Financial reporting by European foundations

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

IAS/IFRS mandatory adoption and cross-border M&A

This study investigates the effect of the mandatory implementation of IAS/IFRS on cross-border M&A activity. I test the hypothesis that the improvement in the comparability of financial statements among the adopting countries facilitates crossborder transactions. According to the expectations, I find support for enhanced crossborder M&As following the mandatory adoption of IFRS due to a likely increase in the comparability of financial reports. Additionally, listed targets from IFRS adopting countries do experience stronger positive influence on foreign M&A transactions than unlisted target from adopting countries and listed targets from IFRS non-adopting countries.

Semantics bias in cross-national comparative analyses : Is it good or bad to have "fair" health?

The Health Behavior in School-aged Children is a cross-national study collecting data on social and health indicators on adolescents in 43 countries. The study provides comparable data on health behaviors and health outcomes through the use of a common protocol, which have been a back bone of the study sine its initiation in 1983. Recent years, researchers within the study have noticed a questionable comparability on the widely used item on self-rated health. One of the four response categories to the item "Would you say your health is….?" showed particular variation, as the response category "Fair" varied from 20 % in Latvia and Moldova to 3-4 % in Bulgaria and Macedonia. A qualitative mini-survey of the back-translations showed that the response category "Fair" had a negative slant in 25 countries, a positive slant in 10 countries and was considered neutral in 9 countries. This finding indicates that there are what may be called semantic issues affecting comparability in international studies, since the same original word (in an English original) is interpreted differently across countries and cultures. The paper test and discuss a few possible explanations to this, however, only leaving to future studies to hold a cautious approach to international comparisons if working with the self-rated health item with four response categories.

Close relationship between diameters at 30cm height and at breast height (DBH)

This paper proposes the establishment of a second diameter measuring standard at 30cm shoot extension ('diam30') as input variable for allometric biomass estimation of small and mid-sized plant shoots. This diameter standard is better suited than the diameter at breast height (DBH, i.e. diameter at 1.30m shoot extension) for adequate characterization of plant dimensions in low bushy vegetation or in primary forest undergrowth. The relationships between both diameter standards are established based on a dataset of 8645 tree, liana and palm shoots in secondary and primary forests of central Amazonia (ranging from 1-150mm dbh). Dbh can be predicted from the diam(30) with high precision, the error introduced by diameter transformation is only 2-3% for trees and palms, and 5% for lianas. This is well acceptable for most field study purposes. Relationships deviate slightly from linearity and differ between growth forms. Relationships were markedly similar for different vegetation types (low secondary regrowth vs. primary forests), soils, and selected genera or species. This points to a general validity and applicability of diameter transformations for other field studies. This study provides researchers with a tool for the allometric estimation of biomass in low or structurally heterogeneous vegetation. Rather than applying a uniform diameter standard, the measuring position which best represents the respective plant can be decided on shoot-by-shoot. Plant diameters measured at 30cm height can be transformed to dbh for subsequent allometric biomass estimation. We recommend the use of these diameter transformations only for plants extending well beyond the theoretical minimum shoot length (i.e., >2m height). This study also prepares the ground for the comparability and compatability of future allometric equations specifically developed for small- to mid-sized vegetation components (i.e., bushes, undergrowth) which are based on the diam(30) measuring standard.

Prevalence at Birth of Cleft Lip With or Without Cleft Palate: Data From the International Perinatal Database of Typical Oral Clefts (IPDTOC).

As part of a collaborative project on the epidemiology of craniofacial anomalies, funded by the National Institutes for Dental and Craniofacial Research and channeled through the Human Genetics Programme of the World Health Organization, the International Perinatal Database of Typical Orofacial Clefts (IPDTOC) was established in 2003. IPDTOC is collecting case-by-case information on cleft lip with or without cleft palate and on cleft palate alone from birth defects registries contributing to at least one of three collaborative organizations: European Surveillance Systems of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) in Europe, National Birth Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN) in the United States, and International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research (ICBDSR) worldwide. Analysis of the collected information is performed centrally at the ICBDSR Centre in Rome, Italy, to maximize the comparability of results. The present paper, the first of a series, reports data on the prevalence of cleft lip with or without cleft palate from 54 registries in 30 countries over at least 1 complete year during the period 2000 to 2005. Thus, the denominator comprises more than 7.5 million births. A total of 7704 cases of cleft lip with or without cleft palate (7141 livebirths, 237 stillbirths, 301 terminations of pregnancy, and 25 with pregnancy outcome unknown) were available. The overall prevalence of cleft lip with or without cleft palate was 9.92 per 10,000. The prevalence of cleft lip was 3.28 per 10,000, and that of cleft lip and palate was 6.64 per 10,000. There were 5918 cases (76.8%) that were isolated, 1224 (15.9%) had malformations in other systems, and 562 (7.3%) occurred as part of recognized syndromes. Cases with greater dysmorphological severity of cleft lip with or without cleft palate were more likely to include malformations of other systems.

