bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Human Development in the Context of Social Change: Introduction
Authors: Chen Xinyin 
Published: October 2015

AbstractTwo prominent perspectives have guided most research on social change and human development: Vygotsky's cultural–historical perspective and Elder's life‐course perspective. Whereas Vygotsky's perspective focuses on the largely unidirectional influence of enduring societal transformation on human development, Elder's focuses more on individual experiences in circumstances related to dramatic and often unexpected historical events. In addition to the two traditional perspectives, a pluralist–constructivist perspective has emerged in the study of social change that is occurring in most parts of the world primarily because of globalization and technological development. This perspective emphasizes the coexistence and integration of diverse values and lifestyles and their significance for developing comprehensive competencies that help children function in various settings. This introduction provides an overview of research from each of these perspectives and discusses some major issues in the articles in this special section.
Environmental stress and disease in pearl oysters, focusing on the Akoya pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata Gould 1850)
Authors: Kuchel Rhiannon P. , O’Connor Wayne A. , Raftos David A. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractPinctada fucata Gould 1850 was first commercially cultivated in Japan in the early 1920s. Japan dominated this market until the proliferation of Akoya viral disease (AVD) in 1996. Since that time the Japanese industry has struggled. In 2000, Japanese production of Akoya pearls represented only 13% of the total world market value. A number of investigations into this downturn have concluded that the proliferation of AVD was a result of stress associated with increasing urbanization and industrialization. This relationship between environmental stress and altered immunological activity is well documented in a number of oyster species. The decline in Japanese pearl production has led to interest in Akoya cultivation in Australia. Commercial Akoya pearl oyster ventures are now in operation in the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. The development of a robust and lucrative Akoya pearl industry in Australia will rely on the cultivation and maintenance of healthy oysters. Oyster health is associated with immunological status, which can be jeopardized by both stress and disease. This review details the relationship between the oyster immune system, environmental stress and disease outbreaks in the genus Pinctada, with implications for P. fucata and the fledgling Australian industry.
Explanatory Exclusion and the Intensionality of Explanation
Authors: CAMPBELL NEIL 
Published: October 2015

AbstractAusonio Marras has argued that Jaegwon Kim's principle of explanatory exclusion depends on an implausibly strong interpretation of explanatory realism that should be rejected because it leads to an extensional criterion of individuation for explanations. I examine the role explanatory realism plays in Kim's justification for the exclusion principle and explore two ways in which Kim can respond to Marras's criticism. The first involves separating criteria for explanatory truth from questions of explanatory adequacy, while the second appeals to Kim's fine‐grained theory of events. I argue that the first response is unconvincing on its own but when coupled with the second might provide a viable way for Kim to avoid Marras's criticism. However, I show that the second strategy is weak from a polemical point of view because Kim's theory of events already assumes what the principle of explanatory exclusion was introduced to establish: the falsity of nonreductive physicalism.
Market Approaches to Water Allocation: Lessons from Latin America
Authors: Bauer Carl 
Published: October 2015

Abstract:Latin American experiences with water markets offer lessons to the U.S. because they have emerged in different political and economic contexts. The Western U.S. experience has been longer and has defined some of the world's classic cases of market allocation of water. These cases, however, have been driven by domestic factors and have evolved within domestic social and institutional contexts, which are easy for people in the U.S. to take for granted. Looking at Chile and Mexico can help us see Western U.S. water allocation with fresh eyes. These Latin American cases have been strongly influenced by international theories and policy debates, forcing the question of how to adapt foreign ideas to local realities. The Chilean case in particular shows the strong relationship between market approaches and institutions for water governance and sustainability. A comparative perspective might help loosen the gridlock that characterizes many Western U.S. water problems.
Three Common Misconceptions About Markets (or Why Earnings Smoothing, Guidance, and Concern About Meeting Consensus Estimates are Likely to be Counterproductive)
Authors: Koller Tim , Jiang Bin , Raj Rishi 
Published: October 2015

Although many executives strive for stable earnings growth, finance theory and research have long suggested that the most sophisticated investors aren't especially concerned about “normal” levels of variability in reported earnings. More recent research by the authors and their McKinsey colleagues also suggests that extraordinary efforts to achieve steady growth in earnings per share quarter after quarter aren't worthwhile and may actually hurt the companies that undertake them. While such efforts to smooth earnings involve real costs, the research finds no meaningful relationship between earnings variability and valuation multiples or shareholder returns.Based on these findings, as well as considerable experience in advising companies, the authors offer the following advice to senior executives:

