bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Delta model application for developing customer lifetime value
Authors: Hajipour Bahman , Esfahani Molud 
Published: March 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between strategy and customer lifetime value (CLV). A new model was proposed for defining customers’ values based on the RFM model and segmenting bank customers using the K-means algorithm. In addition, the authors combined a new category with the delta model in order to analyze the behavior of each cluster.

Design/methodology/approach
This case study was based on an applied method following its objectives and a descriptive-analytic method in terms of data collection. In this research, the AHP, data mining and K-means clustering methods, as well as the discriminant analysis were applied for computing the weights of the indices, examining the relationship between the identified variables, clustering the records and ensuring the clustering accuracy based on the RFM model, respectively.

Findings
The paper confirmed the relationship between the strategies and CLV. For a cluster whose strategy was the best product, customers had a minimal CLV. For a cluster whose strategy was based on total customer solutions, customers had a median CLV. For a cluster whose strategy was a lock-in system, customers had a maximal CLV. The results suggested that the delta model with these three strategies could act as the CLV developers in two stages: conversion of transient customers to attached customers and conversion of attached customers to locked-in customers.

Research limitations/implications
One of the limitations of this study was the lack of access to all the bank accounts and assessment of only the strategy type, while highlighting the exact association between every component of the strategies (e.g. structure, environment, etc.) and CLV as a dependent variable deemed to be of a great necessity. Hence, it is recommended that several studies on the relationships presented in this paper be performed to provide further insights into and guidelines on this issue in the future.

Practical implications
This study emphasized the relevance of strategy and CLV. Managers should differently treat customers in distinct CLV and loyalty levels. In other words, managers must segment their customers based on CLV and apply appropriate strategies for each segment.

Originality/value
This research tried to fulfill an identified need to study how strategy can be effect CLV through the application of the delta model with three strategic options.
Proximate, mineral composition and sensory evaluation of coffee and kola flavoured biscuits
Authors: Gyedu-Akoto Esther , Opoku Stephen Yaw , Ofosu-Agyei Emmanuel 
Published: March 2019

Purpose
Refined wheat flour is a key ingredient for preparing biscuits because of its gluten content. However, biscuits prepared from refined flour are characterised with low proteins, fat and mineral content. This study aims to improve the nutritive and sensory values of biscuits using roasted coffee and dry kola powders.

Design/methodology
The powders were incorporated into biscuits at different levels of 5, 10, 15 and 20 per cent. Proximate and sensory analyses were conducted on the products obtained to determine the effects of the powders on the products.

Findings
The coffee biscuits had carbohydrate, protein, fat and energy contents of 57.0-69.5 per cent, 3.3-5.5 per cent, 20.4-31.8 per cent and 389-404 kcal/g, respectively, while those of the kola biscuits were 67.0-70.5 per cent, 1.5-3.5 per cent, 20.4-23.8 per cent and 384-395 kcal/g, respectively. Sensory evaluation of both products showed that coffee significantly improved sensory attributes such as flavour (p = 0.03) and colour (p = 0.00). Thus coffee powder can be used to enhance both the nutritional and sensory qualities of biscuits.

Originality/value
This study was to promote the use of coffee and kola in locally produced baked products and meet consumer demand for healthy and natural foods.
Assessing the impact of the new auditor’s report
Authors: Li Hong , Hay David , Lau David 
Published: March 2019

