Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk

This study investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) mitigates or contributes to stock price crash risk. Crash risk, defined as the conditional skewness of return distribution, captures asymmetry in risk and is important for investment decisions and risk management. If socially responsible firms commit to a high standard of transparency and engage in less bad news hoarding, they would have lower crash risk. However, if managers engage in CSR to cover up bad news and divert shareholder scrutiny, CSR would be associated with higher crash risk. Our findings support the mitigating effect of CSR on crash risk. We find that firms\u27 CSR performance is negatively associated with future crash risk after controlling for other predictors of crash risk. The result holds after we account for potential endogeneity. Moreover, the mitigating effect of CSR on crash risk is more pronounced when firms have less effective corporate governance or a lower level of institutional ownership. The results are consistent with the notion that firms that actively engage in CSR also refrain from bad news hoarding behavior and thus reducing crash risk. This role of CSR is particularly important when governance mechanisms, such as monitoring by boards or institutional investors, are weak. JEL classification: G14; G30; M14; M4

Does eliminating the Form 20-F reconciliation from IFRS to U.S. GAAP have capital market consequences?

This paper investigates the capital market consequences of the SEC\u27s decision to eliminate the reconciliation requirement for cross-listed companies following International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find no evidence that the elimination has a negative impact on firms\u27 market liquidity or probability of informed trading (PIN). We also find no evidence of a significant impact on cost of equity, analyst forecasts, institutional ownership, stock price efficiency and synchronicity. Moreover, IFRS users do not increase disclosure frequency nor supply the reconciliation voluntarily. Our results do not support the argument that eliminating the reconciliation results in information loss or greater information asymmetry. JEL classification: M41; G15; G1

CEO Equity Incentives and Audit Fees

This study examines whether CEO equity incentives have an impact on audit pricing. Prior studies investigate whether CEO equity incentives motivate executives to manage earnings for personal financial gains. Our focus is on whether auditors perceive CEO equity incentives to be associated with greater earnings manipulation risk and incorporate such risk in their pricing decisions. We find that CEO equity portfolio vega is positively related to audit fees after controlling for other determinants of audit fees, while equity portfolio delta is not significantly related to audit fees. This result holds after we account for potential endogeneity. The evidence suggests that auditors are concerned about CEOs\u27 incentives to manage earnings because equity holdings tie CEOs\u27 wealth to risk and cause CEOs to be less risk-averse. The findings in our study improve our understanding of how executive compensation affects auditors\u27 pricing decisions

Giant photoinduced lattice distortion in oxygen-vacancy ordered SrCoO2.5 thin films

Despite of the tremendous efforts spent on the oxygen vacancy migration in determining the property optimization of oxygen-vacancy enrichment transition metal oxides, few has focused on their dynamic behaviors non-equilibrium states. In this work, we performed multi-timescale ultrafast X-ray diffraction measurements by using picosecond synchrotron X-ray pulses and femtosecond table-top X-ray pulses to monitor the structural dynamics in the oxygen-vacancy ordered SrCoO2.5 thin films. A giant photoinduced strain ({\Delta}c/c > 1%) was observed, whose distinct correlation with the pump photon energy indicates a non-thermal origin of the photoinduced strain. The sub-picosecond resolution X-ray diffraction reveals the formation and propagation of the coherent acoustic phonons inside the film. We also simulate the effect of photoexcited electron-hole pairs and the resulting lattice changes using the Density Function Theory method to obtain further insight on the microscopic mechanism of the measured photostriction effect. Comparable photostrictive responses and the strong dependence on excitation wavelength are predicted, revealing a bonding to anti-bonding charge transfer or high spin to intermediate spin crossover induced lattice expansion in the oxygen-vacancy films.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, support materia

CS-SELEX Generates High-Affinity ssDNA Aptamers as Molecular Probes for Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Glycoprotein E2

