The effect of audit firm size and age on the quality of audit work

This study aimed to investigate the effect of audit firm size and age on the quality of audit work. The sample of the study consists of 201 firms listed in Tehran Security Exchange whose data has been analyzed during 2006 to 2010. The results of regression tests showed that an increase in age and size of audit firms causes a reduction in the use of Accruals items, consequently, increases audit quality. Results suggest that two factors of establishing audit institutions and the number of auditing staffs to separate effects of each factor have significant effect on audit quality

The effect of audit firm size and age on the quality of audit work

This study aimed to investigate the effect of audit firm size and age on the quality of audit work. The sample of the study consists of 201 firms listed in Tehran Security Exchange whose data has been analyzed during 2006 to 2010. The results of regression tests showed that an increase in age and size of audit firms causes a reduction in the use of Accruals items, consequently, increases audit quality. Results suggest that two factors of establishing audit institutions and the number of auditing staffs to separate effects of each factor have significant effect on audit quality

Investigating the Relationship between Manager and Shareholder Using game theory: Applying Accounting Conservatism and Financial Reporting Quality

The decision-making of managers in today's organizations is crucial due to increased complexity of internal and external influential factors and increased competition among organizations. Game theory attempts to model the mathematical behavior of a strategic situation. This situation arises when the success of one side of the game depends on the strategies selected by other side. The present study aims at finding a strategy to maximize the balance interests of managers and shareholders by applying strategic characteristics of accounting information and accounting conservatism.   The statistical population of study included 132 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during a period of seven years (2012-2018). The data analysis method is inferential and SPSS software was used to prepare the data and estimate the models. Pooled data model was used to test the research hypotheses. The results of testing the research hypotheses show that the combination of strategies of manager low reporting quality-shareholder low reporting quality (m1, S1), manager high reporting quality- shareholder high reporting quality (m2, S2), manager low conservatism - shareholder low conservatism (m3, S3), manager high conservatism - shareholder high conservatism (m4, s4), were selected as poor Nash equilibrium. The study results show that game theory plays a major role in the relationship between managers and shareholders and finding equilibrium points of game can play an effective role in the decisions of game parties (managers and shareholders). Accordingly, it informs the parties of game of the strategy that has highest utility for them

Hacia un desarrollo agrícola sostenible basado en la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad de campo en la región de Miandoab, Irán

Explorar los límites agroecológicos es necesario para el desarrollo agrícola sostenible. La contaminación y la erosión del suelo son dos índices principales en la evaluación de la vulnerabilidad de la tierra. Los modelos Raizal y Pantanal dentro de MicroLEIS DSS, el paquete Ero&Con, se establecieron para identificar áreas vulnerables debido a los riesgos de erosión y contaminación, respectivamente. Este estudio se realizó en la región de Miandoab bajo diferentes escenarios de uso de la tierra con una extensión de aproximadamente 5269 ha en el noroeste de Irán (oeste de Azerbaiyán). Los datos morfológicos y analíticos extraídos de 62 perfiles de suelo representativos del área de estudio se utilizaron como información básica. Luego, se clasificaron un total de 17 unidades de tierra de acuerdo con el enfoque geopedológico. Los perfiles de suelo de referencia se categorizaron como Typic Torripsamments, Typic Haploxerepts, Typic Haplocambids y Typic Haplargids. Los resultados obtenidos mediante el uso de los modelos mencionados anteriormente se presentaron como un modo alcanzable, mientras que las prácticas de manejo no se mencionaron. La aplicación del modelo Raizal reveló que la erosión hídrica tiene un menor impacto que la erosión eólica en las clases de vulnerabilidad, mientras que el cambio climático dará como resultado áreas extremadamente vulnerables en el futuro. En términos de riesgos de contaminación del suelo resultantes del modelo Pantanal, los riesgos de fósforo se clasificaron en V2 (23%) y V4 (77%). Además, los riesgos de vulnerabilidad a la contaminación por metales pesados ​​y nitrógeno, así como por pesticidas, se clasificaron en V3 y V4. Dado que no hubo diferencias en las clases al cultivar maíz y trigo, las clases de vulnerabilidad alcanzables son iguales a las reales. En general, esta investigación demuestra que la aplicación de modelos aumenta nuestra comprensión sobre el comportamiento de las interacciones del suelo y el paisaje

Effect of Slope Position on Soil Properties and Types Along an Elevation Gradient of Arasbaran Forest, Iran

