Prior Commentary Research Articles

Rivalry between Humans and Coronaviruses: Unanticipated Impact of Omicron.

With our prior Commentary we discussed the rivalry between ideation (humans) and mutations (viruses), (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8439168/), and more specifically, we described and compared two means of adaptability: collective and focused ideation for humans and self-serving mutation for viruses. The amazingly fast development of new effective and safe vaccines and drugs requires the humankind's most sophisticated form of ideation ability to respond to threatening stressors such as a dangerous virus like SARS-CoV-2. The essence of what makes us human is that human ideation requires a society of people working towards the same goal and is interdependent on socialization for the sustainability of humankind. In contrast, viruses mutate alone and "selfishly". The best fit virus for a particular environment, for a particular host, eliminates the competition through successive mutations. The Omicron variant of concern (VoC) is a great example for how higher transmissibility and perhaps, stochasticity, can drive the transmissive success of a virus across an entire host species like humans. With this review, we describe how Omicron has impacted the COVID-19 pandemic in an unanticipated way that could bring an end to it.

Meta-Analyses Do Not Establish Improved Mortality With Ivermectin Use in COVID-19

Meta-Analyses Do Not Establish Improved Mortality With Ivermectin Use in COVID-19

Value-relevance of reported changes in fair values and measurement-related fair value disclosures: evidence from the Australian real estate industry

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the value-relevance of changes in fair values of investment property reported under International Accounting Standards (IAS) 40 and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 13.Design/methodology/approachMultivariate regression models are used to regress cumulative market-adjusted stock returns of real estate firms on changes in fair values, along with control variables and corporate governance variables, in order to examine the research question.FindingsUsing hand-collected data from the Australian Real Estate Industry (AREI), the authors find that changes in fair values of investment property are value-relevant for equity investors. The authors further find that using unobservable inputs in an active market (Level 3 inputs) does not diminish the information content of fair values. The authors document that properties valued exclusively by directors have a significantly reduced value-relevance, whereas property valuations made collectively by both directors and independent valuers have superior value-relevance, possibly owing to the combination of inside knowledge and externally imposed monitoring. Collectively, the findings suggest that in the real estate industry, where unobservable inputs are commonly used to determine fair values of properties, the fair values determined subjectively are perceived to be sufficiently informative and relevant.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' findings have important implications for accounting standard-setters in considering whether an external valuation should be required and whether the extensive measurement-related fair value disclosure requirements are useful.Originality/valueThe study extends previous archival evidence and complements prior commentaries on experimental and analytical work in the Australian regulatory environment.

What Is the Role of Anterior Vertebral Tethering?: Commentary on an article by Peter O. Newton, MD, et al.: "Anterior Spinal Growth Modulation in Skeletally Immature Patients with Idiopathic Scoliosis. A Comparison with Posterior Spinal Fusion at 2 to 5 Years Postoperatively".