Social influences on fertility : a comparative mixed methods study in eastern and western Germany

This article uses a mixed methods design to investigate the effects of social influence on family formation in a sample of eastern and western German young adults at an early stage of their family formation. Theoretical propositions on the importance of informal interaction for fertility and family behavior are still rarely supported by systematic empirical evidence. Major problems are the correct identification of salient relationships and the comparability of social networks across population subgroups. This article addresses the two issues through a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. In-depth interviewing, network charts, and network grids are used to map individual personal relationships and their influence on family formation decisions. In addition, an analysis of friendship dyads is provided.

Analysis of prion strains by PrPSc profiling in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

BACKGROUND: Prion diseases are a group of invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and a wide range of mammals. An essential part of the infectious agent, termed the prion, is composed of an abnormal isoform (PrPSc) of a host-encoded normal cellular protein (PrPC). The conversion of PrPC to PrPSc is thought to play a crucial role in the development of prion diseases and leads to PrPSc deposition, mainly in the central nervous system. Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common form of human prion disease, presents with a marked clinical heterogeneity. This diversity is accompanied by a molecular signature which can be defined by histological, biochemical, and genetic means. The molecular classification of sCJD is an important tool to aid in the understanding of underlying disease mechanisms and the development of therapy protocols. Comparability of classifications is hampered by disparity of applied methods and inter-observer variability. METHODS AND FINDINGS: To overcome these difficulties, we developed a new quantification protocol for PrPSc by using internal standards on each Western blot, which allows for generation and direct comparison of individual PrPSc profiles. By studying PrPSc profiles and PrPSc type expression within nine defined central nervous system areas of 50 patients with sCJD, we were able to show distinct PrPSc distribution patterns in diverse subtypes of sCJD. Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate the co-existence of more than one PrPSc type in individuals with sCJD in about 20% of all patients and in more than 50% of patients heterozygous for a polymorphism on codon 129 of the gene encoding the prion protein (PRNP). CONCLUSION: PrPSc profiling represents a valuable tool for the molecular classification of human prion diseases and has important implications for their diagnosis by brain biopsy. Our results show that the co-existence of more than one PrPSc type might be influenced by genetic and brain region-specific determinants. These findings provide valuable insights into the generation of distinct PrPSc types.

Sex, drugs and chronic illness: health behaviours among chronically ill youth.

BACKGROUND: A growing body of literature indicates that adolescents with chronic conditions are as likely, or more likely, to take risky behaviours than their healthy peers. The objective of this research was to assess whether adolescents with chronic illness in Catalonia differ from their healthy peers in risk-taking behaviour. METHODS: Data were drawn from the Catalonia Adolescent Health database, a survey including a random school-based sample of 6952 young people, aged 14-19 years. The index group (IG) included 665 adolescents (450 females) reporting several chronic conditions. The comparison group (CG) comprised 6287 healthy adolescents (3306 females). Personal, family and school-related variables were analysed to ensure comparability between groups. Sexual behaviour, drug use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and synthetic drugs) and perception of drug use among peers and in school were compared. Analysis was carried out separately by gender. chi-square, Fisher's and Student's tests were used to compare categorical and continuous variables. RESULTS: The prevalence of chronic conditions was 9.6%, with females showing a higher prevalence than males. The IG showed similar or higher rates of sexual intercourse and risky sexual behaviour. For most studied drugs, IG males reported slightly lower rates of use than CG males, while IG females showed higher rates for every drug studied. No differences were found in the perceptions of drug use among peers or in their school. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to previous research, chronically ill adolescents in our sample are as likely, or more likely, to take risky behaviours than their healthy counterparts and should receive the same anticipatory guidance.