Managers shouldn't shape their earnings targets or budgets just to meet consensus estimates. Companies that reduce spending on product development, sales and marketing, or other contributors to long‐term growth are sacrificing long‐term performance for the appearance of short‐term strength.
As the year progresses, managers should likewise avoid costly, shortsighted actions to meet the consensus. Resist the temptation to offer customers end‐of‐year discounts to boost current‐year sales, or to resort to creative accounting with accruals. Investors recognize these for what they are: borrowing from next year's earnings.
Finally, companies should reconsider the practice of quarterly earnings guidance. Instead of providing frequent earnings guidance, companies should design their investor communication policies to help the market to understand their strategy, the underlying value drivers of their business, and the most important risks associated with the business—in short, to understand the long‐term health and value of the enterprise.
How to Create Value Without Earnings: The Case of Amazon
Authors: Tarasoff Josh , McCormack John 
Published: October 2015

Investors and commentators often equate GAAP accounting metrics, especially earnings per share, with financial success. The reality, however, is that there is no simple, linear relationship between GAAP earnings and intrinsic value, which is defined as the present value of expected future cash flows. And adjustments of GAAP metrics, though admittedly subjective, are often required to understand the economic reality of a business.http://Amazon.com Inc. provides a case study that throws into sharp relief the need to look beyond GAAP in order to analyze underlying fundamentals and value. In this paper, the authors argue that Amazon has done a superb job of building shareholder wealth, all the while reporting low and declining operating and net income margins. The article provides a framework for thinking about Amazon's underlying profitability that is based on the concept of return on capital in relation to the cost of capital, and shows how that profitability has been masked by GAAP accounting. The authors demonstrate that the company is now investing very large amounts of capital with the expectation of earning rates of return well above its cost of capital. And their analysis suggests that if such investment can continue over the long term, Amazon's current market value of $140 billion can be readily justified.
Third Annual Program for Financial Studies Conference Columbia Business School: Navigating the Changing Landscape of Finance
Authors: Gorman James 
Published: October 2015

In this edited transcript of his keynote address at Columbia Business School's Third Annual Financial Studies Conference, the Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley begins by tracing the origins of the 2008 financial crisis to the overleveraging of bank balance sheets that were filled with risky and illiquid assets. With the leverage of most large banks rising well above 30 times, reductions in asset values of as little as 3% would have been enough to wipe out their capital. And as the value of the assets began to be questioned, so was the banks' ability to roll over their short‐term debt.Contrary to the popular perception, however, the fundamental problem with U.S. banks had almost nothing to with their size, or their complexity. It was in fact the smallest of the large U.S. financial institutions that got into the most trouble—while the largest, JPMorgan Chase, saw the least destruction of value during the crisis. What's more, U.S. banks are relatively small and focused compared to the large universal banks and highly concentrated banking systems that dominate most of the world's developed economies. Complexity itself was not really the culprit either. Some complex banks managed their risks effectively, while many conventional deposit‐takers and lenders failed, reflecting significant differences in the quality and judgment of management.The response of the U.S. government to the crisis, mainly in the form of TARP, proved highly effective in limiting the damage to banks and the global economy. And to reduce the probability of a future banking crisis, U.S. regulators are now well along in implementing a new three‐part regulatory model that consists of the following: (1) significantly higher capital and liquidity requirements that are designed to keep banks from getting into financial trouble; (2) annual report cards called “CCARs” (Comprehensive Review and Analysis) for all banks deemed “systemically important” in which bank balance sheets are subjected to “stress tests” involving scenarios worse than the recent crisis; and (3) “resolution plans” for reorganizing banks that get into trouble and whose capital ratios fall below acceptable levels.Thanks to such regulatory changes, and to the response of most financial institutions to them, the U.S. financial system has been restored to stability. In the case of Morgan Stanley, during the post‐crisis period in which the firm's total assets have been cut by more than a third (from $1.25 trillion to $800 billion), liquid assets have more than doubled (from $80 billion to $180 billion), capital has doubled (from $30 billion to $62 billion), and leverage has been reduced from 35 times to 12 times. At the same time, the firm has shut down proprietary trading and other risky principal businesses while investing heavily in and expanding its most stable business—wealth management—which is expected to account for over 50% of its revenue and profits going forward.
Do Trading and Power Operations Mix?
Authors: Parsons John E. 
Published: October 2015