Sustainable development by forest managing need to identify forest ecosystem elements. Forest soil is the most important element of forest ecosystem that has key roles in forest managing. Therefore, studying of soil properties and evolution under different environmental conditions is necessary for sustainable management of forest ecosystems. Spatial variation of soil properties is significantly influenced by some environmental factors that slope position is one of them. The aim of this study was evaluating effects of slope position on forest soil change which was carried out in Arasbaran forest, North-West of Iran. Nine soil profiles were dug, described and sampled in three different parts of an altitudinal transect with same environmental conditions and different slope positions. Then soil samples were analysed physicaly and chemicaly and so classified based on Soil Taxonomy 2014. Also according to obtained results One-way analysis of variance was used to test relations of soil properties and slope positions. This results revealed significant effect of slope positions on thickness of the soil profile and solum, clay, organic carbon and total nitrogen percentages and cation exchange capacity at 5% level of confidence which lead to change of type, depth and sequence of soil horizons along altitudinal transect. Finally, it has found that slope position not only has important role in soil properties changes and soil evolution but also it can't be refused the various role and influence of same forest stand in different slope positions. Therefore various soils such as Inceptisols, Alfisols and Molisols were observed under different slope positions. Then it can be achieved that, because of special forest vegetation, soil evolution along altitudinal transect of forest ecosystems are differing from other ecosystems. Thus, for forest soil management program it is necessary to consider both of topography and vegetation effect over the area, even if one of them is constant

The relationship between spiritual health and social trust among students

Social trust and spiritual health play an important role in social communication. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between spiritual health and social trust among Iranian students. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Sanandaj, in the West of Iran, in 2018. 686 students from 5 universities were included in the study through simple random sampling. The data were collected using established, reliable instruments for the assessment of social trust and spiritual health. Logistic regression models were applied to assess the association between social trust and spiritual health. We reported estimated logits and Odds Ratios (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). The students with a literate father had substantially higher odds of social trust (OR=1.98, 95% CI=1.19-3.28, p\u3c0.01). Also, similar findings were obtained for students with a literate mother compared to those with an illiterate mother (OR=2.09, 95% CI=1.33-3.28, p\u3c0.01). The odds of social trust also increased with the father’s employment status (OR=13.06, 95% CI=4.16-41, p\u3c0.01). The odds of social trust increased with religious health (OR=1.05, 95% CI=1.03-1.08, p\u3c0.01). It is essential to increase spiritual health and the parents’ literacy to promote social trust among the students

Raloxifene adjunctive therapy for postmenopausal women suffering from chronic schizophrenia: a randomized double-blind and placebo controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Cumulative evidence from epidemiological, preclinical and clinical studies suggests estrogens may have psychoprotective effects in schizophrenic patients. Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators could have therapeutic benefits in schizophrenia for both sexes without being hazardous to gynecological tissues or having feminizing effects. Few studies have been conducted regarding the effects of raloxifene on postmenopausal women suffering from schizophrenia. We conducted this placebo-controlled trial to compare the add-on effect of raloxifene to risperidone versus risperidone with placebo. METHODS: This was an 8-week, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial undertaken at two universities affiliated psychiatric Hospitals in Iran. Forty-six postmenopausal women with the definite diagnosis of schizophrenia were enrolled in the study. Patients received risperidone (6 mg/day in 3 divided doses) combined with either placebo (N = 23) or 120 mg/day of raloxifene (N = 23) for 8 weeks. Patients were assessed by a psychiatrist at baseline and at 2 and 8 weeks after the start of medical therapy. Efficacy was defined as the change from baseline to endpoint in score on Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). RESULTS: For PANSS scores, the main effect comparing two types of intervention was not significant [F (1, 48) = 1.77, p = 0.18]. For positive subscale scores, there was marginal significant interaction between intervention type and time [F (2, 47) = 2.93, p = 0.06] and there was substantial main effect for time [F (2, 47) = 24.39, p = 0.001] within both groups showing reduction in positive subscale scores across the three time periods. In addition, the main effect comparing two types of intervention was significant [F (1, 48) = 3.78, p = 0.02]. On the other hand, for negative subscale scores, the main effect comparing two types of intervention was not significant [F (1, 48) = 1.43, p = 0.23]. For general subscale scores, the main effect comparing two types of intervention was not significant [F (1, 48) = 0.03, p = 0.86]. CONCLUSIONS: According to our findings, raloxifene as an adjunctive treatment to risperidone was only superior in improvement of positive symptoms and it was not effective in treating negative and general psychopathology symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered at the Iranian registry of clinical trials: IRCT201205131556N4

