Impact of Assurance Level and Tax Status on the Tendency of Relatively Small Manufacturers to Manage Production and Earnings

The number and importance of private companies in the United States indicates that reliable quality of financial accounting reports (QFAR) of private companies that are useful for decision making is likely to be important for economic growth. Most previous research examining QFAR addressed earnings management among publicly-traded companies. This study extends prior literature by examining whether abnormal production of public and private companies is impacted by (i) assurance type (PCAOB-audit, GAAS-audit, and SSARS-Review), (ii) tax status (separately taxed versus pass-through entity) of private companies, and (iii) relative size. An audit of financial statements provides a high degree of assurance, whereas a review provides limited assurance. Due to data limitations with our private company sample, this study focuses on earnings management through abnormal production by manufacturing companies. When examining companies that just met the benchmark of prior years\u27 earnings or zero earnings we found positive abnormal production for publicly traded companies and privately held audited-taxable companies, but not for other privately held companies. Not identified in previous studies, we find that abnormal production of similarly sized public companies and private companies differ. Our findings provide evidence relevant to the Big GAAP/Little GAAP debate and that one set of accounting standards may not satisfy all public and private company financial statement users. Also, results of this study support the recommendations of the Financial Accounting Foundation’s Blue Ribbon Panel’s Report for establishing a separate private company standards board to help ensure appropriate modifications to GAAP

Workers' compensation claims related to natural rubber latex gloves among Oregon healthcare employees from 1987–1998

BACKGROUND: Occupational reaction to natural rubber latex (NRL) glove use by healthcare employees has been an area of increasing concern. Unfortunately, there is little data demonstrating the prevalence and severity of actual reactivity to NRL. METHOD: Occupational reaction to NRL was estimated using workers' compensation claims filed by healthcare employees in Oregon for the period of 1987–1998. For the first ten years, these claims were estimated by source and conditions consistent with NRL glove reactions, while in the last two years a specific code developed in 1997 for NRL glove reactions was also employed. RESULTS: The claim rate was on average 0.58 per 10,000 healthcare workers annually, which constituted 0.29% of all workers' compensation claims. The most common condition experienced was dermatitis (80%) and most common body part affected was the hands (55.4%). The majority of claimants, 45 (69.2%), reported taking less than a month off work, suggesting most reactions were minor in nature, although one fatality was reported. The average NRL claim cost was $8,309.48. Overall the average cost per insured healthcare worker was approximately$0.50 per year. The occupational groups with the highest number of claims were nurses (30.8% of claimants) and nursing aides and orderlies (24.6% of claimants). CONCLUSIONS: In comparison with other workers' compensation claims filed by healthcare workers during this period, 0.25% of the total was potentially related to NRL gloves. The rare incidence of respiratory and ocular claims is inconsistent with the hypothesis that asthmatic or conjunctival reactions to NRL gloves are common

Adhesion of acidic lipid vesicles by 21.5 kDa (recombinant) and 18.5 kDa isoforms of myelin basic protein

AbstractMyelin basic protein (MBP) is thought to be responsible for adhesion of the intracellular surfaces of compact myelin to give the major dense line. The 17 and 21.5 kDa isoforms containing exon II have been reported by others to localize to the cytoplasm and nucleus of murine oligodendrocytes and HeLa cells while the 14 and 18.5 kDa isoforms lacking exon II are confined to the plasma membrane. However, we show that the exon II− 18.5 kDa form and a recombinant exon II+ 21.5 kDa isoform both caused similar aggregation of acidic lipid vesicles, indicating that they should have similar abilities to bind to the intracellular lipid surface of the plasma membrane and to cause adhesion of those surfaces to each other. The circular dichroism spectra of the two isoforms indicated that both had a similar secondary structure. Thus, both isoforms should be able to bind to and cause adhesion of the cytosolic surfaces of compact myelin. The fact that they do not could be due to differences in post-translational modification in vivo, trafficking through the cell and/or subcellular location of synthesis, but it is not due to differences in their lipid binding

