Auditing, Consulting, and Audit Market Concentration

In its recently published Green Paper, the European Commission 2010 discusses various methods to enhance the reliability of audits and to re-establish trust in the financial market. The Commission primarily focuses on increasing auditor independence and on reducing the high level of audit market concentration. Based on a model in the tradition of the circular market matching models introduced by Salop 1979, we show that prohibiting non-audit services as a measure intended to improve auditor independence can have counter-productive secondary effects on audit market concentration. In fact, our model demonstrates that incentives for independence and the structure of the audit market are simultaneously determined. Because market shares are endogenous in our model, it is not even clear that prohibiting non-audit services indeed increases an auditor’s incentive to remain independent.auditing, Audit Fees, Knowledge Spillovers, Audit Market Concentration, Auditor Independence

The Interdependence Between Audit Market Structure and the Quality of Financial Reporting: The Case of Non-Audit Services

Recently, the Commission of the European Communities has put up for discussion various reform proposals intended to enhance the reliability of audits and to re-establish trust in the financial market. In particular, the EU Commission seeks to strengthen auditor independence and to decrease the high level of audit market concentration. Using the example of a ban on the joint provision of audit and non-audit services, we show that strengthening auditor independence and reducing market concentration may represent competing goals. Neglecting such interdependencies in the debate on regulation could thus lead to ill-advised regulatory decisions. Our arguments are based on a model that integrates a strategic auditor-manager game into a circular market matching model. We show that prohibiting general consulting services can result in a decrease in the equilibrium number of audit firms (i.e., in an increase in market concentration). Moreover, a ban on the joint supply of general consulting services might even have negative effects on the quality of audited financial statements, since the average probability that managers will misreport increases. Our model predicts the opposite effects for a prohibition on audit-related consulting services that managers purchase in order to tempt auditors to compromise their independence. The effects of a ban on “single-provider” auditing and consulting thus depend on the kind of services an auditor is allowed to offer and, in particular, on the point in time at which consulting services are negotiated.Auditing, Non-Audit Services, Audit Market Concentration, Auditor Independence, Quality of Audited Financial Statements

Sonorités de la censure dans le Macbeth de Matthias Langhoff

L’esthétique du metteur en scène allemand Matthias Langhoff se caractérise par la profusion sur scène d’une multitude de stimuli visuels et auditifs qui ne sont pas directement liés à l’intrigue du récit présenté. Bruits, paroles et musiques s’entremêlent, se prolongent et se répondent, invitant le spectateur à entrer dans un intime dialogue réflexif avec l’objet scénique où aucune clé de lecture univoque ne lui est offerte. Cette mise en dialogue des éléments génère un discours dramaturgique donnant à entendre ce qui ne saurait être dit

The Simbolismin the work of Gabriel Jurkic on the beginning and end of World War: Truth between the real and unreal

