Our School’s Campaign for Distinction in Forensic Accounting

Leslie B. Fletcher, Ph.D., is a professor of accounting, Georgia Southern University, College of Business Administration, School of Accountancy, Statesboro, GA 30458. Leslee N. Higgins, Ph.D., is a professor of accounting, Georgia Southern University, College of Business Administration, School of Accountancy, Statesboro, GA 30458. J. Lowell Mooney, Ph.D., is a professor of accounting, Georgia Southern University, College of Business Administration, School of Accountancy, Statesboro, GA 30458. Thomas A. Buckhoff, Ph.D., is a professor of accounting, Georgia Southern University, College of Business Administration, School of Accountancy, Statesboro, GA 30458

Ozone depletion, greenhouse gases, and climate change

This symposium was organized to study the unusual convergence of a number of observations, both short and long term that defy an integrated explanation. Of particular importance are surface temperature observations and observations of upper atmospheric temperatures, which have declined significantly in parts of the stratosphere. There has also been a dramatic decline in ozone concentration over Antarctica that was not predicted. Significant changes in precipitation that seem to be latitude dependent have occurred. There has been a threefold increase in methane in the last 100 years; this is a problem because a source does not appear to exist for methane of the right isotopic composition to explain the increase. These and other meteorological global climate changes are examined in detail

MuSiC: Identifying mutational significance in cancer genomes

Massively parallel sequencing technology and the associated rapidly decreasing sequencing costs have enabled systemic analyses of somatic mutations in large cohorts of cancer cases. Here we introduce a comprehensive mutational analysis pipeline that uses standardized sequence-based inputs along with multiple types of clinical data to establish correlations among mutation sites, affected genes and pathways, and to ultimately separate the commonly abundant passenger mutations from the truly significant events. In other words, we aim to determine the Mutational Significance in Cancer (MuSiC) for these large data sets. The integration of analytical operations in the MuSiC framework is widely applicable to a broad set of tumor types and offers the benefits of automation as well as standardization. Herein, we describe the computational structure and statistical underpinnings of the MuSiC pipeline and demonstrate its performance using 316 ovarian cancer samples from the TCGA ovarian cancer project. MuSiC correctly confirms many expected results, and identifies several potentially novel avenues for discovery

CIViCpy: A Python software evelopment and analysis toolkit for the CIViC knowledgebase

PURPOSE: Precision oncology depends on the matching of tumor variants to relevant knowledge describing the clinical significance of those variants. We recently developed the Clinical Interpretations for Variants in Cancer (CIViC; civicdb.org) crowd-sourced, expert-moderated, and open-access knowledgebase. CIViC provides a structured framework for evaluating genomic variants of various types (eg, fusions, single-nucleotide variants) for their therapeutic, prognostic, predisposing, diagnostic, or functional utility. CIViC has a documented application programming interface for accessing CIViC records: assertions, evidence, variants, and genes. Third-party tools that analyze or access the contents of this knowledgebase programmatically must leverage this application programming interface, often reimplementing redundant functionality in the pursuit of common analysis tasks that are beyond the scope of the CIViC Web application. METHODS: To address this limitation, we developed CIViCpy (civicpy.org), a software development kit for extracting and analyzing the contents of the CIViC knowledgebase. CIViCpy enables users to query CIViC content as dynamic objects in Python. We assess the viability of CIViCpy as a tool for advancing individualized patient care by using it to systematically match CIViC evidence to observed variants in patient cancer samples. RESULTS: We used CIViCpy to evaluate variants from 59,437 sequenced tumors of the American Association for Cancer Research Project GENIE data set. We demonstrate that CIViCpy enables annotation of \u3e 1,200 variants per second, resulting in precise variant matches to CIViC level A (professional guideline) or B (clinical trial) evidence for 38.6% of tumors. CONCLUSION: The clinical interpretation of genomic variants in cancers requires high-throughput tools for interoperability and analysis of variant interpretation knowledge. These needs are met by CIViCpy, a software development kit for downstream applications and rapid analysis. CIViCpy is fully documented, open-source, and available free online

The organics revolution: new narratives and how we can achieve them

Organic remains from excavated sites include a wide range of materials, from distinct organisms (‘ecofacts’) to biomolecules. Biomolecules provide a variety of new research avenues, while ecofacts with longer histories of study are now being re-harnessed in unexpected ways. These resources are unlocking research potential, transcending what was previously imagined possible. However, this ‘organics revolution’ comes with a salutary corollary: our approaches to recovering and curating organics, and making accessible research data, are not developing as quickly as we need. In this paper, we review retention guidelines for institutions in Britain and Ireland, setting this against the backdrop of a ‘curation crisis’ that is affecting museums throughout Europe, and beyond. We suggest key themes, including the state of existing documentation and considerations of intrinsic and allied research potential, that should be used to open a discussion about the development of more comprehensive and standardised approaches to archiving in the future. Engaging in this conversation is the only way that we can hope to ensure the long-term retention and preservation of organics, while safeguarding associated research data. These changes are needed to ensure future global research collaborations across the academic, curatorial and professional archaeological sectors

Biodiversity and ecosystem services science for a sustainable planet: the DIVERSITAS vision for 2012–20