Currently, the development of effective diagnostic reagents as well as treatments against Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a high priority. In this study, we have described the development of an alive cell surface -Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (CS-SELEX) technique and screened the functional ssDNA aptamers that specifically bound to HCV envelope surface glycoprotein E2. Through 13 rounds of selection, the CS-SELEX generated high-affinity ssDNA aptamers, and the selected ssDNA aptamer ZE2 demonstrated the highest specificity and affinity to E2-positive cells. HCV particles could be specifically captured and diagnosed using the aptamer ZE2. A good correlation was observed in HCV patients between HCV E2 antigen-aptamer assay and assays for HCV RNA quantities or HCV antibody detection. Moreover, the selected aptamers, especially ZE2, could competitively inhibit E2 protein binding to CD81, an important HCV receptor, and significantly block HCV cell culture (HCVcc) infection of human hepatocytes (Huh7.5.1) in vitro. Our data demonstrate that the newly selected ssDNA aptamers, especially aptamer ZE2, hold great promise for developing new molecular probes, as an early diagnostic reagent for HCV surface antigen, or a therapeutic drug specifically for HCV

Continuous Femoral Nerve Block versus Intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia for Knee Mobility and Long-Term Pain in Patients Receiving Total Knee Replacement: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives. To evaluate the comparative analgesia effectiveness and safety of postoperative continuous femoral nerve block (CFNB) with patient controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) and their impact on knee function and chronic postoperative pain. Methods. Participants were randomly allocated to receive postoperative continuous femoral nerve block (group CFNB) or intravenous patient controlled analgesia (group PCIA). Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores for knee and incidence of chronic postoperative pain at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively were compared. postoperative pain and salvage medication at rest or during mobilization 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days postoperatively were also recorded. Results. After discharge from the hospital and rehabilitation of joint function, patients in group CFNB reported significantly improved knee flexion and less incidence of chronic postoperative pain at 3 months and 6 months postoperatively (P<0.05). Analgesic rescue medications were significantly reduced in patients receiving CFNB (P<0.001 and P=0.031, resp.). Conclusion. With standardized rehabilitation therapy, continuous femoral nerve block analgesia reduced the incidence of chronic postoperative pain, improved motility of replaced joints, and reduced the dosages of rescue analgesic medications, suggesting a recovery-enhancing effect of peripheral nerve block analgesia

Individualized analysis reveals CpG sites with methylation aberrations in almost all lung adenocarcinoma tissues

Additional file 1: Table S1. Stable and reversal CpG site pairs identified in the samples measured by two platforms

Giant thermally-enhanced electrostriction and polar surface phase in La2Mo2O9 oxygen ion conductors

Ferroelectrics possess spontaneous electric polarization at macroscopic scales which nonetheless imposes strict limitations on the material classes. Recent discoveries of untraditional symmetry-breaking phenomena in reduced material dimensions have indicated feasibilities to extend polar properties to broader types of materials, potentially opening up the freedom for designing materials with hybrid functionalities. Here, we report the unusual electromechanical properties of La2Mo2O9 (LAMOX) oxygen ion conductors, systematically investigated at both bulk and surface length levels. We first observed giant electrostriction effects in La2Mo2O9 bulk ceramics that are thermally enhanced in concert with their low-energy oxygen-vacancy hopping dynamics. Moreover, while no clear bulk polarization was detected, the surface phases of LAMOX were found to be manifestly polar, likely originating from the coupling between the intrinsic structural flexibilities with strain gradients (i.e., flexoelectricity) and/or chemical heterogeneities present in the materials. These findings identify La2Mo2O9 as a promising electromechanical material system and suggest that the flexible structural and chemical configurations in ionically active materials could enable fundamentally different venues to accommodate electric polarization.Q.L. and H.W. were supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Materials Science and Engineering Division. T.L. and Y.L. acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council (ARC) in the form of Discovery Projects (DP160104780). N.L. was supported by the Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship program at ORNL (No. DE-AC05-00OR22725). The PFM experiments were performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The use of Advanced Photon Source was supported by the US DOE, Basic Energy Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357