Globalization and Offshoring: the Effects of a Globalized Workplace on Auditing Procedures

Intensifying audit competition, increasing audit quality standards, and rising demand for audit services have prompted accounting firms across the nation to adopt new methods to meet client and industry demands while not overextending audit staff or raising audit prices. The use of offshoring to utilize a global workplace has allowed firms to maintain their competitiveness and expand to new markets to creatively respond to the industry demand. While offshoring is not something new on the global scale, the auditing practice was a late arrival to this practice, especially when compared to manufacturing industries or even the tax practice within the accounting industry. This study examines the effect of offshoring on the delivery of audit services and audit staff involved in providing audit services. Primary and secondary research was conducted to gain an in-depth look at these trends and their impact on the local and global audit work environment. Interviews with industry leaders provided insight into their teams’ offshoring use and the effects it has had on the way they conduct business. Secondary research uncovered larger trends that the accounting industry has undergone or foresees in the near future. The two were joined to explain the common trends, the causes and effects of these trends, and the benefits and drawbacks industry leaders perceive as they increase their use of offshoring. Offshoring reduces audit costs and also increases audit efficiency by allowing use of additional audit staff in other global time zones. However, offshoring alters the type of work done in the United States, and also changes the responsibilities of first-year audit staff

Comparative Local Case Study of Coniferous Forest Litter of the "Pinus halepensis Mill" in Arid and Semi-arid Areas of Western Algeria

Forest tree species produce litter, which is the plant/soil interface that ensures the maintenance of soil fertility whose properties depend on the botanical species considered. The differences of properties are marked in the nature of the decomposition processes and the forms of humus which result from it. In this study, the physicochemical characteristics and biological activity of litter were compared in coniferous plots located in the semi-arid and the arid zones of western Algeria. The objective of this work was to characterize and compare the physical-chemical properties and microbiological characteristics of softwood forest litter in the semi-arid and arid areas of western Algeria. We analyzed the properties of 50 samples of Aleppo pine litter collected from five stations in each zone. Analysis results show a highly significant difference (p<0.05) in the physical-chemical properties between the semi-arid and arid zone: humidity (20.7% – 6.51%), pH (5.98 – 6.14), conductivity (0.42 mS/cm – 0.65 mS/cm), carbon (45.74% – 73.42%), nitrogen (1.17% - 0.86%) and C/N ratio (37.47 – 73.42). A comparison of the mean of microbial biomass and their efficacy reveals what is homogeneous in both zones, with a small difference in basal respiration. The heterogeneity of these results indicates that such observations still need to be made in other forests of the Algerian territory in order to better understand the functioning of forest ecosystems and the effect of climate on these compartments, especially soil

Interactions of Host Proteins with the Murine Leukemia Virus Integrase

Retroviral infections cause a variety of cancers in animals and a number of diverse diseases in humans such as leukemia and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Productive and efficient proviral integration is critical for retroviral function and is the key step in establishing a stable and productive infection, as well as the mechanism by which host genes are activated in leukemogenesis. Host factors are widely anticipated to be involved in all stages of the retroviral life cycle, and the identification of integrase interacting factors has the potential to increase our understanding of mechanisms by which the incoming virus might appropriate cellular proteins to target and capture host DNA sequences. Identification of MoMLV integrase interacting host factors may be key to designing efficient and benign retroviral-based gene therapy vectors; key to understanding the basic mechanism of integration; and key in designing efficient integrase inhibitors. In this review, we discuss current progress in the field of MoMLV integrase interacting proteins and possible roles for these proteins in integration

The Host Range of Gammaretroviruses and Gammaretroviral Vectors Includes Post-Mitotic Neural Cells

Gammaretroviruses and gammaretroviral vectors, in contrast to lentiviruses and lentiviral vectors, are reported to be restricted in their ability to infect growth-arrested cells. The block to this restriction has never been clearly defined. The original assessment of the inability of gammaretroviruses and gammaretroviral vectors to infect growth-arrested cells was carried out using established cell lines that had been growth-arrested by chemical means, and has been generalized to neurons, which are post-mitotic. We re-examined the capability of gammaretroviruses and their derived vectors to efficiently infect terminally differentiated neuroendocrine cells and primary cortical neurons, a target of both experimental and therapeutic interest.Using GFP expression as a marker for infection, we determined that both growth-arrested (NGF-differentiated) rat pheochromocytoma cells (PC12 cells) and primary rat cortical neurons could be efficiently transduced, and maintained long-term protein expression, after exposure to murine leukemia virus (MLV) and MLV-based retroviral vectors. Terminally differentiated PC12 cells transduced with a gammaretroviral vector encoding the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-xL were protected from cell death induced by withdrawal of nerve growth factor (NGF), demonstrating gammaretroviral vector-mediated delivery and expression of genes at levels sufficient for therapeutic effect in non-dividing cells. Post-mitotic rat cortical neurons were also shown to be susceptible to transduction by murine replication-competent gammaretroviruses and gammaretroviral vectors.These findings suggest that the host range of gammaretroviruses includes post-mitotic and other growth-arrested cells in mammals, and have implications for re-direction of gammaretroviral gene therapy to neurological disease

