Asymmetric Reactions of Abnormal Audit Fee Jump to Credit Rating Changes

Abstract Considering the inherent stickiness of abnormal audit fees, our study contributes to the literature by decomposing abnormal audit fees into a jump component and long-run sticky component. We investigate whether and how changes in credit ratings asymmetrically affect the jump component of abnormal audit fees. We document a positive association between rating downgrades and the jump component. We find that heightened bankruptcy risk and misstatement risk are the mechanisms that drive this relationship. Further analysis shows that firms experiencing rating downgrades are more likely to receive a going concern opinion and experience longer audit report lags. Taken together, our findings provide direct evidence that credit ratings are significantly associated with abnormal audit fees, particularly with the jump component. Given the serial correlation of abnormal audit fees, our study sheds light on the importance of disaggregation of the abnormal audit fee residuals into the jump and long-run sticky components

Quantifying TRM by Modified DCQ Load Flow Method

In the integrated power system network uncertainty can occur at any time. The transmission reliability (TRM) margin is the amount of transmission capacity that guarantees that the transmission network is protected from instability in the operating state of the system. The calculation of the available transfer capacity (ATC) of the transmission reliability margin should be included in a deregulated power system to ensure that the transmission network is safe within a fair range of uncertainties that arise during the power transfer. However, the TRM is conserved as a reliability margin to reflect the unpredictability of the operation of the electric system. Besides, the system operator (SO) utilizes the TRM value during unreliability by adjusting the ATC value some amount up or down to account for errors in data and uncertainty in the model. This paper describes a technique for TRM estimation by modified DCQ load flow method considering VAR transfer distribution factor. The main focus of this study is to get a new approach to determine TRM by incorporating with ATCQ considered reactive power and sensitivity w.r.t ATC considered voltage magnitude. This technique is applied to the IEEE 6 bus system, and results are compared with previous results for validation. The technique leads to more exact and secure estimates of transmission reliability margin

The Prevalence of Parasites in the Domestic Pigeons (Columba livia domestica) in Zakho City, Kurdistan-Iraq

لقد اقترن تواجد الحمام الأليف منذ الأزل مع الإنسان, حيث تم استخدامه كمصدر للطعام وكحيوان داجن وكهواية ورمز ديني.في هذه الدراسة وجدت نسبه مرتفعه من الإصابة بالطفيليات الخارجية ونسبه اقل بالديدان الشريطية  فقط في الطيور المستخدمة.أجريت هذه الدراسة لتقييم مدى انتشار الطفيليات التي تصيب الحمام المنزلي (Columba livia) من تشرين الاول2017 إلى نيسان2018 ،الذي تم شرائه من سوق الطيور في مدينة زاخو ، إقليم كردستان. تم أخذ العينات من 50 حمام بالغ (28 ذكر و 22انثى).  تم نقل الطيور إلى مختبر علم الطفيليات ، فاكولتي العلوم ، جامعة زاخو. في المختبر تم فحص الريش لكل طير ثم تم تشريحها وعلى الفور تم فحص الريش والجلد تحت الأجنحة ، الصدر، للبحث عن الطفيليات الخارجية. ثم جمعت الطفيليات الخارجية و حفظت في70 ٪ من الكحول لإجراء المزيد من الدراسة. تم تشريح الطيور التي تم ذبحها و فحصت الأمعاء للبحث عن وجود الطفيليات الداخلية. أظهرت النتائج عن معدل إجمالي قدره 76٪ (38/50) من العدوى بالطفيليات الخارجية ، والتي تضمنت 3 أنواع من القمل ، وهي: Columbicola columbae (56٪)، Companulotes compar (36 ٪) وHohorstiella lata(10%). فيما يتعلق بالديدان الطفيلية ، كانت الديدان الشريطية هي الديدان الوحيدة الموجودة في هذه الدراسة ، بمعدل 16 ٪ (8/50). تم تسجيل ثلاثة أنواع منالديدان الشريطية وهي:Raillietina cesticillus (14%)،R. echinobothrida (4%) و .(2%) Choanotaenia infundibulumهناك الحاجة إلى المزيد من الدراسات في هذا المجال لتقيم التأثير المرضي للطفيليات التي يتم عزلها من هذا الحيوان الداجن و امكانية انتقالها إلي بقية الطيور أو الإنسان. الكلمات الداله: حمام, الطفيليات الخارجية, الديدان الشريطية, مدى انتشارPigeons have accompanied humans since ancient time because they are used as a source of food, pets, hobby, and religious symbols. Pigeons have shown high prevalence rate of infection with gastrointestinal helminths and protozoan. This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of parasitic infections in the domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) from October, 2017 to April, 2018, purchased from bird market of Zakho City, Kurdistan region. The samples were taken from 50 adult pigeons (28 males and 22 females). The birds were transferred to Parasitology Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Zakho University. In the laboratory, each bird was sacrificed and immediately the feather and skin of under wings, chest and the rest of the body was examined for ectoparasites. The collected ectoparasites were preserved in 70% alcohol for further study. The sacrificed birds were dissected and their intestine and contained were examined for the presence of parasites. The results revealed a total rate of 76% of infection with ectoparasites, which included three species of lice, namely: Columbicola columbae (56%), Companulotes compar (36%) and Hohorstiella lata (10%). Regarding helminths, cestodes were the only helminths found in this study with a rate of 16% (8/50). Three species of cestodes were recorded, they included: Raillietina cesticillus(14%), Raillietina echinobothrida(4%) and Choanotaenia infundibulum (2%). Further studies are required to evaluate the effect of the recovered parasites on this host and their transmission to other poultry flocks and human. Keywords: Pigeon, Ectoparasites, Cestodes, Prevalence

