Decision making by extracting soft information from CSR news report

This study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) news reports on corporate operating performance forecasting using a large database of publicly-listed electronics firms in Taiwan. Applying text mining techniques and latent topic modelling, we construct and measure the intensity of the CSR-corpus index (ICSRI), which can compress tremendous amounts of CSR textual information content into synthesized meaningful dimensions. By doing so, we are able to break down CSR news reports into multiple dimensions and then examine which dimension(s) affects operating performance. To offer decision-makers with a comprehensive, overarching view of the corporate’s operations, this study incorporates balanced scorecards (BSC) and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to form a final performance rank. The proposed approach, supported by real samples, can assist both internal and external stakeholders in allocating scarce resources to specific CSR dimensions to enhance a corporate’s growth potential as well as to achieve a win-win situation

News-based soft information as a corporate competitive advantage

This study establishes a decision-making conceptual architecture that evaluates decision making units (DMUs) from numerous aspects. The architecture combines financial indicators together with a variety of data envelopment analysis (DEA) specifications to encapsulate more information to give a complete picture of a corporate’s operation. To make outcomes more accessible to non-specialists, multidimensional scaling (MDS) was performed to visualize the data. Most previous studies on forecasting model construction have relied heavily on hard information, with quite a few works taking into consideration soft information, which contains much denser and more diverse messages than hard information. To overcome this challenge, we consider two different types of soft information: supply chain influential indicator (SCI) and sentimental indicator (STI). SCI is computed by joint utilization of text mining (TM) and social network analysis (SNA), with TM identifying the corporate’s SC relationships from news articles and SNA to determining their impact on the network. STI is extracted from an accounting narrative so as to comprehensively illustrate the relationships between pervious and future performances. The analyzed outcomes are then fed into an artificial intelligence (AI)-based technique to construct the forecasting model. The introduced model, examined by real cases, is a promising alternative for performance forecasting. First published online 21 November 201

DETECTION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION MANIPULATION BY AN ENSEMBLE-BASED MECHANISM

Abstract: Complicated financial information manipulation, involving heightened offender knowledge of transactional procedures, can be damaging to the reputations of corporations and the auditors, as well as cause serious turbulence in financial markets. Unfortunately, most incidents of financial information manipulation involve higher level managers who are truly knowledgeable and comprehend the limitations of standard auditing procedures. Thus, there is an urgent need for additional detection mechanisms to prevent financial information manipulation. To address this problem, the author proposes an ensemble-based mechanism (EM) consisting of feature selection and extraction ensemble and extreme learning machine (ELM). The model not only counters the redundancy-removing problem, but also gives direction to auditors who need to allocate limited audit resources to abnormal client relationships during the auditing procedure and protect the CPA firms' reputation. The experimental results demonstrate that the model is a promising alternative for detecting financial information manipulation, and one that can ensure both the confidence of investors and the stability of financial markets

Diffusion in an Expanding Plasma using AdS/CFT

We consider the diffusion of a non-relativistic heavy quark of fixed mass M, in a one-dimensionally expanding and strongly coupled plasma using the AdS/CFT duality. The Green's function constructed around a static string embedded in a background with a moving horizon, is identified with the noise correlation function in a Langevin approach. The (electric) noise decorrelation is of order 1/T(\tau) while the velocity de-correlation is of order MD(\tau)/T(\tau). For MD>1, the diffusion regime is segregated and the energy loss is Langevin-like. The time dependent diffusion constant D(\tau) asymptotes its adiabatic limit 2/\pi\sqrt{\lambda} T(\tau) when \tau/\tau_0=(1/3\eta_0\tau_0)^3 where \eta_0 is the drag coefficient at the initial proper time \tau_0.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections, version to appear in JHE

Dilated Cardiomyopathy in a 2 Month-Old Infant: A Severe Form of Hypocalcemia With Vitamin D Deficient Rickets

Dilated cardiomyopathy, which mostly has an idiopathic etiology or is caused by genetic inheritance or infection, can cause irreversible congestive heart failure. Hypocalcemia is a rare etiology of reversible dilated cardiomyopathy. Here we report the case of a two-month-old girl with congestive heart failure who was diagnosed as having dilated cardiomyopathy secondary to hypocalcemia. After calcium and vitamin D replacement therapy, the patient showed a rapid reduction in hypocalcemic tetany and a rapid recovery of left ventricular function. The cause of the hypocalcemia was vitamin D deficient rickets. She was exclusively breast-fed as an infant, and her mother had a vitamin D deficiency and was diagnosed with osteomalacia