The Base Excision Repair Pathway Is Required for Efficient Lentivirus Integration

An siRNA screen has identified several proteins throughout the base excision repair (BER) pathway of oxidative DNA damage as important for efficient HIV infection. The proteins identified included early repair factors such as the base damage recognition glycosylases OGG1 and MYH and the late repair factor POLß, implicating the entire BER pathway. Murine cells with deletions of the genes Ogg1, Myh, Neil1 and Polß recapitulate the defect of HIV infection in the absence of BER. Defective infection in the absence of BER proteins was also seen with the lentivirus FIV, but not the gammaretrovirus MMLV. BER proteins do not affect HIV infection through its accessory genes nor the central polypurine tract. HIV reverse transcription and nuclear entry appear unaffected by the absence of BER proteins. However, HIV integration to the host chromosome is reduced in the absence of BER proteins. Pre-integration complexes from BER deficient cell lines show reduced integration activity in vitro. Integration activity is restored by addition of recombinant BER protein POLß. Lentiviral infection and integration efficiency appears to depend on the presence of BER proteins

Ethanol induction of laccase depends on nitrogen conditions of Pycnoporus sanguineus

Background: Ethanol has been pointed out as a laccase inducer. However, there are controversial reports about its efficiencywith some fungi. In this study,we hypothesized that ethanol laccase induced in Pycnoporus sanguineus depends on nitrogen nutriment conditions. To prove this,we assessed laccase production in submerged cultures of P. sanguineus,with different nitrogen concentrations andwith, orwithout ethanol added in a factorial designed experiment. Results: In order to analyze the effects of factors on the response variables, a factorial ANOVA, and response-surface models were performed. It was found that the nitrogen source was the main factor that affected laccase production in P. sanguineus. The treatments with yeast extract (2 g/L) and ethanol (3 g/L) induced the highest laccase activity (31.01 \ub1 4.9 U/L), while the treatments with urea reached the lowest activity (less than 1.6 U/L). Ethanol had positive and synergic effects on laccase production, in accordance with the surface response model, as long as simple nitrogen sources (urea) were not available. Conclusions: We suggest that laccase in P. sanguineus is regulated by a catabolic nitrogen repressionmechanism; laccase activity is strongly inhibited by urea used as nitrogen source and it decreases when the amount of urea increases; contrarily, a synergic positive effect was observed between yeast extract and ethanol on laccase production

Long Terminal Repeat Circular DNA as Markers of Active Viral Replication of Human T Lymphotropic Virus-1 in Vivo

Abstract: Clonal expansion of human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) infected cells in vivo is well documented. Unlike human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), HTLV-1 plasma RNA is sparse. The contribution of the “mitotic” spread of HTLV-1 compared with infectious spread of the virus to HTLV-1 viral burden in established infection is uncertain. Since extrachromosomal long terminal repeat (LTR) DNA circles are indicators of viral replication in HIV-1 carriers with undetectable plasma HIV RNA, we hypothesised that HTLV-1 LTR circles could indicate reverse transcriptase (RT) usage and infectious activity. 1LTR and 2LTR DNA circles were measured in HTLV-1 cell lines and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of asymptomatic carriers (ACs) and patients with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) or adult T cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATLL). 1LTR DNA circles were detected in 14/20 patients at a mean of 1.38/100 PBMC but did not differentiate disease status nor correlate with HTLV-1 DNA copies. 2LTR DNA circles were detected in 30/31 patients and at higher concentrations in patients with HTLV-1-associated diseases, independent of HTLV-1 DNA load. In an incident case the 2LTR DNA circle concentration increased 2.1 fold at the onset of HAM/TSP compared to baseline. Detectable and fluctuating levels of HTLV-1 DNA circles in patients indicate viral RT usage and virus replication. Our results indicate HTLV-1 viral replication capacity is maintained in chronic infection and may be associated with disease onset

Establishment of a Functional Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) Reverse Transcription Complex Involves the Cytoskeleton

After interaction of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) virions with cell surface receptors, a series of poorly characterized events results in establishment of a viral reverse transcription complex in the host cell cytoplasm. This process is coordinated in such a way that reverse transcription is initiated shortly after formation of the viral reverse transcription complex. However, the mechanism through which virus entry and initiation of reverse transcription are coordinated and how these events are compartmentalized in the infected cell are not known. In this study, we demonstrate that viral reverse transcription complexes associate rapidly with the host cell cytoskeleton during HIV-1 infection and that reverse transcription occurs almost entirely in the cytoskeletal compartment. Interruption of actin polymerization before virus infection reduced association of viral reverse transcription complexes with the cytoskeleton. In addition, efficient reverse transcription was dependent on intact actin microfilaments. The localization of reverse transcription to actin microfilaments was mediated by the interaction of a reverse transcription complex component (gag MA) with actin but not vimentin (intermediate filaments) or tubulin (microtubules). In addition, fusion, but not endocytosis-mediated HIV-1 infectivity, was impaired when actin depolymerizing agents were added to target cells before infection but not when added after infection. These results point to a previously unsuspected role for the host cell cytoskeleton in HIV-1 entry and suggest that components of the cytoskeleton promote establishment of the reverse transcription complex in the host cell and also the process of reverse transcription within this complex