Asteroid Redirect Mission Concept: A Bold Approach for Utilizing Space Resources

The utilization of natural resources from asteroids is an idea that is older than the Space Age. The technologies are now available to transform this endeavour from an idea into reality. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) is a mission concept which includes the goal of robotically returning a small Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) or a multi-ton boulder from a large NEA to cislunar space in the mid 2020's using an advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) vehicle and currently available technologies. The paradigm shift enabled by the ARM concept would allow in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to be used at the human mission departure location (i.e., cislunar space) versus exclusively at the deep-space mission destination. This approach drastically reduces the barriers associated with utilizing ISRU for human deep-space missions. The successful testing of ISRU techniques and associated equipment could enable large-scale commercial ISRU operations to become a reality and enable a future space-based economy utilizing processed asteroidal materials. This paper provides an overview of the ARM concept and discusses the mission objectives, key technologies, and capabilities associated with the mission, as well as how the ARM and associated operations would benefit humanity's quest for the exploration and settlement of space

Implementing an electronic sideband offset lock for precision spectroscopy in radium

We demonstrate laser frequency stabilization with at least 6 GHz of offset tunability using an in-phase/quadrature (IQ) modulator to generate electronic sidebands (ESB) on a titanium sapphire laser at 714 nm and we apply this technique to the precision spectroscopy of $^{226}$Ra, and $^{225}$Ra. By locking the laser to a single resonance of a high finesse optical cavity and adjusting the lock offset, we determine the frequency difference between the magneto-optical trap (MOT) transitions in the two isotopes to be $2630.0\pm0.3$ MHz, a factor of 29 more precise than the previously available data. Using the known value of the hyperfine splitting of the $^{3}P_{1}$ level, we calculate the isotope shift for the $^{1}S_{0}$ to $^{3}P_{1}$ transition to be $2267.0\pm2.2$ MHz, which is a factor of 8 more precise than the best available value. Our technique could be applied to countless other atomic systems to provide unprecedented precision in isotope shift spectroscopy and other relative frequency comparisons

Hadron Helicity Violation in Exclusive Processes: Quantitative Calculations in Leading Order QCD

We study a new mechanism for hadronic helicity flip in high energy hard exclusive reactions. The mechanism proceeds in the limit of perfect chiral symmetry, namely without any need to flip a quark helicity. The fundamental feature of the new mechanism is the breaking of rotational symmetry of the hard collision by a scattering plane in processes involving independent quark scattering. We show that in the impulse approximation there is no evidence for of the helicity violating process as the energy or momentum transfer $Q^2$ is increased over the region 1 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 100 GeV^2. In the asymptotic region Q^2> 1000 GeV^2, a saddle point approximation with doubly logarithmic accuracy yields suppression by a fraction of power of Q^2. ``Chirally--odd" exclusive wave functions which carry non--zero orbital angular momentum and yet are leading order in the high energy limit, play an important role.Comment: uuencoded LaTeX file (21 pages) and PostScript figure

Seasonal cultivated and fallow cropland mapping using MODIS-based automated cropland classification algorithm

Increasing drought occurrences and growing populations demand accurate, routine, and consistent cultivated and fallow cropland products to enable water and food security analysis. The overarching goal of this research was to develop and test automated cropland classification algorithm (ACCA) that provide accurate, consistent, and repeatable information on seasonal cultivated as well as seasonal fallow cropland extents and areas based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer remote sensing data. Seasonal ACCA development process involves writing series of iterative decision tree codes to separate cultivated and fallow croplands from noncroplands, aiming to accurately mirror reliable reference data sources. A pixel-by-pixel accuracy assessment when compared with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cropland data showed, on average, a producer's accuracy of 93% and a user's accuracy of 85% across all months. Further, ACCA-derived cropland maps agreed well with the USDA Farm Service Agency crop acreage-reported data for both cultivated and fallow croplands with R-square values over 0.7 and field surveys with an accuracy of >= 95% for cultivated croplands and >= 76% for fallow croplands. Our results demonstrated the ability of ACCA to generate cropland products, such as cultivated and fallow cropland extents and areas, accurately, automatically, and repeatedly throughout the growing season