Stock offerings in a different institutional setting: the Swiss case, 1973-1983

This paper analyzes the stock price effect of equity issues in Switzerland. There, insiders are not legally prevented from using their information for personal trades, and security offerings are with almost no exception rights issues. Unlike what we find for a comprehensive sample of U.S. rights issues and a sample of U.S. general cash offerings, a significant majority of firms experiences a positive monthly announcement effect. The average abnormal return itself, however, is not significant. Also, we find evidence inconsistent with infinitely price-elastic demand functions for common stock, as well as some evidence that offer prices convey new information.

Merger decisions and executive stock ownership in acquiring firms

This study supports the proposition that managerial welfare affects merger decisions. The abnormal stock returns experienced by bidder firms, from the time of the announcement of a merger bid through the stockholder approval date, are positively relaterd to the percentage of own-company stock held by the senior management of the bidder. The results suggest that substantial amounts of own-company share ownership help align the interests of stockholders and management.

"Is there a doctor on board?" - legal aspects of medical care in emergency situations during spare time

Medical emergencies on international flights are not uncommon. In these situations the question often arises whether physicians are obliged to render first aid and whether omission leads to legal consequences. The general obligation to aid those in need applies to everyone, not only to physicians. Evading this duty makes liable to prosecution for omittance of defence of a third person in line with Art. 128 of the Swiss Penal Code, punishable by custodial sentence up to three years or an equivalent punitive fine. Vocational and professional law extend the duty to aid for physicians to urgent cases. Although resulting from the performance of a legal obligation, malpractice occurred in the course of first aid can lead to claims for compensation - even from foreign patients, and that according to their own domestic law.

Persistence of biological traces at inside parts of a firearm from a case of multiple familial homicide

Backspatter from wounds caused by contact shots against a biological target had before been shown to be propelled into firearms' barrels where they can persist and be retrieved from as relevant forensic evidence. Herein, that insight was applied to the investigation of a case of multiple familial homicide with a firearm. Samples of backspatter were collected from the firearm using DNA-free swabs. DNA was extracted from the swabs, and 16 STR systems were PCR-amplified to generate DNA profiles of all victims shot by the firearm. The quality of the resulting DNA profiles was sufficient to exclude the perpetrator as donor and to differentiate the three closely related victims thereby proving that all three victims had been shot by the same firearm from very close or contact distance. A key insight gained from this case was that not only a firearms' barrel inside but other inner surfaces may be charged with profilable DNA.

Leukemic stem cell frequency: a strong biomarker for clinical outcome in acute myeloid leukemia.

INTRODUCTION Treatment failure in acute myeloid leukemia is probably caused by the presence of leukemia initiating cells, also referred to as leukemic stem cells, at diagnosis and their persistence after therapy. Specific identification of leukemia stem cells and their discrimination from normal hematopoietic stem cells would greatly contribute to risk stratification and could predict possible relapses. RESULTS For identification of leukemic stem cells, we developed flow cytometric methods using leukemic stem cell associated markers and newly-defined (light scatter) aberrancies. The nature of the putative leukemic stem cells and normal hematopoietic stem cells, present in the same patient's bone marrow, was demonstrated in eight patients by the presence or absence of molecular aberrancies and/or leukemic engraftment in NOD-SCID IL-2Rγ-/- mice. At diagnosis (n=88), the frequency of the thus defined neoplastic part of CD34+CD38- putative stem cell compartment had a strong prognostic impact, while the neoplastic parts of the CD34+CD38+ and CD34- putative stem cell compartments had no prognostic impact at all. After different courses of therapy, higher percentages of neoplastic CD34+CD38- cells in complete remission strongly correlated with shorter patient survival (n=91). Moreover, combining neoplastic CD34+CD38- frequencies with frequencies of minimal residual disease cells (n=91), which reflect the total neoplastic burden, revealed four patient groups with different survival. CONCLUSION AND PERSPECTIVE Discrimination between putative leukemia stem cells and normal hematopoietic stem cells in this large-scale study allowed to demonstrate the clinical importance of putative CD34+CD38- leukemia stem cells in AML. Moreover, it offers new opportunities for the development of therapies directed against leukemia stem cells, that would spare normal hematopoietic stem cells, and, moreover, enables in vivo and ex vivo screening for potential efficacy and toxicity of new therapies.