Analysis of GPCR properties of Frizzled receptors and establishment of the "in vitro" platform for screening of Frizzled agonists/antagonists as potential therapeutic agents

Morphogens of the Wnt protein family are the secreted lipoglycoprotein ligands which initiate several pathways heavily involved in the coordination of various developmental stages of organisms in the majority of animal species. Deregulation of these pathways in the adult leads to formation and sustaining of multiple types of cancer. The latter notion is reinforced by the fact that the very discovery of the first Wnt ligand was due to its role as the causative factor of carcinogenic transformation (Nusse and Varmus, 1982). Nowadays our knowledge on Wnt signaling has "moved with the times" and these pathways were identified to be often crucial for tumor formation, its interactions with the microenvironment, and promotion of the metastases (Huang and Du, 2008; Zerlin et al., 2008; Jessen, 2009). Thus the relevance of the pathway as the target for drug development has further increased in the light of modern paradigms of the complex cancer treatments which target also spreading and growth- promoting factors of tumors by specific and highly efficient substances (Pavet et al., 2010). Presently the field of the Wnt-targeting drug research is almost solely dominated by assays based on transcriptional activation induced by the signaling. This approach resulted in development of a number of promising substances (Lee et al., 2011). Despite its effectiveness, the method nevertheless suffers from several drawbacks. Among the major ones is the fact that this approach is prone to identify compounds targeting rather downstream effectors of the pathway, which are indiscriminately used by all the subtypes of the Wnt signaling. Additionally, proteins which are involved in several signaling cascades and not just the Wnt pathway turn out as targets of the new compounds. These issues increase risks of side effects due to off-target interactions and blockade of the pathway in healthy cells. In the present work we put forward a novel biochemical approach for drug development on the Wnt pathway. It targets Frizzleds (Fzs) - a family of 7-transmbembrane proteins which serve as receptors for Wnt ligands. They offer unique properties for the development of highly specific and effective drugs as they control all branches of the Wnt signaling. Recent advances in the understanding of the roles of heterotrimeric G proteins downstream from Fzs (Katanaev et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2005; Jernigan et al., 2010) suggest application of enzymatic properties of these effectors to monitor the receptor-mediated events. We have applied this knowledge in practice and established a specific and efficient method based on utilization of a novel high-throughput format of the GTP-binding assay to follow the activation of Fzs. This type of assay is a robust and well-established technology for the research and screenings on the GPCRs (Harrison and Traynor, 2003). The conventional method of detection involves the radioactively labeled non-hydrolysable GTP analog [35S]GTPyS. Its application in the large-scale screenings is however problematic which promoted development of the novel non-radioactive GTP analog GTP-Eu. The new molecule employs phenomenon of the time-resolved fluorescence to provide sensitivity comparable to the conventional radioactive substance. Initially GTP-Eu was tested only in one of many possible types of GTP-binding assays (Frang et al., 2003). In the present work we expand these limits by demonstrating the general comparability of the novel label with the radioactive method in various types of assays. We provide a biochemical characterization of GTP-Eu interactions with heterotrimeric and small GTPases and a comparative analysis of the behavior of the new label in the assays involving heterotrimeric G protein effectors. These developments in the GTP-binding assay were then applied to monitor G protein activation by the Fz receptors. The data obtained in mammalian cultured cell lines provides for the first time an unambiguous biochemical proof for direct coupling of Fzs with G proteins. The specificity of this interaction has been confirmed by the experiments with the antagonists of Fz and by the pertussis toxin-mediated deactivation. Additionally we have identified the specificity of Wnt3a towards several members of the Fz family and analyzed the properties of human Fz-1 which was found to be the receptor coupled to the Gi/o family of G proteins. Another process playing significant role in the functioning of every GPCR is endocytosis. This phenomenon can also be employed for drug screenings on GPCRs (Bickle, 2010). In the present work we have demonstrated that Drosophila Fz receptors are involved in an unusual for many GPCRs manifestation of the receptor-mediated internalization. Through combination of biochemical approaches and studies on Drosophila as the model organism we have shown that direct interactions of the Fzs and the α-subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein Go with the small GTPase Rab5 regulate internalization of the receptor in early endosomes. We provide data uncovering the decisive role of this self-promoted endocytosis in formation of a proper signaling output in the canonical as well as planar cell polarity (PCP) pathways regulated by Fz. The results of this work thus establish a platform for the high-throughput screening to identify substances active in the cancer-related Wnt pathways. This methodology has been adjusted and applied to provide the important insights in Fz functioning and will be instrumental for further investigations on the Wnt-mediated pathways.