Commentary The article by Newton et al. addresses a timely and important question. It is important in that it compares a relatively new and relatively untested procedure, anterior vertebral tethering, with a long-established one, posterior fusion and instrumentation for idiopathic scoliosis. It is timely in that many centers are very interested in this newer surgical procedure. It is also especially important in that it reports on outcomes at least 2 years postoperatively. The data, which are honestly reported in detail, are not favorable to vertebral tethering. Indeed, some of the data contradict portions of the authors’ earlier reports. The discussion of the results presents a more favorable interpretation than is deserved, an opinion noted by each reviewer prior to publication. Although the initial patient selection for tethering is not presented, the study group and the control group are well-matched as to severity and maturity. The tethering group achieved significantly less reduction of deformity and had more complications and revisions. The proposed advantages of tethering, progressive postoperative correction and maintenance of spinal motion, were not demonstrated. The lack of progressive correction with growth is unexpected and worthy of note. In a 2014 article, Samdani et al. reported significant gradual correction from 44° preoperatively to 20° immediately postoperatively and 13.5° at 2 years after vertebral tethering1. The frequency of breakage of the tethers, 52%, is alarming. It is alarming because it represents failure of the construct and especially because we do not know what will happen to the spine in the future. Will the untethered segment(s) allow continued progression, and will the patient have pain? It is also concerning because, in this study, with longer follow-up, the incidence of breakage of tethers has increased. I noted in a prior commentary that we simply do not have enough follow-up of this surgical procedure to promote wider usage, and this article by Newton et al. reinforces my conclusion2. For certain, we need development of a more durable, fatigue-resistant cable prior to generalized use. It is interesting that, although we should congratulate the authors for openly publishing these unfavorable results, we also have to be critical of some of their statements. Newton et al. state that they were able to prevent or delay posterior spinal fusion in a majority of patients. They note that 52% of patients were successful in having curves of <35° and 74% were successful in having curves of <50°. This is not good enough. We have to ask what did the patients gain in that transaction? They had more subsequent surgical procedures, more than half with broken tethers, and no demonstrated advantage in mobility. They paid a price in terms of greater residual spinal rotation and coronal deformity. Nine of 23 patients had a revision surgical procedure, with 3 patients who underwent spinal fusion and 3 patients who were scheduled to undergo spinal fusion. In their earlier work, Newton et al. and others showed proof of the concept that anterior tethering of vertebrae can alter spinal growth to correct deformity with continued growth. This an important finding and will certainly be of use in the future. To get a real benefit from the technology, we must perform studies that identify the circumstances of deformity and maturity in which the advantages of gradual correction and lack of fusion can be appreciated. Can we achieve gradual correction without overcorrection? Should this technique replace brace management of smaller curves in younger patients? Surely, we can come up with more fatigue-resistant cable materials, and continuing to use current models with >50% failure is not wise.

The impact of principles-based vs rules-based accounting standards on reporting quality and earnings management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore whether principles-based vs rules-based accounting standards have an effect on measures of financial reporting quality and earnings management strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a firm-year-specific variable that captures the extent to which firms’ accounting and operating behavior is affected by the characteristics of a specific standard in the USA. Measures of absolute accruals, financial misconducts, signed abnormal accruals and abnormal cash flows are used to assess the effects.FindingsThe results show that absolute magnitude of accruals and probability of financial misconduct is lower, and accrual earnings management is higher when firms’ standards are more based on principles. The study also suggests that potentially costlier real earnings management is a consequence of rules-based standards.Research limitations/implicationsThis study relies heavily on measures from the prior accounting literature, hence, care has been exercised in generalizing the findings.Practical implicationsThis study has direct implications for a number of stakeholders, including standard setters, policymakers, securities regulators, researchers, investors, financial statement preparers and auditors. For example, the future development of accounting standards can be supported by the empirical conclusions in this study together with previous standard-setting ambitions, commentaries, experiments and analytical work.Originality/valueThis study extends prior single-country studies on reporting quality and cross-country studies on transition effects of firms switching from local to International Accounting Standards by observing the impact of accounting standard characteristics on additional measures of reporting quality and accrual as well as real earnings management when holding institutional factors constant. The study also offers archival evidence complementing prior commentaries, experiments and analytical work.

Designing the Tax Treatment of Litigation-Related Costs

Defendants often deduct for income tax purposes their litigation-related costs, such as attorney fees and payments to settle claims or satisfy judgments. The result is often a large gap between the sticker price of settlements or judgments and their after-tax cost—what defendants really pay out of pocket. The problem: For every dollar that a defendant avoids in tax liability by, for example, deducting the damage awards it pays, the civil justice system falls that much short of its corrective-justice or optimal-deterrence goals in that case. For this reason, the entire civil justice system should care about this question: How should income tax law treat litigation-related costs? This Article identifies the critical tax-design choices that must be faced but that prior commentary has largely ignored: How to attribute litigation-related costs to an income-producing activity; whether to treat liability insurer payments made on a defendant’s behalf as income to that defendant; whether to coordinate the tax treatment of a payor’s damages payments with the tax treatment of those receipts to the payee; and whether litigation-related costs should be treated as capital expenditures. Then, the Article offers a new default rule for settlement agreements: Unless a settlement agreement expressly indicates otherwise, a settling defendant promises not to seek an allowable tax deduction for litigation-related costs. In so doing, this Article reveals the issues that lawyers, judges, and scholars must no longer ignore when they argue over how an income tax system could or should treat litigation-related costs.

Explaining Choice-of-Entity Decisions by Silicon Valley Start-Ups

Perhaps the most fundamental role of a business tax advisor is to recommend the optimal entity choice for nascent business enterprises. Nevertheless, even in 2018, the choice-of-entity analysis remains highly muddled. Most tax practitioners across the United States consistently recommend flow-through entities, such as LLCs and S corporations, to their clients. In contrast, a discrete group of highly sophisticated tax professionals, those who advise start-ups in Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of start-up activity, prefer C corporations. Prior commentary has described and tried to explain this paradox without finding an adequate explanation. These commentators have noted a host of superficially plausible explanations, all of which they ultimately conclude are not wholly persuasive. The puzzle therefore remains. This article attempts to finally solve the puzzle by examining two factors that have been either vastly underappreciated or completely ignored in the existing literature. First, while previous commentators have briefly noted that flow-through structures are more complex and administratively burdensome, they did not fully appreciate the source, nature, and extent of these problems. In the unique start-up context, the complications of flow-through structures are exponentially more problematic, to the point where widespread adoption of flow-throughs is practically infeasible. Second, the literature has not appreciated the effect of perplexing, yet pervasive, tax asset valuation problems in the public company context. The conventional wisdom is that tax assets are ignored or severely undervalued in public company stock valuations. In theory, the most significant theoretical benefit of flow-through status for start-ups is that it can result in the creation of valuable tax assets upon exit. However, the conventional wisdom makes this moot when the exit is through an initial public offering or sale to a public company, which are the desired types of exits for Silicon Valley start-ups. Thus, the most significant benefit of using a flow-through (at least in theory) is eliminated because of the tax asset pricing problem. Accordingly, while the costs of flow-through structures are far larger than have been appreciated, the benefits of these structures are much smaller than they appear.

Hipparchus’ Didactic Journey: Poetry, Prose, and Catalogue Form in the Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus

Seeking to establish his didactic superiority to prior commentaries on the astronomers, Hipparchus hit upon the catalogue form as expressing his views in the most authoritative way.

Is tube feeding futile in advanced dementia?

It is controversial whether tube feeding in people with dementia improves nutritional status or prolongs survival. Guidelines published by several professional societies cite observational studies that have shown no benefit and conclude that tube feeding in patients with advanced dementia should be avoided. However, all studies on tube feeding in dementia have major methodological flaws that invalidate their findings. The present evidence is not sufficient to justify general guidelines. Patients with advanced dementia represent a very heterogeneous group, and evidence demonstrates that some patients with dementia benefit from tube feeding. However, presently available guidelines make a single recommendation against tube feeding for all patients. Clinicians, patients, and surrogates should be aware that the guidelines and prior commentary on this topic tend both to overestimate the strength of evidence for futility and to exaggerate the burdens of tube feeding. Shared decision making requires accurate information tailored to the individual patient's particular situation, not blanket guidelines based on flawed data. Lay Summary: Many doctors believe that tube feeding does not help people with advanced dementia. Scientific studies suggest that people with dementia who have feeding tubes do not live longer or gain weight compared with those who are carefully hand fed. However, these studies are not very helpful because of flaws in design, which are discussed in this article. Guidelines from professional societies make a blanket recommendation against feeding tubes for anyone with dementia, but an individual approach that takes each person's situation into account seems more appropriate. Patients and surrogates should be aware that the guidelines on this topic tend both to underestimate the benefit and exaggerate the burdens of tube feeding.

An investigation of Australian and New Zealand hotel ownership

Abstract The results of a study seeking to advance a typology of hotel owners as well as examining the composition of hotel owners in Australia and New Zealand are reported. Interview observations resulted in the six hotel ownership categories, discernible from prior commentaries, being broadened to nine hotel owner types. Considerable insights with respect to differentials in the investment time horizon and capital expenditure strategy applied by different owner types were gleaned from the interview data. From a questionnaire survey phase it was found that high net worth private investors and hotel management companies each own approximately a quarter of large 3–5 star Australian and New Zealand hotels. Several distinct hotel operational characteristics are also apparent across the hotel owner types. These include the observation that developer, high net worth investor and strata-title owned hotels tend to be smaller in terms of revenue generated and also these owner types tend to own less hotels. Also, general managers tend to hold their position for shorter periods in hotels owned by hotel management companies and high net worth private investors tend to own older hotels.

