bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Fence, Over the Fence
Authors: Schofield John
Published: June 2017

Given the significance of military training in shaping early archaeological practice, and the enthusiasm with which archaeologists have explored the remains of early conflict (from the Roman and medieval periods especially), it is surprising how long it has taken archaeologists to develop interest in more recent conflict. It seems to have taken the fiftieth anniversaries of the Second World War to inspire interest amongst professional archaeologists and across the heritage sector, following a longer history of amateur endeavour. This chapter briefly reviews these earlier histories of the subject, before focusing on some recent examples that illustrate the breadth of research and the opportunities it provides for public engagement. The role of anniversaries appears particularly relevant at the time of writing, with the centenary of the First World War. Alongside archaeological activities along the former Western Front, and in Jordan, an archaeological survey of the UK Home Front is under way.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Authors: Bolen Donald
Published: June 2017

This chapter offers theological reflections on prayer for unity and then traces the historical development of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from the Octave of Christian Unity established by Paul Wattson and the Society of the Atonement, through the revisioning of the week of prayer by Paul Couturier, to the present collaboration between the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in order to produce materials for the week. It then outlines the method of preparing the annual resource materials. Within the wider context of spiritual ecumenism and prayer for unity, the week of prayer is a particular opportunity to live out the Christian baptismal commitment to discipleship, to promote Christian reconciliation and unity, and to be conformed to the will of Christ.
Generalization
Authors: Turner Henry S.
Published: June 2017

This book explores emerging trends in the study of early modern theatre. It consists of essays that reflect on what a ‘New Theatricality’ would look like by providing what engineers call an ‘exploded view’ of early modern theatricality. Taken together, the essays highlight a cluster of mimetic and symbolic techniques: the objects, bodies, conventions, signs, and collective habits of apprehending performance that ‘theatricality’ conveniently designates. Each essay serves as an exercise in the so-called art of creative generalization: a set of historical, formal, and philosophical questions are bundled into a single topic, chosen by the contributors themselves that could stand for the idea of theatricality as a whole. This chapter provides an overview of the essays and the topics they tackle, ranging from stage to interiority and off-stage, theatrical mobility, the concept of time, and the distinction between theatre and drama.
Dumb show
Authors: Lopez Jeremy
Published: June 2017

This chapter examines the theatrical experience provided by early modern dumb shows and the critical tradition that has emerged around them. It argues that dumb shows are a threshold between drama and theatricality, and that they vividly represent not only the contest between text and performance for authority over theatrical meaning, but also the tendency of each to displace this authority onto the other. In the canon of early modern theatre and in the modern critical tradition, dumb shows are often a sign of a derivative theatricality directed at a merely popular audience. In the dumb show, there is an especially complex and self-conscious encounter between word and action, diegesis and mimesis, presentational vehicles and represented fiction. As a moment of extraordinary semiotic density and redundancy, the dumb show was at once too readerly for the stage and too spectacular for the printed book. The chapter also considers ‘Hamlet’s advice to the players’ and its implications for approaches and responses to the dumb show.
Poor
Authors: Henke Robert
Published: June 2017

This chapter examines how the experience of poverty followed players wherever they travelled, furnishing the European theatre with some of its most popular tropes while at the same time persisting as a raw, brute reality throughout all of its formal translations and displacements. The chapter sets the drama of England, France, Italy, and Spain against the backdrop of the new modes of capitalist accumulation that were beginning to transform European society, including the commercial theatre itself, in order to demonstrate the omnipresence of poverty as theatrical energy in early modern theatre in the form of hunger, physical degradation, begging, charity, and economically induced crime. It shows how poverty functioned as a fertile source for actor’s gags and authors’ conceits and considers the different ways in which the themes and energies of poverty are staged in plays and performance, namely: marginalization, fictionalization, carnivalization, criminalization, repression, and vestigial presence.
Foreign
Authors: Wofford Susanne L.
Published: June 2017

This chapter focuses on the importation into English drama of elements that had their roots in European theatre as well as in classical sources and in English imaginations of the ancient past. It shows how this foreign material was absorbed by the plays of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, and John Marston, becoming fully international even when they appeared to be most local. It also considers several methodological categories for thinking in new ways about the problem of cultural translation that had come to define English theatre by 1600, including the need to recognize what it calls the ‘formal agency’ of the theatre’s many different parts—the tropes, genres, emotions, characters, geographies, and ideas that imported a richly overdetermined set of foreign cultural meanings onto the English stage. Three troping actions that describe the transformations brought about by the foreign on stage are discussed: the foreign as intertext, or trope intertextual; the foreign as intertheatrical, or intertheatrical trope; and translation, or trope intercultural.
Honestas
Authors: Withington Phil
Published: June 2017

