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We study the effects of cash-flow taxation on firms’ entry and investment decisions when there is bankruptcy risk and when banks face asymmetric information problems in financing heterogeneous firms. When there is moral hazard, firms under-invest, while with adverse selection too many firms enter. Cash-flow taxation applying to both real and financial cash flows corrects these distortions by inducing more investment in rent-generating projects where moral hazard exists and reducing firm entry under adverse selection. Our results in the moral hazard case depend on the tax losses of bankrupt firms accruing to the banks. If bankrupt firms retain tax losses, the cash-flow corporate tax is neutral as in Bond and Devereux (J Public Econ 87:1291–1311, 2003).

Le modèle transactionnel du stress est l'un des modèles explicatifs les mieux connus. Par un mécanisme de double évaluation, cette perspective cognitivo-phénoménologique propose que l'état de stress émane d'une inadéquation entre les demandes contextuelles et les ressources personnelles. Peu de validations intégrales de ce modèle ont été effectuées jusqu’à maintenant. Cette étude propose une vérification de l’ensemble de la dynamique transactionnelle du stress en contexte professionnel au moyen d’une étude transversale auprès de 420 enseignants. L'étude cherche à vérifier la séquence sous-jacente au modèle transactionnel ainsi que divers effets médiateurs/modérateurs issus de l'intervention de certaines caractéristiques individuelles. Les résultats des analyses statistiques permettent globalement de considérer que la perspective transactionnelle est une façon efficace de conceptualiser le stress au travail en milieu scolaire., The transactional stress model is one of the most recognized explanatory models. Through a double evaluation mechanism, this cognitive-phenomenological perspective proposes that the state of stress emanates from a mismatch between contextual demands and personal resources. Few thorough validations of the model have been made until now. This study proposes a verification of the full dynamic of stress in a professional context via a cross-sectional study of 420 teachers. The study seeks to verify the spillover effect underlying the transactional model as well as various mediating/moderating effects resulting from the intervention of certain individual characteristics. The results of the statistical analysis generally confirm the transactional perspective as an effective way to conceptualize work stress in educational context.

We explore the effect of profit taxation and regulation of banks and other financial intermediaries in a setting in which intermediation is inefficient. The inefficiencies arise from imperfect screening of lenders, which tends to limit lending, and government provision of deposit insurance, which encourages excessive lending. An R+F cash-flow tax with and without full refundability of tax losses is applied to financial sector profits. As well, the government regulates the amount of lending financial intermediaries can do relative to their equity. With full refundability, the cash-flow tax is neutral and has no effect on existing distortions. The tax transfers rents to the government. If tax losses are not refunded in the event of bank insolvency, the tax discourages loans and the optimal tax rate is reduced. The optimal regulation of the loan–equity ratio of banks as a complementary policy instrument is characterized.

Introduction et objectifs – Au cours des dernières décennies, le stress est devenu, tant au sein des organisations que dans la vie quotidienne, un sujet de grand intérêt. Il en est de même pour la performance au travail. Qui plus est, il est possible de répertorier cinq thèses distinctes et compétitives concernant la nature de la relation unissant le stress à la performance au travail. Ainsi, malgré un nombre important d’études sur le sujet, la relation entre ces deux variables demeure ambiguë puisque les observations empiriques ne convergent pas vers une unique nature relationnelle. Cette étude a pour objectif principal d’explorer l’incidence du stress sur la performance au travail et dans un deuxième temps, de vérifier l’impact de la personnalité sur la nature de cette relation. Méthodes – La collecte de données, recueillies par questionnaires autoadministrés ainsi que par des dosages salivaires auprès d’étudiants dans le domaine de la gestion (n=10), a été effectuée dans le cadre d’une étude empirique réalisée en laboratoire. Résultats – Les analyses statistiques permettent d’observer des liens significatifs, sous certaines conditions, entre le stress et la performance. De plus, le facteur de personnalité de l’agréabilité aurait un effet sur le différentiel de la sous-dimension de la performance « résolution de problèmes », et la stabilité émotionnelle aurait un effet sur le différentiel de la sous-dimension de la performance « orientation vers le service à la clientèle ». Conclusion – Ces observations démontrent la nécessité de poursuivre les recherches et d’explorer la relation stress/performance [...]