In Case You Missed It: Biologic Treatment of Systemic Juvenile Ideopathic Arthritis

Drs Li and Geskey have disclosed no financial relationship relevant to this commentary. This commentary does not contain a discussion of an unapproved/investigative use of a commercial product/device.Investigators from multiple pediatric rheumatology centers conducted an international double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial of tocilizumab (an anti-interleukin- 6 receptor antibody) for the treatment of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).1 Patients were evaluated for response or flare according to JIA American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, in which a JIA ACR30 response means the patient had 30% or greater improvement in at least 3 of 6 parameters (number of joints with active arthritis, number of joints with limited range of motion, physician assessment of disease activity, patient assessment of well-being, physical function, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate), no more than 1 parameter worsening by 30%, and an absence of fever.At the end of 12 weeks significantly greater improvement was found in patients treated with tocilizumab, with 85% achieving JIA ACR30, 71% achieving JIA ACR70, and 37% achieving JIA ACR90 compared to 24%, 8%, and 5%, respectively, for the placebo arm (P < .001 for all). However, there were also more adverse events associated with tocilizumab than placebo including the development of more infections, moderate-to-severe neutropenia, and a transient increase in transaminases. The authors conclude that treatment with IL-6 inhibition is effective in severe, persistent JIA but the benefits of this treatment have to be weighed against the increased risks.A prior commentary in AAP Grand Rounds2 highlighted treatment recommendations based on existing evidence and consensus expert opinion, the first such recommendations published for a pediatric rheumatic disease.2 Options for treating systemic JIA have now been expanded by published reports of both tocilizumab and canakimumab, an anti-interleukin-1β monoclonal antibody.1,3 This is a remarkable advancement for pediatric rheumatology, especially considering the impressive response achieved with both agents. In the canakimumab trial, 84% of canakimumab-treated patients achieved JIA ACR30 at 15 days compared to 10% of placebo, and there was a lower rate of flare in these patients compared to placebo (26% vs 75%).3The results for the tocilizumab study are especially impressive because the studied patients were generally sicker than those in the canakinumab study, with longer disease duration (median >5 years), more active joints (>16), and greater numbers of patients having failed prior treatment with biologic agents and other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Half of these patients were able to discontinue glucocorticoids and 59% achieved JIA ACR90 after 52 weeks.Adverse events and laboratory abnormalities were more common in the biologic treatment arms in both studies and included thrombocytopenia and neutropenia with canakimumab and neutropenia and elevated transaminases with tocilizumab. Infections were more common in the biologic arms but all of these resolved without sequelae. Although more study is needed to better assess the risk:benefit ratio of these treatments for systemic JIA, it is exciting to report increasing therapeutic options for patients suffering from an often life-altering condition such as systemic JIA.

Using omega-3 fatty acids to treat persistent atrial fibrillation: Time to fish or cut bait?

r t Recently, Kowey et al performed a controlled, prospecive, multicenter, randomized clinical trial comparing precription-grade omega-3 fatty acids (PUFAs) from fish oil o placebo to determine efficacy in preventing recurrent ymptomatic paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation AF). Fish oil was ineffective when given at a dose of 8 g/d or a week followed by 4 g/d through week 24. For the 105 atients randomized with persistent AF, 33% (n 18) in the lacebo group and 50% (n 32) in the fish oil group had documented recurrent symptomatic AF. In a prior commentary, I (B.O.) stated: “It is safe to say, based on this wellcontrolled rather definitive randomized clinical trial, that PUFAs have no role in the management of recurrent symptomatic atrial fibrillation.” Similar results suggesting no enefit were found in another randomized trial and in a trial valuating the prevention of new-onset AF in the postopertive period, although data from an open-label study showed diametrically opposite results. A meta-analysis inicated no benefit from PUFAs to prevent AF. Since then, in contradistinction to these “rather definitive” data, Nodari et al reported results from a recent ouble-blind placebo-controlled study showing that PUFAs lus amiodarone conferred long-term benefit for patients ith persistent AF. Now, Kumar et al find that PUFA upplementation reduced recurrent persistent AF after carioversion. At 90 days, 38.5% of the PUFA group vs 77.5% f the control group had a recurrence of persistent AF. Not nly did more patients in the PUFA group have pharmacologic eversion to sinus rhythm compared with controls (12.1% vs .4%; P .05), but those who underwent electrical cardioverion did substantially better as well. The mean time to persisent AF recurrence was 190 days in the PUFA group vs 77 ays in the control group (P .001). The median time to ecurrence was 201 days in the PUFA group compared with 32 ays in the control group. This is nearly 7 times better. These ndings were strengthened by longer AF duration and lesser