This chapter examines the emergence of a specifically theatrical notion of personhood in the mid-seventeenth century, one that had its roots in earlier humanist notions of honestas, decorum, and civility but that had been modified by antitheatrical discourse and by new attempts to imagine a performative public sphere. It begins by tracing the long genealogy of quotidian theatricality embedded in the idea of honestas, which characterized Renaissance and early Enlightenment notions of normative sociability. It then explores the predominant meanings and inferences of ‘theatrical’ over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, along with some of the ways and genres by which honestas was recommended to the wider reading public. The chapter concludes with a close analysis of William Shakespeare’s Othello, which captures in the figure of Iago the many and conflicting meanings of honesty (including honestas) and dramatizes the profound social dangers of an accomplished ‘Theatrical personality’ that could manipulate conversations and interactions at will.
Interiority
Authors: Preiss Richard
Published: June 2017

This chapter traces the history of theatrical interiority and shows when and why early modern theatre became invested in it. More specifically, it examines the way the enclosure of the theatres made possible not only a newly commercialized drama but also characterization and plot-structure that depended on an implied but unrevealed depth. The chapter first considers the analogy between round amphitheatres and ‘round’, complex characters before discussing the culture of the money box to establish the link between early modern theatrical economics and its aesthetics. It then looks at the play’s resistance to closure, its messiness and overcomplication, and the ‘interiority’ of its characters and how characters in later revenge plays construct interiority as negative space. It argues that characters are not people so much as playhouses, propagating the illusion of depth after depth has run out, and explains how ‘interiority’ in the early modern theatre begins as merely its exterior reinscribed—its circle reduced into the body of the actor until it became a point, elemental and ‘inviolate’.
Environmental History of the Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Williams Elizabeth
Published: June 2017

While humans have been interacting with and reshaping environments for millennia, the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries have witnessed a shift in the scale of our transformative capacity with the development of technologies associated with fossil-fuelled energy regimes and monumental dam-building. These have affected the Middle East and North Africa at a time when colonial and nation-state borders carved up the region, dividing environments that were once contained within single empires. Environmental history offers new lines of inquiry to assess the consequences of these transformations. Contrary to pervasive, often colonially derived, narratives of a self-induced environmental decline in the region, critical analyses from an environmental perspective facilitate critiques of such “declensionist paradigms.” Evaluating indicators of longue durée change alongside more short-term shifts in approaches to environmental management exposes the interests served by these narratives while demonstrating the suitability of local environmental practices to the particular ecological zones that characterize the region.
Predynastic Egyptian Figurines
Authors: Stevenson Alice
Published: June 2017

Anthropomorphic figurines attributed to fourth millennium bc predynastic Egypt are exceptionally rare. This chapter focuses its attention on the even smaller subset of those representations that can be contextualized archaeologically. This more selective treatment is intended to shift the core of the discussion of these artefacts from the usual focus upon visual representation towards consideration of embodiment and the spaces in which these things were made, encountered, and experienced. In particular, it is argued that figurines were affective devices that elicited emotional attention within ritual practice. Attention is also paid to the broader social and material contexts of predynastic development in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of both the presence and the absence of these figurines.
Inuguat
Authors: Fitzhugh William , Driscoll Engelstad Bernadette
Published: June 2017

Renderings of human figurines (inuguat) appear consistently throughout the archaeological record of the North American Arctic. Artefacts which date from the Old Bering Sea cultures in northwestern Alaska to the Dorset and Thule periods in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland include representations of the human figure, typically carved in ivory or wood. These images often reveal elemental concerns of Arctic peoples with regard to procreation, maternity, healing, shamanism, mortuary practice, and animal–human transformation. The persistent appearance of human figurines throughout the historical and contemporary periods demonstrates an abiding interest in the role of the human figure. Beyond the use of dolls as a source for children’s play, human figurines served as a means of developing skills for everyday life (and human survival) with a focus on social interaction, the hunt, and the creation of fur clothing, as well as on ceremonial activities and ritual practices.
Prehistoric Figurines in Anatolia (Turkey)
Authors: Belcher Ellen , Croucher Karina
Published: June 2017

