Ownership structure, corporate governance and bank performance: Evidence from gcc countries

The paper examines the effect of ownership structure and board characteristics on bank performance of GCC counties. Evidence indicates that the extent of the foreign ownership level has a significant positive association with the bank performance. However, concentrated ownership does appear to have a significant negative impact on performance and institutional ownership does not have any significant effect on performance. Other governance variables such as CEO duality and board size appear insignificant impact on performance. These results suggest a need to strengthen the internal control mechanisms within banks of GCC countries.

Growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes from well-defined POSS nanoclusters structure

High-quality single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with narrow diameter distribution can be generated from well-defined Si8O12 nanoclusters structure which form from thermal decomposition of chemically modified polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS). The nanosized SixOy particles were proved to be responsible for the SWNT growth and believed to be the reason for the narrow diameter distribution of the as-grown SWNTs. This could be extended to other POSS. The SWNTs grown from the nanosized SixOy particles were found to be semiconducting enriched SWNTs (s-SWNTs). A facile patterning technology, direct photolithography, was developed for generating SWNT pattern, which is compatible to industrial-level fabrication of SWNTs pattern for device applications. The metal-free growth together with preferential growth of s-SWNTs and patterning in large scale from the structure-defined silicon oxide nanoclusters not only represent a big step toward the control growth of SWNTs and fabrication of devices for applications particularly in nanoelectronics and biomedicine but also provide a system for further studying and understanding the growth mechanism of SWNTs from nanosized materials and the relationship between the structure of SWNT and nonmetal catalysts.

Capital structure and corporate performance: evidence from Jordan

This study is to investigate the effect which capital structure has had on corporate performance using a panel data sample representing of 167 Jordanian companies during 1989-2003. Our results showed that a firm’s capital structure had a significantly negative impact on the firm’s performance measures, in both the accounting and market’s measures. We also found that the short-term debt to total assets (STDTA) level has a significantly positive effect on the market performance measure (Tobin’s Q). The Gulf Crisis 1990-1991 was found to have a positive impact on Jordani an corporate performance while the out break of Intifadah in the West Bank and Gaza in September 2000 had a negative impact on corporate performance.

Ownership structure and collateral requirements: Evidence from China’s listed firms

This paper examines the effect of ownership structure on collateral requirements using a sample of China's listed firms from 2007 to 2009. We find that compared to privately controlled companies, state-controlled companies are less likely to be required to pledge collateral, and such a difference is more pronounced for firms in troubled industries. The empirical results also show that the effect of state control on collateral requirements is weaker in companies with more foreign ownership. Moreover, the effect of state control on collateral requirements is weaker in companies with more third party guarantees. Finally, we find that the effect of state control on collateral requirements is more pronounced for firms operating in regions with more government intervention.

Disproportional ownership structure and pay–performance relationship: evidence from China’s listed firms

This paper examines the impact of ownership structure on executive compensation in China's listed firms. We find that the cash flow rights of ultimate controlling shareholders have a positive effect on the pay–performance relationship, while a divergence between control rights and cash flow rights has a significantly negative effect on the pay–performance relationship. We divide our sample based on ultimate controlling shareholders' type into state owned enterprises (SOE), state assets management bureaus (SAMB), and privately controlled firms. We find that in SOE controlled firms cash flow rights have a significant impact on accounting based pay–performance relationship. In privately controlled firms, cash flow rights affect the market based pay–performance relationship. In SAMB controlled firms, CEO pay bears no relationship with either accounting or market based performance. The evidence suggests that CEO pay is inefficient in firms where the state is the controlling shareholder because it is insensitive to market based performance but consistent with the efforts of controlling shareholders to maximize their private benefit.

Managerial ownership, capital structure and firm value: Evidence from China’s civilian-run firms

This paper examines the influence of managerial ownership on firm performance through capital-structure choices, using a sample of China’s civilian-run firms listed on the Chinese stock market between 2002 and 2007. The empirical results demonstrate a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm value. Managerial ownership drives the capital structure into a nonlinear shape, but in an opposite direction to the effect of managerial ownership on firm value. The results of simultaneous regressions suggest that managerial ownership affects capital structure, which in turn affects firm value. Our findings imply that the “interest convergence” and “entrenchment” effects of managers’ behaviour in terms of managerial ownership can also explain the agency-relevant situation of China’s civilian-run firms.