Strip planting decreases nitrogen fertilizer requirements while retention of more residue increases them in a rice - wheat - mungbean sequence on a subtropical floodplain soil

Conservation agriculture (CA) has not been well developed for intensively cultivated (2-3 crops yr-1) rice- based cropping systems which produce large amounts of crop residues annually. Thus, we examined the effects of two crop establishment systems (minimum soil disturbance by strip planting (SP) or conventional tillage (CT)), two residue retention levels (low and high) and five N rates (60, 80, 100, 120 & 140% of the recommended N fertilizer doses (RFD) on nine consecutive crops on an Aeric Haplaquept under rice-wheat- mungbean sequence. Rice yields were comparable between the crop establishment types but system yields were significantly higher with SP in two out of three years compare to CT. Increased residue retention did not significantly influence rice yield but positively influenced system yields. No substantial differences in optimum N rate was estimated between CT and SP for 90% of maximum yield goal (MYG) for all the three years but substantially decreased in SP compared to CT in two out of three years for 95 and 99% of MYG. The N fertilizer requirement was 6-22% higher with high residue retention compared to low residue retention plots for all the three yield goal levels. High residue retention also increased soil organic carbon (SOC) at 0- 6 cm depth in both tillage treatments. In conclusion, introducing CA did not alter the N fertilizer requirements of rice for 90% of MYG but reduced the requirement for 95 and 99% of MYG compared to CT. However, there was evidence that the retained crop residue immobilized N and increased the fertilizer N requirement

Factors Influencing Enterprise Resource Planning System: A Review

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review on factors that influence the enterprise resource planning system (ERP-S) implementation from literature studies between 2011 and 2016. A set of criteria was set to explore ERP-S related research articles through academic search engines and academic databases. Selected articles were categorized into critical success failure factors (CSFF), ERP-S user factors, and ERP-S assimilation factors. The findings from this paper provides a deeper understanding to both academicians and industrial practitioners regarding ERP-S success factors. A strategic plan can also be developed to ensure successful ERP-S implementation

Predicting nutritional status for women of childbearing age from their economic, health, and demographic features: A supervised machine learning approach

Background Malnutrition imposes enormous costs resulting from lost investments in human capital and increased healthcare expenditures. There is a dearth of research focusing on the prediction of women's body mass index (BMI) and malnutrition outcomes (underweight, overweight, and obesity) in developing countries. This paper attempts to fill out this knowledge gap by predicting the BMI and the risks of malnutrition outcomes for Bangladeshi women of childbearing age from their economic, health, and demographic features. Methods Data from the 2017-18 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey and a series of supervised machine learning (SML) techniques are used. Additionally, this study circumvents the imbalanced distribution problem in obesity classification by utilizing an oversampling approach. Results Study findings demonstrate that the support vector machine and k-nearest neighbor are the two best-performing methods in BMI prediction based on the coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE). The combined predictor algorithms consistently yield top specificity, Cohen's kappa, F1-score, and AUC in classifying the malnutrition status, and their performance is robust to alternative standards. The feature importance ranking based on several nonparametric and combined predictors indicates that socioeconomic status, women's age, and breastfeeding status are the most important features in predicting women's nutritional outcomes. Furthermore, the conditional inference trees corroborate that those three features, along with the partner's educational attainment and employment status, significantly predict malnutrition risks. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that predicts BMI and one of the pioneer studies to classify all three malnutrition outcomes for women of childbearing age in Bangladesh, let alone in any lower-middle income country, using SML techniques. Moreover, in the context of Bangladesh, this paper is the first to identify and rank features that are critical in predicting nutritional outcomes using several feature selection algorithms. The estimators from this study predict the outcomes of interest most accurately and efficiently compared to other existing studies in the relevant literature. Therefore, study findings can aid policymakers in designing policy and programmatic approaches to address the double burden of malnutrition among Bangladeshi women, thereby reducing the country's economic burden

