Determinants Of The Use Of Special Purpose Companies (SPCs) On Pre- And Post-IFRS: Empirical Evidence From Korea

We investigate which factors determine the use of a special purpose company (SPC) by a sponsoring company and whether those determinants differ before and after IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) adoption. Using financial data from Korean listed companies, our results indicate that use of an SPC is associated with financial reporting incentives (e.g., lowering leverage) and economic benefits (e.g., fundraising). However, the effect of leverage on the use of SPCs is not significant after the adoption of the IFRS. These results suggest that, although companies are generally motivated to use SPCs for both financial reporting and economic purposes, only economic motivation influences the use of SPCs after IFRS adoption. This implies that the regulation for reporting an SPC’s consolidated financial statement under IFRS plays a role in decreasing the use of SPCs for financial reporting discretion. We extend the prior literature on SPCs by documenting the effects of IFRS adoption on the determinants of the use of SPCs

Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction to CO Catalyzed by 2D Nanostructures

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction towards value-added chemical feedstocks has been extensively studied in recent years to resolve the energy and environmental problems. The practical application of electrochemical CO₂ reduction technology requires a cost-effective, highly efficient, and robust catalyst. To date, vigorous research have been carried out to increase the proficiency of electrocatalysts. In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) graphene and transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) have displayed excellent activity towards CO₂ reduction. This review focuses on the recent progress of 2D graphene and TMCs for selective electrochemical CO₂ reduction into CO

Contrastive Corpus Attribution for Explaining Representations

Despite the widespread use of unsupervised models, very few methods are designed to explain them. Most explanation methods explain a scalar model output. However, unsupervised models output representation vectors, the elements of which are not good candidates to explain because they lack semantic meaning. To bridge this gap, recent works defined a scalar explanation output: a dot product-based similarity in the representation space to the sample being explained (i.e., an explicand). Although this enabled explanations of unsupervised models, the interpretation of this approach can still be opaque because similarity to the explicand's representation may not be meaningful to humans. To address this, we propose contrastive corpus similarity, a novel and semantically meaningful scalar explanation output based on a reference corpus and a contrasting foil set of samples. We demonstrate that contrastive corpus similarity is compatible with many post-hoc feature attribution methods to generate COntrastive COrpus Attributions (COCOA) and quantitatively verify that features important to the corpus are identified. We showcase the utility of COCOA in two ways: (i) we draw insights by explaining augmentations of the same image in a contrastive learning setting (SimCLR); and (ii) we perform zero-shot object localization by explaining the similarity of image representations to jointly learned text representations (CLIP).Comment: Updated for the final camera-ready version of ICLR 202

Critical Review of Credit Bank System in South Korea: A New Mediator for Lifelong Learning?

This study critically analyzes Credit Bank System (CBS) as an emerging open higher education system in South Korea by using critical theory. Specifically, it examines the meaning of CBS degree in Korean credentialism circumstances and reflects CBS meeting needs rationale assumption. Based on the findings, conclusions and implications are discussed

Reactive Oxygen Species and Inhibitors of Inflammatory Enzymes, NADPH Oxidase, and iNOS in Experimental Models of Parkinson's Disease

Reactive oxygen species (ROSs) are emerging as important players in the etiology of neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease (PD). Out of several ROS-generating systems, the inflammatory enzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) were believed to play major roles. Mounting evidence suggests that activation of NADPH oxidase and the expression of iNOS are directly linked to the generation of highly reactive ROS which affects various cellular components and preferentially damage midbrain dopaminergic neurons in PD. Therefore, appropriate management or inhibition of ROS generated by these enzymes may represent a therapeutic target to reduce neuronal degeneration seen in PD. Here, we have summarized recently developed agents and patents claimed as inhibitors of NADPH oxidase and iNOS enzymes in experimental models of PD

Effects of Dietary Protein and Fat Contents on Renal Function and Inflammatory Cytokines in Rats with Adriamycin-Induced Nephrotic Syndrome

The effects of dietary protein and fat on renal function-related blood and urine parameters, such as albumin, urinary protein,and inflammatory cytokines were investigated in adriamycin- (ADR) induced nephrotic syndrome rats. ADR (2 mg/kg BW) was injected i.p. weekly for six weeks to develop nephrotic syndrome; thereafter rats were fed low-protein/high-fat (LPHF) or high-protein/low-fat (HPLF) diets for five weeks. Renal function-related blood and urine parameters were measured before and after dietary intervention. Serum levels of albumin, TG, and creatinine were significantly higher in the LPHF group than in the HPLF group. Serum levels of albumin were low and urinary protein excretion protein was high in HPLF group. BUN and UUN levels were higher in the HPLF group than in the LPHF. Urinary excretion of creatinine was significantly higher in the HPLF group than in the LPHF group. Serum inflammatory cytokine levels did not differ between the two groups, however the levels of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-13 in splenocyte supernatants were significantly higher in the LPHF group than in the HPLF group. We confirmed that protein and fat contents in diet affect renal function-related blood and urine parameters and splenocyte inflammatory cytokine levels in ADR-induced nephrotic syndrome rats

IFRS adoption and investor perceptions of earnings quality: evidence from Korea

This study examines the consequences of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in terms of the investor perception of earnings quality in the Korean stock market. Building on evidence from Ecker et al. (2006) suggesting that return-based earnings quality (E-loading), as captured by the sensitivity of stock returns to accounting information risk, accurately represents investor perceptions of earnings information risk, the authors examine whether E-loading is different between the pre- and post-IFRS adoption periods. Using KSE-listed firms from 2006 to 2014, the authors find the evidence that the extent of stock return sensitivity to information risk embedded in financial statements is greater in the period of post-IFRS adoption than in the period of pre-IFRS adoption. This finding indicates that even though accounting-based earnings quality improves after the adoption of IFRS, investors perceive earnings information after the adoption of IFRS as riskier than before. In addition, the difference in investor perception is more pronounced for firms with low accruals quality as captured by discretionary accruals, indicating that the effect of IFRS adoption on return-based earnings quality is distinctive from that on accounting-based earnings quality. The paper contributes to the literature on IFRS by exploring the effect of IFRS adoption through a new perspective on earnings quality in capital market

Stress, Coping Style and Nursing Needs for Hospitalized Pregnant Women due to Preterm Labor

PURPOSE: The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess levels of stress, coping style, and nursing needs for hospitalized pregnant women diagnosed with preterm labor. METHODS: Data were collected from 125 pregnant women aged between 20 and 40 years and diagnosed with preterm labor by OBGY units at 3 hospitals. Data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, t-test, and ANOVA with Scheffe test. RESULTS: The level of stress among women was an average of 2.13 out of 4 points, the level of coping style was an average of 2.66, and nursing needs was an average of 2.83 out of 4 points. The level of stress was significantly different by job, length of hospital stay, type of hospital, and history of admission at obstetric unit. The level of coping style was significantly different by age and monthly income. The level of nursing needs was significantly different by type of hospital. Higher level of stress and coping style were related to higher level of nursing needs. There was no significant correlation between stress and coping style. CONCLUSION: The result showed the importance of nursing intervention dealing with stress, coping style and nursing needs for women with preterm labor. Nurses need to provide nursing interventions to reduce the stress, to strengthen the coping style, and to satisfy the nursing needs for pregnant women hospitalized due to preterm labor