When he meets with local bureaucrats and potential investors, Ricky Chiu, CEO of the Hong Kong start-up Phase Scientific, says the question they most often ask is, “When are you going to be profitable?” In California, where he lived for 18 years, investors typically focused on a start-up’s technology and management team. “Here, it’s more practical,” he says. Before he moved back to Hong Kong last year to head the company he had launched there in 2017, Chiu was well aware that his birthplace was not home to many sophisticated venture capitalists. But he saw something else. The local government’s perennial indifference toward biotech had gone. “They want success stories,” Chiu says. “A lot of people here will pull together to ensure you are successful.” He wagered that Phase, which manufactures diagnostic kits and provides sample preparation services, stood a good chance in a city better known for finance and

Modern management of colorectal cancer (CRC) with peritoneal metastasis (PM) is based on a combination of cytoreductive surgery (CRS), systemic chemotherapy, and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). Although the role of hipec has recently been questioned with respect to results from the PRODIGE 7 trial, the role and benefit of a complete CRS were confirmed, as observed with a 41-month gain in median survival in that study, and 15% of patients remaining disease-free at 5 years. Still, CRC with PM is associated with a poor prognosis, and good patient selection is essential. Many questions about the optimal management approach for such patients remain, but all patients with PM from CRC should be referred to, or discussed with, a PM surgical oncologist, because cure is possible. The objective of the present guideline is to offer a practical approach to the management of PM from CRC and to reflect on the new practice standards set by recent publications on the topic.

Literature on rectal anastomosis and diverting ileostomy in patients treated with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is limited. This study assesses the safety of rectal anastomoses during cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and HIPEC, with and without fecal diversion, and its morbidity when performed.From January 2012 to January 2020, patients with peritoneal metastases who underwent CRS and HIPEC that required a rectal anastomosis were included in this single-hospital retrospective chart review.84 patients were included, of which 29 had a diverting loop ileostomy. The rectal anastomotic leak (AL) rate for the series was 8.3%. Factors associated with AL were male gender (p = 0.031) and increased BMI (p 0.0005). Diverting loop ileostomy was associated with a significant decrease of clinically significant rectal AL (0% vs 12.7%, p = 0.045). However, the 90-day readmission rate was higher in this group (37.9% vs 10.9%, p = 0.003). Stoma reversal surgery was performed for all patients, but 3 patients experienced AL (10.7%).This study suggests that creation of a diverting loop ileostomy may be an effective strategy to prevent symptomatic rectal AL following CRS with HIPEC. However, it is also associated with an increased readmission rate and increased risk of AL following reversal surgery.

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) often makes use of multiple scans in forests to allow for a complete view of a given area. Combining measurements from multiple locations requires accurate co-registration of the scans to a common reference coordinate system, which currently relies on markers, an often cumbersome process in forests. Existing algorithms for achieving marker-free registration of TLS scans in forests promise to significantly decrease field work time, but are not yet operational and their results have not been validated against traditional methods. Here we present a new implementation of an existing approach which runs in parallel mode and is able to process TLS data acquired over large forest areas. To validate our algorithm, point cloud registration matrices (translation and rotation) derived from our algorithm were compared to those obtained using reflective markers in multiple forest types. The results show that our approach can be used operationally in forests with relatively clear understory, and it provides accuracy similar to that obtained from using reflective markers. Furthermore, we identified factors that can lead to this approach falling short of providing acceptable results in terms of accuracy.

In this paper, we study optimal income taxation when different job types exist for workers of different skills. Each job type has some feasible range of incomes from which workers choose by varying labor supply. Workers are more productive than others in the jobs that suit them best. The model combines features of the classic optimal tax literature with labor variability along the intensive margin, with the extensive‐margin approach where workers make discrete job choices and/or participation decisions. We find that first‐best maximin utility can be achieved in the second‐best, and marginal tax rates below the top can be negative or zero.

The bad news about air quality in China is well known. Almost every winter, as temperatures cool in the north of the country and homes need to be heated, China makes headlines around the world for the poor quality of its air. A particularly bad episode last December was dubbed Airpocalypse. During Airpocalypse, several cities in northern China reported air pollution readings that were off the scale. Hundreds of flights out of the capital, Beijing, were canceled. Schools were closed. And municipal governments declared a red alert on the smog, which affected nearly 500 million people. More recently, in May, vehicular and industrial emissions combined with a sandstorm to again send pollution levels off the charts in Beijing. But the headlines and ominous pictures distract attention from a positive trend. Chinese authorities are doing more and more to control air pollution, and the effort is starting to pay off. Despite

Clothing and drinking bottles made from coal? In China, that’s more and more the case. Widely viewed in much of the world as dirty, planet warming, and on its way to obsolescence, coal is on the ascent in China’s chemical industry, where it is increasingly a raw material for making polyester fiber and resin. China’s chemical industry is at a chronic cost disadvantage compared with other countries’ because of a lack of domestic crude oil and natural gas. But China has a lot of coal. The only country to do so on such a scale, China produces millions of metric tons of polyvinyl chloride, polyolefins, and liquid fuels every year using coal as a raw material. Until recently, polyester wasn’t on the list of materials made from coal, but this is changing rapidly. Relatively new processes that use coal to obtain ethylene glycol—a raw material for making polyester fiber and

Carbon fiber for the aerospace industry. Materials used in regenerative medicine. Highly purified chemicals for making the most advanced computer chips. Japanese chemical manufacturers nowadays are...