The effect of ownership structure on leverage decision: new evidence from Chinese listed firms

This paper examines the effect of state control and ownership structure on the leverage decision of firms listed in the Chinese stock market. Our results show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have higher leverage ratios than non-SOEs, and SOEs in regions with a poorer institutional environment have higher leverage ratios than SOEs in better regions. We also show that the largest shareholding (the percentage of shares held by the largest shareholder) in the SOEs has a negative relationship with the leverage ratio, while the largest shareholding in non-SOEs has a non-linear relationship with the short-term and long-term debt ratios. Finally, this study also shows that the share split reform and the improvement of institutional environment both weaken the negative relationship and strengthen the positive relationship between largest shareholding and leverage of SOEs and non-SOEs to some extent. This paper documents how the financing behaviour of SOEs is more influenced by government intervention, while the financing behaviour of non-SOEs is more market oriented.

Use of airflow to improve the nanofibrous structure and quality of nanofibers from needleless electrospinning

Mass production of nanofibers from needleless electrospinning shows great potential in research and development of nanofibers. However, how to improve the electrospinning performance so as to achieve high quality nanofibers is still of great challenge. In this study, airflow has been applied to optimize upward needleless electrospinning from ring spinneret. Effects of airflow speed and the position of airflow on the nanofiber quality and production rate have been investigated. It has been found that thinner and more uniform nanofibers were produced when airflow was applied to needleless electrospinning system. It also improved the collected nonwoven membrane, resulting in better nanofibrous structure of the as-spun nanofibers. Application of airflow on needleless electrospinning would further benefit the development of mass production of nanofibers from needleless electrospinning.

Mountain barriers and river conduits: phylogeographical structure in a large, mobile lizard (Varanidae: Varanus varius) from eastern Australia

Aim: Across eastern Australia, mountain ranges (the Great Dividing Range) and river catchments (the Murray-Darling Basin) are likely to have shaped the phylogeographical structure of many species. We address how such processes have influenced the phylogeography of the lace monitor, Varanus varius, a large mobile lizard. Location: Eastern and south-eastern Australia. Methods: Phylogeographical hypotheses were tested using up to 90 museum and field-collected samples from across the entire species' range; a 671-bp region of the mtDNA gene ND4 was sequenced and all individuals were genotyped (eight microsatellite loci). Results: Maximum-likelihood analysis of sequence data revealed three geographically separate clades, with divergences estimated to have occurred during the Pleistocene. The south-eastern clade showed an expansion pattern from northern refugia and dispersal appears to have occurred along the Murray-Darling river system. Microsatellite analyses support mtDNA clades but indicate secondary contact in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Main conclusions: Our results indicate that phylogeographical structure and contemporary gene flow in Varanus varius is shaped by dispersal capacity, geographical barriers and the presence of ancient river corridors. Indeed, only the most significant geological (McPherson Range) and habitat barriers (Burdekin Gap) appear to limit gene flow in this species. The expansion of the clade on the western side of the Great Dividing Range suggests that ancient riparian corridors have facilitated extensive gene flow. Our study highlights the importance of understanding a species' ecological dynamics when examining broad-scale evolutionary patterns.

Limited functional redundancy in vertebrate scavenger guilds fails to compensate for the loss of raptors from urbanized sandy beaches

Aim: Globally, urbanization is one of the most widespread, intense and ecologically destructive forms of landscape transformation, and it is often concentrated in coastal areas. Theoretically, species losses attributable to urbanization are predicted not to alter overall ecosystem function if functional redundancy (i.e. replacement of function by alternative species) compensates for such losses. Here, we test this expectation by measuring how coastal urbanization affects scavenger guilds on sandy beaches and whether changes in guild composition result either in an overall loss of scavenging efficiency, or in functional compensation under alternative guild structures, maintaining net ecosystem functioning. Location: Fourteen beaches along the east coast of Australia with variable levels of urbanization. Methods: Scavenging communities and rates of carrion removal were determined using motion-triggered cameras at the beach-dune interface. Results: A substantial shift in the community structure of vertebrate scavengers was associated with gradients in urbanization. Iconic and functionally important raptors declined precipitously in abundance on urban beaches. Importantly, other vertebrates usually associated with urban settings (e.g. dogs, foxes, corvids) did not functionally replace raptors. In areas where < 15% of the abutting land had been developed into urban areas, carcass removal by scavengers was often complete, but always > 70%. Conversely, on beaches bordering coastal cities with < 40% of natural vegetation remaining, two-thirds of fish carcasses remained uneaten by scavengers. Raptors removed 70-100% of all deployed fish carcasses from beaches with < 8% urban land cover, but this number dropped significantly with greater levels of urbanization and was not compensated by other scavenger species in urban settings. Main conclusions: There is limited functional redundancy in vertebrate scavenger communities of sandy beach ecosystems, which impacts the system's capacity to mitigate the ecological consequences of detrimental landscape transformations.

