Family control and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China

This study examines the effect of family control on the cash holding policy in China. We find that family firms with excess control rights tend to have high cash holdings that are tunneled rather than being invested or paid to shareholders. We further show that the incentive for controlling families to hold cash and for tunneling is exacerbated by the agency conflict between controlling and minority shareholders, i.e., it is weakened after the Chinese Non-tradable share (NTS) reform and strengthened by the presence of multiple large shareholders who probably play no monitoring role in Chinese family firms. Furthermore, family firms’ incentive to hold cash for tunneling is influenced by the unique characteristics of Chinese firms in the following ways: the incentive is stronger when the family founder has one child and face family succession problem, and when the founder has political connections and directly involves in firm’s management; while it is weakened by family founder’s social interpersonal trust with other entrepreneurs through their membership of Chambers of Commerce. Overall, we argue that family firms in China tend to hold high levels of cash for tunneling, which harms firm value, while the severe controlling-minority shareholder agency conflicts and unique Chinese family characteristics only make this situation worse.

Symptoms of fatigue and coping strategies in maritime pilotage

Background:
Little is known regarding the symptoms of fatigue that maritime pilots experience during shift work. Moreover, the strategies these individuals use to cope with the onset of fatigue are also unknown. The current study explored the symptoms of fatigue and coping strategies experienced by maritime pilots when on-shift.

Material and methods:
Fifty maritime pilots were recruited via an advertisement in the national association’s quarterly newsletter (Mage = 51.42; SD = 9.81). Participants responded to a modified version of the questionnaire used with aviation pilots that assessed overall fatigue, and the symptoms pilots associated with fatigue on duty. Methods pilots used to cope with fatigue before shift and when on the bridge were also assessed.

Results:
There were significant effects for pilot vitality on 4 categories of fatigue: cognitive dysfunction; emotional disturbance; mean physical effects; and sleepiness. There were no significant effects for vitality on any of the self-reported coping strategy factors.

Conclusions:
The findings indicated that maritime pilots experience a variety of physical, behavioural, and cognitive fatigue symptoms when on shift. Some of these symptoms are similar to those reported by aviation pilots. However, unlike aviation pilots, maritime pilots reported utilising self-sufficient coping strategies to deal with the experience of fatigue.

The National Perinatal Depression Initiative: An evaluation of access to general practitioners, psychologists and psychiatrists through the Medicare Benefits Schedule

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of the National Perinatal Depression Initiative on access to Medicare services for women at risk of perinatal mental illness. METHOD: Retrospective cohort study using difference-in-difference analytical methods to quantify the impact of the National Perinatal Depression Initiative policies on Medicare Benefits Schedule mental health usage by Australian women giving birth between 2006 and 2010. A random sample of women of reproductive age enrolled in Medicare who had not given birth where used as controls. The main outcome measures were the proportions of women giving birth each month who accessed a Medicare Benefits Schedule mental health items during the perinatal period (pregnancy through to the end of the first postnatal year) before and after the introduction of the National Perinatal Depression Initiative. RESULTS: The proportion of women giving birth who accessed at least one mental health item during the perinatal period increased from 88 to 141 per 1000 between 2007 and 2010. The difference-in-difference analysis showed that while there was an overall increase in Medicare Benefits Schedule mental health item access as a result of the National Perinatal Depression Initiative, this did not reach statistical significance. However, the National Perinatal Depression Initiative was found to significantly increase access in subpopulations of women, particularly those aged under 25 and over 34 years living in major cities. CONCLUSION: In the 2 years following its introduction, the National Perinatal Depression Initiative was found to have increased access to Medicare funded mental health services in particular groups of women. However, an overall increase across all groups did not reach statistical significance. Further studies are needed to assess the impact of the National Perinatal Depression Initiative on women during childbearing years, including access to tertiary care, the cost-effectiveness of the initiative, and mental health outcomes. It is recommended that new mental health policy initiatives incorporate a planned strategic approach to evaluation, which includes sufficient follow-up to assess the impact of public health strategies.

Economic evaluation of a psychological intervention for high distress cancer patients and carers: costs and quality-adjusted life years

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the cost-effectiveness of a psychologist-led, individualised cognitive behavioural intervention (PI) to a nurse-led, minimal contact self-management condition for highly distressed cancer patients and carers.

METHODS: This was an economic evaluation conducted alongside a randomised trial of highly distressed adult cancer patients and carers calling cancer helplines. Services used by participants were measured using a resource use questionnaire, and quality-adjusted life years were measured using the assessment of quality of life - eight-dimension - instrument collected through a computer-assisted telephone interview. The base case analysis stratified participants based on the baseline score on the Brief Symptom Inventory. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio confidence intervals were calculated with a nonparametric bootstrap to reflect sampling uncertainty. The results were subjected to sensitivity analysis by varying unit costs for resource use and the method for handling missing data.

RESULTS: No significant differences were found in overall total costs or quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) between intervention groups. Bootstrapped data suggest the PI had a higher probability of lower cost and greater QALYs for both carers and patients with high distress at baseline. For patients with low levels of distress at baseline, the PI had a higher probability of greater QALYs but at additional cost. Sensitivity analysis showed the results were robust.

CONCLUSIONS: The PI may be cost-effective compared with the nurse-led, minimal contact self-management condition for highly distressed cancer patients and carers. More intensive psychological intervention for patients with greater levels of distress appears warranted.

