Morality and Perception of Corruption de Oliveira Leite, Rodrigo; Dias, Rodrigo; Mendes, Layla
Latin American business review (Binghamton, N.Y.),
20/4/3/, Letnik:
22, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Because of its very nature, corruption is hard to be measured, and thus most indices rely on people's perception of it. However, judgments are known to be biased, and therefore perception of ...corruption may not reflect actual corruption. Nevertheless, how individuals perceive corruption is important: the perception that corruption is high can cause mistrust among individuals, and it may actually affect corruption. Thus, in this paper, we investigate what affects people's perception of corruption. We find that individuals with a high moral identity internalization and those endorse the individualizing foundations of morality tend to perceive corruption to be greater.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by abundant stroma, the main cellular constituents of which are cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Stroma‐targeting agents have been ...proposed to improve the poor outcome of current treatments. However, clinical trials using these agents showed disappointing results. Heterogeneity in the PDAC CAF population was recently delineated demonstrating that both tumor‐promoting and tumor‐suppressive activities co‐exist in the stroma. Here, we aimed to identify biomarkers for the CAF population that contribute to a favorable outcome. RNA‐sequencing reads from patient‐derived xenografts (PDXs) were mapped to the human and mouse genome to allocate the expression of genes to the tumor or stroma. Survival meta‐analysis for stromal genes was performed and applied to human protein atlas data to identify circulating biomarkers. The candidate protein was perturbed in co‐cultures and assessed in existing and novel single‐cell gene expression analysis from control, pancreatitis, pancreatitis‐recovered and PDAC mouse models. Serum levels of the candidate biomarker were measured in two independent cohorts totaling 148 PDAC patients and related them to overall survival. Osteoglycin (OGN) was identified as a candidate serum prognostic marker. Single‐cell analysis indicated that Ogn is derived from a subgroup of inflammatory CAFs. Ogn‐expressing fibroblasts are distinct from resident healthy pancreatic stellate cells and arise during pancreatitis. Serum OGN levels were prognostic for favorable overall survival in two independent PDAC cohorts (HR = 0.47, P = .042 and HR = 0.53, P = .006). Altogether, we conclude that high circulating OGN levels inform on a previously unrecognized subgroup of CAFs and predict favorable outcomes in resectable PDAC.
What's new?
The heterogeneity of cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) with both tumor‐promoting and tumor‐suppressive properties has recently been recognized. Our study identifies osteoglycin as a distinct marker for an inflammatory and tumor‐suppressive CAF subpopulation. The favorable prognostic significance of high serum osteoglycin levels was observed in a cohort of 40 patients with resected PDAC and further validated in a nationwide multicenter cohort of 108 patients. The findings point to osteoglycin as a potential noninvasive biomarker that not only predicts favorable clinical outcomes but also distinguishes a novel CAFs subtype.
We theorize that for-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs) have higher incentives to use earnings management techniques when compared to their not-for-profit counterparts. Indeed, we show ...empirically that, when facing a distress period, for-profit MFIs are more likely to recognize impairment loan loss provisions than not-for-profit ones in about 0.8% of assets. This is consistent with the notion that those institutions are employing “big bath” accounting practices. Finally, using the 2008 crisis as an exogenous shock and country-level recessions as an exogenous measure of distress, we replicate our results.
Using a sample of 12,982 Brazilian professional accountants collected in 2012, we show that reflective accountants receive higher job compensation (wages) compared to their impulsive peers. Results ...are robust to matching on gender, age, education, number of children, place of residence, and job-related covariates. Results were also replicated in a sample of 1,932 professional accountants collected in 2017 with a different cognitive reflection scale, showing the persistence and robustness of the effect either to an alternative proxy for cognitive reflection and a different timeframe.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether analysts’ personal cognitive traits mitigate the efficacy of graphical impression management.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments ...are conducted wherein 525 professional accountants working as financial analysts rate a hypothetical company’s performance graph depicting its net income trend. The manipulation is the presence (absence) of impression management techniques. Hypotheses test whether different techniques are effective and whether analysts’ cognitive reflection ability mitigates manipulation efficacy.FindingsPresentation enhancement is effective only with impulsive analysts, showing the weakness of this technique through the use of colors. Measurement distortion and selectivity techniques are effective for reflective and impulsive analysts; however, reflective analysts are more critical about graphs prepared via selectivity that emphasize profit recovery following crises.Research limitations/implicationsEach impression management technique is investigated in isolation and in controlled conditions. Further research could consider how personal cognitive traits impact the efficacy of combined techniques and whether imbedding manipulated graphs with other information mitigates impression management efficacy.Practical implicationsResearch on impression management is mostly “task-oriented;” few “people-oriented” studies focus on decision making by those using financial reports. Users’ cognitive reflection ability is shown to undermine the efficacy of some impression management techniques.Social implicationsFinancial analysts, auditors and regulators could develop mechanisms to avoid pervasive usage of (or enhance skepticism regarding) techniques not mitigated by users’ reflectiveness.Originality/valueEvidence from financial analysts with an accounting background provides insights on individual characteristics’ influence on graphical impression management efficacy.
