G & S Manufacturing: An Applied Auditing Case

This case provides students with the opportunity to gain hands on experience in the audit of cash disbursements, a voucher system and internal controls (or the lack there of) in the disbursement process. In particular, practical examples of concepts and procedures taught in an introductory auditing course, namely vouching, tracing, tests of controls and substantive testing are exemplified. The case includes sample invoices and a voucher register allowing the students to look at “actual” documents and ask good important questions. The case is broken down into three parts to allow students to receive feedback before continuing and the instructor plays the role of “consultant” providing an additional important learning opportunity. G & S Manufacturing is a small privately-held producer of steel products for the consumer market. As staff auditors performing part of the audit of G & S for the calendar year ended December 31, 2013 students will have to identify control deficiencies, substantive errors and other matters of concern in the audit of payables and cash disbursements. Students are provided with a copy of the voucher register for the month of December and all invoices relating to a selected sample of vouchers. The learning objectives of the case explicitly address the AICPA’s (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) functional competencies of risk analysis, measurement and reporting; personal competencies of problem solving and decision making, and communication; and broad business competency of strategic/critical thinking

Environmental manipulations generate bidirectional shifts in both behavior and gene regulation in a crossbred mouse model of extremes in trait anxiety

Although gene-environment interactions are known to significantly influence psychopathology related disease states, only few animal models cover both the genetic background and environmental manipulations. Therefore, we have taken advantage of the bidirectionally inbred high (HAB) and low (LAB) anxiety-related behavior mouse lines to generate HAB x LAB F1 hybrids that intrinsically carry both lines' genetic characteristics, and subsequently raised them in three different environments standard, enriched (EE) and chronic mild stress (CMS). Assessing genetic correlates of trait anxiety, we focused on two genes already known to play a role in HAB vs. LAB mice, corticotropin releasing hormone receptor type 1 (Crhr1) and high mobility group nucleosomal binding domain 3 (Hmgn3). While EE F1 mice showed decreased anxiety related and increased explorative behaviors compared to controls, CMS sparked effects in the opposite direction. However, environmental treatments affected the expression of the two genes in distinct ways. Thus, while expression ratios of Hmgn3 between the HAB- and LAB-specific alleles remained equal, total expression resembled the one observed in HAB vs. LAB mice, i.e., decreased after EE and increased after CMS treatment. On the other hand, while total expression of Crhr1 remained unchanged between the groups, the relative expression of HAB- and LAB-specific alleles showed a clear effect following the environmental modifications. Thus, the environmentally driven bidirectional shift of trait anxiety in this F1 model strongly correlated with Hmgn3 expression, irrespective of allele-specific expression patterns that retained the proportions of basic differential HAB vs. LAB expression, making this gene a match for environment-induced modifications. An involvement of Crhr1 in the bidirectional behavioral shift could, however, rather be due to different effects of the HAB- and LAB specific alleles described here. Both candidate genes therefore deserve attention in the complex regulation of anxiety-related phenotypes including environment-mediated effects

Inventory of wetlands and agricultural land cover in the upper Sevier River Basin, Utah

The use of color infrared aerial photography in the mapping of agricultural land use and wetlands in the Sevier River Basin of south central utah is described. The efficiency and cost effectiveness of utilizing LANDSAT multispectral scanner digital data to augment photographic interpretations are discussed. Transparent overlays for 27 quadrangles showing delineations of wetlands and agricultural land cover were produced. A table summarizing the acreage represented by each class on each quadrangle overlay is provided

Irrigated acreage in the Bear River Basin as of the 1975 growing season

The irrigated cropland in the Bear River Basin as of the 1975 growing season was inventoried from satellite imagery. LANDSAT color infrared images (scale 1:125,000) were examined for early, mid, and late summer dates, and acreage was estimated by use of township/section overlays. The total basin acreage was estimated to be 573,435 acres, with individual state totals as follows: Idaho 234,370 acres; Utah 265,505 acres; and Wyoming 73,560 acres. As anticipated, wetland areas intermingled among cropland appears to have produced an over-estimation of irrigated acreage. According to a 2% random sample of test sites evaluated by personnel from the Soil Conservation Service such basin-wide over-estimation is 7.5%; individual counties deviate significantly from the basin-wide figure, depending on the relative amount of wetland areas intermingled with cropland

Orbital evolution under action of fast interstellar gas flow

Orbital evolution of an interplanetary dust particle under action of an interstellar gas flow is investigated. Secular time derivatives of the particle orbital elements, for arbitrary orbit orientation, are presented. An important result concerns secular evolution of semi-major axis. Secular semi-major axis of the particle on a bound orbit decreases under the action of fast interstellar gas flow. Possible types of evolution of other Keplerian orbital elements are discussed. The paper compares influences of the Poynting-Robertson effect, the radial solar wind and the interstellar gas flow on dynamics of the dust particle in outer planetary region of the Solar System and beyond it, up to 100 AU. Evolution of putative dust ring in the zone of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt is studied. Also non-radial solar wind and gravitational effect of major planets may play an important role. Low inclination orbits of micron-sized dust particles in the belt are not stable due to fast increase of eccentricity caused by the interstellar gas flow and subsequent planetary perturbations - the increase of eccentricity leads to planet crossing orbits of the particles. Gravitational and non-gravitational effects are treated in a way which fully respects physics. As a consequence, some of the published results turned out to be incorrect. Moreover, the paper treats the problem in a more general way than it has been presented up to now. The influence of the fast interstellar neutral gas flow might not be ignored in modeling of evolution of dust particles beyond planets.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Preparing For The Profession: The Accounting Job Search And Beyond