PurposeChanges to the auditor’s report have been proposed and issued internationally to provide more relevant information to users and enhance the perceived value of financial statement audits. This paper aims to investigate the impact of audit reporting changes on audit quality and audit fees in the New Zealand context.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examined audit quality measured by absolute abnormal accruals and audit fees for New Zealand listed companies.FindingsThe evidence suggests the enhanced audit reports were followed by an improvement in audit quality as proxied by a reduction in absolute abnormal accruals upon the adoption of the new audit reporting requirements. There was also a significant increase in audit fees.Practical implicationsAlthough the new auditor reporting requirements are associated with improvements in audit quality, such benefit does not come without cost.Originality/valueThe study provides evidence about the impact of this recent substantial reform to auditing.
Does pension plan reporting readability affect earnings volatility?
Authors: Lin Ruey-Ching , Chen Tsung-Kang , Tseng Yi-Jie , Chang Chih-Kai 
Published: March 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore whether pension plan reporting readability affects earnings volatility. Moreover, as SFAS 158 requires firms to fully recognize their funded status on the balance sheet, the firms’ pension liabilities (inside debts) and financing ability have the corresponding change. This study further investigates whether pension plan reporting readability affects earnings volatility from the SFAS 158 and funded status perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThis study follows Li (2008), Lehavy et al. (2011) and Rennekamp (2012) to use the FOG and SMOG variables as the readability proxies and investigates whether pension plan reporting readability affects earnings volatility from the perspectives of inside debts and SFAS 158 by using a sample of 3,077 American firms from the year 2006 to 2009.FindingsEmpirical results of this study show that firms with low readability of pension plan reporting have high earnings volatility, revealing that less readable pension plan reporting increases the assessed variance of a firm’s inside debts, financing flexibility, investment ability and therefore profitability. In addition, the implement of SFAS 158 enhances the effect of pension plan reporting readability on earnings volatility. Moreover, the authors also find that the funded status plays a moderating role for the effect of pension plan reporting readability on earnings volatility. Finally, the results are robust to endogeneity issue.Research limitations/implicationsEarnings stability measures how consistently earnings have been generated over time, and its importance has been acknowledged by most firms. For example, prior literature has documented that manipulating financial reporting to smooth earnings is becoming a business common practice (Burgstahler et al., 2006; Liu and Espahbodi, 2014). The empirical results suggest that pension plan reporting readability is a significant determinant of earnings volatility.Practical implicationsAs a practical implication, this study points out that manipulations of the pension reporting readability are not costless. It incurs the costs of earnings instability.Social implicationsThis study indicates that the issuance of SFAS 158 makes firms more likely to engage in pension plan readability manipulation. As a result, it has policy implication that the regulator should consider how the policy change alters the firm financial reporting behavior.Originality/valueThe empirical results suggest that firms may be more likely to engage in obfuscating pension plan disclosure after FASB’s issuance of SFAS 158. This would further increase outside investors’ assessed variance for inside debts and earnings volatilities. When policymakers require firms to recognize their funded status in statement of financial position, they should consider the costs or benefits that the firm manager face and, therefore, how this policy change alter the firm financial reporting behavior.
Institutional characteristics, signaling variables and IPO initial returns
Authors: D. Sundarasen Sheela Devi 
Published: March 2019

Purpose
This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the extent of alteration institutional characteristics, i.e. legal origin and corruption levels, may have on the signaling effects of auditors’ reputation, underwriters’ reputation and ownership retention on initial public offering (IPO) initial returns in OECD countries.

Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional data composed of 6,182 IPOs from 30 OECD countries are used for 2003-2012. Ordinary least square with multiple linear regressions is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings
The findings indicate that the legal framework and corruption level of a country alters the signaling effects of underwriters’ reputation, auditors’ reputation and ownership retention in an IPO environment. These three variables mitigate information asymmetry, signal firm value to potential investors and ultimately decrease IPO initial returns. This relationship is more significant in the civil law countries. Corruption levels negatively moderate the relationship in the common law and Scandinavian civil law countries but have no significance in the German and French civil law countries, indicating the importance of the signaling variables in these two civil law countries.