Cross-coding from the Swiss Disability Insurance listing to the ICIDH.

It has been suggested that converting, via a process of cross-coding, the listing used by the Swiss Disability Insurance (SDI) for their statistics into codes of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH) would improve the quality and international comparability of disability statistics for Switzerland. Using two different methods we tested the feasibility of this cross-coding on a consecutive sample of 204 insured persons, examined at one of the medical observation centres of the SDI. Cross-coding is impossible, for all practical purposes, in a proportion varying between 30% and 100%, depending on the method of cross-coding, the level of disablement and the required quality of the resulting codes. Failure is due to lack of validity of the SDI codes: diseases are poorly described, consequences of diseases (disability and handicap, including loss of earning capacity), insufficiently described or not at all. Assessment of disability and handicap would provide necessary information for the SDI. It is concluded that the SDI should promote the use of the ICIDH in Switzerland, especially among medical practitioners whose assessment of work capacity is the key element in the decision to award benefits or propose rehabilitation.

On the foundations of well-being economics and policy

When one wishes to implement public policies, there is a previous need of comparing different actions and valuating and evaluating them to assess their social attractiveness. Recently the concept of well-being has been proposed as a multidimensional proxy for measuring societal prosperity and progress; a key research topic is then on how we can measure and evaluate this plurality of dimensions for policy decisions. This paper defends the thesis articulated in the following points: 1. Different metrics are linked to different objectives and values. To use only one measurement unit (on the grounds of the so-called commensurability principle) for incorporating a plurality of dimensions, objectives and values, implies reductionism necessarily. 2. Point 1) can be proven as a matter of formal logic by drawing on the work of Geach about moral philosophy. This theoretical demonstration is an original contribution of this article. Here the distinction between predicative and attributive adjectives is formalised and definitions are provided. Predicative adjectives are further distinguished into absolute and relative ones. The new concepts of set commensurability and rod commensurability are introduced too. 3. The existence of a plurality of social actors, with interest in the policy being assessed, causes that social decisions involve multiple types of values, of which economic efficiency is only one. Therefore it is misleading to make social decisions based only on that one value. 4. Weak comparability of values, which is grounded on incommensurability, is proved to be the main methodological foundation of policy evaluation in the framework of well-being economics. Incommensurability does not imply incomparability; on the contrary incommensurability is the only rational way to compare societal options under a plurality of policy objectives. 5. Weak comparability can be implemented by using multi-criteria evaluation, which is a formal framework for applied consequentialism under incommensurability. Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation, in particular, allows considering both technical and social incommensurabilities simultaneously.

Line bisection by eye and by hand reveal opposite biases

The vision-for-action literature favours the idea that the motor output of an action - whether manual or oculomotor - leads to similar results regarding object handling. Findings on line bisection performance challenge this idea: healthy individuals bisect lines manually to the left of centre, and to the right of centre when using eye fixation. In case that these opposite biases for manual and oculomotor action reflect more universal compensatory mechanisms that cancel each other out to enhance overall accuracy, one would like to observe comparable opposite biases for other material. In the present study, we report on three independent experiments in which we tested line bisection (by hand, by eye fixation) not only for solid lines, but also for letter lines; the latter, when bisected manually, is known to result in a rightward bias. Accordingly, we expected a leftward bias for letter lines when bisected via eye fixation. Analysis of bisection biases provided evidence for this idea: manual bisection was more rightward for letter as compared to solid lines, while bisection by eye fixation was more leftward for letter as compared to solid lines. Support for the eye fixation observation was particularly obvious in two of the three studies, for which comparability between eye and hand action was increasingly adjusted (paper-pencil versus touch screen for manual action). These findings question the assumption that ocular motor and manual output are always inter-changeable, but rather suggest that at least for some situations ocular motor and manual output biases are orthogonal to each other, possibly balancing each other out.