This chapter discusses prehistoric (c.10,000—5000 bc) figurines from archaeological sites in modern Turkey. Sources and methods of excavation, publication, interpretation, and display are presented and critiqued. We propose a new interpretive method, focusing on manufacture and materials, ambiguities and relationships, gender, and fragmentation. Two case studies of figurine assemblages—Domuztepe and Çatalhöyük—are presented and discussed, demonstrating new possibilities for the interpretation of figurine datasets.
Wooden Figurines of Easter Island
Authors: Orliac Michel , Orliac Catherine
Published: June 2017

Easter Island is known for its giant, stereotyped stone statues, distributed along the coasts and originally visible from out at sea. Most are associated with cult monuments and the unique sanctuary where they were carved. More discreetly, the islanders’ houses were inhabited by a host of wooden figurines, in a variety of forms, carved in sacred types of wood: toromiro, makoi, driftwood. These depictions of men (moai tangata, moai kavakava), women (moai papa), animals, and real chimeras (moko, bird-man) were the subject of domestic cults and used in activities linked to protective or aggressive magic. Displayed during public ceremonies, they were associated with the insignia of power (ao, ua) and with dance accessories (rapa, tahonga). The production of figurines, introduced to the island by its first inhabitants a little less than 1,000 years ago, ceased with the disappearance of the priest-sculptors after 1863 and the conversion to Catholicism in 1868.
Economics of Tort Law
Authors: Arlen Jennifer H.
Published: June 2017

Chapter 3 discusses economic analysis of optimal tort liability, focusing on the use of liability where private parties cannot provide optimal incentives through private ordering, and information is costly. It shows that the central motivations for tort liability—imperfect contracting and costly information—alter its optimal structure and incentive effects, both as applied to individual injurers and risk-imposers operating within organizations. Section 2 examines optimal tort liability in the context where liability is needed: where injurers and victims are “strangers” who cannot bargain over optimal risk prevention or responsibility for losses. Section 3 examines tort liability when injurers and victims are in a market relationship, as with products liability and medical malpractice. Section 4 extends the analysis of optimal tort liability to the situation where risk-imposers respond to information costs by conducting their activities through organizations, as is generally the case most important torts other than automobile accidents.
Medical Malpractice
Authors: Avraham Ronen , Schanzenbach Max M.
Published: June 2017

This chapter assesses theory and evidence on the efficacy of medical malpractice liability and limitations to it in improving healthcare outcomes, and identifies unresolved issues that merit further attention from scholars. First, it explores the theoretical and legal background on medical malpractice. It then turns to the available evidence by focusing on three basic areas of study: the impact of malpractice limitations on payouts and litigation, the effect of malpractice limitations on overall healthcare costs, and the effect of malpractice on two major cost drivers in the healthcare system: cardiac and obstetrics practice. It argues that limitations on liability did not and likely cannot significantly reduce healthcare costs. Finally, the chapter discusses new and important trends in the literature regarding reforms to standards of care and the role of clinical practice guidelines and communication and disclosure programs.
Economics of Property Law
Authors: Smith Henry E.
Published: June 2017

The economic analysis of property has progressed in areas of property closest to contracts and torts. Property law and economic analysis serves to capture the role of traditional notions of things, possession, and ownership. The theme of property law is the separation of clusters of resource-related activities for treatment in isolation of their context. The treatment of resource-related activities through rights to things chunks together attributes, activities, and duty bearers for wholesale treatment. These modular things emerge from basic possession and accession. The separation of parts of the world for semiformal treatment extends through forms of entity property, asset partitioning, and mixed systems, all of which promote specialization and investment, but separation comes at the cost of potential strategic behavior: actors favor parts of the system from which they benefit more, to the detriment of others. Thus, property law uses exclusion and governance strategies, equitable interventions, and remedies.
Commons and Anticommons
Authors: Heller Michael A.
Published: June 2017

Chapter 7 offers an overview of anticommons theory, which states that when too many people own pieces of one thing, nobody can use it. Usually private ownership creates wealth. But too much ownership can have the opposite effect—it leads to wasteful underuse. This is a free-market paradox that shows up all across the global economy. If too many owners control a single resource, cooperation breaks down, wealth disappears, and everybody loses. Conceptually, underuse in an anticommons mirrors the familiar problem of overuse in a “tragedy of the commons.” The field of anticommons studies is now well established, with thousands of scholars detailing examples across the innovation frontier, including drug patenting, telecom licensing, climate change, eminent domain, oil field unitization, music and art copyright, and postsocialist transition. Addressing anticommons tragedy is a key challenge for any legal system committed to innovation and economic growth.
Trademarks and Unfair Competition
Authors: Long Clarisa
Published: June 2017