This article presents a methodology to classify the polarity of words from selected Tweets. Usually, social media sentiment (SMS) is lexically determined, manually or by machine learning. However, ...these methods are either slow or based on a pre-established dictionary, thus not providing a customised analysis. We propose a methodology that, after having mined the topic-related Tweets, filters relevant words based on the mean and standard deviation frequency in positive and negative market days to remove neutral terms. Subsequently, through an ad hoc perceptual mapping, we assign a polarity to the dataset. This method allows the building of a dictionary associated with the investor sentiment customised to that organisation. A practical application was carried out to test the proposed methodology. The results were significant and in line with the behavioural finance theory, confirming that irrational investor feelings—expressed via social media—drive a portion of asset prices. Results also confirm the investor asymmetric behaviour under gain or loss scenarios, with the latter generating more impact than the former because people are risk-averse. The proposed method is expected to identify patterns of behaviour in social media linked to market oscillations, thereby contributing to risk management and optimising decision-making in the stock market.•The use of both statistical and perceptual map filters allows a specific asset dictionary to be built;•Textual sentiment analysis based on social media;•The proposed method efficiently overcomes generic dictionaries and language issues.
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Discovering biomarkers of drug response and finding powerful drug combinations can support the reuse of previously abandoned cancer drugs in the clinic. Indisulam is an abandoned drug that acts as a ...molecular glue, inducing degradation of splicing factor RBM39 through interaction with CRL4
Here, we performed genetic and compound screens to uncover factors mediating indisulam sensitivity and resistance. First, a dropout CRISPR screen identified SRPK1 loss as a synthetic lethal interaction with indisulam that can be exploited therapeutically by the SRPK1 inhibitor SPHINX31. Moreover, a CRISPR resistance screen identified components of the degradation complex that mediate resistance to indisulam: DCAF15, DDA1, and CAND1. Last, we show that cancer cells readily acquire spontaneous resistance to indisulam. Upon acquiring indisulam resistance, pancreatic cancer (Panc10.05) cells still degrade RBM39 and are vulnerable to BCL-xL inhibition. The better understanding of the factors that influence the response to indisulam can assist rational reuse of this drug in the clinic.
An ancestral function of vessels is to conduct blood flow and supply oxygen (O
2
). In hypoxia, cells secrete angiogenic factors to initiate vessel sprouting. Angiogenic factors are balanced off by ...inhibitors, ensuring that vessels form optimally and supply sufficient oxygen (O
2
). By contrast, in tumors, excessive production of angiogenic factors induces vessels and their endothelial cell (EC) layer to become highly abnormal, thereby impairing tumor perfusion and oxygenation. In such pathological conditions, angiogenic factors act as “abnormalization factors” and promote the vessel “abnormalization switch.” Recent genetic data indicate that ECs sense an imbalance in oxygen levels, by using the oxygen-sensing prolyl hydroxylase PHD2. In conditions of O
2
shortage, a decrease in PHD2 activity in ECs initiates a feedback that restores their shape, not their numbers. This induces ECs to align in a streamlined “phalanx” of tightly apposed, regularly ordered cobblestone ECs, which improves perfusion and oxygenation. As a result, EC normalization in PHD2 haplodeficient tumor vessels improves oxygenation and renders tumor cells less invasive and metastatic. This review discusses the role of PHD2 in the regulation of vessel (ab)normalization and the therapeutic potential of PHD2 inhibition for tumor invasiveness and metastasis.
By using data from a natural experiment, the 2015 Ezubao scandal in China, we show that as a consequence of negative news about a P2P financial platform, all players operating in a different platform ...(borrowers, lenders, and the platform itself) are worse-off due to information contagion. Moreover, we present evidence that high-income individuals and those that contracted loans for investment purposes are disproportionately affected by contagion from negative news.
•A scandal in one P2P financial firm can influence loans in a legitimate firm.•Loan amount is reduced and interested rates are increased.•High-incomers and loans for investment purposes are the most affected.•All players were affected: the P2P financial firm, lenders, and borrowers.
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