Prioritizing climate change adaptation options for iconic marine species

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Adaptation options in response to climate impact scenarios for marine mammals and seabirds were developed based on the IPCC vulnerability framework. Under this framework, vulnerability to the physical effects of climate change can be reduced by adaptation options that reduce exposure of individuals, reduce the sensitivity of individuals, and increase the adaptive capacity of individual/species to cope with climate change. We evaluated options in each vulnerability category with three screening tools collectively forming an approach we term sequential adaptation prioritization for species. These tools were designed to evaluate (i) technical aspects (cost-benefit-risk, CBR), (ii) institutional barriers, and (iii) potential social acceptability. The CBR tool identified which adaptation options were high cost and low benefit, might be discarded, and which were high benefit and low cost, might be rapidly implemented (depending on risk). Low cost and low benefit options might not be pursued, while those that are high cost, but high benefit deserve further attention. Even with technical merit, adaptation options can fail because of institutional problems with implementation. The second evaluation tool, based on the conceptual framework on barriers to effective climate adaptation, identifies where barriers may exist, and leads to strategies for overcoming them. Finally, adaptation options may not be acceptable to society at large, or resisted by vocal opponents or groups. The social acceptability tool identifies potentially contested options, which may be useful to managers charged with implementing adaptation options. Social acceptability, as scored by experts, differed from acceptability scored by the public, indicating the need to involve the public in assessing this aspect. Scores from each tool for each scenario can be combined to rank the suite of adaptation options. This approach provides useful tools to assist conservation managers in selecting from a wide range of adaptation strategies; the methodology is also applicable to other conservation sectors.

Methods to prioritise adaptation options for iconic seabirds and marine mammals impacted by climate change

Climate change is already impacting a wide range of marine species around Australia. Australia has a large number of marine mammals and seabirds, particularly when Australian Antarctic and Southern Ocean species are included: 110 species of seabird and 52 species of marine mammal. These iconic species are protected throughout Australia and in some cases are recovering from previous anthropogenic impacts including harvest. The first tool we developed is a simple 'cost-benefit- risk' (CBR) screening tool to evaluate each scenario-specific adaptation option against a number of semi-quantitative attributes. Awareness and identification of potentially contested options would be useful to managers charged with implementing adaptation options. Following on from specific application, testing some of the adaptation options in limited field trials would be a useful next step, further building the experience of researchers and managers charged with securing the status of these iconic species in the future.

Exploring the role of personality and resilience in the stress response: a comparison of military and civilian samples

In the context of emergency services and first responders (i.e. military), the ability to select personnel who have the innate ability to work well in highly charged environments would be advantageous. While there have been some efforts to explore the relationship between personality traits and physiological reactivity in the context of the emergency services, differences in stress responses between civilians and military personnel have not yet been investigated. Therefore the aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between personality, resilience and physiological stress responses. Fifteen civilians and 16 military personnel completed online personality (IPIP) and resilience (CD-RISC) inventories prior to commencing the experimental component of the study. The Mannheim Multi-component Stress Test (MMST) which utilises cognitive, audio, visual and motivational components was employed to elicit an acute stress response. Measures of correct responses and reaction time were sampled during the MMST. Prior to and following exposure to the MMST, positive and negative affect were measured (PANAS), and heart rate was sampled continuously across the study period. Results indicated that Military participants rated significantly lower than civilians on neuroticism; however there were no differences between groups for resilience or any of the other personality traits. Military participants displayed less emotional reactivity and less negative affect following the MMST testing period, and appeared to perform better on the MMST when compared to the civilian sample. However, there was no significant difference in heart rate measures between groups. Collectively, these results provide support for the broaden and buildhypothesis and the transactional stress theory. The results also build on previous empirical stress literature and support the effectiveness of the MMST in laboratory induced stress. Suggestions for future research in the area of resiliency and stress will be discussed. From an applied context, further research in this area may assist in military recruitment processes to place individuals in roles to which they are most suited within the Defence Force.

Health and well-being in maritime pilotage: exploring the factors that matter

Maritime pilotage is a demanding occupation where pilots are required to perform complex procedures in sometimes unfamiliar working environments. The psychological (e.g., stress) and physical demands (e.g., reduced sleep, boarding, and departing vessels) may over time have a damaging effect on pilots’ physical and mental health. This presentation will focus on findings from a recent systematic review on maritime pilots’ health and well-being.
Materials and methods
The databases Academic search complete, MEDLINE and MEDLINE Complete, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, PubMed, and ScienceDirect were searched from the earliest available record until 1 May 2015. From an initial pool of 167 manuscripts retrieved, only 18 were peer-reviewed original research and discussed topics associated with maritime pilots’ health and well-being.
Results
Twenty-nine factors associated with maritime pilot health and well-being were identified, and were categorised into physical (n=14), psychosocial (n=8), and workplace issues (n=7). The most commonly investigated factors were blood pressure or heartrate, sleep or fatigue, smoking and alcohol consumption, perceived stress, and shift duration or cycle.
Conclusion
Results from the review suggest that the number of modern-day pilots presenting as overweight or obese, and that the prevention of CVD and associated cardio-metabolic risk factors is of paramount importance. In presenting the findings, recommendations for multidisciplinary approaches to better quantify the impact of maritime pilotage on long-term health and well-being will be made.