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) versus flexible ureteroscopy (F-URS) for management of renal stone burden less than 2 cm in children: A randomized comparative study

Objective: To compare the outcome of flexible ureteroscopy (F-URS) versus extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) for the management of renal stone burden less than 2 cm in children.Patients and methods: A randomized comparative study was conducted at our hospital between December 2013 and May 2015. Seventy two children with renal stone burden less than 2 cm were assessed for eligibility. Our primary outcome is to assess the stone free rate after the first session. The secondary goal is to assess the operative outcome and the associated postoperative complications.Results: Finally, 57 children were completed the treatment and follow up; 27 patients in F-URS group and 30 patients in ESWL group. Patient’s demographics and stone characteristics were comparable between both groups. F-URS group was associated with significantly longer operative time and hospital stay versus ESWL group. Overall complications occurred in 29.6% and 33.3% in F-URS groups and ESWL group, respectively (p value = 0.1) and most of them were of minor degree. F-URS was associated with significantly higher stone free rate after the first session which reached 81.4% versus 53.3% for ESWL group (p value = 0.00). The overall success was 92.5% and 90% in F-URS and ESWL group, respectively (p value = 0.5).Conclusion: Stone free rate after one session of F-URS is higher than ESWL with comparable rates of complications. F-URS could be offered to children who are less likely to respond completely after ESWL monotherapy.Keywords: Pediatric urolithiasis; Minimal invasive stone management; Flexible URS; ESW

Sustainable-ERP System: A Preliminary Study on Sustainability Indicators

The purpose of this paper was to identify the indicators for sustainability performance that were integrated into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. It is crucial for a manufacturing company to embed the sustainability elements into their performance indicators in order to be sustainable in the economic, social, and environment dimensions. In this study, a set of criteria has been used to explore the sustainability indicators through a thorough literature study of related sustainability issues discussed in Scopus Index journals from year 2007 until 2016. In this regard, the indicators were clustered based on their respective sustainability dimensions (i.e. economy, social, and environment). Pareto charts were developed for the analysis process. The most frequent sustainability indicators can be determined based on Pareto 80-20 rule. Results of the analysis showed that from an initial 63 sustainability indicators, 32 indicators were listed as highly influential sustainability indicators. The findings of this study provide an early insight for researchers and industrial practitioners in selecting the most significant sustainability indicators to be integrated into their ERP system

Non-linear numerical simulations of magneto-acoustic wave propagation in small-scale flux tubes

We present results of non-linear, 2D, numerical simulations of magneto-acoustic wave propagation in the photosphere and chromosphere of small-scale flux tubes with internal structure. Waves with realistic periods of three to five minutes are studied, after applying horizontal and vertical oscillatory perturbations to the equilibrium model. Spurious reflections of shock waves from the upper boundary are minimized thanks to a special boundary condition. This has allowed us to increase the duration of the simulations and to make it long enough to perform a statistical analysis of oscillations. The simulations show that deep horizontal motions of the flux tube generate a slow (magnetic) mode and a surface mode. These modes are efficiently transformed into a slow (acoustic) mode in the vA < cS atmosphere. The slow (acoustic) mode propagates vertically along the field lines, forms shocks and remains always within the flux tube. It might deposit effectively the energy of the driver into the chromosphere. When the driver oscillates with a high frequency, above the cut-off, non-linear wave propagation occurs with the same dominant driver period at all heights. At low frequencies, below the cut-off, the dominant period of oscillations changes with height from that of the driver in the photosphere to its first harmonic (half period) in the chromosphere. Depending on the period and on the type of the driver, different shock patterns are observed.Comment: 22 pages 6 color figures, submitted to Solar Physics, proceeding of SOHO 19/ GONG 2007 meeting, Melbourne, Australi