Does Anti-Müllerian hormone vary during a menstrual cycle? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective Numerous studies have indicated that the level of the Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), one of the main markers for the ovarian reserve, does not fluctuate throughout a menstrual cycle, while some studies have rejected this finding. The purpose of this systematic and meta-analysis study is to consensus on all contradictory studies that have measured AMH levels throughout the menstrual cycle and to investigate the exact extent of AMH variation in a cycle. Methods The protocol for this meta-analysis was registered at PROSPERO before data extraction. Relevant studies were identified by systematic search in PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar with no limitation on publication date. Longitudinal studies which have evaluated AMH levels in the follicular and luteal phases of an unstimulated (natural) menstrual cycle in healthy women without endocrinology or ovarian disorders were included. We used the JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for assessing the quality of studies found eligible for meta-analysis. Results A total of 11 studies involving 733 women with regular menstrual cycles were included. The results showed that the AMH level in the follicular phase was significantly higher than in the luteal phase (95% Cl = 0.11 [0.01 to 0.21]; p < 0.05) and it varies about 11.5% from the luteal phase. The analysis of studies which had also examined the ovulatory phase (n = 380) showed that the serum levels of AMH in the ovulatory phase (about 2.02 ng/ml) did not significantly vary compared to follicular (95% Cl = 0.11 [-0.10 to 0.33]; p = 0.30) and luteal (95% Cl = 0.06 [-0.08 to 0.20]; p = 0.43) phases. Conclusions According to the results of this study, AMH levels differ between follicular and luteal phases which might be due to ovarian response to the gonadotropins. It seems the phase of AMH measurement needs to be considered for interpretation of the serum AMH test

Pages: 382-393 Policies of Leading Company in Industry on Tax Avoidance and Future Return of Shares of Companies First