A response to: Morselli, C., Turcotte, M. and Tenti, V. (2010) The Mobility of Criminal Groups

The degree to which organised crime groups extend their activities and influence into new geographic areas is a major concern for law enforcement officials and policymakers worldwide. Over the past decade, a number of researchers have conducted specialised studies and reviews of this phenomenon, and have offered a number of explanations of its underlying drivers. Recently, Morselli, Turcotte, and Tenti were commissioned by Public Safety Canada to prepare a report on this topic, The Mobility of Criminal Groups, which reviewed several case studies and prior commentaries and, based on an inductive (evidence-based) process, offered a conceptual framework for understanding how organised crime groups come to establish themselves (successfully or unsuccessfully) in places outside their area of origin. The current discussion article consists of a written response to Morselli et al.’s report, reflecting on their position in light of recent research on Vietnamese organised crime in the United Kingdom.

On the More Insidious Manifestations of Bias in Scientific Reporting

Although bias in scientific reporting has been the focus of prior commentary, more insidious aspects of such bias often escape attention by authors, reviewers, editorial boards, and commentators. Such bias is no longer simply academic because health care policy, which is increasingly predicated upon evidence-based scientific literature, may be adversely impacted by lack of balanced and objective publications in peer reviewed journals.

The Mathematics of Concurrent Partnerships and HIV: A Commentary on Lurie and Rosenthal, 2009

This article argues against a prior commentary which calls for more research on the role sexual partnership concurrency may play in the spread of sexually transmitted infections. It states that the sensible recommendation is undermined by a number of errors and mainly focuses on mathematical models of concurrency.

Metacognition through Group Practice in the New Media Classroom

Metacognition through Group Practice in the New Media Classroom

Slaying the Dying Dragon of State Sovereignty - A Review of John T. Noonan's Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides With the States

This reviews Judge John T. Noonan's Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides With the States. Judge Noonan's book criticizes City of Boerne v. Flores and five later cases in which the Court narrowly construes Congress's power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. Judge Noonan compares the Boerne line of cases to Dred Scott v. Sandford and contends that it poses a present danger to the exercise of democratic government. Some prior commentary has found Judge Noonan's legal analysis flawed, while other commentary has praised the book for publicizing the esoteric but important recent case law on federalism. This review explores the connection between the book's flawed legal analysis, on the one hand, and its potential strongly to influence public opinion, on the other hand. In short, the flaws in Noonan's legal analysis stem from his effort to depict the Boerne line of cases as the bastard spawn of the Rehnquist Court, with which he must do knightly battle to liberate our beleaguered democracy.

Further comment on “Eigenvalue spectrum of the independent-fermion kinetic-energy kernel”

When a fermion-system ground state is examined in the grand ensemble, particle density is determined uniquely by local chemical potential except when an additional fermion is in the process of appearing. Conversely, the chemical potential is uniquely determined by the density profile except when there are an integer number of particles, but is then necessarily linear in a two-state mixing parameter. This linear dependence has immediate consequences, one of which has elicited prior commentary.

The Politics of Distinction and Disobedience: Honor and the Defense of Liberty in Montesquieu

Elaborating Montesquieu's concept of honor illuminates a dimension of his liberalism that has been neglected by prior commentary, and calls attention to a form of political motivation that has been overlooked in contemporary political theory. While honor avoids the anti-liberal tendencies of civic virtue, it can motivate, better than self-interest does, the extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice sometimes needed to sustain individual liberties. Following a brief account of how it fits into Montesquieu's typology of regimes, three features of honor are elaborated: its high ambitions; its mix of reverence and reflexivity; and its partiality. The final section addresses the relationship between honor and liberal democracy, arguing that despite the tensions between them, liberal democracy needs honor in some form if it is to sustain itself over time.