The author uses the case of Constellation Energy to show the challenges, and pitfalls, of running an energy and power trading unit as a profit center within a large power company. Sophisticated trading and risk management operations do play important supporting roles in power companies that face competitive wholesale markets. The complicated dynamics of power prices and the complex operations of generation assets and supply obligations require careful assessment of risks and returns. Trading operations can help extract more value from physical assets and supply obligations.But problems are bound to arise when companies attempt to manage the trading function as a stand‐alone profit center. Determining the amount of capital required for proprietary trading portfolios and other elements of trading businesses is complicated. It is easy to underestimate the capital required and so exaggerate the profitability of trading. When profit center trading operations share a balance sheet with other business units—especially units with physical assets like generation—the natural tendency is for the trading operation to piggyback on the capital of the other units. The actual amount of capital consumed becomes apparent only in times of crisis. We have seen this mistake made repeatedly in the short history of trading operations in U.S. power companies. Only truly independent trading operations, with their own balance sheets, can be evaluated clearly and held accountable.
Hedge Fund Involvement in Convertible Securities
Authors: Brown Stephen J. , Grundy Bruce D. , Lewis Craig M. , Verwijmeren Patrick 
Published: October 2015

Convertible arbitrage hedge funds combine long positions in convertible securities with short positions in the underlying stock. In effect, hedge funds use their knowledge of the borrowing and short‐sale market to hedge themselves while distributing equity exposure to a large number of well‐diversified investors through their short positions.The authors argue that many “would‐be” equity issuers that would otherwise pay high costs in a secondary equity issue choose instead to issue convertible debt to hedge funds that in turn distribute equity exposure to institutional investors. This allows companies to receive “equity‐like” financing today at lower cost than a secondary equity offering. The authors' findings also suggest that more convertibles will be privately placed with hedge funds when issuer and market conditions suggest that shorting costs will be lower.
Evidence from German Companies of Effects of Corporate Risk Management on Capital Structure Decisions
Authors: Bock Julita M. 
Published: October 2015

The author investigates the interaction between risk management and capital structure among publicly listed German companies. By surveying executives at these companies, she computes a risk management score for each company indicating the extent of risk management practices. The scores reflect not only the companies' use of derivatives and “at‐risk” ratios, but also the respondents' assessments of how well risk management has been integrated into existing corporate processes.Some results, though not all, are consistent with finance theory. Most important, companies with more extensive risk management activities have higher debt ratios and lower interest coverage ratios. At the same time, such companies also exhibit lower volatility of cash flow, sales, EBIT, and net income, which helps explain their ability to service more debt. And, finally, companies with more extensive—and, according to their responding executives, more effective—risk management also tend to be larger, have longer debt maturities, lower average costs of debt, and have more tangible assets.
Mechanisms of Board Turnover: Evidence From Backdating
Authors: Bereskin Frederick L. , Smith Clifford W. 
Published: October 2015

Regulators and governance scholars often regard the high rates of reelection among those nominated for boards of directors (and the small percentage of nominated directors who lose elections) as persuasive evidence of limited shareholder power. To correct this perceived imbalance against shareholders, some corporate governance advocates have undertaken a number of efforts to reform the director election system, most recently by proposing “proxy access” regulation to facilitate contested board elections.The authors take a close look at the board turnover within companies implicated in stock‐option backdating to assess the effectiveness of board elections. What they find is that, despite high reelection rates among nominated directors, board turnover is in fact substantial—but it takes place almost entirely before the board elections. Because of the apparently high costs associated with losing such an election, board nominees generally are not renominated for election (or reelection) unless success is quite likely. And whereas independent directors generally leave boards by not being renominated, management directors generally resign.For this reason, reelection rates tell us very little about the effectiveness of shareholder voting. But what the authors' findings do show is that directors involved in stock‐option backdating experience reductions in both the number and prestige of their future directorships. Thus, the authors' findings suggest that the board of director election process functions more effectively than shareholder advocates typically claim, that criticism of the responsiveness of the board‐election process to shareholder interests is overstated, and that reform efforts are therefore likely to be misplaced.
2013 Nobel Prize Revisited: Do Shiller's Models Really Have Predictive Power?
Authors: Kantor Brian , Holdsworth Christopher 
Published: October 2015

