bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impact of disputed tax litigation risk on firm performance: evidence from India
Authors: Dash Saumya Ranjan , Raithatha Mehul 
Published: July 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of disputed tax litigation risk on firm performance and stock return behavior using a sample of Indian listed firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use disputed tax liability, reported as a contingent liability by the listed firms, as a proxy for the disputed tax litigation risk. To examine the impact of disputed tax litigation risk on firm performance (measured by accounting and market-based measures), the empirical approach used in this study focusses on the panel estimation technique. A portfolio-based approach using alternative asset pricing models examines the cross-sectional return variation because of the influence of disputed tax litigation risk.FindingsThe results of this study show a negative relationship between firm performance measures and disputed tax litigation risk. Cross-sectional test results reveal that higher disputed tax litigation risk is associated with higher expected returns.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focusses on disputed tax reported under the heading of contingent liability as a proxy for litigation risk. The study will help investors and portfolio managers to consider disputed tax litigation risk as an important parameter in the evaluation of firm performance. This study will also help regulators to get feedback on tax related policies and improve the dispute resolution process.Originality/valueThis study adds to the existing literature on the relationship between litigation risk and firm performance. In the context of emerging market, this study is the first-of-its-kind study, which focusses on disputed tax as a litigation risk proxy and examines its possible impact on firm performance and stock return behavior.
The determinants of voluntary strategy disclosure: an international comparison
Authors: Morris Richard D. , Tronnes Per Christen 
Published: July 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles of country-level characteristics versus firm-level characteristics in explaining variations in firms’ voluntary strategy disclosures.

Design/methodology/approach
Strategy disclosure in annual reports is measured using an index of 40 items derived from the strategy literature. The sample is 204 large companies from 12 Asian and European countries in 2005. The disclosure index is subdivided into four underlying latent constructs using principal components analysis. The authors then use OLS regression to test whether total disclosure score, and the latent constructs are associated with country-level characteristics and firm-level characteristics.

Findings
The authors find that total strategy disclosures are more prevalent in stakeholder-oriented countries, in countries with greater levels of financial transparency, but are less prevalent in countries with a culture of secrecy, and strategy disclosures are more likely to occur in companies with greater economic incentives to disclose, with a Big 4 auditor or which are listed in New York. These findings also occur but not as consistently with the four latent constructs.

Research limitations/implications
The sample used in this paper comprises large public companies, so the findings may not be generalisable to all companies. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrate that both country- and firm-level variables matter in explaining voluntary strategy disclosure.

Practical implications
The IASB released an IFRS Practice Statement in 2010, which recommends, but does not require, disclosure of information about corporate strategy in Management Commentary statements. The findings of this paper may help inform the issue of whether regulators should make strategy disclosures mandatory.

Originality/value
The paper contains the first detailed examination of the roles of country-level characteristics versus firm-level characteristics in explaining variations in corporate voluntary strategy disclosures.
Web-based system for Japanese local political documents
Authors: Ototake Hokuto , Sakaji Hiroki , Takamaru Keiichi , Kobayashi Akio , Uchida Yuzu , Kimura Yasutomo 
Published: July 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to propose a Web-based system for visualizing local politics in Japan. Although many local governments in Japan provide public access to political documents, researchers and scientists cannot take full advantage of them because they consist only of raw text. Therefore, there is a need for these to be converted into panel data and to visualize differences by region or over time. For ordinary citizens, visualizing differences between the topics discussed by assembly members can be useful in assessing their characteristics. The proposed system aims to provide a complete solution that meets all of these requirements.

Design/methodology/approach
The system has five main functions: full-text search for political documents, showing keywords in context, map and time-series visualization, cross-tabulation and political keyword extraction. Although three existing systems offer some of these functions, the proposed system integrates all the five necessary functions and provides a complete solution that meets all of the requirements.

Findings
The proposed system is demonstrated to be a complete solution for the requirements based on the comparisons with the existing systems and use cases.

Originality/value
The proposed system, which integrates all the five necessary functions and even adds a new cross-tabulation function, meets all the requirements and is a complete solution for researchers, scientists and ordinary citizens.
Is there room for another hedonic model?
Authors: Cajias Marcelo 
Published: July 2018