Chapter 9 summarizes the dominant law and economic approach to some of the doctrines comprising the two major strands of modern trademark law: classic trademark law, in which trademark protection is justified as reducing consumer search costs and preventing consumer confusion; and dilution law, which is explained by the more traditional intellectual property justifications of encouraging investment in creating valuable marks and protecting producer goodwill. It argues that the culmination of trademark law in the form of protection against dilution represents completion of a full circle of development of unfair competition law. From its start as a means of protecting merchants’ entitlement to custom, unfair competition law, and its subsidiary trademark law have evolved in several stages, which are discussed in the chapter in detail.
Law and Economics of Information
Authors: Wu Tim
Published: June 2017

Information is of enormous importance to contemporary economics, science, and technology. Since the 1970s, economists and legal scholars, relying on a simplified “public good” model of information, have constructed an impressively extensive body of scholarship devoted to the relationship between law and information. The public good model tends to justify law, such as the intellectual property laws or various forms of securities regulation that seek to incentivize the production of information or its broader dissemination. This chapter reviews the public choice model and identifies two recent trends. First, scholars have extended the public good model of information to an ever-increasing number of fields where law and information intersect. Second, scholars have sharply questioned the simplified model, and ask whether, in practice, information actually has the characteristics of a public good.
Law and Economics of Insurance
Authors: Schwarcz Daniel , Siegelman Peter
Published: June 2017

This chapter broadly defines the law and economics of insurance. An overview of both economically oriented legal scholarship and traditional economics scholarship is provided. This vantage point reveals the centrality of certain core economic concepts to insurance law and regulation. Moreover, it suggests ways to improve the law by embracing sophisticated understandings of the economics of information asymmetries. For instance, insurance law and regulation assume that adverse selection and moral hazard are important problems in all insurance markets; however, the phenomena come in varying degrees. Thus, their magnitude is an empirical question. An equally significant lacuna in much insurance law is the absence of an equilibrium approach that anticipates insurance market reactions to legal interventions. Similarly, the specific insights of behavioral economics to understand anomalies in insurance demand and how the law might respond are emerging. The law and economics of insurance is still ripe for development.
Market for Corporate Law Redux
Authors: Romano Roberta
Published: June 2017

Corporations operate in numerous markets, for example product markets, labor markets, and capital markets. This chapter focuses on the market that is the prerequisite for firms’ successful operation in all other markets, as it is the market that frames their organizational structure and governance: the market for corporate law. The first part analyzes the dynamics of the US market for corporate law, which can best be characterized as states competing for corporate charters, along with data pertinent to the question of whom this market organization benefits—managers or shareholders and explanations why Delaware has had a persistent and commanding position. The second part explains Delaware’s persistence as the preeminent incorporation state. This is a distinctive feature of US corporate law. While there are other federal systems of corporate law, a similar “Delaware” phenomenon does not exist. The chapter concludes with a summary and suggestions for future research.
Law and Economics of Agency and Partnership
Authors: Cohen George M.
Published: June 2017

This chapter attempts to explain how agency and partnership bridge the gap between contract and the firm. Both agency and partnership facilitate contracting, the first by enabling contractual intermediation and the second by enabling the pooling of resources in the joint pursuit of an enterprise. The main concern of agency and partnership law, however, is to address the problems caused by moving from the two-party contractual relations to three-party relationships, which creates the potential for any two parties to collude against the interests of the third. Partnership differs from agency in that it involves multiple owners who have the right and ability to exercise control over shared partnership property. That fact creates a need for partnership law to address additional collusive possibilities involving partners, whether acting on behalf of the partnership in dealing with third parties or acting against the interest of the partnership by misappropriating the partnership property.
Environmental Law and Economics
Authors: Livermore Michael A. , Revesz Richard L.
Published: June 2017