Originality/value
This study examines the extent of the alterations that the legal framework and the corruption levels cause to the signaling relationship between auditors’ reputation, underwriters’ reputation and ownership retention on IPO initial returns in selected OECD countries.
Testing derivatives pricing models under higher-order moment swaps
Authors: Doffou Ako 
Published: March 2019

Purpose
This paper aims to test three parametric models in pricing and hedging higher-order moment swaps. Using vanilla option prices from the volatility surface of the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, the paper shows that the pricing accuracy of these models is very satisfactory under four different pricing error functions. The result is that taking a position in a third moment swap considerably improves the performance of the standard hedge of a variance swap based on a static position in the log-contract and a dynamic trading strategy. The position in the third moment swap is taken by running a Monte Carlo simulation.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper undertook empirical tests of three parametric models. The aim of the paper is twofold: assess the pricing accuracy of these models and show how the classical hedge of the variance swap in terms of a position in a log-contract and a dynamic trading strategy can be significantly enhanced by using third-order moment swaps. The pricing accuracy was measured under four different pricing error functions. A Monte Carlo simulation was run to take a position in the third moment swap.

Findings
The results of the paper are twofold: the pricing accuracy of the Heston (1993) model and that of two Levy models with stochastic time and stochastic volatility are satisfactory; taking a position in third-order moment swaps can significantly improve the performance of the standard hedge of a variance swap.

Research limitations/implications
The limitation is that these empirical tests are conducted on existing three parametric models. Maybe more critical insights could have been revealed had these tests been conducted in a brand new derivatives pricing model.

Originality/value
This work is 100 per cent original, and it undertook empirical tests of the pricing and hedging accuracy of existing three parametric models.
Reproductive effort influences intra‐seasonal variation in parasite‐specific antibody responses in wild Soay sheep
Authors: Hayward Adam D. , Pilkington Jill G. , Wilson Kenneth , McNeilly Tom N. , Watt Kathryn A. 
Published: March 2019

Abstract

A trade‐off between reproduction and immune function has been suggested to potentially underpin between‐individual and genetic variation in reproductive strategy, immunity and life span, with potential consequences for host and parasite dynamics.

Previous studies in wild animal populations have shown that experimentally induced or natural variation in reproductive effort is negatively associated with general immune markers. Few studies, however, have tackled this question by measuring specific immune responses against prevalent pathogens, and only rarely has variation in immune measures been linked to parasite burden, making it impossible to draw conclusions about the functional relevance of covariation between reproductive effort and immune markers.

We collected faecal samples in a longitudinal manner from wild female Soay sheep across late pregnancy and early lactation and measured gastrointestinal nematode faecal egg count (FEC) and worm‐specific antibody responses.

Faecal egg count was highly repeatable, with c. 80% of variation due to between‐individual differences, while three isotypes of worm‐specific and total antibodies had moderate repeatability (range: 11%–43%). Females making a greater reproductive effort (those that reproduced, and especially those with heavier litters) showed a more rapid increase in FEC across the season, while non‐reproducing females and those producing lighter litters experienced lower FEC and had higher antibody levels.

Associations between antibodies and FEC were complex: worm‐specific immunoglobulin (Ig) G was negatively associated with FEC, while total IgM was positively associated, emphasizing the importance of measuring both immune markers and parasite burden in ecological studies.

Our results support the predicted trade‐off between reproductive effort and parasite‐specific immunity: high reproductive effort can limit the ability of individuals to defend themselves against prevalent parasites, with potential downstream consequences for fitness and parasite transmission.

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Fluorine‐18‐fluorodeoxyglucose‐positron emission tomography evaluation in metastatic bone lesions in lung cancer: Possible prediction of pain and skeletal‐related events
Authors: Gomi Daisuke , Fukushima Toshirou , Kobayashi Takashi , Sekiguchi Nodoka , Koizumi Tomonobu , Oguchi Kazuhiko 
Published: March 2019

