The Use of Changes in Estimates to Meet or Beat Analyst Forecasts

Managers exercise judgment in valuing a large portion of their balance sheets. As a mandatory requirement of maintaining faithfully presented financial statements, they are required to occasionally record a change in estimate and disclose the current period income effect of revision of the valuation assumptions for these assets and liabilities. Guidance requires managers to recognize these changes when new information is obtained regarding existing valuation assumptions. Given the unobservable and unverifiable nature of many of these assumptions, managers have significant latitude in the timing of such changes. Discretionary use of accrual accounts to manage earnings is well documented in accounting literature; however, the majority of these studies approximate discretion in accruals using models of expected accrual balances. Changes in estimates, however, provide the opportunity to observe the influence of manager valuation judgments without having to model expected balances. I find that firms tend to recognize income increasing changes in estimates advantageously to meet or beat analyst expectations. Additionally, recognition of income decreasing changes in estimates negatively impacts the likelihood to meet or beat. These results are consistent with extant earnings management literature and suggest managers time valuation modifications to beat expectations. I find that this result is robust to the use of a propensity score matched control sample or use of a fixed effect regression comparing a firm quarter to other quarters for the same firm. My results are robust to several changes in proxies, settings, and design choices. This paper contributes to the literature by showing a potential mechanism of earnings management. More important, this mechanism—changes in estimates—has mandatory footnote disclosure, which permits for analysis of discretionary use of accruals without the limitation of potential measurement error for discretionary accruals

Designing an Engaged Swarm: Toward a Techne for Multi-Class, Interdisciplinary Collaborations with Nonprofit Partners

This essay proposes a model of university-community partnership called “an engaged swarm” that mobilizes networks of students from across classes and disciplines to work with off-campus partners such as nonprofits. Based on theories that translate the distributed, adaptive, and flexible activity of actors in biological systems to organizational networks that include humans, swarms are well-suited to providing a diverse range of responses to complex problems. As such, swarming tactics can be useful when applied to nonprofit organizations that do not have the capacity or time to redesign their communications strategy across print, web, and social media platforms. Employing a case study of three classes that collectively produced a wide range of multimedia artifacts for a nonprofit in a single semester, the essay illustrates how a swarm embedded within a university operates, and concludes by providing a schema for modifying swarms to future partnerships

Ketamine Plus Exercise for Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Major Depressive Disorder is the leading cause of disability among mental illnesses worldwide, but existing therapies fail to adequately treat approximately 30-50% of depressed patients. Ketamine has promising rapid antidepressant effects, but these effects are of short duration. Exercise yields moderate antidepressant effects both as a primary treatment and as an adjunct to standard therapies, but has not been investigated as an adjunct to ketamine. This study seeks to determine whether the addition of regular aerobic exercise regimens to ketamine therapy will potentiate or prolong ketamine’s antidepressant effects. We propose a single-blind, randomized controlled trial in which patients will be randomly assigned to receive intravenous ketamine or ketamine plus a structured exercise regimen. The potentiation or prolongation of ketamine’s antidepressant effects with exercise may increase the number of patients responsive to therapy and may reduce the cost and potential adverse effects of ketamine therapy

Physical characteristics of male and female high school varsity soccer players

The purpose of this study was to create a profile of high school soccer players by measuring physical attributes, abilities, and skills in players competing in interscholastic soccer in Las Vegas. Seventy-two male and sixty-nine female varsity players completed a soccer history questionnaire and fourteen physical and skill characteristics were measured. The results indicate that high school soccer players are in slightly better physical condition compared with typical adolescents. Male players are similar to international soccer players of the same age and female players are similar to older international players. There is no difference between gender and position played with respect to physical and physiological characteristics. Differences did exist between soccer positions, regardless of gender. The positional placement of individual players appears to be an important factor in separating the successful teams from unsuccessful teams

Utilising Mobile Phone RSSI Metric for Human Activity Detection

Recent research into urban analysis through the use of mobile device usage statistics has presented a need for the collection of this data independently from mobile network operators. In this paper we propose that cumulative received signal strength indications (RSSI) for overall mobile device transmissions in an area may provide such independent information. A process for the detection of high density areas within the RSSI temporal data set will be demonstrated. Finally, future applications for this collection method are discussed and we highlight its potential to complement traditional metric analysis techniques, for the representation of intensity of urban and local activities and their evolution through time and space