Polazeći od konstatacije da nijedna od brojnih analiza djela Gabriela Jurkića ne zalazi u dublju analizu njegova simbolizma u okviru secesije, Clara Tomic Bleibtreu na primjeru dviju slika, Visoravan u cvatu (1914.) i Kod ovaca (1918.), pokazuje semiološkom analizom kako su početak i kraj Prvoga svjetskog rata te period secesije utjecali emocionalno i simboliški na djelo Gabriela Jurkića. Autorica zaključuje kako na prvi pogled realni elementi pejzaža na tim slikama ne prikazuju realnost, nego interveniraju u pejzažu transformirajući njegovu realnost u nove simboličke horizonte.The work of Gabrijel Jurkić must be viewed within the frame of idealism which characterizes symbolism. Selecting two pictures, Clara Bleibtreu Tomic conducts a semiological analysis of the symbolism of the fact that the first picture, Visoravan u cvatu (Hillside in bloom), was created at the beginning of the war, in Sarajevo, in spring 1914 in the artist\u27s studio which stood 300 meters from the place where the Austro-Hungarian Archcluke was assassinated thus at the very place and moment of the outbreak of war. Although nothing in this painting visually interprets the war, Visoravon u cvatu directly symbolizes events which followed that spring. The author explains the picture\u27s symbolism through the composition of the ground which can be seen beneath the margaritas (the legendary Field of Kupres) and through the symbol of margarita/Margaret and the painting technique. In the second picture, which dates from the end of the war in autumn 1918 and carries the name Kod ovaca (Among the sheep), the author analyses the symbols of sheep/Lamb of God, of the shepherdess who in the picture resembles the Virgin Mary, and the spindle which she holds in her hand, which, since the time of Athena and via the Sleeping Beauty myth, symbolizes innocence, and the symbol of the green-tinted sky which is not the real colour of sky but an artistic value which carries the significance that this picture stands at the "beginning of things". The author concludes that the apparently realistic landscapes of Gabrijel Jurkić have new horizons which integrate elements within the landscape that do not represent reality, but which intervene in the landscape in order to convey icleas that the author wishes to express. The totality of the picture\u27s meaning arises from the interpretation of those nonrealistic motifs which carry ideas and of their relations, such as a field of flowers that is impassable, or a landscape without paths, which are not in fact needed, because all the signs conveyed by the picture lead only one way, towards the green-tinted sky which envelopes the landscape

Le 11 septembre 1942 : Les cheminots et les déportés juifs en gare de Fives-Lille

Paris le 20 septembre 2018Le témoignage qui suit est basé sur les récits de nos parents, Tauba Mandelbaum née Weissblum et Lejbus (Léon) Mandelbaum, concernant la journée du 11 septembre 1942. Cette journée s’inscrit dans notre histoire familiale comme une pierre à deux faces, l’une noire, l’autre blanche. Le 11 septembre 1942, jour de Rosh Hashana, nos parents sont réveillés, vers 5h30 du matin, par des coups frappés à la porte de leur maison, 6 rue du Marais à Lens. Un gendarme français et..

Changes in temperature and water depth of a small mountain lake during the past 3000 years in Central Kamchatka reflected by a chironomid record

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA We investigated chironomid assemblages of a well-dated sediment core from a small seepage lake situated at the eastern slope of the Central Kamchatka Mountain Chain, Far East Russia. The chironomid fauna of the investigated Sigrid Lake is dominated by littoral taxa that are sensitive to fluctuations of the water level. Two groups of taxa interchangeably dominate the record responding to the changes in the lake environment during the past 2800 years. The first group of littoral phytophilic taxa includes Psectrocladius sordidellus-type, Corynoneura arctica-type and Dicrotendipes nervosus-type. The abundances of the taxa from this group have the strongest influence on the variations of PCA 1, and these taxa mostly correspond to low water levels, moderate temperatures and slightly acidified conditions. The second group of taxa includes Microtendipes pedellus-type, Tanytarsus lugens-type, and Tanytarsus pallidicornis-type. The variations in the abundances of these taxa, and especially of M. pedellu s-type, are in accordance with PCA 2 and correspond to the higher water level in the lake, more oligotrophic and neutral pH conditions. Water depths (WD) were reconstructed, using a modern chironomid-based temperature and water depth calibration data set (training set) and inference model from East Siberia (Nazarova et al., 2011). Mean July air temperatures (T July) were inferred using a chironomid-based temperature inference model based on a modern calibration data set for the Far East (Nazarova et al., 2015). The application of transfer functions resulted in reconstructed T July fluctuations of approximately 3 °C over the last 2800 years. Low temperatures (11.0–12.0 °C) were reconstructed for the periods between ca 1700 and 1500 cal yr BP (corresponding to the Kofun cold stage) and between ca 1200 and 150 cal yr BP (partly corresponding to the Little Ice Age [LIA]). Warm periods (modern T July or higher) were reconstructed for the periods between ca 2700 and 1800 cal yr BP, 1500 and 1300 cal yr BP and after 150 cal yr BP. WD reconstruction revealed that the lake level was lower than its present level at the beginning of the record between ca 2600 and 2300 cal yr BP and ca 550 cal yr BP. Between ca 2300 and 700 cal yr BP as well as between 450 and 150 cal yr BP, the lake level was higher than it is today, most probably reflecting more humid conditions