A model of cellular dosimetry for macroscopic tumors in radiopharmaceutical therapy.

PURPOSE: In the radiopharmaceutical therapy approach to the fight against cancer, in particular when it comes to translating laboratory results to the clinical setting, modeling has served as an invaluable tool for guidance and for understanding the processes operating at the cellular level and how these relate to macroscopic observables. Tumor control probability (TCP) is the dosimetric end point quantity of choice which relates to experimental and clinical data: it requires knowledge of individual cellular absorbed doses since it depends on the assessment of the treatment's ability to kill each and every cell. Macroscopic tumors, seen in both clinical and experimental studies, contain too many cells to be modeled individually in Monte Carlo simulation; yet, in particular for low ratios of decays to cells, a cell-based model that does not smooth away statistical considerations associated with low activity is a necessity. The authors present here an adaptation of the simple sphere-based model from which cellular level dosimetry for macroscopic tumors and their end point quantities, such as TCP, may be extrapolated more reliably. METHODS: Ten homogenous spheres representing tumors of different sizes were constructed in GEANT4. The radionuclide 131I was randomly allowed to decay for each model size and for seven different ratios of number of decays to number of cells, N(r): 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50, 20, and 10 decays per cell. The deposited energy was collected in radial bins and divided by the bin mass to obtain the average bin absorbed dose. To simulate a cellular model, the number of cells present in each bin was calculated and an absorbed dose attributed to each cell equal to the bin average absorbed dose with a randomly determined adjustment based on a Gaussian probability distribution with a width equal to the statistical uncertainty consistent with the ratio of decays to cells, i.e., equal to Nr-1/2. From dose volume histograms the surviving fraction of cells, equivalent uniform dose (EUD), and TCP for the different scenarios were calculated. Comparably sized spherical models containing individual spherical cells (15 microm diameter) in hexagonal lattices were constructed, and Monte Carlo simulations were executed for all the same previous scenarios. The dosimetric quantities were calculated and compared to the adjusted simple sphere model results. The model was then applied to the Bortezomib-induced enzyme-targeted radiotherapy (BETR) strategy of targeting Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-expressing cancers. RESULTS: The TCP values were comparable to within 2% between the adjusted simple sphere and full cellular models. Additionally, models were generated for a nonuniform distribution of activity, and results were compared between the adjusted spherical and cellular models with similar comparability. The TCP values from the experimental macroscopic tumor results were consistent with the experimental observations for BETR-treated 1 g EBV-expressing lymphoma tumors in mice. CONCLUSIONS: The adjusted spherical model presented here provides more accurate TCP values than simple spheres, on par with full cellular Monte Carlo simulations while maintaining the simplicity of the simple sphere model. This model provides a basis for complementing and understanding laboratory and clinical results pertaining to radiopharmaceutical therapy.

Body Size, Activity, Employment and Wages in Europe: A First Approach

In this article we present the first empirical analysis on the associations between body size, activity, employment and wages for several European countries. The main advantage of the present work with respect to the previous literature is offered by the comparability of the data and its large geographical coverage. According to our results, for Spanish women, being obese is associated with both a 9% lower wage and probability of being employed, while for Swedish and Danish, obesity is associated with a 12% lower probability of being employed, and a 10% lower wage respectively. In Belgium, obesity is associated with a 19% lower probability of being employed for men. These robust estimates are strongly informative and may be used as a simple statistical rule of thumb to decide the countries in which lab and field experiments should be run.

Ecologies of Value in a Wall Street Trading Room

Our task in this paper is to analyze the organization of trading in the era of quantitative finance. To do so, we conduct an ethnography of arbitrage, the trading strategy that best exemplifies finance in the wake of the quantitative revolution. In contrast to value and momentum investing, we argue, arbitrage involves an art of association-the construction of equivalence (comparability) of properties across different assets. In place of essential or relational characteristics, the peculiar valuation that takes place in arbitrage is based on an operation that makes something the measure of something else-associating securities to each other. The process of recognizing opportunities and the practices of making novel associations are shaped by the specific socio-spatial and socio-technical configurations of the trading room. Calculation is distributed across persons and instruments as the trading room organizes interaction among diverse principles of valuation.