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This study investigates the influence of EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) legislation on the technological trajectory of the chemical industry. Focusing on the Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) list, this study used a novel dataset of chemical patents and structures filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) over the period from 1990 to 2016. A staggered difference-in-differences approach with inverse probability weights was used to measure the impact of the SVHC list on the novelty and toxicity of chemical patents. The analysis revealed a substantial increase in the chemical novelty of patents after the introduction of the SVHC list. Simultaneously, a significant decrease in the toxicity of these patents was observed, underpinning the legislative intent of REACH. These findings highlight the ability of regulatory frameworks to strategically steer innovation, reinforcing the alignment between technological advancement and the overarching goals of responsible and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Food & Fermentation Industries is the property of Food & Fermentation Industries and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Investigación Administrativa is the property of ESCA Santo Tomas - IPN and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

AbstractThe wide interest rate spread has been a matter of concern for many developing economies. In Ghana, the perception is that the interest rate spread is too wide and that banks have linked it to various variables affecting them. This study examines the effect of banking sector reforms on bank interest rate spread in Ghana over the period 2008–2020, using an unbalanced panel-data dynamic-equation regression model. The findings reveal that bank size, profitability, gross domestic product, and inflation rate significantly influence Ghana’s bank interest rate spread. Results also suggest that these factors account for determining the interest rate spread in the universal banking industry in Ghana. The industry needs to mitigate the interest rate spread by improving the macroeconomic environment, address industry-specific issues, strengthen institutional systems, such as governance and supervision, and also continue to ensure stability in the political environment. The study provides valuable insights regarding the design and formulation of competitive policies and regulatory changes on interest rate regimes, to help promote the competitiveness of the universal banking industry in the country. Policymakers and regulators should emphasize enterprise risk management practices in Ghana’s universal banking industry to check credit risk and other risk forms.

Unmanned vessels have been receiving increasing attention over the past few years. In the research and development sector, Autonomous Surface Vessels have been used for over a decade with different degrees of autonomy. The most advanced vessels are already (circum) navigating the oceans, and the question is raised to what extent they are aligned with relevant international maritime legislation. Currently, there is a noted lack of concrete legal clarification on how to adapt Autonomous Surface Vessels to legal instruments such as the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). This paper examines to what extent a fully Autonomous Surface Vessel can comply with a possible amended version of COLREGs. The analysis is conducted from legal and technical perspectives.

The wide interest rate spread has been a matter of concern for many developing economies. In Ghana, the perception is that the interest rate spread is too wide and that banks have linked it to various variables affecting them. This study examines the effect of banking sector reforms on bank interest rate spread in Ghana over the period 2008–2020, using an unbalanced panel-data dynamic-equation regression model. The findings reveal that bank size, profitability, gross domestic product, and inflation rate significantly influence Ghana's bank interest rate spread. Results also suggest that these factors account for determining the interest rate spread in the universal banking industry in Ghana. The industry needs to mitigate the interest rate spread by improving the macroeconomic environment, address industry-specific issues, strengthen institutional systems, such as governance and supervision, and also continue to ensure stability in the political environment. The study provides valuable insights regarding the design and formulation of competitive policies and regulatory changes on interest rate regimes, to help promote the competitiveness of the universal banking industry in the country. Policymakers and regulators should emphasize enterprise risk management practices in Ghana's universal banking industry to check credit risk and other risk forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned vessels have been receiving increasing attention over the past few years. In the research and development sector, Autonomous Surface Vessels have been used for over a decade with different degrees of autonomy. The most advanced vessels are already (circum) navigating the oceans, and the question is raised to what extent they are aligned with relevant international maritime legislation. Currently, there is a noted lack of concrete legal clarification on how to adapt Autonomous Surface Vessels to legal instruments such as the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). This paper examines to what extent a fully Autonomous Surface Vessel can comply with a possible amended version of COLREGs. The analysis is conducted from legal and technical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yakutia, Sakha Republic, in the Siberian Far East, represents one of the coldest places on Earth, with winter record temperatures dropping below -70 °C. Nevertheless, Yakutian horses survive all year round in the open air due to striking phenotypic adaptations, including compact body conformations, extremely hairy winter coats, and acute seasonal differences in metabolic activities. The evolutionary origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis of their adaptations remain, however, contentious. Here, we present the complete genomes of nine present-day Yakutian horses and two ancient specimens dating from the early 19th century and ∼5,200 y ago. By comparing these genomes with the genomes of two Late Pleistocene, 27 domesticated, and three wild Przewalski's horses, we find that contemporary Yakutian horses do not descend from the native horses that populated the region until the mid-Holocene, but were most likely introduced following the migration of the Yakut people a few centuries ago. Thus, they represent one of the fastest cases of adaptation to the extreme temperatures of the Arctic. We find cis-regulatory mutations to have contributed more than nonsynonymous changes to their adaptation, likely due to the comparatively limited standing variation within gene bodies at the time the population was founded. Genes involved in hair development, body size, and metabolic and hormone signaling pathways represent an essential part of the Yakutian horse adaptive genetic toolkit. Finally, we find evidence for convergent evolution with native human populations and woolly mammoths, suggesting that only a few evolutionary strategies are compatible with survival in extremely cold environments.