Autonomous vehicles, data clouds, smartphones, and chemical profits. The fourth item on this list seems out of place, but it belongs. As the tools consumers use get more interconnected and the most mundane objects come endowed with smart capabilities, profits are surging at chemical firms that supply the materials used to make them. Profitability is high—reaching record levels in some cases—at most chemical makers that have a large exposure to electronics. It is clearly the best of times for companies supplying the electronics industry. But it may not last. A recent meeting of electronic materials suppliers in Seoul, South Korea, revealed that they face many challenges, even in the current boom times. R&D is becoming increasingly challenging. Product cycles are becoming shorter. Semiconductor manufacturers are reluctant to open up about their product development efforts. And to top it all off, a trade war is on the horizon. But for the

The election of Taiwan’s current president, Tsai Ing-wen, was widely expected to usher in a golden age for the island’s biotech sector. An alumna of that sector, Tsai used to chair a prominent biotech start-up, TaiMed Biologics. Her vice president is an epidemiologist with a degree from Johns Hopkins University, while Taiwan’s premier holds a master’s in public health from Harvard University. But by most accounts, the high expectations set for biotech have not yet been met. The government’s attention has shifted, some say. And for the past two years, a towering local figure, biochemistry professor Chi-Huey Wong, has been entangled in a complex insider-trading and corruption scandal that is casting a shadow over the whole industry and highlighting deficiencies in Taiwan’s ability to regulate its biotech sector. Still, Taiwan has achieved a lot since it began promoting biotechnology a few decades ago. Several of its biotech firms have drug

This paper contributes to collective bargaining research by providing a causal theoretical biological link path between negotiation behaviors and their substantive and relational results. Specifically, the role of oxytocin is described in light of the scientific knowledge that comes from organizational neurosciences, neuroeconomics and, psychology fields. The properties of the hormone, its place in neuroeconomics research and, their links with the psychology of the collective bargaining processes are discussed to determine guidelines for a new experimental protocol meant to study decision-making processes during collective bargaining. In addition, the conceptual model of strategic negotiations serves as a theoretical framework to consolidate the propositions that can be deduced from the results of the interaction processes in collective bargaining according to two dimensions of the outcome of the negotiations. Finally, the parameters of a new experimental protocol derived from the trust game are presented for the first time. This new game presents a more ecological perspective and is developed to offer a better fit with the specific domain of collective bargaining.

Periodic visitors to the TV section of large electronics stores are usually impressed by how display technology constantly improves. At each new visit, the screens are larger, thinner, brighter, and often cheaper than they were during the previous trip to the shop a year or two earlier. Visitors to a store today will see that more than two-thirds of TV screens on the market are now larger than 40 inches. They’ll notice that Samsung and a few other firms are pushing a technology called quantum dots that seems to enhance colors and brightness. At some point, a TV model promoted by LG might attract attention, but perhaps more for its higher price than the performance improvement it offers. Alone among its competitors, LG manufactures a line of TVs making use of organic light-emitting diode technology. Long the focus of research at academic and corporate labs worldwide, OLED displays are starting

Electrocautery (EC) is used during cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). Using a murine model, we studied the effect of HIPEC on small bowel EC lesions and surrounding normal tissues.Thirty-two rats were divided into five groups: a control group with EC lesions; EC plus intraperitoneal heated 5% dextrose (D5W); EC plus oxaliplatin (OXA, 460 mg/m(2)); EC plus mitomycin C 10 mg/m(2) (MMC10); EC plus MMC 35 mg/m(2) (MMC35). EC lesions and surrounding tissue microvasculature were analysed after intravenous injection of fluorescein.In the ileum OXA significantly reduced EC lesions microvasculature compared with the control group; MMC10 caused greater reduction than the control, D5W and MMC35 groups. Surrounding tissue microvasculature was significantly reduced by MMC35 exposure when compared to the control, OXA or MMC10 groups. In the jejunum EC injuries exposed to OXA or MMC10 had significantly reduced microvasculature compared to the control, heated D5W and MMC35 groups. Surrounding tissue microvasculature was significantly reduced by MMC35 exposure when compared to the OXA group. There was no significant microvasculature difference between the EC lesions made before or after HIPEC.HIPEC with OXA and MMC10 potentiates small bowel wall EC injuries. MMC35 reduces surrounding unharmed tissue microvasculature. There was no effect of hyperthermia alone on microvasculature.

