The Interrelation between Audit Quality and Managerial Reporting Choices and Its Effects on Financial Reporting Quality

Two distinct lines of research have been dedicated to empirically testing how financial reporting quality (measured as the earnings response coefficient or ERC) is associated with management's choice of reporting bias and with audit quality. However, researchers have yet to consider how ERCs are affected by either the auditor's reaction to changes in the manager's reporting bias or the manager's reaction to changes in audit quality. Our study provides theoretical guidance on these interrelations and how changes in the manager's or the auditor's incentives affect both reporting bias and audit quality. Specifically, when the manager's cost (benefit) of reporting bias increases (decreases), we find that expected bias decreases, inducing the auditor to react by reducing audit quality. Because we also find that the association between expected audit quality and ERCs is always positive, changes in managerial incentives for biased reporting lead to a positive association between ERCs and expected reporting bias. When the cost of auditing decreases or the cost of auditor liability increases, we find that expected audit quality increases, inducing the manager to react by decreasing reporting bias. In this case, changes in the costs of audit quality lead to a negative association between ERCs and expected reporting bias. Finally, we demonstrate the impact of our theoretical findings by focusing on the empirical observations documented in the extant literature on managerial ownership and accounting expertise on the audit committee. In light of our framework, we provide new interpretations of these empirical observations and new predictions for future research

The Effects of Auditor Tenure on Fraud and Its Detection

We examine the strategic effects of auditor tenure on the auditor's testing strategy and the manager's inclination to commit fraud. Most empirical studies conclude that longer tenure improves audit quality. Proponents of restricting tenure argue that longer tenure impairs auditor independence and a "fresh look" from a new auditor results in higher audit quality. Validating this argument requires testing whether the observed difference in audit quality between a continuing auditor and a change in auditors is less than the theoretically expected difference in audit quality without impairment. Our findings provide the guidance necessary for developing such tests. Our results show that audit risk (the probability that fraud exists and goes undetected) is lower in both periods for the continuing auditor than with a change in auditors. More importantly, we show that across both periods, expected undetected fraud is lower for the continuing auditor than with a change in auditors

Microorganism sample device

Device, based on gel-impingement technique, collects microorganism specimens from circulating air streams. Device is useful to air pollution studies involving the collection of airborne microbial specimens

Automatic classification of eutrophication of inland lakes from spacecraft data

The author has identified the following significant results. Spacecraft data and computer techniques can be used to rapidly map and store onto digital tapes watershed land use information. Software is now available by which this land use information can be rapidly and economically extracted from the tapes and related to coliform counts and other lake contaminants (e.g. phosphorus). These tools are basic elements for determining those land use factors and sources of nutrients that accelerate eutrophication in lakes and reservoirs

Toward an accurate mass function for precision cosmology

Cosmological surveys aim to use the evolution of the abundance of galaxy clusters to accurately constrain the cosmological model. In the context of LCDM, we show that it is possible to achieve the required percent level accuracy in the halo mass function with gravity-only cosmological simulations, and we provide simulation start and run parameter guidelines for doing so. Some previous works have had sufficient statistical precision, but lacked robust verification of absolute accuracy. Convergence tests of the mass function with, for example, simulation start redshift can exhibit false convergence of the mass function due to counteracting errors, potentially misleading one to infer overly optimistic estimations of simulation accuracy. Percent level accuracy is possible if initial condition particle mapping uses second order Lagrangian Perturbation Theory, and if the start epoch is between 10 and 50 expansion factors before the epoch of halo formation of interest. The mass function for halos with fewer than ~1000 particles is highly sensitive to simulation parameters and start redshift, implying a practical minimum mass resolution limit due to mass discreteness. The narrow range in converged start redshift suggests that it is not presently possible for a single simulation to capture accurately the cluster mass function while also starting early enough to model accurately the numbers of reionisation era galaxies, whose baryon feedback processes may affect later cluster properties. Ultimately, to fully exploit current and future cosmological surveys will require accurate modeling of baryon physics and observable properties, a formidable challenge for which accurate gravity-only simulations are just an initial step.Comment: revised in response to referee suggestions, MNRAS accepte

Unveiling the nature of IGR J16283-4838

Context. One of the most striking discoveries of the INTEGRAL observatory is the existence of a previously unknown population of X-ray sources in the inner arms of the Galaxy. The investigations of the optical/NIR counterparts of some of them have provided evidence that they are highly absorbed high mass X-ray binaries hosting supergiants. Aims. We aim to identify the optical/NIR counterpart of one of the newly discovered INTEGRAL sources, IGR J16283-4838, and determine the nature of this system. Methods. We present optical and NIR observations of the field of IGR J16283-4838, and use the astrometry and photometry of the sources within it to identify its counterpart. We obtain its NIR spectrum, and its optical/NIR spectral energy distribution by means of broadband photometry. We search for the intrinsic polarization of its light, and its short and long-term photometric variability. Results. We demonstrate that this source is a highly absorbed HMXB located beyond the Galactic center, and that it may be surrounded by a variable circumstellar medium.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Vol. 27 No. 3 (Autumn 2016), DOI 10.18060/21388 Building an Engagement Center through Love of Place: The Story of the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center

Universities throughout the United States operate engagement centers to extend campus faculty, staff and student resources to their communities. In 2014, the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) opened the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (Weitz CEC): a privately funded $24 million, 70,000 square foot facility located in the middle of its original Dodge Street campus. In addition to offices for its service learning and community service enterprises, the CEC houses over thirty university and community organizations and offers extensive space for meetings, dialogue and collaboration. This paper will discuss its strategic and programmatic origins, unique design, and lessons learned in developing and operating the center

Working Together: A Values Approach for Strengthening University/Community Partnerships

Conference: Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU

Cell cycle phase influences tumour cell sensitivity to aminolaevulinic acid-induced photodynamic therapy in vitro.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a form of cancer treatment based on the destruction of cells by the interaction of light, oxygen and a photosensitizer. Aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) is the prodrug of the photosensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). ALA-induced PDT depends on the rate of cellular synthesis of PpIX, which may vary with cell cycle phase. This study has investigated the relationship between cell cycle phase, PpIX generation and phototoxicity in synchronized and unsynchronized bladder cancer cells (HT1197). In unsynchronized cells, relative PpIX fluorescence values (arbitrary units) were significantly different between cell cycle phases after a 1-h ALA incubation (G1 24.8 +/- 0.7; S-phase, 32.7 +/- 0.8, P < 0.05; G2 35.4 +/- 0.8, P < 0.05). In synchronized cells after a 1-h ALA incubation, cells in G1 produced less PpIX than those in S-phase or G2 [6.65 +/- 1.1 ng per 10(5) cells compared with 15.5 +/- 2.1 (P < 0.05), and 8.1 +/- 1.8 ng per 10(5) cells (not significant) respectively] and were significantly less sensitive to ALA-induced PDT (% survival, G1 76.2 +/- 8.3; S-phase 49.7 +/- 4.6, P < 0.05; G2 44.2 +/- 2.4, P < 0.05). This differential response in tumour cells may have implications for clinical PDT, resulting in treatment resistance and possible failure in complete tumour response