This chapter begins with a brief general overview of the economics of environmental law. It then focuses on recent developments in the field of environmental law and economics, with an emphasis on the experience of the United States. When setting environmental policy, decision makers must address two general types of questions. The first concerns the ends of environmental policy, and examines the socially desirable level of environmental quality. The second type of question concerns the means of policy making and focuses on the types of regulatory instruments that will be used and the allocation of responsibility between governmental actors. Section 2 addresses the first type of question concerning the goals of environmental policy. Sections 3 and 4 address the means of environmental policy, focusing on instrument choice and jurisdictional allocation, respectively.
NuMA Targets Dynein to Microtubule Minus-Ends at Mitosis
Authors: Hueschen Christina L. , Kenny Samuel J. , Xu Ke , Dumont Sophie
Published: June 2017

To build the spindle at mitosis, motors exert spatially regulated forces on microtubules. We know that dynein pulls on mammalian spindle microtubule minus-ends, and this localized activity at ends is predicted to allow dynein to cluster microtubules into poles. How dynein becomes enriched at minus-ends is not known. Here, we use quantitative imaging and laser ablation to show that NuMA targets dynactin to minus-ends, localizing dynein activity there. NuMA is recruited to new minus-ends independently of dynein and more quickly than dynactin, and both NuMA and dynactin display specific, steady-state binding at minus-ends. NuMA localization to minus-ends requires a C-terminal region outside NuMA’s canonical microtubule binding domain, and it is independent of direct minus-end binders γ-TuRC, CAMSAP1, and KANSL1/3. Both NuMA’s minus-end-binding and dynein-dynactin-binding modules are required to rescue focused, bipolar spindle organization. Thus, NuMA may serve as a mitosis-specific minus-end cargo adaptor, targeting dynein activity to minus-ends to cluster spindle microtubules into poles.
Final amendment: A plausible explanation forin silicoreporting of erroneous MET gene expression in tumor-educated platelets (TEP) intended for "liquid biopsy" of non-small cell lung carcinoma still refutes the TEP-study
Authors: Chakraborty Sandeep
Published: June 2017

Final amendment note

This paper had proposed a plausible way for detecting large quantities of MET, which the authors have clarified was not done :the possible explanation proposed for this erroneous MET gene expression does bypass the filtering step we perform in the data processing pipeline, i.e. selection of intron-spanning reads, as can be read in the main text” comments inhttp://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/02/146134, where a continuing critique of the TEP study continues. Please consider this pre-print closed.

Original abstract

The reported over-expression of MET genes in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) from an analysis of the RNA-seq data from tumor-educated platelets (TEP), intended to supplement existing ‘liquid biopsy’ techniques [1], has been refuted recently (http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/05/146134, not peer-reviewed). The MET proto-oncogene (Accid:NG 008996.1, RefSeqGene LRG 662 on chromosome 7, METwithintrons) encodes 21 exons resulting in a 6710 bps MET gene (Accid: NM 001127500.2, METonlyexons). METwithintrons has multiple matches in the RNA-seq derived reads of lung cancer samples (for example: SRR1982756.11853382). Unfortunately, these are non-specific sequences in the intronic regions, matching to multiple genes on different chromosomes with 100% identity (KIF6 on chr6, COL6A6 on chr3, MYO16 on chr13, etc. for SRR1982756.11853382). In contrast, METonlyexons has few matches in the reads, if at all [2]. However, even RNA-seq from healthy donors have similar matches for METwithintrons so the computation behind the over-expression statistic remains obscure, even if METwithintrons was used as the search gene. In summary, this work re-iterates the lack of reproducibility in the bioinformatic analysis that establishes TEP as a possible source for “liquid biopsy”.
BugBuilder - An Automated Microbial Genome Assembly and Analysis Pipeline
Authors: J.C. Abbott
Published: June 2017

BugBuilder is a framework for hands-free assembly and annotation of microbial genomes. It produces outputs suitable either for database submission or downstream finishing processes. It is configurable to work with most command-line assembly and scaffolding tools which are selectable at run-time, and supports all common sequence types used in microbial genome assembly.

Availability and Implementation

BugBuilder is implemented in Perl and is available under the Artistic License from http://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioinformatics-data-science-group/resources/software/bugbuilder, A virtual machine image is available pre-configured with the relevant freely-redistributable dependencies.

