Fraud Risk Factors that Affect the Audit Program Plan: The Case of Kurdistan Region, Iraq

This paper aims to identify the most frequent fraud risk factors that affect the nature, timing, and extent of planned audit procedures. The perceptions of both international and local external auditors in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, were investigated. In general, it was found that the respondents were more interested in assessing fraud risk factors related to misappropriation of assets (84.61%) compared with those related to fraudulent financial reporting (75.43%). Stepwise regression analysis indicates a positive and significant effect of each fraud risk factor related to fraudulent financial reporting that resulted from incentives or pressures and attitudes or rationalization, and the fraud risk factors related to the misappropriation of assets that resulted from attitudes or rationalization on the nature, timing, and extent of the planned audit procedures. However, other fraud risk factors in the study model did not show a significant effect on the audit program plan. The findings of this paper contribute to the existing literature in the area of fraud risk assessment and its effect on planning audit programs in eastern developing countries such as the Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Answer Set Solving with Bounded Treewidth Revisited

Parameterized algorithms are a way to solve hard problems more efficiently, given that a specific parameter of the input is small. In this paper, we apply this idea to the field of answer set programming (ASP). To this end, we propose two kinds of graph representations of programs to exploit their treewidth as a parameter. Treewidth roughly measures to which extent the internal structure of a program resembles a tree. Our main contribution is the design of parameterized dynamic programming algorithms, which run in linear time if the treewidth and weights of the given program are bounded. Compared to previous work, our algorithms handle the full syntax of ASP. Finally, we report on an empirical evaluation that shows good runtime behaviour for benchmark instances of low treewidth, especially for counting answer sets.Comment: This paper extends and updates a paper that has been presented on the workshop TAASP'16 (arXiv:1612.07601). We provide a higher detail level, full proofs and more example

Status of Using Quantitative Methods in Project Risk Management

This study aims to evaluate the current project risk management within UNRWA in Gaza in all areas related to the Agency’s mandate. Projects implemented by UNRWA in Gaza are subject to risks due to the volatile situation and the adverse situation representing risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and that impede the effective and timely implementation of projects according to their plans. This negatively impacts the outputs of these projects and creates grave repercussions and disruption consuming the project resources and budgets. This will also have a negative impact on the Agency’s image and funding as the relationship with the donor community will be also distorted

Modeling Lane-Changing Behavior in a Connected Environment: A Game Theory Approach

AbstractVehicle-to-Vehicle communications provide the opportunity to create an internet of cars through the recent advances in communication technologies, processing power, and sensing technologies. Aconnected vehicle receives real-time information from surrounding vehicles; such information can improve drivers’ awareness about their surrounding traffic condition and lead to safer and more efficient driving maneuvers. Lane-changing behavior,as one of the most challenging driving maneuvers to understand and to predict, and a major source of congestion and collisions, can benefit from this additional information.This paper presents a lane-changing model based on a game-theoretical approach that endogenously accounts for the flow of information in a connected vehicular environment.A calibration approach based on the method of simulated moments is presented and a simplified version of the proposed framework is calibrated against NGSIM data. The prediction capability of the simplified model is validated. It is concluded the presented framework is capable of predicting lane-changing behavior with limitations that still need to be addressed.Finally, a simulation framework based on the fictitious play is proposed. The simulation results revealed that the presented lane-changing model provides a greater level of realism than a basic gap-acceptance model

Local information pattern descriptor for corneal diseases diagnosis

Light penetrates the human eye through the cornea, which is the outer part of the eye, and then the cornea directs it to the pupil to determine the amount of light that reaches the lens of the eye. Accordingly, the human cornea must not be exposed to any damage or disease that may lead to human vision disturbances. Such damages can be revealed by topographic images used by ophthalmologists. Consequently, an important priority is the early and accurate diagnosis of diseases that may affect corneal integrity through the use of machine learning algorithms, particularly, use of local feature extractions for the image. Accordingly, we suggest a new algorithm called local information pattern (LIP) descriptor to overcome the lack of local binary patterns that loss of information from the image and solve the problem of image rotation. The LIP based on utilizing the sub-image center intensity for estimating neighbors' weights that can use to calculate what so-called contrast based centre (CBC). On the other hand, calculating local pattern (LP) for each block image, to distinguish between two sub-images having the same CBC. LP is the sum of transitions of neighbors' weights, from sub-image center value to one and vice versa. Finally, creating histograms for both CBC and LP, then blending them to represent a robust local feature vector. Which can use for diagnosing, detecting

Bond strength of a new Kevlar fiber-reinforced composite post with semi-interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) matrix

