up of 1.5 years. The estimated 2-year risk of appropriate ICD therapy is 3.0% (95% confidence interval 95% CI, 0%–6.3%), 2.1% (95% CI, 0%–5.0%), and 1.5% (95% CI, 0%–3.9%) for post–CRT-D LVEF of 45%, 50%, and 55%, respectively. In patients with a primary prevention indication for CRT-D, the estimated 2-year risk is 3.3% (95% CI, 0%–7.3%), 2.5% (95% CI, 0%–6.1%), and 1.9% (95% CI, 0%–5.1%) for post–CRT-D LVEF of 45%, 50%, and 55%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS—When a CRT responder demonstrates near normalization in LVEF to ≥45%, the incidence of ICD therapy for ventricular arrhythmias becomes low. Future studies are needed to determine whether an ICD is still needed in some of these patients at the time of generator replacement.
Dispersion of Repolarization in LQT1. Introduction:β‐Blocker therapy reduces syncope and sudden death in long‐QT syndrome type 1 (LQT1), but the mechanism of protection is incompletely understood. ...This study tested the hypothesis that β‐blockade reduces QT prolongation and dispersion of repolarization, measured as the T peak‐to‐end interval (Tpe), during exercise and recovery in LQT1 patients.
Methods and Results:
QT and Tpe were measured in 10 LQT1 patients (33 ± 13 years) and 35 normal subjects (32 ± 12 years) during exercise tests on and off β‐blockade. In LQT1 patients, β‐blockade reduced QT (391 ± 25 milliseconds vs 375 ± 26 milliseconds, P = 0.04 during exercise; 419 ± 41 milliseconds vs 391 ± 39 milliseconds, P = 0.02 during recovery) and markedly reduced Tpe (91 ± 26 milliseconds vs 67 ± 19 milliseconds, P = 0.03 during exercise; 103 ± 26 milliseconds vs 78 ± 11 milliseconds, P = 0.02 during recovery). In contrast, in normal subjects, β‐blockade had no effect on QT (320 ± 17 milliseconds vs 317 ± 16 milliseconds, P = 0.29 during exercise; 317 ± 13 milliseconds vs 315 ± 14 milliseconds, P = 0.15 during recovery) and mildly reduced Tpe (69 ± 13 milliseconds vs 61 ± 11 milliseconds, P = 0.01 during exercise; 77 ± 19 milliseconds vs. 68 ± 14 milliseconds, P < 0.001 during recovery).
Conclusion:
In LQT1 patients, β‐blockers reduced QT and Tpe during exercise and recovery, supporting the theory that β‐blocker therapy protects LQT1 patients by reducing dispersion of repolarization during exercise and recovery. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 22, pp. 1141‐1146, October 2011)
•Unlike pension plans, deferred compensation can be vested before retirement.•The withdrawal decision is negatively associated with default risk and CEO power.•Deferred compensation serves as an ...important alignment role with debt holders.
Deferred compensation constitutes a significant portion of inside debt. Unlike pension plans, deferred compensation can be vested before retirement. If entrenched CEOs take advantage of this attribute of deferred compensation and withdraw it when the firm is in financial distress, the beneficial roles of deferred compensation as a tool for aligning the CEO's interests with those of debtholders are undermined. Moreover, there would be a need to reexamine existing empirical studies in this area which obtain the amount of inside debt by simply adding the monetary value of pension and deferred compensation. This study examines whether deferred compensation can serve as inside debt in real world practices. Using a large sample of S&P 1,500 firms, I find that entrenched CEOs tend to restrict the decision of deferred compensation withdrawal in order to protect debtholders’ value when a firm's distress risk is significant. Therefore, deferred compensation serves as an important alignment role with debtholders in spite of the existence of withdrawal flexibility.
SNPs are one of the main sources of DNA variation among humans. Their unique properties make them useful polymorphic markers for a wide range of fields, such as medicine, forensics, and population ...genetics. Although several high-throughput techniques have been (and are being) developed for the vast typing of SNPs in the medical context, population genetic studies involve the typing of few and select SNPs for targeted research. This results in SNPs having to be typed in multiple reactions, consuming large amounts of time and of DNA. In order to improve the current situation in the area of human Y-chromosome diversity studies, we decided to employ a system based on a multiplex oligo ligation assay/PCR (OLA/PCR) followed by CE to create a Y multiplex capable of distinguishing, in a single reaction, all the major haplogroups and as many subhaplogroups on the Y-chromosome phylogeny as possible. Our efforts resulted in the creation of a robust and accurate 35plex (35 SNPs in a single reaction) that when tested on 165 human DNA samples from different geographic areas, proved capable of assigning samples to their corresponding haplogroup.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy after minor burn injury Wikiel, Krzysztof; Gemma, Lee W; Yowler, Charles J ...
Journal of burn care & research,
2011 Sep-Oct, 2011-09-00, 20110901, Letnik:
32, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The relationship between severe emotional stress and subsequent acute cardiac dysfunction has been anecdotally noted for decades. In fact, cases of "death by fright" have been described since ancient ...times, and a growing body of evidence suggests that this phenomenon is due to an acute catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy. The authors present a case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy complicating a minor burn injury that occurred during an operating room fire. Two PEA arrests occurred immediately after injury, and an intra-aortic balloon pump was required due to hemodynamic instability. The diagnosis was confirmed by echocardiogram and cardiac catherization. This condition is often unrecognized as a cause of hemodynamic instability and may be more common after burn injury than we presently recognize.
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