Contact

j.abbott@imperial.ac.uk
Hidden antibiotic resistance fitness costs revealed by GWAS-based epistasis analysis
Authors: Yokoyama Maho , Laabei Maisem , Stevens Emily , Bacon Leann , Heesom Kate , Bayliss Sion , Ooi Nicola , O’Neill Alex J. , Murray Ewan , Williams Paul , Lubben Anneke , Reeksting Shaun , Meric Guillaume , Pascoe Ben , Sheppard Samuel K. , Recker Mario , Hurst Laurence D. , Massey Ruth C.
Published: June 2017

Understanding how multi-drug resistant pathogens evolve is key to identifying means of curtailing their further emergence and dissemination. Fitness costs imposed on bacteria by resistance mechanisms are believed to hamper their dissemination in an antibiotic free environment, however, some have been reported to have little or no cost, which suggests there are few barriers preventing their global spread. One such apparently cost-free resistance mechanism acquired by the major human pathogenStaphylococcus aureusis to the clinically important antibiotic mupirocin, which is mediated by mutation of the highly-conserved and essential isoleucyl-tRNA synthethase (ileS) gene. In Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) on two genetically and geographically distinct MRSA lineages we have found this mutation to be associated with changes in bacterial virulence, driven through epistatic interactions with other loci. Given the potential dual effect of this mutation on both antibiotic resistance and virulence we adopted a proteomic approach and observed pleiotropic effects. This analysis revealed that the activity of the secretory apparatus of the PSM family of cytolytic toxins, the Pmt system, is affected in the mupirocin resistant mutant, which explains why it is less toxic. As an energetically costly activity, this reduction in toxicity masks the fitness costs associated with this resistance mutation, a cost that becomes apparent when toxin production is required. Given the widespread use of this antibiotic, and that this resistance often results from a single nucleotide substitution in theileSgene, these hidden fitness costs provide an explanation for why this resistance mechanism is not more prevalent. This work also demonstrates how population-based genomic analysis of virulence and antibiotic resistance can contribute to uncovering hidden features of the biology of microbial pathogens.
People Can Create Iconic Vocalizations to Communicate Various Meanings to Naïve Listeners
Authors: Perlman Marcus , Lupyan Gary
Published: June 2017

The innovation of iconic gestures is essential to establishing the symbolic vocabularies of signed languages, but might iconicity also play a role in the origin of various spoken words? Can people create novel vocalizations that are comprehensible to naïve listeners without the use of prior conventions? To test this capacity, we launched a contest in which participants submitted a set of non-linguistic vocalizations for 30 meanings spanning actions, humans, animals, inanimate objects, properties, quantifiers and demonstratives. The winner – who received a monetary prize – was judged by the ability of naïve listeners to successfully infer the meanings of the vocalizations. We report the results from the contest, along with a series of experiments and analyses designed to evaluate the vocalizations for: 1) their comprehensibility to naïve listeners; 2) the degree to which they resembled their meanings, i.e., were iconic; 3) agreement between producers and listeners in what constitutes an iconic vocalization; and 4) whether iconicity helps naïve listeners learn the vocalizations as category labels. The results show that contestants were able to create iconic vocalizations for a wide array of semantic domains, and that these vocalizations were largely comprehensible to naïve listeners, as well as easier to learn as category labels. These findings provide a compelling demonstration of the extent to which iconic vocalizations can enable interlocutors to establish understanding through vocalizations in the absence of conventions. This suggests the possibility that, prior to the advent of full-blown spoken languages, people could have used iconic vocalizations to ground a spoken vocabulary with considerable semantic breadth.
The securitization of residential rental revenue streams in Europe
Authors: Roig Hernando Jaume
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the securitization of rental streams, a new investment and finance product introduced in the USA in 2013 that enables fundraising from large residential portfolios owned by major investment funds and investment banking. The securities are made up of non-performance loans as well as real estate portfolios of financial entities.

Design/methodology/approach

An academic analysis of the European securitization market is performed, as well as a broad overview of the state of the art of the rental housing market and investment property market. Moreover, a market study of Real Estate Owned (hereinafter, REOs) and Real Estate Debts is carried out to determine both the present framework and future trends. Various financial entities and real estate management companies are examined through interviews and data collection to assess the reality of distressed assets and residential portfolios owned by major investors. It introduced the Broker’s Price Opinion concept, de loan-to-value concept and the London Interbank Offered Rate.

Findings

REO-to-rental securitization is a step forward toward the democratization of finance through the globalization of the residential market, improving risk sharing for major and retail investors. The securitization of rental streams in Europe has not taken off, despite several issuances in the USA since 2013 with significant success where first tranches obtained a credit qualification of triple-A from the majority of the main rating agencies.

