Geochronology (Re–Os and U–Pb) and fluid inclusion studies of molybdenite mineralisation associated with the Shap, Skiddaw and Weardale granites, UK

Late Devonian magmatism in Northern England records key events associated with the Acadian phase of the Caledonian-Appalachian Orogen (C-AO). Zircon U-Pb and molybdenite Re-Os geochronology date emplacement and mineralisation in the Shap (405·2±1·8 Ma), Skiddaw (398·8±0·4 and 392·3±2·8 Ma) and Weardale granites (398·3±1·6 Ma). For the Shap granite, mineralisation and magmatism are contemporaneous, with mineralisation being directly associated with the boiling of CO2-rich magmatic fluids between 300 and 450°C, and 440 and 620 bars. For the Skiddaw granite, the Re-Os age suggests that sulphide mineralisation occurred post-magmatism (398·8±0·4 Ma) and was associated with the boiling (275 and 400°C and at 375-475 bars) of a non-magmatic fluid, enriched in N2, CH4 and S, which is isotopically heavy. In contrast, the co-magmatic molybdenite mineralisation of the Weardale granite formed from non-fluid boiling at 476 to 577°C at 1-1·7 kbars. The new accurate and precise ages indicate that magmatism and Mo-mineralisation occurred during the same period across eastern Avalonia (cf. Ireland). In addition, the ages provide a timing of tectonism of the Acadian phase of the C-AO in northern England. Based on the post-tectonic metamorphic mineral growth associated with the Shap and Skiddaw granite aureoles, Acadian deformation in the northern England continued episodically (before ∼405 Ma) throughout the Emsian (∼398 Ma)

The Effects of Offshoring on Judgment Quality in a Management Accounting Task

This study investigates the effects of offshoring on judgment quality in a management accounting context (i.e., capital budgeting). The effects of offshoring on judgment quality are understudied and might explain the ineffective and inefficient use of information in offshoring arrangements (Srikanth and Puranam, 2011). A 3x2 between-subject experiment was conducted where participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: onshore team, offshore team, or no team. Two dependent variables were measured for judgment quality: effectiveness and efficiency. My results suggest that offshoring may have detrimental effects on efficiency. However, I also find that offshoring does not affect effectiveness

Sys Trust Liability

The Certified Public Accountant has always been subject to scrutiny by the legal system to ensure that the interest of the public is best served. In fact, over the last thirty years, the number of malpractice suits against accountants has increased. The increase in accountant malpractice litigation is a result of the public\u27s perception that the CPA guarantees the accuracy of financial statements, and that the CPA has sizeable financial resources, along with malpractice insurance. Prior to the Elliott Report in 1997, CPA liability was limited to fraud, breach of contract, and negligence in the traditional areas of audit, accounting, and tax. As with any other industries, the public accounting profession recognized the need to expand the services performed by CPAs in order to increase their revenues, add value to their clients, and maintain a presence in the financial services industry. With advances in technology, such as ecommerce, maintaining a presence in financial services is becoming more challenging for today\u27s CPAs. Therefore, in 1994, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) formed a committee called the Special Committee on Assurance Services (SCAS) to address the changing dynamics of the public accounting. The responsibility of this committee was to develop a strategic plan to expand the assurance services offered by the accounting profession. Ultimately, this committee produced the Elliott Report in 1997. This report indicated that systems reliability, system risk identification, and impact analysis would be key potential areas where CPAs could increase their revenues. Hence, the SysTrust assurance service was born

Can Financial Statement Auditors Identify Risk Patterns in IT Control Evidence?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that audit clients are automating more internal controls over time. Audit firms customarily respond to their clients’ increasing IT (information technology) risks by including more IT audit specialists in their external audit engagements. But, using IT audit specialists on the audit engagement to examine the IT risks that external financial statement auditors can examine may be detrimental in the long-run for audit firms. First, IT audit specialists receive higher compensation than financial statement auditors. So, using IT audit specialists to perform tasks that could be performed by financial statement auditors may increase audit costs and decrease audit firms’ profits. Second, using IT audit specialist would deny financial auditors the opportunity to gain the procedural-knowledge required to evaluate automated portions of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting (ICFR). This paper investigates whether financial statement auditors can interpret risk patterns in automated-control evidence. I find that financial statement auditors with procedural-knowledge of automated-controls interpret risk patterns in automated-control evidence, whereas financial statement auditors with no procedural-knowledge of automated-controls do not. My results suggest that audit firms may benefit by allowing their financial statement auditors to gain procedural knowledge of automated-control evidence