This study aimed to evaluate the bond strength and the penetration depth of two adhesive systems to a new experimental semi-IPN fiber post versus a commercial post. Experimental Kevlar fiber (KF) and control everStick®POST (ES) posts (n=20/ group) with a diameter of 1.5 mm were used, 10 posts coated with StickResin (SR) and the other 10 posts coated with Scotch bond multipurpose (SBMP) adhesives. Composite resin buildup was performed over each post, using a cylindrical plastic mold (10 mm × 6 mm). Four discs of 2 mm thickness were prepared from each post/composite buildup and underwent pushout bond strength test at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min accompanied by failure mode analysis. A further three specimens from each subgroup were bonded with adhesives labeled with 0.1 wt% Rhodamine B and embedded in acrylic resin, sectioned and examined under a confocal Laser-scanning microscope (CLSM) to measure the depth of resin penetration. Statistical analysis included ANOVA and Tukey test, the significance level was assumed at a p-value less than 0.05. The push-out bond strength of KF was comparable to that of ES with both SBMP and SR adhesives (P >0.05). Bond strength value for SBMP was higher than SR adhesive in either ES and KF posts with no significant difference (P > 0.05). ES exhibited higher adhesive penetration depth compared with KF (p<0.05). The bond strength of Kevlar post was comparable with the everStick post and the semi-interpenetrating structure of Kevlar post displayed some adhesive monomers diffusion indicating its usefulness as a new intracanal post

Impact of healthcare service quality on older people’s satisfaction at geriatric medical centres: a rapid review

Introduction. Older adults are concerned about the quality of care as many of them are vulnerable to the co-occurrence of geriatric syndromes and age-related diseases due to accumulated impairments in multiple systems. Literature indicates that though people are living longer, they are not necessarily living healthier, which creates the need for providing quality healthcare services specifically for addressing the needs of this population. Aim. This rapid review investigates the impact of healthcare service quality on older people’s satisfaction at geriatric medical centers. Methods. The rapid review includes 11 articles from searches on PubMed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Results. The reviewed studies indicate that the quality of healthcare services to older adults enhances their satisfaction at senior facilities and produces positive patient outcomes. A thematic analysis of these studies revealed four major themes related to the review topic: perceived quality of healthcare services, patients’ quality of life, patient satisfaction, and provider-patient communication. Implications for practice. Nurses should provide high-quality care to older adults in geriatric settings to improve patients’ and their families’ satisfaction. Nurses should target quality leadership, implement quality improvement, and communicate effectively. Nurses should also offer patient-centered care by involving family members in care planning

Investigating The Anisotropy Of Magnetic Susceptibility And Other Rock Magnetic Properties Of The Beaver River Diabase In Northeastern Minnesota

The Beaver River Diabase (BRD) is a series of mafic dikes and sills within the Beaver Bay Complex (BBC) of northern Minnesota, which formed during the development of the ~1.1 Ga Midcontinent Rift (MCR). The BRD is one of the youngest and most extensive intrusive phases of the BBC. The BRD dikes and sills were emplaced into the medial levels of the 6-10 kilometer-thick North Shore Volcanic Group and occur over an arcuate area extending 120 by 20 kilometers. The BRD is composed of fine- to medium-grained ophitic olivine gabbro and does not display obvious foliation or lineation features and rarely displays modal layering. Without obvious magmatic internal structures, it is difficult to determine emplacement properties such as flow direction using standard geologic mapping or petrographic techniques. For this reason, we measured the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS), in conjunction with other rock magnetic properties, to better understand the BRD\u27s emplacement and deformation history in the context of the MCR. AMS measures the directional dependence of low-field magnetic susceptibility, and is used to infer a shape-preferred orientation of magnetic minerals within a rock, which can be related to specific emplacement mechanisms (e.g. directional flow or settling). Preliminary analysis of AMS at 20 sites within the southern half of the BRD (with 4-7 samples per site) shows maximum susceptibility values between 4.48 x 10-6 and 2.22 x 10-4 m3/kg (1165 and 65400 μSI). Most specimens display nearly isotropic AMS ellipsoids (Pj \u3c 1.15) with minor degrees of prolateness and oblateness. However, about 20% of specimens have higher anisotropies (Pj between 1.15 and 1.67) and higher degrees of oblateness and prolateness. Variations in AMS properties may reflect differences in concentration and composition of magnetic minerals, as well as emplacement mechanisms. Measurements of susceptibility as a function of temperature yield Curie points between 470 and 570 °C, indicating the presence of low-titanium titanomagnetite. Major hysteresis loops show coercivities between 1 and 25 mT, consistent with titanomagnetite as the dominant remanence carrier