Originality/value

At the end of 2013, a global investment firm launched an innovative finance and investment vehicle that securitized the cash flows originating from leased residential properties. That issue resulted in considerable success and in the development of a new alternative and innovative financing source for real estate activity. Taking into account that housing is a primary need of our society, there is a strong motivation for improving the residential market, and thus, REO-to-rental securitization could help take a step forward in making the housing market more efficient.
The role of environmental sustainability in the freight transport mode choice
Authors: Bask Anu , Rajahonka Mervi
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Transport is the European Union (EU) sector that produces the second highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions. In its attempts to promote the environmentally sustainable development of transport, the EU has focussed on intermodal transport in particular – but with limited success. It is important to understand how freight transport is selected, which criteria are used and what role environmental sustainability and intermodal transport play in the selection. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of environmental sustainability and intermodal transport in transport mode decisions. The authors look at this issue from the perspective of logistics service providers (LSPs) and buyers, as they are important stakeholders in guiding this process.

Design/methodology/approach

To gain a holistic view of the current state of research, the authors have conducted a systematic literature review of the role of environmental sustainability and intermodal transport in transport mode decisions. The authors have further examined the findings concerning requests for quotations (RfQs), tenders and transport contracts, as these are also linked to decisions on transport choice.

Findings

The findings from the literature review include the results of descriptive and structured content analysis of the selected articles. They show that the discussion on environmental sustainability and intermodal transport as a sustainable mode, together with the transport mode selection criteria, RfQs/tenders and transport contracts, is still a rather new and emerging topic in the literature. The main focus related to the selection of transport mode has been on utility and cost efficiency, and only recently have issues such as environmental sustainability and intermodal transport started to gain greater attention. The findings also indicate that the theoretical lenses most typically used have been preference models and total cost theories, although the theoretical base has recently become more diversified.

Research limitations/implications

There is still a need to extend the theoretical and methodological base, which could then lead to innovative theory building and testing. Such diverse application of methodologies will help in understanding how environmental sustainability can be better linked to mode choice decisions.

Practical implications

The findings will be of interest to policy makers and companies opting for environmentally sustainable transport solutions.

Social implications

If the EU, shippers and LSPs take a more active stance in promoting environmentally sustainable transformation models, this will have long-lasting societal impacts.

Originality/value

It seems that this systematic literature review of the topic is one of the first such attempts in the current body of literature.
Determinants of CSR disclosure of Tunisian listed banks: a multi-support analysis
Authors: Chakroun Raida , Matoussi Hamadi , Mbirki Sarra
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the extent and trends of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and to analyze the determinants of the listed banks’ annual reports and websites in an emergent capital market, namely, Tunisia.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine the level of CSR disclosure by means of a manual content analysis where the sentence is used as the unit of the analysis. They use Branco and Rodrigues’ (2006 and 2008) index which includes 23 items. They focus on the annual reports of 11 Tunisian listed banks during the period from 2007 to 2012 and the information presented on their websites in December 2013. They use, also, regression analysis to identify the determinants of CSR disclosure used by Tunisian listed banks.

Findings

The results of the investigation show that Tunisian listed banks disclose CSR information primarily in a narrative form. Human resources are the main focus in the annual reports, whereas, on the websites, community involvement is the most widespread theme. With regard to the determinants, it appears that bank age, financial performance and state shareholding are the main factors that impact CSR disclosure in the Tunisian listed banks’ annual reports. Furthermore, this study finds a positive (negative) relationship between leverage (financial performance) and CSR disclosure in the banks’ websites. In this regard, the results show different determinants of CSR disclosure for the two supports. Moreover, bank size, foreign shareholding and the type of auditor are unrelated to the listed banks’ CSR disclosure either in their annual reports or on their websites.

Research limitations/implications

The sample size is small; however, it consists of all the relevant Tunisian banks. Also, this study is subject to the limitations of using manual content analysis.

Practical implications

This study enables highlights the importance of CSR disclosure and its determinants for the Tunisian banks’ stakeholders (such as regulators, investors and managers).

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the scarce literature on CSR disclosure in financial institutions. It is the first study to investigate Tunisian listed banks’ CSR disclosure. It is a first attempt to show, also, how banks’ characteristics and banks’ ownership structures impact on their CSR disclosure in their annual reports and on their websites.
Environmental claims in Indian print advertising: an empirical study and policy recommendation
Authors: Prasad Mousami , Mishra Trupti , Kalro Arti D. , Bapat Varadraj
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Environmental claims in advertising (green ads) provide competitive advantage to firms. This study aims to understand what kinds of environmental claims advertisers make in a developing nation like India. Further, implications for policymakers and advertisers are discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

A content analysis of 279 green print advertisements was conducted using a comprehensive list of claim categories identified from the advertising literature. These categories included advertiser profile; ad promotions – type, sector, appeal; claim – nature, type, focus, validity, emphasis; executional elements – illustration setting, presenter, format/structure and environmental issue, identified from past studies and practitioner interviews.

