The ethical decision-making processes of professional auditors in the people\u27s republic of China

This study examines the effects of organizational ethical culture, idealism, relativism and guanxi orientation on the ethical decision-making processes of professional auditors in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is hypothesized that auditors perceiving a positive organizational ethical culture, possessing higher (lower) degrees of idealism (relativism), and possessing lower degrees of guanxi orientation will make more ethical decisions. The findings of the study indicate that certain aspects of organizational ethical culture had a significant effect on professional auditors’ behavioural intentions, but not on their ethical judgments. Idealism had a marginally significant impact on professional auditors’ behavioral intentions, but not on their ethical judgments. Relativism did not have a significant impact on ethical judgments or behavioral intentions. Guanxi orientation had a significant effect on professional auditors’ behavioural intentions, but not on their ethical judgments. This study also explores the potential effects of demographics on PRC professional auditors’ ethical decision-making processes and the results suggest that CPA firm type (local/regional vs. international) had a significant effect on professional auditors’ behavioural intentions. The overall findings suggest that organizational ethical culture, idealism, guanxi orientation, and CPA firm type play a significant role in PRC professional auditors’ ethical decision-making processes

Автономная система для низкочастотной импульсной магнитотерапии

Терапевтическое свойства магнитного поля получили широкое распространение в клинической практике. В работе представлена автономная система для низкочастотной импульсной магнитотерапии, отвечающая современным требованиям медицины. Пр ведены схемотехнические особенности устройства. Критериями при разработке аппарата являются: автономность, информативность, простота в управлении. Режим работы устройства задается при помощи микропроцессорной системы управления. Для обмена данными с персональным компьютером используется модуль беспроводной связи. Индуктор выполнен на основе двухобмоточного воздушного дросселя для формирования магнитного потока в двух направлениях. Для удаленного задания режима работы системы с персонального компьютера разработан интерфейс пользователя, позволяющий задать время терапии и интенсивность воздействия магнитным полем на организм. Информация о текущем режиме работы отображается как на мониторе компьютера, так и на сенсорном дисплее аппарата

Financial Reporting Quality and Corporate Bond Markets

Recent research proposes that financial reporting is actually shaped by debt markets instead of by equity markets. As noted by Baker, Greenwood and Wurgler (2003), “Relative to the literature on equity financing patterns, and relative to the actual importance of debt finance in the U.S. economy, the literature on debt financing patterns is surprisingly underdeveloped”. Hence, the interface between financial reporting and debt financing has recently emerged as a fruitful idea for research. In fact, because of their asymmetric payoff function and fixed claims on corporate assets, creditors have stronger incentives than equity investors to demand high quality financial reporting. In this dissertation, I build up alternative arguments for conservatism that can be applied to the public bond market and cannot be generalized to the private debt market or the equity market. For instance, Merton’s (1974) theoretical bond pricing model indicates that equity holders and bondholders value a firm’s operating volatility in different ways. Thus, bond and equity investors could have different expectations and needs regarding what they consider to be useful financial reporting. In that regard, recent evidence on the interface between financial reporting quality and debt markets largely focuses on private bank loan contracting. However, in terms of providing capital to corporations, public debt markets are as large as private debt markets, with substantial differences in terms of monitoring efficiency, private information availability, seniority in liquidation, and re-contracting flexibility. Hence, public bondholders can value financial reporting quality in a way that differs from private debt holders’ perspective. Using accounting conservatism and internal control effectiveness as proxies for financial reporting quality, I investigate two sets of research questions that relate to the effects of financial reporting quality on corporate bond financing. I consider both conditional and unconditional conservatism. Conditional conservatism depends upon future economic circumstances and reflects the writing down of book values under sufficiently adverse circumstances while not allowing their writing up under favorable circumstances (e.g., lower of cost or market for inventories). Unconditional conservatism reflects the consistent application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) that reduces earnings independent of future economic events, resulting in the book value of net assets being understated due to predetermined aspects of the accounting process (e.g., immediate expensing of R&D expenditures according to U.S. GAAP). First, I investigate the main effect of accounting conservatism and the moderating effect of internal control effectiveness on the yield spread of new corporate bond issues. Second, I assess the main effect of accounting conservatism and internal control effectiveness on the underpricing of newly issued corporate bonds. Both yield spreads and underpricing reflect different market realities. While the yield spread of new corporate bond issues is determined through negotiations among bond issuers, investment bankers and large institutional investors the underpricing of newly issued corporate bonds reflects the responses of all bond investors based on their assessment of the available information. My main empirical findings are: (1) conditional conservative reporting relates to higher yield spreads in new corporate bond issues; (2) unconditional conservative reporting relates to lower yield spreads in new corporate bond issues; (3) ineffective internal controls enhance the effect of conditional conservative reporting to raise the yield spread; (4) both conditional and unconditional conservative reporting relate to the underpricing of newly issued corporate bonds. However, internal control effectiveness does not seem to matter in the underpricing. This dissertation mainly contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, this study extends the conservatism literature by linking conservative reporting to corporate bond financing patterns. With theoretical arguments and empirical evidence that are inconsistent with the debt contracting efficiency view of conservatism, my study casts some doubt as to how generalizable is the traditional debt contracting efficiency argument regarding the interface between conservatism and the cost of debt. Second, research on Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s internal control provisions needs to go beyond the equity holders’ and private debt holders’ perspectives, and consider other financial stakeholders who contract on the basis of financial statements. This dissertation fills the void in the internal control literature by providing initial empirical evidence as to how internal control effectiveness affects corporate bond financing

Study on stability of landslide at different moisture content in northern slope of Bailu tableland