We evaluate the efficiency of a regulatory change in sugarcane production (Law N°11.241/2002) that gradually banish the pre-harvest burning in the sugarcane production sector in the São Paulo state in Brazil, analyzing the occurrences of fires detected by satellite. To estimate the spatio-temporal dynamics of fire occurrence we use a structural representation in a log-Gaussian Cox process, decomposing the intensity function in components of trend, seasonality, cycles, covariates and spatial effects. The results have provided evidence that the trend component reflects the consistent reduction in fire occurrences, suggesting the efficiency of the mitigation actions implemented in the São Paulo state, and indicating a permanent advance in the environmental sustainability of this form of renewable energy production.

A significant development in the renewable energy field has happened in several countries like Italy, Spain and the Chez Republic over the last years mainly due to the state´s support for renewable energy projects. However, because of the financial crisis, these countries decided to review and change the policies. As a result of the changes implemented renewable investors were affected in some manner. Consequently, many arbitrations claim against these states have been brought under the Energy Charter Treaty. The present Chapter analyses this jurisprudence. Based on the results of these arbitrations the lack of consistency results evident. Different interpretations around the Fair and Equitable Treatment standard and how to find a balance between the need for a stable and predictable investment framework and the sovereign right to regulate are the principal cause of diverse decisions. The concept of the standard in the treaty is reviewed and compared with the evolution of the concept in other investment agreements. In conclusion, possible amendments to increase consistency in the arbitrations under the Energy Charter Treaty will be proposed.

Mortgage loss‐given‐default (LGD) increased significantly when house prices plummeted during the financial crisis; but it has remained over 40% in recent years despite a strong housing recovery. Our results indicate that the sustained high LGDs postcrisis is due to a combination of an overhang of crisis‐era foreclosures and prolonged liquidation timelines, which have offset higher sales recoveries. Simulations show that cutting foreclosure timelines by 1 year would cause LGD to decrease by 5–8 percentage points, depending on the trade‐off between lower liquidation expenses and lower sales recoveries. Using difference‐in‐differences tests, we also find that recent consumer protection programs have extended foreclosure timelines and increased loss severities in spite of their potential benefits of increasing loan modifications and enhancing consumer protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Justicia (0124-7441) is the property of Universidad Simon Bolivar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of regulatory changes on financial reporting quality and audit fees and to further test whether this effect was moderated by firm characteristics (i.e. abnormal audit fees, political connections and overlapping directorship) in Nigeria. This study utilized the data of 90 companies listed on the Nigerian stock exchange over the period 2008–2013. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique that takes into account the endogeneity nature of financial reporting quality and audit fees model, the results indicated that financial reporting quality improved in the regulatory changes period. However, abnormal audit fees, political connection and overlapping directorship deteriorated the effect. Accordingly, future regulatory reforms must be cognizant of these factors. Even though there are abundant empirical studies on financial regulatory changes and their effects on financial reporting quality, this study provides additional insights into the regulatory change literature by investigating how firm characteristics (abnormal audit fees, political connection and overlapping directorship) moderate the effect of regulatory changes particularly in Nigeria, one of the less developed and underresearched capital markets in the world. Further, the findings of this study are robust with respect to the issues of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, which previous studies had failed to consider.

Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) are widely used to control rodent populations, resulting in the serious secondary exposure of predators to these contaminants. In the United Kingdom (UK), professional use and purchase of SGARs were revised in the 2010s. Certain highly toxic SGARs have been authorized since then to be used outdoors around buildings as resistance-breaking chemicals under risk mitigation procedures. However, it is still uncertain whether and how these regulatory changes have influenced the secondary exposure of birds of prey to SGARs. Based on biomonitoring of the UK Common Buzzard ( Buteo buteo ) collected from 2001 to 2019, we assessed the temporal trend of exposure to SGARs and statistically determined potential turning points. The magnitude of difenacoum decreased over time with a seasonal fluctuation, while the magnitude and prevalence of more toxic brodifacoum, authorized to be used outdoors around buildings after the regulatory changes, increased. The summer of 2016 was statistically identified as a turning point for exposure to brodifacoum and summed SGARs that increased after this point. This time point coincided with the aforementioned regulatory changes. Our findings suggest a possible shift in SGAR use to brodifacoum from difenacoum over the decades, which may pose higher risks of impacts on wildlife.

Share repurchase becomes prevalent in the recent years in China, and China gradually changes its regulatory attitude from restriction to encouragement on it. In this paper, we present that the new round of Company Law revision in China reduces the signalling role of share repurchases; however, when the firms deliver good signals on dividends payout, the negative link between regulatory changes and market reaction to share repurchases becomes weaker. The paper sheds lights on the most up-to-date regulatory change in terms of share repurchases in China and its effect on market reaction to share repurchases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Assurances et Gestion des Risques is the property of Universite Laval, Faculty of Business Administration and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines the impact of the regulatory changes introduced by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) in 1999 and by the Securities and Exchange Commission and FFIEC in 2001 on the income smoothing approaches and mechanisms employed by the United States (US) banking industry. We find that the relationship between previous quarter charge-offs and current quarter recoveries that was prevalent in the 1990's to be insignificant for homogeneous loans but for heterogeneous loans the relationship became significant in the years following the regulatory changes. Recoveries are positively and significantly associated with the surprise net interest margin or return on assets which implies recoveries are primarily determined by the economic realities of the charged-off loans. The regulatory changes have strengthened the relationship between current quarter recoveries from heterogeneous loans and current quarter charge-offs but for homogeneous loans this relationship weakened insignificantly. The new regulations reduced the surprise gross loan charge-offs suggesting that the enforcement improved the accuracy of the provision as a predictor of next quarter's gross loan charge-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of a firm's compensation consultant choice on executive compensation by examining shifts in consultant choice stemming from a 2009 U.S. Securities Exchange Commission requirement that firms disclose fees paid to compensation consultants for both consulting and other services. We show that the disclosure rule change acted as a separating device distinguishing firms likely to have used compensation consultants to extract rents from shareholders from firms that were likely to have used consultants to optimally set pay. We conclude that not all multiservice consultants are conflicted, while not all specialist consultants are guardians of shareholder value. Our study provides a more nuanced view of the association between compensation consultant choices and executive pay. This paper was accepted by Shiva Rajgopal, accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical analysis of the way that practice-based strategic planning in terms of disaster risk reduction occurs, highlighting the drivers and facilitators of change. It documents these in the context of other governmental systems. Examination the changes to wildfire planning policy in Victoria, Australia, following the 2009 Bushfire Season, provides an explanation of the realpolitik of policy formation, management and change, as well as inter-governmental interactions. The findings document and discuss the conditions and reasons for strategic change occurring in the case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Spain, solar photovoltaic (PV) power has undergone eleven regulatory changes for the last twelve years. This situation is partly motivated by the uncontrolled increase of the PV capacity installed. Some of these laws have been applied in a retroactive manner, which has motivated a certain degree of instability in this sector. From an economical point of view, the present paper analyses the main regulatory modifications implanted in the Spanish PV sector for the last years. The most significant changes are associated with the feed-in-tariffs, where a cumulative decrease up to 80% has been found out in just five years. In addition, an experimental contribution is included in this paper, which is based on the data collected from a real PV power plant connected to the network in 2009. Based on the field data recorded, a tool that evaluates the economic consequences of the regulatory changes on the considered solar power plant has been developed. Specifically, a wide range of network connection years have been simulated in order to compare the incomes obtained in each scenario with the real PV power plant considered. The results obtained are thus of particular interest for investors, policy makers, and other stakeholders interested in the development of the Spanish PV market since a better understanding of this sector is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insurance regulatory landscape has changed over the last one and a half decades. In case of health insurance, there has been a 39-fold increase in the premium over the last sixteen years. There are multiple factors that may have contributed to this growth including the role played by IRDAI. The insurance regulator has played an important role by introducing several regulations and guidelines related to health insurance business. In this article, an attempt has been made to 'demystify' the recent health insurance regulations. The paper also highlights the key developments in the health insurance industry (chronology from 1999 to 2016), health care financing in India, the role of health insurance and how the recent regulations is going to impact the customers, insurance companies and the industry as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an extension for feasibility assessment of residential energy (heat and electricity) supply solutions in an operational environment undergoing major changes. In order to improve the life cycle economy of the energy supply, the design has to accommodate technological, economic, and regulatory changes in operational environment over the long time. New elements must be included in feasibility assessments of energy supply to ensure consideration of future economic opportunities and risks. The extended feasibility assessment brings up the profitability of “future proofed” more sustainable solutions with lower risks related to utilization costs and with improved resale value preservation. The findings of systematic literature study were structured and clarified into a decision support matrix to guide the assessment process. The procedure was verified by identifying the optimal energy supply solution for a net-zero energy single-family house in Southern Finland. The verification demonstrated that the procedure provides new insights on the economy and the climate implications of the energy solutions.