The Influence of Irrelevant Information on IS Auditor Key Risk Factor Predictions

Can information systems (IS) auditors ignore irrelevant information when they assess key risk factors (KRFs)? Irrelevant information is information that is of little or no value to a specific task or predicted future outcome. When assessing a KRF, IS auditors sift through numerous pieces of information to target items that are relevant to understanding the KRF. Some items encountered by IS auditors may be relevant to understanding the KRF, while other items encountered may be irrelevant. IS auditors should ignore irrelevant information when they assess KRFs. An example of irrelevant information that an IS auditor may encounter during a financial statement audit is obsolete code that was written for an application that was replaced in a previous audit period—the data that were saved in the prior application have been saved in the new application. Although IS auditors are aware that the old code is irrelevant, the old code may still influence IS auditors’ KRF assessments. Irrelevant information may influence IS auditors to reduce their assessments of KRFs when higher assessments would be more appropriate. If IS auditors were exposed to irrelevant information during a financial statement audit and decreased their assessment of KRFs, too few resources may be allocated toward gaining a better understanding of the KRFs. As a result, audit failure could occur. Thirty-seven IS auditors participated in a repeated-trial experiment in which they all read the same case and responded to the same questions about a multinational, publicly traded bank that provided e-banking services. During the experiment, the participants rated the effectiveness of e-banking KRFs, estimated the risk of material misstatement for e-banking KRFs and suggested revisions to the audit plan for e-banking services KRFs. The participants also completed a knowledge test and provided information about their backgrounds. The change in the IS auditors’ KRF assessments when irrelevant information is present vs. when the irrelevant information is not present is the dependent variable in this study. The results of this study reveal that IS auditors’ KRF assessments are significantly lower when irrelevant information is present vs. when irrelevant information is not present. This study also presents evidence that knowledge of automated controls can help mitigate the effects of irrelevant information on IS auditors’ KRF assessments

Do External Financial Statement Auditors Sufficiently Adjust Their Audit Plans for Automated-Control Deficiencies?

Shelton (1999) found that experience, based on rank, mitigates the influence of less-than diagnostic evidence in going concern assessments. But, numerous studies (e.g., Abdolmohammadi and Wright 1987) question the external validity of studies that use rank to determine experience. I suspect that specialized domain experience is a better measure because all auditor ranks do not have procedural knowledge in going concern decisions but many auditors may have procedural knowledge in audit planning (AICPA 2008) and automated controls (Hunton et al. 2004). I investigate whether external financial statement auditors (henceforth auditors) sufficiently adjust their audit plans for material-automated-control-weaknesses. I determine the sufficiency of auditors’ audit plan adjustments by comparing their adjustments for material-automated-control weaknesses to professionals with specialized domain experience in automated-controls, IT audit specialists. Auditors’ audit plan adjustments are significantly lower than IT audit specialist when less-than-diagnostic evidence is present. Thus, specialized domain experience mitigates the influence of less-than-diagnostic evidence. Meanwhile, experience based on rank, does not mitigate the influence of less-than-diagnostic evidence. The implication of my study is that consulting with IT audit specialists while revising plans for material-automated-control weaknesses may improve the likelihood that adequate resources will be allocated to address automated-control weaknesses and reduce the likelihood of audit failure

Do Auditors Adjust Their Audit Plans Accordingly When They Encounter Material Automated Control Weaknesses?

Automated control weaknesses are associated with defects in computer hardware or computer applications. AU 319 does not require auditors to add professionals with specialized skills in automated controls (or IT audit specialists) to the audit engagement. Auditors may encounter a material automated control weakness and adjust their audit plan without the assistance of an IT audit specialist. Thus, auditors may not adjust their audit plan enough to gain an understanding of the material automated control weakness. This is an important problem for auditors because this problem may result in misstated financial statements and incorrect internal control opinions if auditors fail to effectively examine automated control weaknesses. I conduct an experiment where Big Four auditors and IT audit specialists make audit planning adjustments. Results suggest that auditors’ audit plan adjustments are influenced by non-diagnostic evidence. Results also suggest auditors do not adjust their audit plans for material automated control weaknesses as they much as they do for material manual process evidence. Finally, auditors do not adjust their audit plans for automated control weaknesses as much as IT audit specialists’ adjust their audit plans for automated control weaknesses