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the in-sample explanatory and out-of-sample forecasting accuracy of the generalized additive model for location, scale and shape (GAMLSS) model in contrast to the GAM method in Munich’s residential market.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores the in-sample explanatory results via comparison of coefficients and a graphical analysis of non-linear effects. The out-of-sample forecasting accuracy focusses on 50 loops of three models excluding 10 per cent of the observations randomly. Afterwards, it obtains the predicted functional forms and predicts the remaining 10 per cent. The forecasting performance is measured via error variance, root mean squared error, mean absolute error and the mean percentage error.FindingsThe results show that the complexity of asking rents in Munich is more accurately captured by the GAMLSS approach than the GAM as shown by an outperformance in the in-sample explanatory accuracy. The results further show that the theoretical and empirical complexities do pay off in view of the increased out-of-sample forecasting power of the GAMLSS approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe computational requirements necessary to estimate GAMLSS models in terms of number of cores and RAM are high and might constitute one of the limiting factors for (institutional) researchers. Moreover, large and detailed knowledge on statistical inference and programming is necessary.Practical implicationsThe usage of the GAMLSS approach would lead policymakers to better understand the local factors affecting rents. Institutional researchers, instead, would clearly aim at calibrating the forecasting accuracy of the model to better forecast rents in investment strategies. Finally, future researchers are encouraged to exploit the large potential of the GAMLSS framework and its modelling flexibility.Originality/valueThe GAMLSS approach is widely recognised and used by international institutions such as the World Health Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission. This is the first study to the best of the author’s knowledge to assess the properties of the GAMLSS approach in applied real estate research from a statistical asymptotic perspective by using a unique data basis with more than 38,000 observations.
Auditor choice as a commitment device
Authors: Noda Akihiro 
Published: July 2018

Purpose
This study aims to examine how firms choose an auditor in the presence of bilateral information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders regarding firms’ economic performance.

Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a one-period reporting bias game with a firm’s risk-neutral manager and investors in the capital market, in which a manager with private information chooses an auditor and reports earnings to investors who acquire their own information. The analysis focuses on the possibility that the manager engages an auditor to constrain earnings management as a commitment device to minimize reporting error cost.

Findings
The results show that the manager’s optimal auditor choice is determined based on investor sensitivity to the earnings report, and managerial incentives for earnings management, discounted by the uncertainty of reporting errors. The results for optimal auditor choice are counterintuitive: engaging a higher-quality auditor could seemingly be associated with aggressive earnings management.

Originality/value
This study advances the understanding of the theoretical basis of firms’ auditor choice in the context of market investors’ information acquisition when auditors exercise their discretion in reporting. This issue has received limited attention in the extant literature.
Dry‐season decline in tree sapflux is correlated with leaf turgor loss point in a tropical rainforest
Authors: Maréchaux Isabelle , Bonal Damien , Bartlett Megan K. , Burban Benoît , Coste Sabrina , Courtois Elodie A. , Dulormne Maguy , Goret Jean‐Yves , Mira Eléonore , Mirabel Ariane , Sack Lawren , Stahl Clément , Chave Jérôme 
Published: July 2018

Abstract

Water availability is a key determinant of forest ecosystem function and tree species distributions. While droughts are increasing in frequency in many ecosystems, including in the tropics, plant responses to water supply vary with species and drought intensity and are therefore difficult to model. Based on physiological first principles, we hypothesized that trees with a lower turgor loss point (πtlp), that is, a more negative leaf water potential at wilting, would maintain water transport for longer into a dry season.

We measured sapflux density of 22 mature trees of 10 species during a dry season in an Amazonian rainforest, quantified sapflux decline as soil water content decreased and tested its relationship to tree πtlp, size and leaf predawn and midday water potentials measured after the onset of the dry season.

The measured trees varied strongly in the response of water use to the seasonal drought, with sapflux at the end of the dry season ranging from 37 to 117% (on average 83 ± 5 %) of that at the beginning of the dry season. The decline of water transport as soil dried was correlated with tree πtlp (Spearman’s ρ ≥ 0.63), but not with tree size or predawn and midday water potentials. Thus, trees with more drought‐tolerant leaves better maintained water transport during the seasonal drought.

Our study provides an explicit correlation between a trait, measurable at the leaf level, and whole‐plant performance under drying conditions. Physiological traits such as πtlp can be used to assess and model higher scale processes in response to drying conditions.

A plain language summary is available for this article.
Relationship between perceived social support and patient‐reported communication outcomes across communication disorders: a systematic review
Authors: Eadie Tanya , Kapsner‐Smith Mara , Bolt Susan , Sauder Cara , Yorkston Kathryn , Baylor Carolyn 
Published: July 2018

