In real-world information retrieval (IR) tasks, the searched items and/or the users' queries often have implicit information associated with them -- information that describes unspecified aspects of the items or queries. For example, in web search tasks, web pages are often pointed to by hyperlinks (known as anchors) from other pages, and thus have human-generated succinct descriptions of their content (anchor text) associated with them. This indirectly available information has been shown to improve search effectiveness for different retrieval tasks. However, in many real-world IR challenges this information is sparse in the data; i.e., it is incomplete or missing in a large portion of the data. In this work, we explore how to discover and use implicit information in large amounts of data in the context of IR. We present a general perspective for discovering implicit information and demonstrate how to use the discovered data in four specific IR challenges: (1) finding relevant records in semi-structured databases where many records contain incomplete or empty fields; (2) searching web pages that have little or no associated anchor text; (3) using click-through records in web query logs to help search pages that have no or very few clicks; and (4) discovering plausible geographic locations for web queries that contain no explicit geographic information. The intuition behind our approach is that data similar in some aspects are often similar in other aspects. Thus we can (a) use the observed information of queries/documents to find similar queries/documents, and then (b) utilize those similar queries/documents to reconstruct plausible implicit information for the original queries/documents. We develop language modeling based techniques to effectively use content similarity among data for our work. Using the four different search tasks on large-scale noisy datasets, we empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. We further discuss the advantages and weaknesses of two complementary approaches within our general perspective of handling implicit information for retrieval purpose. Taken together, we describe a general perspective that uses contextual similarity among data to discover implicit information for IR challenges. Using this general perspective, we formally present two language modeling based information discovery approaches. We empirically evaluate our approaches using different IR challenges. Our research shows that supporting information discovery tailored to different search tasks can enhance IR systems' search performance and improve users' search experience.

Die StuFo-Expo gibt mir die Möglichkeit meine Forschung im Rahmen meines Promotionsprojektes zugänglich für eine breite, fachübergreifende Öffentlichkeit zu machen. Zudem erhalte ich die Chance, Forschungsthemen, -ergebnisse und -methoden fachübergreifend kennenzulernen. Es ist ein einzigartiges Projekt, welches Studierende miteinander vernetzt und wichtige Fähigkeiten der Studierenden fördert. Das Thema meiner Forschung ist die Wertrelevanz latenter Steuern. Ich untersuche die Fragestellung ob latente Steuern bei der Vorhersage der zukünftigen Unternehmensentwicklung zusätzliche Informationen für verschiedene Stakeholder liefern. Dafür analysiere ich die knapp 1.800 verfügbaren Jahresabschlüsse aller im DAX Prime Standard gelisteten Firmen zwischen 2007 und 2018. Das von mir eingereichte Poster zeigt, dass latente Steuern dabei helfen, die Entwicklung des Marktwertes des Eigenkapitals bis zu zwei Jahren im Voraus zu prognostizieren. Dabei tragen aktive latente Steuern als wahrscheinliche zukünftige Steuerrückzahlungen positiv zum Unternehmenswert und deshalb zum Marktwert bei und passive latente Steuern als wahrscheinliche zukünftige Steuerzahlungen negativ zum Unternehmenswert und deshalb zum Marktwert bei. Ferner kann ich nachweisen, dass die ergänzende Berichterstattung über latente Steuern eher negativ von Marktteilnehmern bewertet wird. Mögliche Gründe hierfür sind die hohe Komplexität der Informationen und die fehlende Überleitbarkeit dieser Informationen auf Bilanz- und Gewinn- und Verlustrechnungszahlen. Auch zeigen Interviewstudien, dass das Vertrauen in latente Steuern und die dazugehörige Berichterstattung gering ist, da Stakeholder vermuten, dass latente Steuern zumindest teilweise für Bilanzpolitik genutzt werden. / The StuFo-Expo gives me the opportunity to make my research accessible to a broad, interdisciplinary public as part of my doctoral project. I also get the chance to get to know research topics, results and methods across disciplines. It is a unique project that connects students with one another and promotes important student skills. The topic of my research is the value relevance of deferred taxes. I am investigating the question of whether deferred taxes provide additional information for various stakeholders when predicting future corporate development. To do this, I analyze the almost 1,800 available annual financial statements of all companies listed in the DAX Prime Standard between 2007 and 2018. The poster I submitted shows that deferred taxes help forecast the development of the market value of equity up to two years in advance. Deferred tax assets as probable future tax repayments contribute positively to the company value and therefore to the market value, and deferred tax liabilities as probable future tax payments contribute negatively to the company value and therefore to the market value. I can also prove that the supplementary reporting on deferred taxes is rated negatively by market participants. Possible reasons for this are the high complexity of the information and the lack of transferability of this information to balance sheet and income statement figures. Interview studies also show that trust in deferred taxes and the associated reporting is low, as stakeholders suspect that deferred taxes are at least partially used for accounting policy.