Tax payment and fulfilling legal duties is one of the issues that the managers always try to manage it in the economic system on behalf of active enterprises because these issues can affect the value of the company and the financial decision-makings. Product market power increases the costs of representation at the company&apos;s level and it could lead to reduction of tax-evasion activities because the degree of using tax avoidance performs itself as one of the governance mechanisms in these markets and impedes the companies to use more tax avoidance to prevent the price reduction by the shareholders. The companies have financial incentives to imitate the tax-evasion activities of the product market leaders in order to avoid appearing weaker according to the post-taxing performance criteria, but the imitation behavior happens most probably when the companies enjoy comparable resources and market situations, i.e., when the industry is highly concentrated. Thus we expect this imitation to be more tangible in concentrated industries. The goal of this study is to assess the effect of product market power, concentration of industrial groups and leading company&apos;s tax policies in industry on tax avoidance and future return of companies&apos; shares. These studies were conducted using the financial information of 92 companies recognized by Tehran Stock Exchange Market between 2002 and 2012 and using the multi-variable linear regression analysis method. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant and reverse relation between tax avoidance and product market power and there is a direct and insignificant relation between tax avoidance in industrial companies and tax avoidance in leading companies in concentrated industries. Also there is a direct and significant relation between tax avoidance of the leading company and the companies&apos; future return of shares in the industries with higher competitive level. [382][383][384][385][386][387][388][389][390][391][392][393] 2014 INTRODUCTION The issue of tax avoidance seems to be raised mainly in case of the companies that have ownership separation because natural persons are less found to be after tax avoidance and evasion due to higher possibility of being identified and fined in order to evade the risk and or internal incentives such as social duty, while the companies are usually expected because of their shareholders to look for personal interests and as long as the additional profits from reduction of possible debts are higher than the expected additional costs for them, they support reduction of tax debts and tax evasion. Thus, tax evasion could reflect the theory of the representation issue and it might lead to the tax decision to support the manager&apos;s personal interest. Hence, one of the challenges that the shareholders and members of the Board of Managers face is to find control methods and incentives to minimize the representation costs. Higher product market power in industry reduces the levels of competition. Product market power allows the companies to experience the margins of higher profit and lower capital costs and makes them show more dangerous behaviors. The former studies indicate that the existence of competition in the products market allows other existing companies in this industry to imitate other actions in order to maintain their competitive situation. Thus the goal of this study is to investigate the issue in the companies recognized by Tehran Stock Exchange Market. Statement of issue and reasons to choose the research topic: Tax is like a channel to transfer company&apos;s cash toward the government. The companies always try to supervise the cash flows by using legal solutions to be able to reduce their tax expenses and increase their profit. One of these solutions is tax avoidance that could affect transparency and usefulness of financial information. Product market power is one of the variables that could affect tax avoidance performance From one point of view, product market power could have direct relation with taxation due to the following reasons: 1. Product market power could lead to higher profitability. Consequently, higher profit will create the situation for the company to invest the obtained profits in a more costly tax evading activities But from another view, product market power also increases the costs of representation at the company level and this could lead to reduction of tax evading activities. When the costs of representation increase, the companies&apos; managers are not inclined to use the activities that lead to tax evasion in order to prevent the reduction of prices on behalf of the shareholders. The former researches indicate that the existence of competition in the products market will allow the other existing companies in industry to imitate their actions in order to maintain their competitive situation But since the possibility of showing imitating behavior is higher in concentrated industries [5], we expect the companies that are not leading the product market to imitate the consequences of the leading product market tax and we expect this imitation to be more tangible in concentrated industries. Tax avoidance creates a type of information imbalance. It seems that product market power affects the relation between tax avoidance and informative nature of the shares price through shares return (consequent) and since investors show more inclination to keep the shares of the companies with higher product market power, the price of shares of these companies is higher, but they have lower returns. Theoretical grounds and research history: In most countries, the major part of the government&apos;s income resources comes from tax. The conceptual distinction between tax evasion and avoidance to pay tax goes back to the legal or illegal behavior of the tax payers. Tax evasion is a type of offence, but when avoiding tax, the individual is not worried that his action is revealed. Tax avoidance originates from legal gaps in tax law. Tax avoidance is a type of official abuse of tax relations. For example, showing income of work power as capital income which has lower rate of tax is an example of tax avoidance. In fact tax is departure of cash from the company and that is why the companies always try to supervise the cash flows using legal solutions to be able to reduce their tax expenses and increase their profits. One of these solutions is tax avoidance. In fact, beneficiaries find the possibility of avoiding tax in the companies with high product market power (exclusive companies) higher, thus these companies have higher representation costs. As a result, the managers of such companies reduce tax avoidance to reduce their representation costs. On the other hand, the existing companies in one industry always try to imitate the behavior of the leading company in order to maintain their competitive positions, thus the tax avoidance behavior of the leading company can affect the tax evasion behavior of other industrial companies. The more concentrated the industries are, the higher the imitation of the leading company and its effectiveness will be. On the other hand, since the investors are more inclined to maintain the companies&apos; shares with higher product market power, the price of shares of these companies will go up, but will have lower return. To avoid tax legally and to reduce tax commitments, the individual should bypass the law using all legal delicate strategies, but tax evasion or fraud is illegal and doing it intentionally is unlawful such as providing unrealistic report of income and sale, reduction in drawing up declaration letters and lists. The tax system should be able to confront both types of tax evasion and fraud under ideal circumstances. [5]studied the reason why the companies imitate and explained his results according to two theories, one based on information and the other on competition. According to the first theory, the companies do so due to having superior information and according to the second theory they do so to restrict t he competition and maintain the interests of the work, while the degree of imitation among companies depend on the type of industry and the degree of competition in that industry. [6]studied the negative relation between the degree of managers&apos; reward and the degree of tax coverage. This negative relation applies firstly to that group of commercial units that have weak company governance. Reward payment to the managers make them encouraged to plan for company&apos;s tax in order to avoid payment of more tax and their performance is improved to avoid tax. The negative relation between degree of tax payment to