Implications of new geochronological constraints on the Aberfeldy stratiform barite deposits, Scotland, for the depositional continuity and global correlation of the Neoproterozoic Dalradian Supergroup

The Dalradian Supergroup of largely clastic metasediments in Scotland and Ireland is a well-known record of Neoproterozoic to Cambrian sedimentation on the Laurentian margin. Its apparent long duration, from ∼ 800 to ∼ 500 Ma, has encouraged a search for tectonic breaks and unconformities within the sequence. One suggestion is that a break in sedimentation occurred within the upper part of the Argyll Group, specifically in the Easdale Subgroup. Here we report dates for demonstrably synsedimentary barite mineralization hosted by the Easdale Subgroup Ben Eagach Schist Formation. Bedded pyrite from the Foss and the Ben Eagach–Duntanlich barite deposits, stratigraphically < 100 m apart, yields Re-Os ages of 604.0 ± 7.2 Ma and 612.1 ± 18.6 Ma respectively with two-sigma overlap. These ages are similar to the previously constrained 601 ± 4 Ma Tayvallich Volcanic Formation lying 2–5 km stratigraphically above. The new ages suggest continuous sedimentation through this period and, in combination with existing time markers, increase the likelihood that the basal-Argyll, Port Askaig Formation diamictite represents the Marinoan glaciation rather than the Sturtian glacial episode which may not be represented in the Dalradian sequence. As such, we urge caution in using the Dalradian in global compilations of Neoproterozoic history until further geochronological constraints are obtained for the Cryogenian-Tonian parts of the stratigraphy, which is now a high priority

Evaluation of the Rhenium-Osmium geochronometer in the Phosphoria Petroleum System, Bighorn Basin of Wyoming and Montana, USA

Rhenium–osmium (Re–Os) geochronometry is applied to crude oils derived from the Permian Phosphoria Formation of the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming and Montana to determine whether the radiogenic age reflects the timing of petroleum generation, timing of migration, age of the source rock, or the timing of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). The oils selected for this study are interpreted to be derived from the Meade Peak Phosphatic Shale and Retort Phosphatic Shale Members of the Phosphoria Formation based on oil–oil and oil–source rock correlations utilizing bulk properties, elemental composition, δ13C and δ34S values, and biomarker distributions. The δ34S values of the oils range from −6.2‰ to +5.7‰, with oils heavier than −2‰ interpreted to be indicative of TSR. The Re and Os isotope data of the Phosphoria oils plot in two general trends: (1) the main trend (n = 15 oils) yielding a Triassic age (239 ± 43 Ma) with an initial 187Os/188Os value of 0.85 ± 0.42 and a mean square weighted deviation (MSWD) of 1596, and (2) the Torchlight trend (n = 4 oils) yielding a Miocene age (9.24 ± 0.39 Ma) with an initial 187Os/188Os value of 1.88 ± 0.01 and a MSWD of 0.05. The scatter (high MSWD) in the main-trend regression is due, in part, to TSR in reservoirs along the eastern margin of the basin. Excluding oils that have experienced TSR, the regression is significantly improved, yielding an age of 211 ± 21 Ma with a MSWD of 148. This revised age is consistent with some studies that have proposed Late Triassic as the beginning of Phosphoria oil generation and migration, and does not seem to reflect the source rock age (Permian) or the timing of re-migration (Late Cretaceous to Eocene) associated with the Laramide orogeny. The low precision of the revised regression (±21 Ma) is not unexpected for this oil family given the long duration of generation from a large geographic area of mature Phosphoria source rock, and the possible range in the initial 187Os/188Os values of the Meade Peak and Retort source units. Effects of re-migration may have contributed to the scatter, but thermal cracking and biodegradation likely have had minimal or no effect on the main-trend regression. The four Phosphoria-sourced oils from Torchlight and Lamb fields yield a precise Miocene age Re–Os isochron that may reflect the end of TSR in the reservoir due to cooling below a threshold temperature in the last 10 m.y. from uplift and erosion of overlying rocks. The mechanism for the formation of a Re–Os isotopic relationship in a family of crude oils may involve multiple steps in the petroleum generation process. Bitumen generation from the source rock kerogen may provide a reset of the isotopic chronometer, and incremental expulsion of oil over the duration of the oil window may provide some of the variation seen in 187Re/188Os values from an oil family