This paper provides a detailed description of a unique program focused on preparing students for entry into the accounting profession. The program, Preparing for the Profession, consisted of four distinct workshops provided to accounting majors during fall semester 2010. Planning for the program began a year earlier during a meeting of Accounting Advisory Board members and faculty. Each session addressed a distinct aspect of the accounting profession and consisted of a panel discussion of six to eight accounting and business professionals. The sessions were 90 minutes in length and discussion focused on 25 pre-submitted questions by student attendees. Specific objectives were formulated for each session and assessment data subsequent to the workshop’s completion indicated that the program was a success in meeting those objectives

Potential of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor for the monitoring of terrestrial chlorophyll fluorescence

Global monitoring of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is improving our knowledge about the photosynthetic functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The feasibility of SIF retrievals from spaceborne atmospheric spectrometers has been demonstrated by a number of studies in the last years. In this work, we investigate the potential of the upcoming TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite mission for SIF retrieval. TROPOMI will sample the 675–775 nm spectral window with a spectral resolution of 0.5 nm and a pixel size of 7 km × 7 km. We use an extensive set of simulated TROPOMI data in order to assess the uncertainty of single SIF retrievals and subsequent spatio-temporal composites. Our results illustrate the enormous improvement in SIF monitoring achievable with TROPOMI with respect to comparable spectrometers currently in-flight, such as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instrument. We find that TROPOMI can reduce global uncertainties in SIF mapping by more than a factor of 2 with respect to GOME-2, which comes together with an approximately 5-fold improvement in spatial sampling. Finally, we discuss the potential of TROPOMI to map other important vegetation parameters at a global scale with moderate spatial resolution and short revisit time. Those include leaf photosynthetic pigments and proxies for canopy structure, which will complement SIF retrievals for a self-contained description of vegetation condition and functioning

Sexual Harassment And Public Accounting: Anecdotal Evidence From The Profession

This article reports on anecdotal evidence gathered from a recent survey of women public accounting professionals.  Stanko and Schneider (1999) conducted the first national survey on sexual harassment in the public accounting profession and Stanko et al followed up with a more recent 2009 study.  In this paper, the anecdotal evidence gathered from the Stanko et al study is reported on. Analysis of written comments is important in that many respondents spent a great deal of time providing comprehensive and concise professional comments on specific recent experiences involving sexual harassment, rather than simply checking a box. The findings of this study show sexual harassment remains a serious concern, and that sexual discrimination in the workplace is a concern as well.  Although preventive measures have been put in place, these measures may not be working as well as intended, suggesting that public accounting firms need to revisit this issue to manage risk

Development of the A/H6N1 influenza vaccine candidate based on A/Leningrad/134/17/57 (H2N2) master donor virus and the genome composition analysis using high resolution melting (HRM)

The avian influenza viruses of H6N1subtype present a potential danger for humans. The cold-adapted (ca) reassortant influenza virus А/17/herring gull/Sarma/2006/887 (H6N1) was obtained in chicken embryos by the genetic reassortment based on the coldadapted A/Leningrad/134/17/57 (H2N2) master strain. The genome composition of the obtained reassortant was analyzed by means of real-time PCR with the high resolution melting (HRM) analysis using the intercalating fluorescent dye EvaGreen. Analysis of the gene segments showed that the reassortant А/17/herring gull/Sarma/2006/887 (H6N1) contains the internal proteins coding genes (PB2, PB1, PA, NP, M, and NS) of the master donor virus and the surface antigens coding genes of the A/herring gull/Sarma/51c/2006 (H6N1) avian influenza virus. The study of the phenotypic properties showed that the virus А/17/herring gull/Sarma/2006/887 (H6N1) is temperature sensitive (ts), ca in chicken embryos, and attenuated in mice when administered intranasally. This reassortant can be recommended as a live influenza vaccine candidate for humans.The avian influenza viruses of H6N1subtype present a potential danger for humans. The cold-adapted (ca) reassortant influenza virus А/17/herring gull/Sarma/2006/887 (H6N1) was obtained in chicken embryos by the genetic reassortment based on the coldadapted A/Leningrad/134/17/57 (H2N2) master strain. The genome composition of the obtained reassortant was analyzed by means of real-time PCR with the high resolution melting (HRM) analysis using the intercalating fluorescent dye EvaGreen. Analysis of the gene segments showed that the reassortant А/17/herring gull/Sarma/2006/887 (H6N1) contains the internal proteins coding genes (PB2, PB1, PA, NP, M, and NS) of the master donor virus and the surface antigens coding genes of the A/herring gull/Sarma/51c/2006 (H6N1) avian influenza virus. The study of the phenotypic properties showed that the virus А/17/herring gull/Sarma/2006/887 (H6N1) is temperature sensitive (ts), ca in chicken embryos, and attenuated in mice when administered intranasally. This reassortant can be recommended as a live influenza vaccine candidate for humans