Product Market Effects of Customer Referencing

Customer referencing refers to the phenomenon that a firm intentionally reveals its connections to customers to raise its own reputation. In this paper, we rely on textual data about customer referencing in financial reports to examine the association between customer referencing and firms’ future product market performance. We first document that a substantial number of firms voluntarily reference customers in financial reports. We find that these firms have a better future performance, consistent with the notion that the customers being referenced certify product quality and enhance a firm’s reputation. We also find that the positive association is stronger for firms with a low reputation and those that are risky or facing high product market competition. These results further affirm the product quality certification and reputation enhancement roles of customer referencing. Our study provides new insight into how certification via inter-organizational relationships can be an intangible marketing asset

Policy Uncertainty and Loan Loss Provisions in the Banking Industry

Policy uncertainty is an increasingly important issue facing many economies. In this paper, we examine how banks accrue for loan losses in response to policy uncertainty (PU) and the implications of these accruals in terms of actual loan losses and future liquidity creation. Consistent with banks recognizing more loan losses in anticipation of PU’s depressive effects, we document a contemporaneous positive association between PU and loan loss accruals. This positive association is more pronounced for banks with a riskier loan portfolio and that have a history of lower loan loss reserves. We also find that banks making more loan loss provisions in times of higher PU have significantly higher future loan charge-offs and lower future liquidity creation. Overall, our paper highlights that PU affects the loan loss accruals of banks and that these accruals reflect rational expectations about PU’s depressive effects on the economy

Ro-vibrational Spectroscopy of CI Tau -- Evidence of a Multi-Component Eccentric Disk Induced by a Planet

CI Tau is currently the only T Tauri star with an inner protoplanetary disk that hosts a planet, CI Tau b, that has been detected by a radial velocity survey. This provides the unique opportunity to study disk features that were imprinted by that planet. We present multi-epoch spectroscopic data, taken with NASA IRTF in 2022, of the ${}^{12}$CO and hydrogen Pf$\beta$ line emissions spanning 9 consecutive nights, which is the proposed orbital period of CI Tau b. We find that the star's accretion rate varied according to that 9~d period, indicative of companion driven accretion. Analysis of the ${}^{12}$CO emission lines reveals that the disk can be described with an inner and outer component spanning orbital radii 0.05-0.13~au and 0.15-1.5~au, respectively. Both components have eccentricities of about 0.05 and arguments of periapses that are oppositely aligned. We present a proof-of-concept hydrodynamic simulation that shows a massive companion on a similarly eccentric orbit can recreate a similar disk structure. Our results allude to such a companion being located around an orbital distance of 0.14~au. However, this planet's orbital parameters may be inconsistent with those of CI Tau b whose high eccentricity is likely not compatible with the low disk eccentricities inferred by our model.Comment: Accepted to A

The impact of stigma on quality of life and liver disease burden among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Background & Aims: Patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) face a multifaceted disease burden which includes impaired health-related quality of life (HRQL) and potential stigmatization. We aimed to assess the burden of liver disease in patients with NAFLD and the relationship between experience of stigma and HRQL. Methods: Members of the Global NASH Council created a survey about disease burden in NAFLD. Participants completed a 35-item questionnaire to assess liver disease burden (LDB) (seven domains), the 36-item CLDQ-NASH (six domains) survey to assess HRQL and reported their experience with stigmatization and discrimination. Results: A total of 2,117 patients with NAFLD from 24 countries completed the LDB survey (48% Middle East and North Africa, 18% Europe, 16% USA, 18% Asia) and 778 competed CLDQ-NASH. Of the study group, 9% reported stigma due to NAFLD and 26% due to obesity. Participants who reported stigmatization due to NAFLD had substantially lower CLDQ-NASH scores (all p <0.0001). In multivariate analyses, experience with stigmatization or discrimination due to NAFLD was the strongest independent predictor of lower HRQL scores (beta from -5% to -8% of score range size, p <0.02). Experience with stigmatization due to obesity was associated with lower Activity, Emotional Health, Fatigue, and Worry domain scores, and being uncomfortable with the term “fatty liver disease” with lower Emotional Health scores (all p <0.05). In addition to stigma, the greatest disease burden as assessed by LDB was related to patients’ self-blame for their liver disease. Conclusions: Stigmatization of patients with NAFLD, whether it is caused by obesity or NAFLD, is strongly and independently associated with a substantial impairment of their HRQL. Self-blame is an important part of disease burden among patients with NAFLD. Impact and implications: Patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), recently renamed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), may experience impaired health-related quality of life and stigmatization. Using a specifically designed survey, we found that stigmatization of patients with NAFLD, whether it is caused by obesity or the liver disease per se, is strongly and independently associated with a substantial impairment of their quality of life. Physicians treating patients with NAFLD should be aware of the profound implications of stigma, the high prevalence of self-blame in the context of this disease burden, and that providers’ perception may not adequately reflect patients’ perspective and experience with the disease

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements