Digital Commons Network^™

Sox, Corporate Transparency, And The Cost Of Debt, Sandro Andrade, Gennaro Bernile, Frederick Hood

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate the impact of the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act on the cost of debt through its effect on the reliability of financial reporting. Using Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads and a structural CDS pricing model, we calibrate a firm-level corporate opacity parameter in the pre- and post-SOX periods. Our analysis shows that corporate opacity and the cost of debt decrease significantly after SOX. The median firm in our sample experiences an 18 bp reduction on its five-year CDS spread as a result of lower opacity following SOX, amounting to total annual savings of $ 844 million for the 252 firms …

Tracking-Error Models For Multiple Benchmarks: Theory And Empirical Performance, Yunchao Xu, Zhichao Zheng, Karthik Natarajan, Chung-Piaw Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a new multiple-benchmark tracking-error model for portfolio selection problem. The tracking error of a portfolio from a set of benchmark portfolios is defined as the difference between its return and the highest return from the set of benchmarks. We derive closedform solution of our portfolio strategy, whose main component is the sum of the benchmark portfolios weighted by their respective probabilities of attaining the highest return among the portfolios in the benchmark. These probabilities, also known as the persistency values, are less sensitive to estimation errors in the means and covariances. These features help to stabilize the computational …

Transforming Business School Futures: Business Model Innovation And The Continued Search For Academic Legitimacy, Howard Thomas, Eric Cornuel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The business school is certainly one of the major success stories in higher education over the last 40 years. Despite this success there have been many more recent comments and criticisms and about the purpose, role and academic stature of business schools. Thomas et al. (2013, pp. 8-9) outline thoroughly the nature of these criticisms in the following manner: “Critics accuse business schools of doing arcane, irrelevant and impractical academic research; doing a poor job of preparing students for management careers; pandering to the market and the media rankings; failing to ask important questions; and in the process of responding …

Early Discontinuation Of Endocrine Therapy For Breast Cancer: Who Is At Risk In Clinical Practice?, Anna Kemp, David Preen, Christobel Saunders, Francis Boyle, Max Bulsara, Eva Malacova, Elizabeth E. Roughead

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: Despite evidence supporting at least five years of endocrine therapy for early breast cancer, many women discontinue therapy early. We investigated the impact of initial therapy type and specific comorbidities on discontinuation of endocrine therapy in clinical practice.

Methods

We identified women in a population-based cohort with a diagnosis of early breast cancer and an incident dispensing of anastrozole, letrozole or tamoxifen from 2003-2008 (N = 1531). Pharmacy and health service data were used to determine therapy duration, treatment for pre-existing and post-initiation comorbidities (anxiety, depression, hot flashes, musculoskeletal pain, osteoporosis, vaginal atrophy), demographic and other clinical characteristics. Time …

Multimorbidity In A Marginalised, Street-Health Australian Population: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Tom Brett, Diane Arnold-Reed, Lakkina Troeung, Max Bulsara, Annalise Williams, Robert G. Moorhead

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

OBJECTIVES:

Demographic and presentation profile of patients using an innovative mobile outreach clinic compared with mainstream practice.

DESIGN:

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING:

Primary care mobile street health clinic and mainstream practice in Western Australia.

PARTICIPANTS:

2587 street health and 4583 mainstream patients.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Prevalence and patterns of chronic diseases in anatomical domains across the entire age spectrum of patients and disease severity burden using Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS).

RESULTS:

Multimorbidity (2+ CIRS domains) prevalence was significantly higher in the street health cohort (46.3%, 1199/2587) than age-sex-adjusted mainstream estimate (43.1%, 2000/4583), p=0.011. Multimorbidity prevalence was significantly higher in …

External Validation Of The Garvan Nomograms For Predicting Absolute Fracture Risk: The Tromso Study, Luai A. Ahmed, Nguyen D. Nguyen, Ashild Bjornerem, Ragnar M. Joakimsen, Lone Jorgensen, Jan Stormer, Dana Bliuc, Jacqueline R. Center, John A. Eisman, Tuan V. Nguyen, Nina Emaus

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Absolute risk estimation is a preferred approach for assessing fracture risk and treatment decision making. This study aimed to evaluate and validate the predictive performance of the Garvan Fracture Risk Calculator in a Norwegian cohort.

Methods: The analysis included 1637 women and 1355 aged 60+ years from the Tromsø study. All incident fragility fractures between 2001 and 2009 were registered. The predicted probabilities of non-vertebral osteoporotic and hip fractures were determined using models with and without BMD. The discrimination and calibration of the models were assessed.Reclassification analysis was used to compare the models performance.

Results: The incidence of osteoporotic …

High Expression Of Cathepsin E In Tissues But Not Blood Of Patients With Barrett’S Esophagus And Adenocarcinoma, Oliver M. Fisher, Angelique J. Levert-Mignon, Sarah J. Lord, Natalie K. Botelho, Araluen K. Freeman, Melissa L. Thomas, Dan Falkenback, Antony Wettstein, David C. Whiteman, Yuri V. Bobryshev, Reginald V. Lord

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background Cathepsin E (CTSE), an aspartic proteinase, is differentially expressed in the metaplasia–dysplasia–neoplasia sequence of gastric and colon cancer. We evaluated CTSE in Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and cancer because increased CTSE levels are linked to improved survival in several cancers, and other cathepsins are up-regulated in BE and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Methods A total of 273 pretreatment tissues from 199 patients were analyzed [31 normal squamous esophagus (NE), 29 BE intestinal metaplasia, 31 BE with dysplasia (BE/D), 108 EAC]. CTSE relative mRNA expression was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction, and protein expression was measured by immunohistochemistry. CTSE serum levels …

Eye Trauma Epidemiology In Regional Australia, Luke C. Northey, Gaurav Bhardwaj, Shane Curran, Joseph Mcgirr

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: To describe the epidemiology of eye trauma presenting to a regional referral health service in New South Wales, Australia.

Methods: A two-stage retrospective and prospective case series study was conducted. Patients who presented with eye trauma to Wagga Wagga Base Hospital (WWBH) emergency department (ED) during a one year review period formed the retrospective case series (RCS). Patient inclusion was determined using SNOMED CT and ICD-10 codes applied to medical records. Patients presenting with eye trauma to the WWBH ED or its ophthalmology service over a prospective 80 day study period formed the prospective case series (PCS). The …

Case Series Of Elective Instrumented Posterior Lumbar Spinal Fusions Demonstrating A Low Incidence Of Venous Thromboembolism, Benjamin Weber, Alexa Seal, Joseph Mcgirr, Kerin Fielding

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in orthopaedic surgery. While specific guidelines exist for hip and knee arthroplasty, there is wide variation in VTE prophylaxis in complex spinal surgery. This study sought to determine the incidence of VTE, and risk factors associated with VTE, in patients undergoing elective instrumented posterior lumbar spinal fusion.

Methods: In a single-centre case series study, 107 consecutive patients undergoing elective lumbar spinal fusion were evaluated for VTE by lower limb duplex ultrasonography and/or clinical observation, and where indicated, computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA). The Caprini model for thrombosis risk …

Domestic Violence Is A Leading Risk Factor In Default From Colposcopy Services, Rachael R. Collier, Julie Quinlivan

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Aim: Domestic violence is common in women and is associated with poorer healthcare outcomes. However, no causal pathway has been identified to explain this observation. We have followed a cohort of women to determine whether poorer outcomes can be explained by high rates of default and lost to follow up.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed. Institutional ethics approval was obtained. Participants were consecutive patients attending colposcopy clinics at a major metropolitan hospital in Australia. Following ascertainment of domestic violence status, appointment outcomes for colposcopy services were tracked for a three-year period. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine demographic …

Evaluating The Guideline Enhancement Tool (Get): An Innovative Clinical Training Tool To Enhance The Use Of Hypertension Guidelines In General Practice, Chinthaka Balasooriya, Joel Rhee, Boaz Shulruf, Rosa Canalese, Nicholas Zwar

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative educational intervention in enhancing clinical decision making related to the management of hypertension in general practice. The relatively low level of uptake of clinical practice guidelines by clinicians is widely recognised as a problem that impacts on clinical outcomes. This project addresses this problem with a focus on hypertension guidelines. Hypertension is the most frequently managed problem in general practice but evidence suggests that management of Hypertension in general practice is sub-optimal.

Methods/design: This study will explore the effectiveness of an educational intervention named the ‘Guideline Enhancement Tool (GET)’. …

Unmet Needs Of Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (Copd): A Qualitative Study On Patients And Doctors, S Wong, N Abdullah, A Abdullah, S Liew, S Ching, E Khoo, M Jiwa, Y Chia

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a chronic disease with repeated exacerbations resulting in gradual debilitation. The quality of life has been shown to be poor in patients with COPD despite efforts to improve self-management. However, the evidence on the benefit of self-management in COPD is conflicting. Whether this could be due to other unmet needs of patients have not been investigated. Therefore, we aimed to explore unmet needs of patients from both patients and doctors managing COPD.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study with doctors and patients in Malaysia. We used convenience sampling to recruit patients until data …

Management Of Behavioural Change In Patients Presenting With A Diagnosis Of Dementia: A Video Vignette Study With Australian General Practitioners, M Jiwa, P Nichols, P Magin, G Pagey, X Meng, R Parsons, V Pillai

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Objective: To test the impact of feedback on the proposed management of standardised patients presenting with behavioural change with a diagnosis of dementia in Australian primary care.

Materials and methods: A video vignette study was performed with Australian general practitioners (GPs) in 2013. Participants viewed six pairs of matched videos depicting people presenting changed behavior in the context of a dementia diagnosis in two phases. In both phases GPs indicated their diagnosis and management. After phase 1, GPs were offered feedback on management strategies for the patients depicted. Analyses focused on identification of change in management between the two phases …

Rating General Practitioner Consultation Performance In Cancer Care: Does The Specialty Of Assessors Matter? A Simulated Patient Study, M Jiwa, G Halkett, X Meng, M Berg

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Patients treated for prostate cancer may present to general practitioners (GPs) for treatment follow up, but may be reticent to have their consultations recorded. Therefore the use of simulated patients allows practitioner consultations to be rated. The aim of this study was to determine whether the speciality of the assessor has an impact on how GP consultation performance is rated.

Methods: Six pairs of scenarios were developed for professional actors in two series of consultations by GPs. The scenarios included: chronic radiation proctitis, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) ‘bounce’, recurrence of cancer, urethral stricture, erectile dysfunction and depression or anxiety. …

A Randomised Trial Deploying A Simulation To Investigate The Impact Of Hospital Discharge Letters On Patient Care In General Practice, M Jiwa, X Meng, C O'Shea, P Magin, A Dadich, V Pillai

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Objective: To determine how the timing and length of hospital discharge letters impact on the number of ongoing patient problems identified by general practitioners (GPs).

Trial design: GPs were randomised into four groups. Each viewed a video monologue of an actor-patient as he might present to his GP following a hospital admission with 10 problems. GPs were provided with a medical record as well as a long or short discharge letter, which was available when the video was viewed or 1 week later. GPs indicated if they would prescribe, refer or order tests for the patient’s problems.

Methods: Setting Primary …

Genomic Catastrophes Frequently Arise In Esophageal Adenocarcinoma And Drive Tumorigenesis, K Nones, N Waddell, N Wayte, A Patch, P Bailey, F Newell, O Holmes, J Fink, M Quinn, Y Tang, G Lampe, K Quek, K Loffler, S Manning, S Idrisoglu, D Miller, Q Xu, N Waddell, P Wilson, T Bruxner, A Christ, I Harliwong, C Nourse, E Nourbakhsh, M Anderson, S Kazakoff, C Leonard, S Wood, P Simpson, L Reid, L Krause, D Hussey, D Watson, R Lord, D Nancarrow, W Phillips, D Gotley, B Smithers, D Whiteman, N Hayward, P Campbell, J Pearson, S Grimmond, A Barbour

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) incidence is rapidly increasing in Western countries. A better understanding of EAC underpins efforts to improve early detection and treatment outcomes. While large EAC exome sequencing efforts to date have found recurrent loss-offunction mutations, oncogenic driving events have been underrepresented. Here we use a combination of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and single-nucleotide polymorphism-array profiling to show that genomic catastrophes are frequent in EAC, with almost a third (32%, n¼40/123) undergoing chromothriptic events. WGS of 22 EAC cases show that catastrophes may lead to oncogene amplification through chromothripsis-derived double-minute chromosome formation (MYC and MDM2) or breakage-fusion-bridge (KRAS, MDM2 and …

Health Inequalities And Development Plans In Iran: An Analysis Of The Past Three Decades (1984–2010), H Zare, A Trujillo, J Driessen, M Ghasemi, G Gallego

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Introduction: Reducing inequalities in health care is one of the main challenges in all countries. In Iran as in other oil-exporting upper middle income countries, we expected to witness fewer inequalities especially in the health sector with the increase in governmental revenues.

Methods: This study presents an inequalities assessment of health care expenditures in Iran. We used data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) in Iran from 1984–2010. The analysis included 308,735 urban and 342,532 rural households.

Results: The results suggest heightened inequality in health care expenditures in Iran over the past three decades, including an increase in …

Robot-Assisted Gastrectomy And Oesophagectomy For Cancer, Dan Falkenback, Christopher W. Lehane, Reginald V.N Lord

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Robot-assisted surgery is a technically feasible alternative to open and laparoscopic surgery, which is being more frequently used in general surgery. We undertook this review to investigate whether robotic assistance provides a significant benefit for oesophagogastric cancer surgery.

Methods: Electronic databases were searched for original English-language publications for robotic-assisted gastrectomy and oesophagectomy between January 1990 and October 2013.

Results: Sixty-one publications were included. Thirty-five included gastrectomy, 31 included oesophagectomy and five included both operations. Several publications suggest that robot-assisted subtotal gastrectomy can be as safe and effective as an open or laparoscopic procedure, with equal outcomes with regard to …

Financial Reporting Opacity And Expected Crash Risk: Evidence From Implied Volatility Smirks, Jeong-Bon Kim, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The recent financial crisis has stimulated a renewed interest in understanding the determinants of stock price crash risk (i.e., left tail risk). Recent research shows that opaque financial reports enable managers to hide and accumulate bad news for extended periods. When the accumulated bad news reaches certain tipping point, it will be suddenly released to the market at once, resulting in an abrupt decline in stock price (i.e., a crash). This study extends this line of research by examining the impact of financial reporting opacity on perceived or expected crash risk. Prominent economists, such as Olivier Blanchard, argue that removing …

Beauty And Academic Career, Hai Lu, Yanju Liu, Kevin Veenstra

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the impact of beauty on the academic career success of tenure-track accounting professors at top business schools in America, and show that beauty plays a significant role. Specifically, after controlling for gender, ethnicity, publication history, work experience, and quality of alma mater, more attractive professors obtain better first school placements post-PhD and are granted tenure in a shorter period of time. Interestingly, there is no incremental benefit of attractiveness for the career progression from associate to full professor. These findings are consistent with our conjecture that when the signal of an individual’s potential is noisy, beauty becomes a …

Stock Liquidity And The Pricing Of Earnings: A Comparison Of China’S Floating And Non-Floating Shares, Jiwei Wang, Kevin Chen, Hongqi Yuan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The reform to convert non-floating shares to floating in China provides a setting in which shares are subject to different liquidity constraint. We show that the severity of this constraint is inversely related to the extent to which earnings information is reflected in the share prices. Specifically, before the reform, the transfer prices of non-floating shares reflect much less earnings information than the market prices of floating shares. After the reform, however, both types of transfer reflect more earnings information, although the weights are still less than that found in the market prices. Thus, China's unique setting shows that share …

Governing A Digital Business Ecosystem: Lessons From One.Motoring Portal, Gary Pan, See Liang Foo, Shongye Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

While the IT innovation topic has gathered significant research interests, the existing discourse on IT innovation is centered on internal organizational processes such as IT capability development and organizational learning rather than IT innovation networks as the primary means for achieving superior enterprise performance. This is an important topic because a networked perspective of IT-enabled innovation is a critical dimension for the dynamics of collaborative innovation in today’s networked economy. In particular, the development and implementation of a digital business ecosystem (DBE); a specific type of business ecosystem defined as an IT-enabled business network of entities with differing interests bound …

Mandatory Financial Reporting Environment And Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence From Mandatory Ifrs Adoption, I-Hwa Yang, Balakrishnan K., Li X.

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

Does Corporate Governance Make Financial Reports Better, Or Just Better For Equity Investors?, Dan Segal, Benjamin Segal, Shai Levi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Financial reports should provide useful information to both shareholders and creditors, according to U.S. accounting principles. However, directors of corporations have fiduciary duties only toward equity holders, and those fiduciary duties normally do not extend to the interests of creditors. We examine whether this slant in corporate governance biases financial reports in favor of equity investors, and in particular leads to a downward bias in reported debt that can hurt creditors. We focus on firms’ decision to issue structured debt securities that are classified as equity in financial reports and can circumvent debt covenants. We find that when the local …

Strategies For Surviving In China's Intellectual Property Minefield, David Llewelyn, Peter J. Williamson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Despite a slowdown in China’s GDP growth from the double-digit heights of the last decade, it is still expanding at over 7% per annum – a growth rate that looks more sustainable. Growth in the other major emerging economies including India, Brazil and Russia, by contrast, has all but collapsed, at least for the present. Growth in the developed economies, meanwhile, remains fragile in the wake of their post-2008 financial crisis recessions. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Boards of many foreign companies are counting on winning share in the China market to support their top-line growth in coming …

The Singapore Directorship Report 2014, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Directors play an important role in the governance of firms. This reportprovides a comprehensive study of 3,670 directors on the boards of 717companies, business trusts and REITs listed on the Singapore Exchange(SGX) as at the end of 2013. This report specifically examines the structureof boards and their composition, director tenure, remuneration, meetingattendance, gender diversity and multiple directorships. It also documentscompliance with key aspects of the Singapore Code of CorporateGovernance 2012 (the Code) relating to some of these matters.

Mean Variance Analysis Of Asian Hedge Funds, Zhidong Bai, Kok Fai Phoon, Yongchang Hui, Wing-Keung Wong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Status Reports Of The Fisheries And Aquatic Resources Of Western Australia 2013/14. State Of The Fisheries, W.J Fletcher, K. Santoro

Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

The Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of Western Australia (SRFAR) provide the public with an annual update on the state of the fish stocks and other aquatic resources of Western Australia (WA) managed by the Department of Fisheries (Department). These reports outline the most recent assessments of the cumulative risk status for each of the aquatic resources (assets) within WA’s six Bioregions using an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) approach.

Palliative Care Nurses' Recognition And Assessment Of Delirium Symptoms: A Qualitative Study Using Critical Incident Technique, Annmarie Hosie, Meera Agar, Elizabeth Lobb, Patricia M. Davidson, Jane Phillips

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Delirium is prevalent in palliative care inpatient settings and management is often challenging. Despite nurses’ integral patient care role, little is known about palliative care nurses’ capacity to recognise, assess and respond to patients’ delirium symptoms. Objective: To explore the experiences, views and practices of inpatient palliative care nurses in delirium recognition and assessment. Settings and participants: 30 nurses from nine Australian specialist palliative care inpatient services. Design and methods: Critical incident technique (CIT) guided a series of semi-structured interviews. Prior to interviews participants were given a vignette of a palliative care inpatient with an unrecognised hypoactive delirium, to prompt …

'Workshops In Healing' For Senior Medical Students: 5 Year Overview And Appraisal, John Kearsley, Elizabeth Lobb

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

We report upon the design, content and feedback from an interactive, experiential series of Workshops in Healing for senior medical students. Fifty-six final year medical students enrolled in 2×3 h workshops designed around the core themes of ‘physician know thyself’ (Workshop 1) and ‘confronting suffering’ (Workshop 2). Of the 56 students who initially enrolled, 48 students completed both workshops and provided a written openended reflection of their learning experience. The study, undertaken over a consecutive 5-year period (2008–2012), employed an emergent, qualitative design using thematic analysis of the reflective comments. We found that the design and content of both workshops …