The predictive ability of corporate narrative disclosures: Australian evidence

The mam objective of this study is to contribute to the academic literature by investigating the relationship between narrative disclosures and corporate performance based on Australian evidence. The research design takes as its starting from the content analysis of discretionary narrative disclosures conducted by Smith and Taffler (2000), and extends their research by combining thematic content analysis and syntactic content analysis. This study focuses on the discretionary disclosures (the Chairman\u27s Statement) of· · Australian manufacturing companies. Based on the Earnings per Share (EPS) movement between 2008 and 2009, 64 sample companies are classified into two groups: good performer and poor performer. This study is grounded on signalling theory and agency theory, and links with the impression management strategy. Based on two branches of impression management (rationalisation and enhancement), six groups of variables are collected to examine narrative disclosures from both quantity ( what to disclose ) and quality ( how to disclose ) perspectives. Manual coding and two computer-based software programs are employed in this study. This study finds that the word-based and theme-based variables based on discretionary disclosures are significantly correlated with corporate performance. Moreover, word-based variables can successfully classify companies between good performer and poor performer with an accuracy of 86%. However, there is no significant relationship between corporate performance and report size, use of long words (as a proxy for jargon), FLESCH readability score, or persuasive language. The main value of this study is to build a classification model based on Australian evidence for continuing companies, since most prior research focuses on UK, US and New Zealand companies and is based on a healthy/failed distinction

Quantile and pseudo-Huber Tensor Decomposition

This paper studies the computational and statistical aspects of quantile and pseudo-Huber tensor decomposition. The integrated investigation of computational and statistical issues of robust tensor decomposition poses challenges due to the non-smooth loss functions. We propose a projected sub-gradient descent algorithm for tensor decomposition, equipped with either the pseudo-Huber loss or the quantile loss. In the presence of both heavy-tailed noise and Huber's contamination error, we demonstrate that our algorithm exhibits a so-called phenomenon of two-phase convergence with a carefully chosen step size schedule. The algorithm converges linearly and delivers an estimator that is statistically optimal with respect to both the heavy-tailed noise and arbitrary corruptions. Interestingly, our results achieve the first minimax optimal rates under Huber's contamination model for noisy tensor decomposition. Compared with existing literature, quantile tensor decomposition removes the requirement of specifying a sparsity level in advance, making it more flexible for practical use. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms in the presence of missing values. Our methods are subsequently applied to the food balance dataset and the international trade flow dataset, both of which yield intriguing findings

A graphical method of presenting property rights, building types, and residential behaviors: A case study of Xiaoxihu historic area, Nanjing

Il saggio descrive le possibili implementazioni di mappe tipologiche attraverso informazioni legate ai diritti di proprietà. Nel caso studio di Xiaoxihu a Nanjing, queste implementazioni hanno avuto una ricaduta diretta sulla gestione di processi di rigenerazione urbana

Reveal the Unknown: Out-of-Knowledge-Base Mention Discovery with Entity Linking

Discovering entity mentions that are out of a Knowledge Base (KB) from texts plays a critical role in KB maintenance, but has not yet been fully explored. The current methods are mostly limited to the simple threshold-based approach and feature-based classification; the datasets for evaluation are relatively rare. In this work, we propose BLINKout, a new BERT-based Entity Linking (EL) method which can identify mentions that do not have a corresponding KB entity by matching them to a special NIL entity. To this end, we integrate novel techniques including NIL representation, NIL classification, and synonym enhancement. We also propose Ontology Pruning and Versioning strategies to construct out-of-KB mentions from normal, in-KB EL datasets. Results on four datasets of clinical notes and publications show that BLINKout outperforms existing methods to detect out-of-KB mentions for medical ontologies UMLS and SNOMED CT

The Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Inbound Tourism from China: Using 2020/2022 Web-Based Survey Data

This study discusses the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on inbound tourism from China, aiming to investigate its prospects during the post-pandemic period. After briefly reviewing trends concerning COVID-19 impact studies at home and abroad, basic results from two cross-sections of web-based data in 2020 and 2022 are introduced to identify how the pandemic impacted not only daily activity and travel patterns but also the intentions of visiting Japan in the post-pandemic period. Finally, we summarize the challenges that we should verify to support inbound tourism restoration policies

Pretreatment plasma fibrinogen level as a prognostic biomarker for patients with lung cancer

Many researchers have shown that pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels are closely correlated with the prognosis of patients with lung cancer (LC). In this study, we thus performed a meta-analysis to systematically assess the prognostic value of pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels in LC patients. A computerized systematic search in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) was performed up to March 15, 2018. Studies with available data on the prognostic value of plasma fibrinogen in LC patients were eligible for inclusion. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and odd ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the correlation between pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels and prognosis as well as clinicopathological characteristics. A total of 17 studies with 6,460 LC patients were included in this meta-analysis. A higher pretreatment plasma fibrinogen level was significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS) (HR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.39-1.77; p=0.001), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.33-1.76; p=0.003), and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR: 3.14; 95% CI: 2.15-4.59; po0.001). Furthermore, our subgroup and sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the pooled HR for OS was robust and reliable. In addition, we also found that a higher fibrinogen level predicted advanced TNM stage (III-IV) (OR=2.18, 95% CI: 1.79-2.66; po0.001) and a higher incidence of lymph node metastasis (OR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.44-2.10; p=0.02). Our study suggested that higher pretreatment plasma fibrinogen levels predict worse prognoses in LC patients

Operator radiation dose during trans-hepatic arterial chemoembolization: different patients’ positions via transradial or transfemoral access

PURPOSEThis study aimed to compare the radiation dose received by the operator among different patients’ positions via transradial access (TRA) or transfemoral access (TFA) during transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODSA total of 120 patients with HCC undergoing TACE for the first time between January and November 2019 were randomized into 4 groups with 30 patients in each group. In group A, patients were placed in the foot-first position with the left upper arm abducted, and TACE was performed via the left radial artery. In group B, patients were placed in the conventional headfirst position with the left hand placed at the left groin, and TACE was performed via the left radial artery. In group C, patients were placed in the conventional head-first position, and TACE was performed via the right radial artery. In group D, patients were placed in the conventional head-first position, and TACE was performed via the right femoral artery. Before each procedure, thermoluminescent dosimeters were taped at 7 different body parts of the operator and the radiation dose was measured and collected after the procedure. The normalized radiation dose was also calculated. Procedural parameters included radiation dose, fluoroscopy time (FT), dose–area product (DAP), and air kerma (AK) were recorded. Patients’ demographics, tumor baseline characteristics, radiation dose, and procedural parameters were compared between groups.RESULTSNo significant differences were found in patients’ demographics, tumor baseline characteristics, as well as in total FT, DAP, and AK. However, significant differences were found in the total radiation dose received by the operator and the doses on the pelvic cavity and the right wrist (P < .05). In group C, the radiation doses received on the pelvic cavity, the right wrist, and the total radiation doses were relatively higher. Significant differences were also found in the normalized radiation doses received by the operator on the thyroid, chest, left wrist, right wrist, and pelvic cavity, and the total normalized doses (all P < .05). Similarly, the radiation doses received by the operator at the aforementioned parts in group C were higher, while those in group A were lower.CONCLUSIONNo statistically significant differences were observed in the FT, DAP, and AK in TACE via TRA when patients were placed in different positions. However, TACE via the left TRA, with patients in the feet-first position, reduced the radiation dose received by the operator, thereby reducing the radiation risk