The Influence of Elections on the Accounting Choices of Governmental Entities

This paper investigates whether gubernatorial elections affect state governments’ accounting choices. We identify two accounts, the compensated absence liability account and the unfunded pension liability account, which provide incumbent gubernatorial candidates with flexibility for manipulation. We find that, in an election year, the liability associated with compensated absences and unfunded pension liabilities are both systematically lower. We also find that the variation in these employment-related liabilities is correlated with proxies for the incumbent's incentives and ability to manipulate their accounting reports. Jointly, these results suggest that state governments manipulate accounting numbers to present a healthier financial picture in an election year

Team Name: 3A – Hawai’i Business Name: Virtual Mall Management Software (VMMS), Inc. Team Members:

Virtual Mall: An e-commerce marketplace, which aggregates marketing, sales, and administration functions for small merchants. Virtual Malls spent $20 billion last year creating and maintaining their online marketplaces. This figure is expected to increase 68 % in the next four years. Nearly all of that money is spent on software. That software infrastructure is currently constructed on an individual basis. Every virtual mall has to create and maintain proprietary software packages for their very similar services. Virtual Mall Management Software (VMMS) has already created a prototype virtual mall management software package. Our software is comprehensive and customizable. Virtual malls will purchase our software and use it to create, manage, alter, and market their e-marketplaces. Merchants who sign on with those virtual malls will also be able to benefit from a user-friendly interface and any-time access to their information. Although several companies sell software that can be used to create the different software components of a virtual mall, no companies are selling all components as one complete package. In addition to combining these components, our product will also offer integrated shipping an

Muscle-specific Pparg deletion causes insulin resistance.

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are insulin-sensitizing drugs and are potent agonists of the nuclear peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma). Although muscle is the major organ responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose disposal, PPAR-gamma is more highly expressed in adipose tissue than in muscle. To address this issue, we used the Cre-loxP system to knock out Pparg, the gene encoding PPAR-gamma, in mouse skeletal muscle. As early as 4 months of age, mice with targeted disruption of PPAR-gamma in muscle showed glucose intolerance and progressive insulin resistance. Using the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique, the in vivo insulin-stimulated glucose disposal rate (IS-GDR) was reduced by approximately 80% and was unchanged by 3 weeks of TZD treatment. These effects reveal a crucial role for muscle PPAR-gamma in the maintenance of skeletal muscle insulin action, the etiology of insulin resistance and the action of TZDs