Findings

The findings suggest that majority of the advertisers using green ads are manufacturers. Consumer durables, real estate and power sector together constitute one-third of the total green ads. Further, most of the green ads are aimed at influencing consumer behaviour. Though most of the ads contain strong emphasis on environmental attributes, they are ambiguous. A large proportion of claims are credence in nature and lack product identification through environmental certifications. This study also identifies areas of concern including interpretation of the term green, use of multiple certifications, greenwashing and advertisers showing environmental responsiveness through event-based green advertising. Policy recommendations are made based on green advertising regulations governing them across developed and other developing countries.

Research limitations/implications

The content analysis of the green advertisements in this study was limited to newspaper advertisements within the print media. Future studies may use advertisements from different media types, such as the internet ads and television commercials, to examine the effect of media type on the nature of green advertisements. It would also be interesting to examine the role of regulations as a moderator, influencing the claims made in green advertisements.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide a comprehensive overview of the nature of green advertisements in India. Marketers may use these insights to design effective green advertising strategies.

Originality/value

Most of the extant literature has examined environmental claims in the context of developed nations, where regulations are well established. Very few studies have examined this issue in the context of developing countries. In addition, most of the previous studies have focused on specific issues like greenwashing, appeals and execution elements. The present study contributes to green advertising by examining environmental claims in case of a developing nation like India using a comprehensive list of claim categories. This study also identifies areas of concern and suggests recommendations for policymakers and advertisers.
Finance or philanthropy? Exploring the motivations and criteria of impact investors
Authors: Roundy Philip , Holzhauer Hunter , Dai Ye
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The growing prevalence of social entrepreneurship has been coupled with an increasing number of so-called “impact investors”. However, much remains to be learned about this nascent class of investors. To address the dearth of scholarly attention to impact investing, this study seeks to answer four questions that are central to understanding the phenomenon. What are the defining characteristics of impact investing? Do impact investors differ from traditional classes of investors and, if so, how? What are the motivations that drive impact investment? And, what criteria do impact investors use when evaluating potential investments?

Design/methodology/approach

A partially inductive study based on semi-structured interviews with 31 investors and ethnographic observation was conducted to explore how impact investors differ from other classes of investors in their motivations and unique criteria used to evaluate ventures seeking investment.

Findings

This study reveals that impact investors represent a unique class of investors that differs from socially responsible investing, from other types of for-profit investors, such as venture capitalists and angel investors, and from traditional philanthropists. The varied motivations of impact investors and the criteria they use to evaluate investments are identified.

Originality/value

Despite the growing practitioner and media attention to impact investing, several foundational issues remain unaddressed. This study takes the first steps toward shedding light on this new realm of early-stage venture investing and clarifying its role in larger efforts of social responsibility.
The effect of business cycle, market return and momentum on financial performance of socially responsible investing mutual funds
Authors: Paul Karen
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This study examines the effect of business cycle, market return and momentum on the financial performance of socially responsible investing (SRI) mutual funds using data from two complete business cycles as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Design/methodology/approach

A “fund of funds” approach is used to identify the extent to which SRI financial performance is affected by the macroeconomic climate. The Fama-French Three-Factor model and the Carhart four-factor model are used to bring the results into alignment with commonly used finance methodologies.

Findings

The results indicate that SRI tends to preserve value during economic contraction more than it adds value during economic expansion. Market return is important during both expansion and contraction, while momentum is important only during expansion.

Research limitations/implications

These findings suggest that double screening, for both financial and social performance, enables portfolio managers of SRI funds to have insight into those companies that are particularly vulnerable during times of economic contraction.

Practical implications

These results bring added clarity to the mixed findings found by previous researchers examining the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance.

Social implications

This study reinforces the idea that the financial performance of companies with high ethical standards is comparable to the financial performance of the market as a whole during times of economic expansion and superior to the market as a whole during times of economic contraction.

Originality/value

Business cycle analysis, along with the Fama-French Three-Factor model and the Carhart four-factor model, brings SRI research more into the realm of conventional financial analysis than previous studies.