Corporate social responsibility and its effect on earnings management: an empirical research on Spanish firms

The ethics of financial reporting assumes a centre stage in the corporate world in the background of an emerging understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the CSR orientation of a firm affects its reporting incentives, in terms of the accrual-based earnings management. The main argument is that CSR induces transparency and reduces the propensity towards the number of opportunities for earnings management. Using archival data from a panel sample of 100 most reputable Spanish firms between 2011 and 2015, we find a negative impact of CSR practices on earnings management. The findings demonstrate the socially responsible firms are inclined to foster long–term relationships with stakeholders rather than maximise their short-term profit. In this regard, providing quality earnings is closely connected to CSR activities, especially in that both aim to meet the needs of the stakeholders. Our findings have important implications for shareholders, investors and analysts who may consider CSR as an expression of ‘ethical’ investing and a possible reflection of the quality of financial reporting. These groups should be very cautious in relying on CSR information for Spanish firm's analysis, since CSR is found to have significant impact on earnings management

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

Teaching of Energy Issues: A debate proposal for a GLobal Reorientation

The growing awareness of serious difficulties in the learning of energy issues has produced a great deal of research, most of which is focused on specific conceptual aspects. In our opinion, the difficulties pointed out in the literature are interrelated and connected to other aspects (conceptual as well as procedural and axiological), which are not sufficiently taken into account in previous research. This paper aims to carry out a global analysis in order to avoid the more limited approaches that deal only with individual aspects. From this global analysis we have outlined 24 propositions that are put forward for debate to lay the foundations for a profound reorientation of the teaching of energy topics in upper high school courses, in order to facilitate a better scientific understanding of these topics, avoid many students' misconceptions and enhance awareness of the current situation of planetary emergency

First Low-Latency LIGO+Virgo Search for Binary Inspirals and their Electromagnetic Counterparts

Aims. The detection and measurement of gravitational-waves from coalescing neutron-star binary systems is an important science goal for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. In addition to emitting gravitational-waves at frequencies that span the most sensitive bands of the LIGO and Virgo detectors, these sources are also amongst the most likely to produce an electromagnetic counterpart to the gravitational-wave emission. A joint detection of the gravitational-wave and electromagnetic signals would provide a powerful new probe for astronomy. Methods. During the period between September 19 and October 20, 2010, the first low-latency search for gravitational-waves from binary inspirals in LIGO and Virgo data was conducted. The resulting triggers were sent to electromagnetic observatories for followup. We describe the generation and processing of the low-latency gravitational-wave triggers. The results of the electromagnetic image analysis will be described elsewhere. Results. Over the course of the science run, three gravitational-wave triggers passed all of the low-latency selection cuts. Of these, one was followed up by several of our observational partners. Analysis of the gravitational-wave data leads to an estimated false alarm rate of once every 6.4 days, falling far short of the requirement for a detection based solely on gravitational-wave data.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. For a repository of data used in the publication, go to: http://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=P1100065 Also see the announcement for this paper on ligo.org at: http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S6CBCLowLatency

Search for New Physics with Jets and Missing Transverse Momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for new physics is presented based on an event signature of at least three jets accompanied by large missing transverse momentum, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns collected in proton--proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. No excess of events is observed above the expected standard model backgrounds, which are all estimated from the data. Exclusion limits are presented for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Cross section limits are also presented using simplified models with new particles decaying to an undetected particle and one or two jets

First searches for optical counterparts to gravitational-wave candidate events

During the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory and Virgo joint science runs in 2009-2010, gravitational wave (GW) data from three interferometer detectors were analyzed within minutes to select GW candidate events and infer their apparent sky positions. Target coordinates were transmitted to several telescopes for follow-up observations aimed at the detection of an associated optical transient. Images were obtained for eight such GW candidates. We present the methods used to analyze the image data as well as the transient search results. No optical transient was identified with a convincing association with any of these candidates, and none of the GW triggers showed strong evidence for being astrophysical in nature. We compare the sensitivities of these observations to several model light curves from possible sources of interest, and discuss prospects for future joint GW-optical observations of this type

Upper limits on a stochastic gravitational-wave background using LIGO and Virgo interferometers at 600-1000 Hz

A stochastic background of gravitational waves is expected to arise from a superposition of many incoherent sources of gravitational waves, of either cosmological or astrophysical origin. This background is a target for the current generation of ground-based detectors. In this article we present the first joint search for a stochastic background using data from the LIGO and Virgo interferometers. In a frequency band of 600-1000 Hz, we obtained a 95% upper limit on the amplitude of $\Omega_{\rm GW}(f) = \Omega_3 (f/900 \mathrm{Hz})^3$, of $\Omega_3 < 0.33$, assuming a value of the Hubble parameter of $h_{100}=0.72$. These new limits are a factor of seven better than the previous best in this frequency band.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures. For a repository of data used in the publication, please see https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=22210. Also see the announcement for this paper at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5VSR1StochIso

Search for three-jet resonances in pp Collisions at √s=7 TeV

This article is published Open Access at sciencedirect.com. It is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.-- et al.Results are reported from a search for the production of three-jet resonances in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy √s=7  TeV. The study uses the data sample collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0fb -1. Events with high jet multiplicity and a large scalar sum of jet transverse momenta are analyzed for the presence of resonances in the three-jet invariant mass spectrum. No evidence for a narrow resonance is found in the data, and limits are set on the cross section for gluino pair production in an R-parity-violating supersymmetry model, for gluino masses greater than 280 GeV. Assuming a branching fraction for gluino decay into three jets of 100%, gluino masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. These results significantly extend the range of previous limits. © 2012 CERN.European Commission; Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (Austria); ); Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (Belgium); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Brasil); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Brasil); Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo; Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China; Colciencias (Colombia); Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia; Research Promotion Foundation (Cyprus); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France); Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Deutschland); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; General Secretariat of Research and Technology (Greece); Helsinki Institute of Physics; National Office for Research and Technology (Hungary); Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (Iran); Science Foundation Ireland; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italia); Compagnia di San Paolo (Italia); National Research Foundation of Korea; Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (México); Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (México); Secretaría de Educación Pública (México); Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí; Ministry of Science and Innovation (New Zealand); Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; National Science Center (Poland); Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal); Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Russia); Russian Foundation for Basic Research; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (Serbia); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España); Swiss National Science Foundation.Peer Reviewe

Measurement of the t-channel single top quark production cross section in pp collisions at √s =7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Nietzsches gelijk: Waarom wijsheid achteraf onbillijk is

A search is performed for a massive new vector-like quark T, with charge 2/3, that is pair produced together with its antiparticle in proton-proton collisions. The data were collected by the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 inverse femtobarns. The T quark is assumed to decay into three different final states, bW, tZ, and tH. The search is carried out using events with at least one isolated lepton. No deviations from standard model expectations are observed, and lower limits are set on the T quark mass at 95% confidence level. The lower limit lies between 687 and 782 GeV for all possible values of the branching fractions into the three different final states assuming strong production. These limits are the most stringent constraints to date on the existence of such a quark