Changes in temperature and water depth of a small mountain lake during the past 3000 years in Central Kamchatka reflected by a chironomid record

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA.We investigated chironomid assemblages of a well-dated sediment core from a small seepage lake situated at the eastern slope of the Central Kamchatka Mountain Chain, Far East Russia. The chironomid fauna of the investigated Sigrid Lake is dominated by littoral taxa that are sensitive to fluctuations of the water level. Two groups of taxa interchangeably dominate the record responding to the changes in the lake environment during the past 2800 years. The first group of littoral phytophilic taxa includes Psectrocladius sordidellus-type, Corynoneura arctica-type and Dicrotendipes nervosus-type. The abundances of the taxa from this group have the strongest influence on the variations of PCA 1, and these taxa mostly correspond to low water levels, moderate temperatures and slightly acidified conditions. The second group of taxa includes Microtendipes pedellus-type, Tanytarsus lugens-type, and Tanytarsus pallidicornis-type. The variations in the abundances of these taxa, and especially of M. pedellus-type, are in accordance with PCA 2 and correspond to the higher water level in the lake, more oligotrophic and neutral pH conditions. Water depths (WD) were reconstructed, using a modern chironomid-based temperature and water depth calibration data set (training set) and inference model from East Siberia (Nazarova et al., 2011). Mean July air temperatures (T July) were inferred using a chironomid-based temperature inference model based on a modern calibration data set for the Far East (Nazarova et al., 2015). The application of transfer functions resulted in reconstructed T July fluctuations of approximately 3 °C over the last 2800 years. Low temperatures (11.0-12.0 °C) were reconstructed for the periods between ca 1700 and 1500 cal yr BP (corresponding to the Kofun cold stage) and between ca 1200 and 150 cal yr BP (partly corresponding to the Little Ice Age [LIA]). Warm periods (modern T July or higher) were reconstructed for the periods between ca 2700 and 1800 cal yr BP, 1500 and 1300 cal yr BP and after 150 cal yr BP. WD reconstruction revealed that the lake level was lower than its present level at the beginning of the record between ca 2600 and 2300 cal yr BP and ca 550 cal yr BP. Between ca 2300 and 700 cal yr BP as well as between 450 and 150 cal yr BP, the lake level was higher than it is today, most probably reflecting more humid conditions

Aims and challenges of building national trainee networks in clinical microbiology and infectious disease disciplines

Trainees represent the medical practice of tomorrow. Interactions and collaborations at the early stage in career will strengthen the future of our specialties, clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. Trainee networks at the national level help access the best education and career opportunities. The aim of this collaborative white paper between the Trainee Association of European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and four national trainee networks is to discuss the motivation for building such networks and offer guidance for their creation and sustainability even during a health crisis.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

J Clin Med

BACKGROUND: During this pandemic situation, some studies have led to hasty conclusions about Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) treatment, due to a lack of methodology. This pedagogic study aimed to highlight potential biases in research on COVID-19 treatment. METHODS: We evaluate the effect of coffee's active part, 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine (TMX) on patients with COVID-19. A cohort of 93 patients, with a diagnosis of COVID-19 is analyzed. RESULTS: TMX group and control group included, respectively, 26 and 67 patients. In the TMX group, patients had a median length of stay in hospital of 5.5 days shorter than in the control group (9.5 vs. 15 days, p < 0.05). Patients in the control group were more severe than patients in the TMX group with a significantly higher National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS-2 score) (8 vs. 6, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Multiple biases prevents us from concluding to an effect of coffee on COVID-19. Despite an important social pressure during this crisis, methodology and conscientiousness are the best way to avoid hasty conclusions that can be deleterious for patients. Identifier: NCT04395742