managers and tax avoidance due to creating representation costs indicates that in the companies with weak company governance, the degree of reduction of tax shield against inclination to pay tax is exchanged. [7]studied the reaction of shares price to the news of tax avoidance and found out that the market shows negative reaction to the tax avoidance by the companies. However, reactions are different in different industries. [8]studied the reaction of the shares market to the news about events regarding tax evasion and consequently found the response negative. However, these reactions are remarkably less than the other reactions of financial disgrace. [9]found out the positive relation between tax evasion and company value only in the companies that are supervised well and that the reason of tax evasion is in favor of the shareholders if the management&apos;s opportunist approach is restricted. [10]studied the relation between tax avoidance and risk of fall of shares price and found out that there is a direct and significant relation between risk avoidance and risk of fall of shares price. In other words, tax avoidance facilitates the managers&apos; opportunist behaviors and leads to long-term accumulation of bad news. The outcome of issuing the bad news all in one go is the fall of shares price. However in the companies where a strong foreign supervision mechanism prevails such as institutional ownership, there is a positive relation between tax avoidance and danger of weak fall. [11]found out in a paper under the title of &quot;Does tax evasion reduce transparency?&quot; that tax avoidance increases the organizational sophistication and the managers often cannot draw a link between effects of increased sophistication and foreign parties effectively. Some managers increase transparency to reduce the problems of created imbalanced information. [12]found out in a paper under the title of &quot;Do managers receive a considerable economic fraud through tax evasion?&quot; that there is generally a positive relation between tax avoidance and future performance even in the companies that have weak company governance. [13]studied the effect of product performance in market on company&apos;s capital structure. The outcomes indicated that the degree of sale growth does not have a significant effect on debts and that there is a negative correlation between growth of return sale and industry. In fact the increased sale growth faces reduced return in industry and this strategy leads to reduction of profitability cost in comparison with industry. [14]Studied the actual documentaries of lack of transparency. The results indicated that non-transparent information environments are inclined toward increased tax avoidance. [15]conducted a study about the effect of reduced tax rate in 2001 on the policy of profit distribution in the companies recognized by Tehran Stock Exchange Market. The results of the studies showed that the companies increase their paid profit considerably upon reduction of tax rate in 2001. In other words, there is a negative and significant relation between tax rate and distributed profit. [16]studied the results of tax research and conservatism in financial reporting and the relevance of the accounting information indicated that the companies whose net operational cash current is much higher than the taxable income, show more conservatism in comparison with the other companies, but in case of the companies whose net operational cash current is much smaller than their taxable income, it cannot be said that they have less conservatism in comparison with the other companies. In addition, the research findings showed that tax not only does not reduce the relevance of accounting information that is presented by the companies, but also increases the relevance of information. [17]conducted a study investigating the relation between effective tax rate and company&apos;s characteristics. The results of their research showed that the average effective tax rate is close to the legal rate of income tax, taking all the companies of the research into consideration. But the results of the study, taking the industrial field in which the company is active into account showed that almost every industry has a special effective tax rate. The results also showed that there is a negative and significant relation between effective tax rate and size and profitability of the company and there is a direct and significant relation between effective tax rate and the financial leverage. Meanwhile there is not a significant relation between effective tax rate and intensity of investment and ownership structure. [18]studied the relation between transparency in financial reporting, tax avoidance and companies&apos; value. They showed that there is a reverse relation between tax avoidance and company&apos;s value when the assessment criteria are tax avoidance and long-term cash effective tax rate. This reverse relation is statistically significant 385 Farzin Rezaei and Masoumeh Zare, 2014 Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(19) Special 2014, Pages: 382-393 and when tax avoidance is assessed against cash effective tax rate or tax permanent difference, there is not a significant relation between company&apos;s value and tax avoidance. Also there is no significant relation between tax avoidance and reporting transparency. [19]studied the relation between tax avoidance and fraud in accounting of companies. The results indicated that there is a direct and significant relation between tax avoidance and fraud in accounting of companies when there is a criterion to assess the cash tax rate and tax permanent difference, but when the assessment criterion of cash effective tax rate is long-term, there is not a significant relation between tax avoidance and fraud in accounting of companies. [20]studied in their investigation the effect of effective tax rate on profit distribution policy of the companies recognized by Tehran Stock Exchange Market. To assess the policy of profit distribution in this study, the companies used the ratio of distributed profit to net sale and used the relation of tax costs and net profit before deduction of tax to assess the effective tax rate. The results of the study showed that there is a significant and negative relation between effective tax rate and profit distribution policy. In other words, increased effective tax rate makes the companies reduce their distributed profits considerably. [21]studied the relation between ownership structure and tax avoidance of companies and found out that there is a significant and negative relation between blocked ownership and tax permanent difference criterion and there is a positive and significant relation between blocked ownership and cash effective tax rate. Research method: The method of this research is of post event type which is within the domain of approvable accounting studies and is based on factual information of the financial statements of the companies recognized by Tehran Stock Exchange market. The study is of correlative type and using the collected information, the degree of relation between dependent and independent variables is tested. Research domain: Geographical domain: The geographical domain of this study is the recognized companies by Tehran Stock Exchange Market and accounting information is extracted from their financial statements. Temporal domain: To study the research hypotheses, the study of a one 11-year period between 2002 and 2012 were used

Industry Concentration and Manufacturing Industries Stock Returns

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of industry concentration on the average stock returns, and proposing a model to explain this relationship. Explanatory variables are Herfindahl- Hirschman Index of industry concentration, industry size (market equity), book-to-market ratio, leverage, past 1-year's industry return and systematic risk (beta); also the industry average return is taken as the dependent variable. With respect to the concentration index is an industry specific, all of the dependent and independent variables in this research are evaluated in industry level. The study covers 1380- 1386 and uses 31 manufacturing industry-year observations. For examine the research hypothesizes, we use the Panel Data technique with Fixed Effect and Generalized Least Squares (GLS) method. Results indicate that in Tehran Securities Exchange there is significant relationship between industry concentration, size, book-to-market ratio, systematic risk and average stock returns. On the other hand, leverage and past 1-year's industry returns are not associated with annual industry returns