The role of no-arbitrage on forecasting: lessons from a parametric term structure model

Parametric term structure models have been successfully applied to innumerous problems in fixed income markets, including pricing, hedging, managing risk, as well as studying monetary policy implications. On their turn, dynamic term structure models, equipped with stronger economic structure, have been mainly adopted to price derivatives and explain empirical stylized facts. In this paper, we combine flavors of those two classes of models to test if no-arbitrage affects forecasting. We construct cross section (allowing arbitrages) and arbitrage-free versions of a parametric polynomial model to analyze how well they predict out-of-sample interest rates. Based on U.S. Treasury yield data, we find that no-arbitrage restrictions significantly improve forecasts. Arbitrage-free versions achieve overall smaller biases and Root Mean Square Errors for most maturities and forecasting horizons. Furthermore, a decomposition of forecasts into forward-rates and holding return premia indicates that the superior performance of no-arbitrage versions is due to a better identification of bond risk premium.

Capital structure choice of foreign subsidiaries: evidence from multinationals in Brazil

Is the capital structure choice of a foreign subsidiary different from the choice of a comparable company controlled by nationals? If so, what are the differences? In this paper we shed some light on these questions by looking at a sample of foreign subsidiaries in Brazil over the period 1985 to 1994. We find that the foreign subsidiaries in our sample are more levered than their Brazilian counterparts. This difference, however, has declined over time. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that foreign subsidiaries increase leverage as a hedge against an expropriation of assets in a nationalization process.

Effects of capital structure on markups and competitive performance : evidence from Portugal

Este estudo avalia os efeitos da estrutura de capital nas margens de lucro e no desempenho competitivo. Aplica teorias relativas à contra ciclicidade das margens de lucro, e aos resultados do mercado do produto de Chevalier e Scharfstein (1996), a dados portugueses, seguindo a metodologia de Campello (2001). Utilizando dados de painel de empresas pertencentes à indústria transformadora Portuguesa, a análise fornece evidencia para a contra-ciclicidade de margens de lucro e de um efeito conjunto de dívida e recessão económica nas margens de lucro. Tendo por base o recenseamento de empresas Portuguesas, a análise não fornece evidência de uma relação significativa entre a estrutura de capital e o desempenho competitivo.

Structure-function relationship of new crotamine isoform from the Crotalus durissus cascavella

In this work we isolated a novel crotamine like protein from the Crotalus durissus cascavella venom by combination of molecular exclusion and analytical reverse phase HPLC. Its primary structure was:YKRCHKKGGHCFPKEKICLPPSSDLGKMDCRWKRK-CCKKGS GK. This protein showed a molecular mass of 4892.89 da that was determined by Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. The approximately pI value of this protein was determined in 9.9 by two-dimensional electrophoresis. This crotamine-like protein isolated here and that named as Cro 2 produced skeletal muscle spasm and spastic paralysis in mice similarly to other crotamines like proteins. Cro 2 did not modify the insulin secretion at low glucose concentration (2.8 and 5.6 mM), but at high glucose concentration (16.7 mM) we observed an insulin secretion increasing of 2.7-3.0-fold than to control. The Na+ channel antagonist tetrodoxin (6 mM) decreased glucose and Cro 2-induced insulin secretion. These results suggested that Na+ channel are involved in the insulin secretion. In this article, we also purified some peptide fragment from the treatment of reduced and carboxymethylated Cro 2 (RC-Cro 2) with cyanogen bromide and protease V8 from Staphylococcus aureus. The isolated pancreatic beta-cells were then treated with peptides only at high glucose concentration (16.7 mM), in this condition only two peptides induced insulin secretion. The amino acid sequence homology analysis of the whole crotamine as well as the biologically-active peptide allowed determining the consensus region of the biologically-active crotamine responsible for insulin secretion was KGGHCFPKE and DCRWKWKCCKKGSG.

Population structure and growth of the hermit crab Pagurus brevidacylus (Anomura : Paguridae) from the northern coast of São Paulo, Brazil

The hermit crab Paguras brevidactylus (Crustacea: Anomura: Paguridea) from the infralittoral area of Anchieta Island, Ubatuba, was characterized by population Structure (size, sex ratio, reproduction and recruitment) and growth. Animals were collected monthly during 1999 by SCUBA diving. A total of 1525 individuals was collected (633 males and 892 females), 695 of them were ovigerous females. Overall sex ratio was 0.7:1 in favour of females. The crabs showed a unimodal distribution with males significantly larger than females. Ovigerous females were collected during all months and in high percentages from 1.0 mm of shield length, demonstrating intense and Continuous reproduction. The longevity was approximately 24 months for males and 18 for females, which showed larger growth rate and reached sexual maturity earlier (two months) than males. The low number of males in this Population may be due to the longer life span. Moreover, the sexual dimorphism favours males during the intra- and interspecific fights by shell, food, reproduction and territory. Females demonstrated a short life cycle and intense reproduction.