AbstractBackgroundBeyond the severity of voice, speech and language impairments, one potential predictor of communication success across adult populations with communication disorders may be perceived social support: the expectation that others will provide support if needed. Despite the preponderance of intervention approaches that assume a positive relationship between perceived social support and patient‐reported communication success, the evidence base for these relationships is limited.AimsThe aim of this systematic review is to explore relationships between measures of perceived social support and patient‐reported communication outcomes in adult populations with communication disorders.Methods & ProceduresThe PRISMA guidelines were followed in the conduct and reporting of this review. Electronic databases including PubMed, PsychINFO and CINAHL were systematically searched up to 19 May 2017. Additional data were obtained for two studies. All the included studies were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) tools. Given the heterogeneous nature of the studies, data synthesis was narrative for the quantitative studies. A meta‐ethnographic approach was used to synthesize qualitative data.Outcomes & ResultsEight quantitative and four qualitative studies met eligibility criteria. All quantitative studies met eight of eight quality criteria. For the qualitative studies, one study met nine of nine quality criteria; the remaining three studies met three, seven and eight quality criteria. Of the eight included quantitative studies, six independent data sets were used. Results revealed no significant relationships between perceived social support and communication outcomes in three studies (two aphasia with one data set, one Parkinson's disease), while perceived social support was a weak, but significant predictor in two studies (one multiple sclerosis, one head and neck cancer). Three additional studies (two aphasia with one data set; one Parkinson's disease) found that relationships were initially weak, but strengthened over time to become moderate. Results from qualitative studies (one head and neck cancer, two aphasia, one multiple sclerosis) revealed that perceived social support acted as a facilitator, and absent or misguided support acted as a barrier to communication outcomes. Skilful, responsive family members were able to facilitate better quality of communicative interactions, whereas lack of social support, or negative attitudes and behaviours of other people, were barriers.Conclusions & ImplicationsWhile perceived social support may affect communication outcomes in adults with communication disorders, current measures may not adequately capture these constructs. Results have implications for future research and interventions for speech and language therapists.
Clinical efficacy and safety of golimumab in biologically experienced and naive patients with active ulcerative colitis: A real‐life experience from two Italian IBD centers
Authors: Orlandini Beatrice , Dragoni Gabriele , Variola Angela , Massella Arianna , Bagnoli Siro , Campi Riccardo , Rogai Francesca 
Published: July 2018

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of golimumab in biological naive and experienced patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) treated at two Italian IBD centers.METHODSWe retrospectively reviewed our prospectively maintained UC database from March 2015 to March 2017. Patients received golimumab 200 mg at week 0, 100 mg at week 2, then 50 mg or 100 mg every 4 weeks. Follow‐up was recorded at 12 and 24 weeks and in March 2017, with a median follow‐up of 64 weeks. The main outcomes evaluated were clinical remission (CR) and adverse event rates.RESULTSOf the 59 patients (44% naive and 56% experienced), CR rate was 47% at 12‐week follow‐up, 55% (among the 49 patients on treatment) at 24‐week follow‐up and 49% (among 35 patients on treatment) at the last follow‐up visit. Median treatment duration was 52 weeks (interquartile range 30–64 weeks) among patients treated for >6 months. Overall, 10 (17%) patients experienced adverse events, of whom 50% discontinued treatment. The most frequent adverse events were infections. Biological naive and experienced patients did not differ in terms of CR and adverse event rates.CONCLUSIONSOur real‐life experience showed that CR decreased over time and was achieved by almost one‐third of the cohort at the last follow‐up visit. Golimumab showed an overall favorable safety profile and the results were not different between biological naive and experienced patients. Future research is needed to confirm our results and to identify criteria to select patients most likely to respond.
From Boundary-Work to Boundary Object: How Biology Left and Re-Entered the Social Sciences
Authors: Meloni Maurizio 
Published: July 2018

In an archaeological spirit this paper comes back to a founding event in the construction of the twentieth-century episteme, the moment at which the life- and the social sciences parted ways and intense boundary-work was carried out on the biology/society border, with significant benefits for both sides. Galton and Weismann for biology, and Alfred Kroeber for anthropology delimit this founding moment and I argue, expanding on an existing body of historical scholarship, for an implicit convergence of their views. After this excavation, I look at recent developments in the life sciences, which I have named the ‘social turn’ in biology ( Meloni, 2014 ), and in particular at epigenetics with its promise to destabilize the social/biological border. I claim here that today a different account of ‘the biological’ to that established during the Galton–Kroeber period is emerging. Rather than being used to support a form of boundary-work, biology has become a boundary object that crosses previously erected barriers, allowing different research communities to draw from it.
Floral usage partitioning and competition between social (Apis mellifera, Bombus terrestris) and solitary bees in New Zealand: Niche partitioning via floral preferences?
Authors: Iwasaki Jay M. , Dickinson Katharine J. M. , Barratt Barbara I. P. , Mercer Alison R. , Jowett Timothy W. D. , Lord Janice M. 
Published: July 2018