Simultaneous analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, mRNA and miRNA from backspatter from inside parts of firearms generated by shots at "triple contrast" doped ballistic models

When a firearm projectile hits a biological target a spray of biological material (e.g., blood and tissue fragments) can be propelled from the entrance wound back towards the firearm. This phenomenon has become known as "backspatter" and if caused by contact shots or shots from short distances traces of backspatter may reach, consolidate on, and be recovered from, the inside surfaces of the firearm. Thus, a comprehensive investigation of firearm-related crimes must not only comprise of wound ballistic assessment but also backspatter analysis, and may even take into account potential correlations between these emergences. The aim of the present study was to evaluate and expand the applicability of the "triple contrast" method by probing its compatibility with forensic analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA and the simultaneous investigation of co-extracted mRNA and miRNA from backspatter collected from internal components of different types of firearms after experimental shootings. We demonstrate that "triple contrast" stained biological samples collected from the inside surfaces of firearms are amenable to forensic co-analysis of DNA and RNA and permit sequence analysis of the entire mtDNA displacement-loop, even for "low template" DNA amounts that preclude standard short tandem repeat DNA analysis. Our findings underscore the "triple contrast" method's usefulness as a research tool in experimental forensic ballistics.

Progress in Medicine: Experts Take Stock.

In the year-end editorial, the PLOS Medicine editors ask 11 researchers and clinicians about the most relevant challenges, promising research, and important initiatives in their fields as we head into 2016.

Kundmachung: Von 8 Uhr Abends an ist der 1. Stock sämmtlicher bewohnten Häuser in der inneren Stadt ...

Welsch (Projektbearbeiter): Anordnung, die Erdgeschosse der Häuser in der Innenstadt nächtens zu beleuchten

Forecasting Intraday Stock Price Trends with Text Mining Techniques

In this paper, we describe NewsCATS (news categorization and trading system), a system implemented to predict stock price trends for the time immediately after the publication of press releases. NewsCATS consists mainly of three components. The first component retrieves relevant information from press releases through the application of text preprocessing techniques. The second component sorts the press releases into predefined categories. Finally, appropriate trading strategies are derived by the third component by means of the earlier categorization. The findings indicate that a categorization of press releases is able to provide additional information that can be used to forecast stock price trends, but that an adequate trading strategy is essential for the results of the categorization to be fully exploited.

The Acceleration of Stock Options in Anticipation of FAS 123 (R)

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) mandated the expensing of stock options with FAS 123 (R). As of March 2006, 749 companies had accelerated the vesting of their employee stock options and avoided a reduction in their reported profits that otherwise would have occurred under the new standard. There are many different motives for the acceleration strategy, and the focus of this study is to determine whether shareholders viewed these motives as either positive or negative. A favorable return subsequent to an acceleration announcement would signify that shareholder's viewed management's motives as positive. An unfavorable return subsequent to an acceleration announcement would signify that shareholder's viewed management's motives as negative. The evidence from this study suggests that shareholders reacted favorably, on average, to acceleration announcements. However, these results lack statistical significance and are based on a small sample, thus, they should be interpreted with caution.

Consumption asymmetry and the stock market: New evidence through a threshold adjustment model

This paper investigates whether stock market wealth affects real consumption asymmetrically through a threshold adjustment model. The empirical findings for the US show that wealth produces an asymmetric effect on real consumption, with negative 'news' affecting consumption less than positive 'news.' Thus, policy makers may want to focus more attention on preventing asset 'bubbles' than on responding to negative asset shocks.

Technical Efficiency and Stock Market Reaction to Horizontal Mergers

This study examines the relationship between stock market reaction to horizontal merger announcements and technical efficiency levels of the participating firms. The analysis is based on data pertaining to eighty mergers between firms in the U.S. manufacturing industry during the 1990s. We employ Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure technical efficiency, which capture the firms. competence to produce the maximum output given certain productive resources. Abnormal returns related to the merger announcements provide the investor.s re-evaluation on the future performance of the participating firms. In order to avoid the problem of nonnormality, heteroskedasticity in the regression analysis, bootstrap method is employed for estimations and inferences. We found that there is a significant relationship between technical efficiency and market response. The market apparently welcomes the merger as an arrangement to improve resource utilizations.

Consumption Asymmetry and the Stock Market: Empirical Evidence

This paper examines whether U.S. stock-market wealth asymmetrically affects consumption. After identifying asymmetric behavior for consumption and stock market wealth, the results confirm that stock-market wealth asymmetrically affects real per capita consumption. Negative 'news' affects consumption more than positive 'news'.