For the past 30 years or so, postdoctoral researchers from China have played an important role in chemistry research groups at universities in the U.S. Many research groups feature one or more graduates from Chinese universities who are in the U.S. to further their knowledge. But the supply of Chinese researchers is starting to dry up. Hao-liang Zhang, a soon-to-be graduate who has focused on glycosylation during his doctoral studies at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), offers a perspective typical of graduating Ph.D.s regarding the pursuit of a postdoc in the U.S. “I would be older when I return to China, and probably less attractive to potential employers,” says Zhang, who hails from the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan. On the other hand, he can work in China right away and live close to his home too. A pharmaceutical company based in Chengdu, Sichuan, approached him recently. “The talks

Thailand has a lot going for it. The appropriately nicknamed Land of Smiles is a country of lush greenery, white-sand beaches, aromatic tropical fruit, and deep Buddhist spirituality. And to the many foreign visitors who are there on extended stays far from home, Thailand also offers the reassuring presence of a network of world-class hospitals. What Thailand is not known for is innovative products. The hundreds of foreign companies that operate plants in the country overwhelmingly produce items—be they cars, electronic components, or chemicals—based on technology developed elsewhere. In the life sciences in particular, precious few Thai or foreign firms conduct any innovative R&D in the country. This dearth of innovation is something the government wants to change. Under a new policy named Thailand 4.0, Thailand wants to transform itself into an innovation-driven country where life sciences and industrial biotechnology play important roles. To help promote the new policy outside

Fixing the eyes of patients who are going blind and the knees of those about to lose their ability to walk. Both are goals of two venerable Japanese firms, Fujifilm and Hitachi Chemical, which hope to turn regenerative medicine into a viable, mass-market business. Meanwhile, Japanese petrochemical maker Mitsui Chemicals aims to become a global player in materials for dental care. And JSR, a company formerly known as Japan Synthetic Rubber, wants to build a major business around supplying materials to manufacturers of biologic drugs. For JSR, the life sciences are another step away from its original, and still thriving, synthetic rubber business. In the past 25 years, the company has expanded into chemicals for the electronic industry. Materials for biologic drugs might seem an implausible step beyond, but JSR managers believe otherwise. “We’re targeting custom manufacturers of biological drugs,” says Eric Johnson, U.S.-based head of JSR’s newly formed life

Jianmin Fang is a professor of molecular medicine at Shanghai’s Tongji University who for decades has been studying the mechanisms by which tumors develop. Fang also has two companies in Yantai in Northeast China. One, RemeGen, he founded in 2008 to develop biological drugs for cancers and other diseases. It now employs 250 people. The other provides manufacturing services to RemeGen and other drug firms. In Beijing, Xiaodong Wang is the founder of the National Institute of Biological Sciences, a government lab that conducts basic life sciences research and employs 700 people. On the side, Wang is founder and director of BeiGene, an oncology drug research firm he launched in 2010. BeiGene has several drug candidates being tested on patients in China and other countries. Fang and Wang are pioneers who started their companies before it was fashionable for Chinese academics to do so. China has long been fertile ground

Enabling most of the world’s technological advances, microchips are an ode to the ingenuity of electronics engineers. In the future, however, those engineers will become increasingly dependent on materials scientists. As circuits get thinner and thinner—below 1 nm within a few years—creative materials scientists will be called on to play a role in enabling further technological advances. “Many of the technical challenges in semiconductor manufacturing can be overcome by material innovation,” said Dongjun Lee, a researcher and vice president at the chipmaker SK Hynix, at a recent event in Seoul, South Korea. “Some of the materials we use now, they will not work on the smaller nodes,” he said, referring to future generations of microchips with even smaller circuit lines. Lee was speaking at the Strategic Materials Conference Korea, an annual event hosted by Semi, an association for chip designers and manufacturers. Operating in an industry that is notoriously cyclical

Aeons from now, people might regard the semiconductors in our computers, phones, and flash drives the same way we now marvel at the Pyramid of Cheops: as wonders of precision and craftsmanship. Bob Roberts, an industry veteran who works for Axus Technology and also consults for Techcet, tells people to imagine a 12-inch silicon wafer blown up to a mile in diameter. The wafer, at that scale, would be 13 feet thick. But the dozens of complex layers of circuitry that make up the chips on top of it would add less than a quarter of an inch more. This nanoscale architecture is a feat of collaborative engineering. For 50 years, the semiconductor industry has been marching to a beat set by Gordon E. Moore, the chemist who predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double every two years. Since then, chemists, physicists, and electrical engineers from ...

When the price of oil started to plummet in 2014, many industry watchers assumed China would stop investing in chemical plants that use coal as a feedstock. That assumption was wrong. Across China, new chemical plants are under construction. Some consume oil; some consume coal. Despite a slowdown in the growth of its gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years, China retains a voracious appetite for basic chemicals and polymers. The country’s enduring demand makes it an attractive and profitable market for companies that produce chemicals using all sorts of feedstocks, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. China isn’t the fast-growing market it once was for chemical makers, but it is a much larger market that steadily consumes plastics and other basic products. In fact, China is by far the world’s largest consumer of chemicals, accounting for one-third of global demand, according to research from the market intelligence