DIVERSITAS, the international programme on biodiversity science, is releasing a strategic vision presenting scientific challenges for the next decade of research on biodiversity and ecosystem services: “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Science for a Sustainable Planet”. This new vision is a response of the biodiversity and ecosystem services scientific community to the accelerating loss of the components of biodiversity, as well as to changes in the biodiversity science-policy landscape (establishment of a Biodiversity Observing Network — GEO BON, of an Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services — IPBES, of the new Future Earth initiative; and release of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020). This article presents the vision and its core scientific challenges.Fil: Larigauderie, Anne. DIVERSITAS. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle; FranciaFil: Prieur Richard, Anne Helene. DIVERSITAS. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle; FranciaFil: Mace, Georgina. Imperial College London. Center for Population Biology; Reino UnidoFil: Londsdale, Mark. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences; AustraliaFil: Mooney, Harold A.. Stanford University. Department of Biological Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Brussaard, Lijbert. Wageningen University, Soil Quality Department; Países BajosFil: Cooper, David. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; CanadáFil: Wolfgang, Cramer. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et continentale; FranciaFil: Daszak, Peter. EcoHealth Alliance. Wildlife Trust; Estados UnidosFil: Diaz, Sandra Myrna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Duraiappah, Anantha. International Human Dimensions Programme; AlemaniaFil: Elmqvist, Thomas. University of Stockholm. Department of Systems Ecology and Stockholm Resilience Center; SueciaFil: Faith, Daniel. The Australian Museum; AustraliaFil: Jackson, Louise. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Krug, Cornelia. DIVERSITAS. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle; FranciaFil: Leadley, Paul. Université Paris. Laboratoire Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Ecologie des Populations et Communautés; FranciaFil: Le Prestre, Philippe. Laval University; CanadáFil: Matsuda, Hiroyuki. Yokohama National University; JapónFil: Palmer, Margaret. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Perrings, Charles. Arizona State University; Estados UnidosFil: Pulleman, Mirjam. Wageningen University; Países BajosFil: Reyers, Belinda. Natural Resources and Environment; SudáfricaFil: Rosa, Eugene A.. Washington State University; Estados UnidosFil: Scholes, Robert J.. Natural Resources and Environment; SudáfricaFil: Spehn, Eva. Universidad de Basilea; SuizaFil: Turner II, B. L.. Arizona State University; Estados UnidosFil: Yahara, Tetsukazu. Kyushu University; Japó

Search for Charged Higgs Bosons in Decays of Top Quark Pairs

We present a search for charged Higgs bosons in decays of pair-produced top quarks using 109.2 +- 5.8 pb^-1 of data recorded from ppbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV by the D0 detector during 1992-96 at the Fermilab Tevatron. No evidence is found for charged Higgs production, and most parts of the [m(H+),tan(beta)] parameter space where the decay t -> bH+ has a branching fraction close to or larger than that for t -> bW+ are excluded at 95% confidence level. Assuming m(t) = 175 GeV and sigma(ppbar -> ttbar) = 5.5 pb, for m(H+) = 60 GeV, we exclude tan(beta) 40.9.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Search for Squarks and Gluinos in Events Containing Jets and a Large Imbalance in Transverse Energy

Using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79 pb-1, D0 has searched for events containing multiple jets and large missing transverse energy in pbar-p collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Observing no significant excess beyond what is expected from the standard model, we set limits on the masses of squarks and gluinos and on the model parameters m_0 and m_1/2, in the framework of the minimal low-energy supergravity models of supersymmetry. For tan(beta) = 2 and A_0 = 0, with mu < 0, we exclude all models with m_squark < 250 GeV/c^2. For models with equal squark and gluino masses, we exclude m < 260 GeV/c^2.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to PRL, Fixed typo on page bottom of p. 6 (QCD multijet background is 35.4 events

Search for bottom squarks in pbarp collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV

We report on a search for bottom squarks produced in pbarp collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV using the D0 detector at Fermilab. Bottom squarks are assumed to be produced in pairs and to decay to the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and a b quark with branching fraction of 100%. The LSP is assumed to be the lightest neutralino and stable. We set limits on the production cross section as a function of bottom squark mass and LSP mass.Comment: 5 pages, Latex. submitted 3-12-1999 to PRD - Rapid Communicatio

THE ROLE OF INTERDEPENDENCE IN THE MICRO-FOUNDATIONS OF ORGANIZATION DESIGN: TASK, GOAL, AND KNOWLEDGE INTERDEPENDENCE

Interdependence is a core concept in organization design, yet one that has remained consistently understudied. Current notions of interdependence remain rooted in seminal works, produced at a time when managers’ near-perfect understanding of the task at hand drove the organization design process. In this context, task interdependence was rightly assumed to be exogenously determined by characteristics of the work and the technology. We no longer live in that world, yet our view of interdependence has remained exceedingly task-centric and our treatment of interdependence overly deterministic. As organizations face increasingly unpredictable workstreams and workers co-design the organization alongside managers, our field requires a more comprehensive toolbox that incorporates aspects of agent-based interdependence. In this paper, we synthesize research in organization design, organizational behavior, and other related literatures to examine three types of interdependence that characterize organizations’ workflows: task, goal, and knowledge interdependence. We offer clear definitions for each construct, analyze how each arises endogenously in the design process, explore their interrelations, and pose questions to guide future research