All hymenopteran species, such as bees, wasps and ants, are characterized by the common principle of haplodiploid sex determination in which haploid males arise from unfertilized eggs and females from fertilized eggs. The underlying molecular mechanism has been studied in detail in the western honey bee Apis mellifera, in which the gene complementary sex determiner (csd) acts as primary signal of the sex determining pathway, initiating female development by csd-heterozygotes. Csd arose from gene duplication of the feminizer (fem) gene, a transformer (tra) ortholog, and mediates in conjunction with transformer2 (tra2) sex-specific splicing of fem. Comparative molecular analyses identified fem/tra and its downstream target doublesex (dsx) as conserved unit within the sex determining pathway of holometabolous insects. In this study, we aim to examine evolutionary differences among these key regulators. Our main hypothesis is that sex determining key regulators in Hymenoptera species show signs of coevolution within single phylogenetic lineages. We take advantage of several newly sequenced genomes of bee species to test this hypothesis using bioinformatic approaches. We found evidences that duplications of fem are restricted to certain bee lineages and notable amino acid differences of tra2 between Apis and non-Apis species propose structural changes in Tra2 protein affecting co-regulatory function on target genes. These findings may help to gain deeper insights into the ancestral mode of hymenopteran sex determination and support the common view of the remarkable evolutionary flexibility in this regulatory pathway.

Background: Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) is widespread, with Phaseolus species as the primary host plants. Numerous BCMV strains have been identified on the basis of a panel of bean varieties that distinguish the pathogenicity types with respect to the viral strains. The molecular responses in Phaseolus to BCMV infection have not yet been well characterized. Results: We report the transcriptional responses of a widely susceptible variety of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L., cultivar 'Stringless green refugee') to two BCMV strains, in a time-course experiment. We also report the genome sequence of a previously unreported BCMV strain. The interaction with the known strain NL1-Iowa causes moderate symptoms and large transcriptional responses, and the newly identified strain (Strain 2 or S2) causes severe symptoms and moderate transcriptional responses. The transcriptional profiles of host plants infected with the two isolates are distinct, and involve numerous differences in splice forms in particular genes, and pathway specific expression patterns. Conclusions: We identified differential host transcriptome response after infection of two different strains of Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Virus infection initiated a suite of changes in gene expression level and patterns in the host plants. Pathways related to defense, gene regulation, metabolic processes, photosynthesis were specifically altered after virus infection. Results presented in this study can increase the understanding of host-pathogen interactions and provide resources for further investigations of the biological mechanisms in BCMV infection and defense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]