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The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has recently begun inspecting foreign audit firms. An important policy concern is that several foreign jurisdictions have refused to allow the PCAOB to conduct inspections of their audit firms. In this dissertation, I investigate (1) whether audit quality is higher for client firms (henceforth "complying" clients) whose foreign auditors have been inspected by the PCAOB, compared to client firms (henceforth "blacklisted" clients) of foreign auditors whose governments have refused inspections by the PCAOB, and (2) whether audit quality improves in the post inspection period for clients of inspected foreign auditors. I use abnormal accruals, total accruals, value relevance, and the likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion as proxies for audit quality. I conduct empirical tests on two samples, a cross-sectional sample consisting of blacklisted and complying clients, and a longitudinal sample of clients of inspected foreign auditors before and after PCAOB inspections. For the going-concern models, the samples are confined to financially distressed firms, which are either clients with negative net income or negative operating cash flows or clients in the top quartile in the bankruptcy probability distribution. The cross-sectional models indicate that blacklisted clients have significantly higher abnormal and total accruals, lower value relevance and a lower likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion, than complying clients, suggesting that clients of PCAOB-inspected auditors seem to have higher audit quality. Moreover, longitudinal analyses of clients of inspected foreign auditors show that abnormal accruals and total accruals are lower after PCAOB inspections than before inspections, and value relevance is greater after inspections than before. The likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion is higher after PCAOB inspections than before inspections for one of the two distressed-firm samples. Overall, the results are generally consistent with the PCAOB's claim that the clients of foreign audit firms that have undergone PCAOB inspections have benefited from the inspections. Further analyses indicate that the benefits are concentrated in jurisdictions where the PCAOB has conducted joint inspections with local authorities, in countries where legal traditions follow common law, and for clients of Big 4 auditors. / Business Administration/Accounting

Many mathematics students experience dissonance between their sense of who they are and their perception of who they are expected to be in mathematics classrooms. Such students lack a sense of belonging while in mathematics class, believe that learning mathematics requires a natural ability they do not possess, experience classroom mathematical practices as being monotonous and devoid of meaning, or view mathematics as irrelevant to their present and future lives outside of the mathematics classroom. Together, these perceptions form students’ views of themselves in relation to the study of mathematics—their mathematics identities. However, whereas students’ mathematics identities are known to impact their academic motivation and achievement, the mathematics education literature lacks insight into how to promote positive mathematics identities in students. Flum and Kaplan (2006) identified the Eriksonian concept of exploration—the seeking out and processing of self-relevant information—as a key process in adaptive identity formation and one that may be harnessed as a motivational force in academic settings. The current study investigates the effects of a school-based program that is being implemented with the goal of promoting Algebra 2 students’ motivation and achievement by facilitating mathematics identity exploration. The data are based on pedagogical materials and student artifacts administered by three teachers as part of a classroom-based program that included reflective writing assignments that applied principles for promoting identity exploration around the curriculum. The research involves analyses of the data collected during this project undertaken in Algebra 2 classrooms in a suburban high school throughout one semester. Students were randomly assigned to either participate in the innovative pedagogical program or to one of two control groups. I found the mathematics identity exploration program to promote hints of exploration for some students but not others. Additionally, students who perceived the course as triggering mathematics identity exploration, whether assigned to the exploration program or to a control group, were found to have more adaptive motivational profiles at the end of the semester. The findings point to the benefits of identity exploration within the mathematics classroom to students’ mathematics identities and motivation in mathematics, and they provide directions for further research and the design of effective interventions that promote students’ identity exploration around the mathematics curriculum across student groups and contexts. / Teaching & Learning

No / A culturally sensitive approach needs to be adopted in disseminating evidence-based preventive programs internationally, and very little is known about effective dissemination into low-resource settings such as low and middle income countries. Following guidelines on optimizing the fit of evidence-based parenting programs worldwide, a cultural relevance study was conducted in Panama, Central America. Parents (N = 120) from low-resource communities were surveyed to explore cultural relevance of material from the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program. Intention to participate and views on delivery formats and program features were also examined. Descriptive statistics and regressions were carried out to analyze the results. Parents found program materials highly relevant and reported that they would be willing to participate in a program if one was offered. A large proportion of the sample expressed a preference for self-directed formats such as books, articles and brochures (77.6 %). Regression analyses suggested that most parents considered material as relevant, interesting and useful, regardless of other factors such as socio-economic status, gender, the level of child behavioral difficulties, parental stress, parental confidence and expectations of future behavioral problems. The study provides a potential approach for dissemination of research and offers an insight into the needs and preferences of a particular segment of the world’s population—parents in low-resource settings. Strategies for meeting the needs and preferences of these parents in terms of service delivery are discussed.

No / Several international organizations have suggested the need for disseminating existing evidence-based parenting interventions into low-resource settings of the world in order to prevent societal difficulties such as violence. Before dissemination efforts take place, it is important to examine the fit of existing interventions in these contexts. In the present study, 80 practitioners from low-resource communities in Panama, Central America, were surveyed in order to explore their views on materials, principles and strategies of an evidence-based parenting program, the Triple P Positive Parenting Program. This study is part of a larger project in which cultural relevance was also explored from parents’ perspective, instruments were translated and validated, and a RCT was carried out to determine efficacy. Practitioners in the present study were psychologists, teachers, social workers and learning disability specialists based in school settings. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data and regression analyses were carried out in order to determine whether socio-demographic variables predicted acceptability scores. Scores for cultural relevance and usefulness of the program were high. A sample of material was found to be interesting, familiar, and acceptable. All practitioners (100 %) expressed a need to implement a parenting program in their community. Only being female and greater hours of consultation per week were associated with greater acceptability. These results have the potential to inform implementation efforts in Panama and the study offers a methodology which can be used to explore the relevance of other programs in other low-resource settings.