Screening for fear of cancer recurrence : instrument validation and current status in early stage lung cancer patients

Background Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is one of the most distressing concerns for cancer patients. A psychometrically validated brief scale is urgently needed for use in busy clinical oncology settings. This study aimed to (1) develop and validate the 7-item fear of cancer recurrence scale Chinese version (FCR7-C), and (2) explore the severity of FCR in post-operative early-stage lung cancer patients in Taiwan. Methods Early-stage lung cancer patients were recruited from a medical center in Taiwan. The FCR7-C was evaluated for content and construct validity and internal consistency reliability. Construct validity of FCR7-C was determined by the empirically supported correlation and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results A total of 160 subjects were recruited. The FCR7-C was shown to have satisfactory content validity and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.9). The uni-dimensional structure was confirmed by CFA that showed a good fit for the model. The FCR7-C score correlates positively with the degree of most of the physical symptoms, anxiety, and depression, but correlates negatively with patient age, performance status, and quality of life. We found that 81.9% of patients reported at least some FCR, with a mean FCR severity of 15.18 (SD = 7.78). Conclusion FCR7-C is a brief screening tool with good psychometrics. Patients with early-stage lung cancer still revealed mild to moderate level of FCR. Applying the FCR7-C for to screen cancer patients’ distress and further develop personalized psychological interventions would be strongly suggested.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A novel derivative of betulinic acid, SYK023, suppresses lung cancer growth and malignancy

Herein, we evaluated the anti-cancer effect and molecular mechanisms of a novel betulinic acid (BA) derivative, SYK023, by using two mouse models of lung cancer driven by KrasG12D or EGFRL858R. We found that SYK023 inhibits lung tumor proliferation, without side effects in vivo or cytotoxicity in primary lung cells in vitro. SYK023 triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Blockage of ER stress in SYK023-treated cells inhibited SYK023-induced apoptosis. In addition, we found that the expression of cell cycle-related genes, including cyclin A2, B1, D3, CDC25a, and CDC25b decreased but, while those of p15INK4b, p16INK4a, and p21CIP1 increased following SYK023 treatment. Finally, low doses of SYK023 significantly decreased lung cancer metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Expression of several genes related to cell migration, including synaptopodin, were downregulated by SYK023, thereby impairing F-actin polymerization and metastasis. Therefore, SYK023 may be a potentially therapeutic treatment for metastatic lung cancer

The feasibility study of non-invasive fetal trisomy 18 and 21 detection with semiconductor sequencing platform

Objective: Recent non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) technologies are based on next-generation sequencing (NGS). NGS allows rapid and effective clinical diagnoses to be determined with two common sequencing systems: Illumina and Ion Torrent platforms. The majority of NIPT technology is associated with Illumina platform. We investigated whether fetal trisomy 18 and 21 were sensitively and specifically detectable by semiconductor sequencer: Ion Proton. Methods: From March 2012 to October 2013, we enrolled 155 pregnant women with fetuses who were diagnosed as high risk of fetal defects at Xiamen Maternal & Child Health Care Hospital (Xiamen, Fujian, China). Adapter-ligated DNA libraries were analyzed by the Ion Proton??? System (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA) with an average 0.3 ?? sequencing coverage per nucleotide. Average total raw reads per sample was 6.5 million and mean rate of uniquely mapped reads was 59.0%. The results of this study were derived from BWA mapping. Z-score was used for fetal trisomy 18 and 21 detection. Results: Interactive dot diagrams showed the minimal z-score values to discriminate negative versus positive cases of fetal trisomy 18 and 21. For fetal trisomy 18, the minimal z-score value of 2.459 showed 100% positive predictive and negative predictive values. The minimal z-score of 2.566 was used to classify negative versus positive cases of fetal trisomy 21. Conclusion: These results provide the evidence that fetal trisomy 18 and 21 detection can be performed with semiconductor sequencer. Our data also suggest that a prospective study should be performed with a larger cohort of clinically diverse obstetrics patients.open2