BackgroundFluorine‐18‐fluorodeoxyglucose‐positron emission tomography (FDG‐PET) uptake in primary lesions has been well studied, but little information is available about metastatic bone lesions in patients with lung cancer. The present study was performed to evaluate the relationships between metastatic bone FDG uptake and clinical parameters in patients with lung cancer.MethodsFDG uptake was evaluated as the maximum standardized uptake (SUVmax) value of each targeted bone lesion, and the bone to primary lesion ratio of SUVmax (B/P ratio) was calculated. Forty‐nine patients (27 men and 22 women) with a diagnosis of lung cancer (small cell lung cancer [SCLC], n = 7; non‐small cell lung cancer [NSCLC], n = 42) with bone metastasis, and a total of 185 bone metastatic lesions were evaluated.ResultsThe SUVmax in bone and the B/P ratio were significantly higher in patients with pain and subsequent development of skeletal‐related events than in those without pain or skeletal‐related events, respectively. In addition, the SUVmax in metastatic bone lesions and the B/P ratio in SCLC were significantly lower than those in NSCLC, despite similar FDG uptake in the primary tumor.ConclusionOur findings suggest that FDG‐PET evaluation in metastatic bone lesions could be useful to predict initial pain and subsequent clinical outcomes of local bone status in initially diagnosed lung cancer patients with bone metastasis. In addition, our results suggest that there could be histological differences in the biological activity of bone metastatic lesions in lung cancer, especially between SCLC and NSCLC.
Prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation with manual or mechanical chest compression: A study of compression‐induced injuries
Authors: Milling Louise , Astrup Birgitte Schmidt , Mikkelsen Søren 
Published: March 2019

ObjectiveConcerns for iatrogenic injuries associated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation led us to investigate the extent and the pattern of chest compression‐related injuries in patients subjected to either mechanical and/or manual cardiac compression.MethodIn a retrospective study, we performed a manual review of all prehospital discharge reports, in‐hospital records, and autopsy reports for evidence of injuries related to chest compression. We included all patients receiving physician‐administrated treatment for out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest in the Region of Southern Denmark from 2015 to 2017.ResultsEighty four patients undergoing manual and mechanical chest compression and 353 patients with manual chest compression only were included. Unadjusted, mechanical chest compression as an adjunct was associated with a higher risk of injuries than manual chest compression (P < 0.001, odds ratio, OR 3.10). Adjusted for the duration of compression, this difference waned. Visceral injuries were more frequent in patients receiving mechanical chest compression even when adjusted for the duration of compression, age, sex, body mass index and anticoagulant therapy (P < 0.001, OR 29.84). We found a higher incidence of potentially life‐threatening injuries in patients receiving mechanical chest compression. The occurrence of injuries overall was associated with the duration of chest compression (P = 0.02, OR 1.02).ConclusionMechanical chest compression as an adjunct to manual chest compression was strongly associated with potentially life‐threatening visceral injuries. The duration of chest compression was associated with injury. Our results suggest that mechanical chest compression should only be applied in situations where manual chest compression is unfeasible.
Hospital‐acquired complications in intensive care unit patients with diabetes: A before‐and‐after study of a conventional versus liberal glucose control protocol
Authors: Luethi Nora , Cioccari Luca , Eastwood Glenn , Biesenbach Peter , Morgan Rhys , Sprogis Stephanie , Young Helen , Peck Leah , Knee Chong Christine , Moore Sandra , Moon Kylie , Ekinci Elif I. , Deane Adam M. , Bellomo Rinaldo , Mårtensson Johan 
Published: March 2019