The authors take a critical view of the investment approach advocated by recent Nobel laureate Robert Shiller. A critic of efficient markets theory, Shiller has proposed that investors, when attempting to determine whether the S&P Index is under‐ or overvalued, should use a P/E ratio whose denominator is the 120‐month moving average of the company's EPS. But the authors find that such an approach does not provide consistently superior insights to those provided by conventional PEs—and that, for example, the use of both conventional and Shiller PE multiples would have indicated a highly overvalued S&P not only in early 2000—before the bursting of the dotcom bubble—but also in 1996, when Fed Governor Greenspan spoke prematurely of “irrational exuberance.”The authors also show that both the Shiller PE and the conventional PE ratios fail a critical statistical test: they are not mean‐reverting—and as a consequence, both ratios can be expected to indicate either undervaluation or overvaluation for very long periods of time. Complicating matters, current earnings are useful to investors in predicting future stock prices only insofar as they provide a reliable guide to future earnings and cash flows. And as one would expect in competitive capital markets, even perfect foreknowledge of future earnings is not likely to be much help since, according to the authors' analysis, five‐year earnings explain on average less than 20% of the variation in prices over consecutive five‐year periods.
Valuation Weights, Linear Dynamics and Accounting Conservatism: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Ashton David , Wang Pengguo 
Published: October 2015

AbstractResidual income models provide an important theoretical link between equity valuation and financial statement variables. While various researchers have developed models of how accounting policy impacts on the structure of these models, empirical support for these models is at best weak and frequently contradictory. In this paper, we develop an analytical model, which identifies the dependency between valuation weights in residual income models and the associated structure of earnings information dynamics and accounting conservatism. In contrast to many earlier studies, we find strong evidence of conservatism in our reformulation of the linear dynamics. We proceed to test our predictions of the dependency of the weights on two measures of conservatism, the conventional measure of price‐to‐book ratio and the recent measure of a C‐Score index developed by Khan and Watts (2009) and find that the empirical results accord well with our theoretical predictions in the case of the former but not the latter measure.
Constructing and Testing Alternative Versions of the Fama–French and Carhart Models in the UK
Authors: Gregory Alan , Tharyan Rajesh , Christidis Angela 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis paper constructs and tests alternative versions of the Fama–French and Carhart models for the UK market with the purpose of providing guidance for researchers interested in asset pricing and event studies. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of such models, forming risk factors using approaches advanced in the recent literature including value‐weighted factor components and various decompositions of the risk factors. We also test whether such factor models can at least explain the returns of large firms. We find that versions of the four‐factor model using decomposed and value‐weighted factor components are able to explain the cross‐section of returns in large firms or in portfolios without extreme momentum exposures. However, we do not find that risk factors are consistently and reliably priced.
The Unintended Consequences of High Expectations and Pressure on New CEOs
Authors: Krieger Kevin , Ang James S. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWe provide empirical tests of a general version of targeting theory that greater scrutiny could lead to executive abuses. Our results show that new CEOs under higher expectations or pressure are more likely to report meeting analyst forecasts; however, this apparent superior performance dissipates after excluding firms having characteristics synonymous with earnings manipulation. We find evidence that new CEOs under greater pressure are considerably more likely to engage in manipulation while the link between expectations and manipulation is much weaker. The results are strongest for new CEOs whose firms report meeting forecasts and do not “walk down” earnings estimates.
Pre‐ and post‐treatment experiences of fear, anxiety, and pain among chronic periodontitis patients treated by scaling and root planing per quadrant versus one‐stage full‐mouth disinfection: a 6‐month randomized controlled clinical trial
Authors: Santuchi Camila Carvalho , Cortelli Sheila Cavalca , Cortelli José Roberto , Cota Luís Otávio Miranda , Alencar Camila Oliveira , Costa Fernando Oliveira 
Published: October 2015

AbstractAimTo relate the clinical effects of two different forms of non‐surgical periodontal therapy – scaling and root planing per quadrant (SRP‐Q) and one‐stage full‐mouth disinfection (FMD) – to patient‐based outcomes such as fear, anxiety, and pain of moderate chronic periodontitis patients.MethodsDental Fear Survey (DFS) and Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) questionnaires and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were applied to 78 patients randomized into two groups: SRP‐Q (n = 37) and FMD (n = 41). Periodontal clinical parameters: probing pocket depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), plaque index (PI), and gingival index (GI) were monitored at baseline and 6 months after treatment. Data were statistically analysed by chi‐square, Fisher's exact, Mann–Whitney, Wilcoxon tests, Pearson's correlation, and Cluster analysis.ResultsAll periodontal clinical parameters improved from baseline to 6 months. Patients with higher fear and anxiety showed a worse clinical periodontal status before and after treatment (mean CAL, PI, and GI). After both types of treatment, fear and anxiety decreased (FMD: p = 0.019; SRP‐Q: p = 0.043) with no differences between the groups. Pain did not differ between groups (FMD: 20.6 ± 19.0 and SRP: 20.7 ± 20.0; p = 0.930).ConclusionsIn moderate chronic periodontitis patients, SRP‐Q and FMD provided periodontal clinical improvements and similar experiences of fear, anxiety, and pain.