In this paper, Phase2 software is used to simulate six groups of natural loess specimens in the northern slope of Bailu Plateau landslide area. The effective steady-state shear strength of loess specimens under different moisture content (6%, 11%, 21%, 26%, 30%, 32%) is simulated. We analyzed the stress and displacement, and we used residual thrust method to calculate the stability of sliding surface at different moisture content. The stability of the northern slope of Bailu tableland is analyzed at different moisture content. The "9.17 northern slope landslide of Bailu tableland" is summarized. The comprehensive evaluation of the northern slope landslide of Bailu tableland is carried out, the paper analyzed treatment measures of landslide. © International Journal of Ground Sediment & Water, © Sun Jichao, The website is http://ijgsw.comze.com

In vitro and in vivo antiseptic activities of caffeoylquinic acid

Purpose: To evaluate the antiseptic effect of caffeoylquinic acid (CA) in in vivo and in vitro models.Methods: In vivo sepsis was produced in rats via cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) method. Four groups of rats were used: control group, untreated CLP group, and two CA groups treated with caffeoylquinic acid (50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.) for 30 days before the induction of sepsis. Following the induction of sepsis, histological assessment of lung tissue was carried out using hematoxylin and eosin, and isolectin B4 staining. In addition, in vitro tests were performed on RAW264.7 cells in which inflammation and oxidative stress were induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS).Results: Treatment with CA significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced the survival of lung cells, relative to the CLP group. Lung histopathology revealed that pretreatment with CA did not attenuate the increased infiltration of macrophages in the alveoli. Results from in vitro studies showed that CA attenuated LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) levels, but had no significant effect on the level of LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines in RAW264.7 cells (p < 0.05).Conclusion: These results reveal that CA attenuates NO and TNF-α levels in LPS-stimulated macrophages, thereby decreasing inflammation-associated sepsis. Thus, CA may have beneficial effects on lung injury as a result of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.Keywords: Caffeoylquinic acid, Sepsis, Oxidative stress, Cytokines, Cecalligation, Punctur

Transcriptome and metabolome profiling of the medicinal plant Veratrum mengtzeanum reveal key components of the alkaloid biosynthesis

Veratrum mengtzeanum is the main ingredient for Chinese folk medicine known as “Pimacao” due to its unique alkaloids. A diverse class of plant-specific metabolites having key pharmacological activities. There are limited studies on alkaloid synthesis and its metabolic pathways in plants. To elucidate the alkaloid pathway and identify novel biosynthetic enzymes and compounds in V. mengtzeanum, transcriptome and metabolome profiling has been conducted in leaves and roots. The transcriptome of V. mengtzeanum leaves and roots yielded 190,161 unigenes, of which 33,942 genes expressed differentially (DEGs) in both tissues. Three enriched regulatory pathways (isoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis, indole alkaloid biosynthesis and tropane, piperidine and pyridine alkaloid biosynthesis) and a considerable number of genes such as AED3-like, A4U43, 21 kDa protein-like, 3-O-glycotransferase 2-like, AtDIR19, MST4, CASP-like protein 1D1 were discovered in association with the biosynthesis of alkaloids in leaves and roots. Some transcription factor families, i.e., AP2/ERF, GRAS, NAC, bHLH, MYB-related, C3H, FARI, WRKY, HB-HD-ZIP, C2H2, and bZIP were also found to have a prominent role in regulating the synthesis of alkaloids and steroidal alkaloids in the leaves and roots of V. mengtzeanum. The metabolome analysis revealed 74 significantly accumulated metabolites, with 55 differentially accumulated in leaves compared to root tissues. Out of 74 metabolites, 18 alkaloids were highly accumulated in the roots. A novel alkaloid compound viz; 3-Vanilloylygadenine was discovered in root samples. Conjoint analysis of transcriptome and metabolome studies has also highlighted potential genes involved in regulation and transport of alkaloid compounds. Here, we have presented a comprehensive metabolic and transcriptome profiling of V. mengtzeanum tissues. In earlier reports, only the roots were reported as a rich source of alkaloid biosynthesis, but the current findings revealed both leaves and roots as significant manufacturing factories for alkaloid biosynthesis

TRIM56 promotes malignant progression of glioblastoma by stabilizing cIAP1 protein

Background The tripartite motif (TRIM) family of proteins plays a key role in the developmental growth and therapeutic resistance of many tumors. However, the regulatory mechanisms and biological functions of TRIM proteins in human glioblastoma (GBM) are not yet fully understood. In this study, we focused on TRIM56, which emerged as the most differentially expressed TRIM family member with increased expression in GBM. Methods Western blot, real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR), immunofluorescence (IF) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to study the expression levels of TRIM56 and cIAP1 in GBM cell lines. Co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) was used to explore the specific binding between target proteins and TRIM56. A xenograft animal model was used to verify the tumor promoting effect of TRIM56 on glioma in vivo. Results We observed elevated expression of TRIM56 in malignant gliomas and revealed that TRIM56 promoted glioma progression in vitro and in a GBM xenograft model in nude mice. Analysis of the Human Ubiquitin Array and co-IPs showed that cIAP1 is a protein downstream of TRIM56. TRIM56 deubiquitinated cIAP1, mainly through the zinc finger domain (amino acids 21–205) of TRIM56, thereby reducing the degradation of cIAP1 and thus increasing its expression. TRIM56 also showed prognostic significance in overall survival of glioma patients. Conclusions TRIM56-regulated post-translational modifications may contribute to glioma development through stabilization of cIAP1. Furthermore, TRIM56 may serve as a novel prognostic indicator and therapeutic molecular target for GBM.publishedVersio