BackgroundCritically ill patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are at increased risk of in‐hospital complications and the optimal glycemic target for such patients remains unclear. A more liberal approach to glucose control has recently been suggested for patients with DM, but uncertainty remains regarding its impact on complications.MethodsWe aimed to test the hypothesis that complications would be more common with a liberal glycemic target in ICU patients with DM. Thus, we compared hospital‐acquired complications in the first 400 critically ill patients with DM included in a sequential before‐and‐after trial of liberal (glucose target: 10‐14 mmol/L) vs conventional (glucose target: 6‐10 mmol/L) glucose control.ResultsOf the 400 patients studied, 165 (82.5%) patients in the liberal and 177 (88.5%) in the conventional‐control group were coded for at least one hospital‐acquired complication (P = 0.09). When comparing clinically relevant complications diagnosed between ICU admission and hospital discharge, we found no difference in the odds for infectious (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] for liberal‐control: 1.15 [95% CI: 0.68‐1.96], P = 0.60), cardiovascular (aOR 1.40 [95% CI: 0.63‐3.12], P = 0.41) or neurological complications (aOR: 1.07 [95% CI: 0.61‐1.86], P = 0.81), acute kidney injury (aOR 0.83 [95% CI: 0.43‐1.58], P = 0.56) or hospital mortality (aOR: 1.09 [95% CI: 0.59‐2.02], P = 0.77) between the liberal and the conventional‐control group.ConclusionIn this prospective before‐and‐after study, liberal glucose control was not associated with an increased risk of hospital‐acquired infectious, cardiovascular, renal or neurological complications in critically ill patients with diabetes.
Influence of nonsynaptic α1 glycine receptors on ethanol consumption and place preference
Authors: Muñoz Braulio , Gallegos Scarlet , Peters Christian , Murath Pablo , Lovinger David M. , Homanics Gregg E. , Aguayo Luis G. 
Published: March 2019

AbstractAlcohol abuse leads to great medical, social, and economic burdens throughout the world. It is believed that the rewarding actions of alcohol are mediated by alterations in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system leading to increased levels of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Little is known about the role that ligand‐gated ion channels (LGICs), such as glycine receptors (GlyRs), have in regulating levels of ethanol intake and place preference. In this study, we used knock‐in (KI) mice that have ethanol‐insensitive α1 GlyRs (KK385/386AA) and a combination of electrophysiological and behavioral approaches to examine how expression of ethanol‐resistant α1 GlyRs in brain neurons might affect binge drinking and conditioned place preference. Data show that tonic α1 GlyR–mediated currents that modulate accumbal excitability were exclusively sensitive to ethanol only in wild‐type (WT) mice. Behavioral studies showed that the KI mice have a higher intake of ethanol upon first exposure to drinking and greater conditioned place preference to ethanol, suggesting that α1 GlyRs in the brain have a protective role against abuse. This study suggests that nonsynaptic α1–containing GlyRs have a role in motivational and early reinforcing effects of ethanol and open a novel opportunity for pharmacotherapy development to treat alcohol use disorders.
Inverted invasions: Native plants can frequently colonise urban and highly disturbed habitats
Authors: Everingham Susan E. , Hemmings Frank , Moles Angela T. 
Published: March 2019

AbstractThere is an enormous body of literature on plant invasions, including many investigations of the types of introduced species that are most likely to invade natural ecosystems. In this study we turn invasion biology upside down, and ask what sort of native species colonise novel anthropogenic habitats such as roadside lawns, infrequently tended road shoulders, railway embankments and fire trails. We quantified species richness and cover in roadside lawns and infrequently tended road shoulders in five regions of New South Wales, Australia. The native vegetation in these regions included sclerophyll forest, fertile and infertile Eucalypt‐dominated woodlands, rainforest, and semi‐arid woodland. We performed a complementary survey of sites spanning five disturbance levels within the region containing sclerophyll forest vegetation. Although many non‐native species were present in disturbed, novel habitats, a total of 136 native species were also found. Most of these native species were in sites with low levels of disturbance (fire trails and railway embankments), but 35 native species were found to colonise roadside lawns, our most highly‐disturbed vegetation type. There was a significant negative relationship between the disturbance level in novel habitats and the number and cover of native species. Native species that colonised novel habitats were disproportionately likely be generalist species whose natural habitat includes both high and low light and high and low disturbance conditions. The native species colonising novel habitats also tended to have traits associated with a fast life‐history, including short stature and small seeds. A surprisingly high number of native plant species are colonising novel, anthropogenic habitats. Our findings highlight the potential importance of urban ecosystems for conservation and restoration biology.