AbstractWorldwide, studies of interactions between introduced and native bees have produced contradictory evidence regarding the potential for competition. Different resource requirements and the impact of tongue length on resource use are often overlooked aspects of these studies. Here, we examine floral resource use and niche overlap between introduced social bees and native solitary bees over two flowering seasons on The Remarkables mountain range, South Island, New Zealand. The native bee fauna of New Zealand is composed of short‐tongued solitary bees in the families Colletidae and Halictidae. Long‐tongued social bees were introduced 150 years ago, and Apis mellifera and Bombus species are now widespread. We analysed floral resource utilization by introduced bees (mainly Bombus terrestris) and native bees in relation to resource abundance across elevations in montane to alpine grassland communities. We modelled resource utilization and overlap between bee taxa using a novel index of floral resource availability, developed to more accurately describe floral density. Additionally, we sought to quantify the impact of honey bees by introducing hives, however, low densities in study plots prevented direct conclusions from being drawn. Native and introduced bees did, however, have distinctly different floral preferences over the flowering season with more niche overlap within, rather than between, native and introduced groups. Introduced bees showed a preference for introduced species in the family Fabaceae which native bees could not access. Native bees heavily utilized introduced Asteraceae as well as native floral resources that introduced bees did not prefer. The limited resource overlap between bee taxa indicated that bee communities in New Zealand may have reduced potential for competition, owing to the different resource requirements of solitary versus social bees and their differing abilities to access floral resources. These findings provide some potential explanations for contradictory evidence worldwide regarding the perceived detrimental impacts of introduced social bees.
The association of LRP6 rs2302685 (V1062I) polymorphism with the risk of hyperlipidemia in Iranian children and adolescents
Authors: Montazeri‐Najafabady Nima , Dabbaghmanesh Mohammad Hossein , Mohammadian Amiri Rajeeh 
Published: July 2018

AbstractWnt signaling/LRP6 plays a critical role in metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis, and variation in this pathway may lead to hyperlipidemia, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and coronary artery disease. In the present study, we investigated the effect of LRP6 rs2302685 (V1062I) on hyperlipidemia in Iranian children and adolescents. The population in this study consisted of 200 children (101 boys, 99 girls) aged 9–18 years old. Total cholesterol, high‐density lipoprotein (HDL), low‐density lipoprotein (LDL), non‐HDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were measured. Body composition was evaluated by the Hologic DXA system. PCR/restriction fragment length polymorphism was performed for LRP6 rs2302685 (V1062I) genotyping. Logistic regression analysis was done to find the association between LRP6 rs2302685 (V1062I) and categorized lipid parameters in the adjusted model for confounding factors (age, sex, and puberty).Individuals with the CC genotype showed significantly higher levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and non‐HDL compared to the CT and TT genotypes. In modeling analysis, for categorized lipid parameters, a significant association was found between CC versus CT, and CC versus TT in terms of cholesterol, LDL, and non‐HDL. It seems that LRP6 rs2302685 (V1062I) variant carriers are associated with an increased risk of hyperlipidemia in Iranian children and adolescents.
Genetic susceptibility of glutathione S‐transferase genes (GSTM1/T1 and P1) to coronary artery disease in Asian Indians
Authors: Bhatti J. S. , Vijayvergiya R. , Singh B. , Bhatti G. K. 
Published: July 2018

AbstractGenetic polymorphisms in glutathione S‐transferase (GST) genes may modulate the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The objective of present study was to investigate the potential association between the polymorphisms of GSTM1/T1 and P1
genes and their influence on diverse clinical parameters and oxidative stress biomarkers in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients in Asian Indians. The present study includes 562 angiographically confirmed CAD patients and 564 healthy control subjects from the north Indian population. Anthropometric and clinical measurements were performed for all the participants. The oxidative stress biomarkers including malondialdehyde and total antioxidant capacity were also measured. The genotyping of the GSTM1/T1 and P1 genes was performed using the multiplex‐PCR and PCR‐RFLP methods. The CAD patients exhibit significantly high values of waist circumference, waist‐to‐hip ratio, body fat (%), glucose, triglycerides, and very low‐density lipoprotein, and reduced high‐density lipoprotein levels compared to control subjects (P < 0.001). Malondialdehyde levels were significantly enhanced, and the total antioxidant capacity was reduced in CAD patients compared to controls (P < 0.001). However, no significant difference in body mass index and total cholesterol levels were observed in CAD patients and control subjects. The frequencies of the GSTM1 and GSTM1/T1 null genotypes in the CAD patients were significantly higher than the control subjects. In contrast, the GSTT1(−) genotype frequencies were significantly lower in CAD patients than the controls. Logistic regression analysis of the data revealed the null genotype of GSTM1 and the GG genotype of the GSTP1 (313A/G) gene were associated with an approximately twofold enhanced risk of developing CAD, whereas GSTT1(−) plays a defensive role against CAD development in north Indians. Upon stratification of data according to the genotypes of the GSTM1/T1 and P1 genes, we did not find significant a difference among the various metabolic traits in CAD patients and controls. Our results suggest that oxidative damage induced by lipid peroxidation with reduced antioxidant capacity and genetic variants in GST genes (GSTM1/T1 and P1) may modify the risk of CAD development in Asian Indian population.