Accounting and corruption: a cross‐country analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to better understand the relationship between accounting and auditing quality and the perceived level of corruption. Design/methodology/approach – This relationship is studied by performing a cross-country analysis using public data to measure accounting quality, audit quality, and corruption. Findings – Consistent with our predictions, we find evidence that accounting and auditing quality are significantly related to the level of perceived corruption in a country. Research Limitations/implications –These findings suggest that countries with more transparent reporting have lower levels of perceived corruption and that the level of perceived corruption may be reduced in a country by improving accounting and auditing quality. Practical implications – The findings suggest that countries can reduce the level of perceived corruption by improving the transparency of financial reporting by improving accounting and auditing standards. Originality/value – While significant amounts of research has examined perceived corruption, this study is the first to address the impact of high quality accounting information on the level of perceived corruption. Keywords Corporate Governance, Comparative Accounting Systems and Practice, Auditing, International Regulations, Corruption, Business/Government interaction and relations; Paper Type Research Pape

Human adaptation to immobilization: Novel insights of impacts on glucose disposal and fuel utilization

Background: Bed rest (BR) reduces whole-body insulin-stimulated glucose disposal (GD) and alters muscle fuel metabolism, but little is known about metabolic adaptation from acute to chronic BR nor the mechanisms involved, particularly when volunteers are maintained in energy balance. Methods: Healthy males (n=10, 24.0±1.3years), maintained in energy balance, underwent 3-day BR (acute BR). A second cohort matched for sex and body mass index (n=20, 34.2±1.8years) underwent 56-day BR (chronic BR). A hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp (60mU/m2/min) was performed to determine rates of whole-body insulin-stimulated GD before and after BR (normalized to lean body mass). Indirect calorimetry was performed before and during steady state of each clamp to calculate rates of whole-body fuel oxidation. Muscle biopsies were taken to determine muscle glycogen, metabolite and intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) contents, and the expression of 191 mRNA targets before and after BR. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to detect differences in endpoint measures. Results: Acute BR reduced insulin-mediated GD (Pre 11.5±0.7 vs. Post 9.3±0.6mg/kg/min, P<0.001), which was unchanged in magnitude following chronic BR (Pre 10.2±0.4 vs. Post 7.9±0.3mg/kg/min, P<0.05). This reduction in GD was paralleled by the elimination of the 35% increase in insulin-stimulated muscle glycogen storage following both acute and chronic BR. Acute BR had no impact on insulin-stimulated carbohydrate (CHO; Pre 3.69±0.39 vs. Post 4.34±0.22mg/kg/min) and lipid (Pre 1.13±0.14 vs. Post 0.59±0.11mg/kg/min) oxidation, but chronic BR reduced CHO oxidation (Pre 3.34±0.18 vs. Post 2.72±0.13mg/kg/min, P<0.05) and blunted the magnitude of insulin-mediated inhibition of lipid oxidation (Pre 0.60±0.07 vs. Post 0.85±0.06mg/kg/min, P<0.05). Neither acute nor chronic BR increased muscle IMCL content. Plentiful mRNA abundance changes were detected following acute BR, which waned following chronic BR and reflected changes in fuel oxidation and muscle glycogen storage at this time point. Conclusions: Acute BR suppressed insulin-stimulated GD and storage, but the extent of this suppression increased no further in chronic BR. However, insulin-mediated inhibition of fat oxidation after chronic BR was less than acute BR and was accompanied by blunted CHO oxidation. The juxtaposition of these responses shows that the regulation of GD and storage can be dissociated from substrate oxidation. Additionally, the shift in substrate oxidation after chronic BR was not explained by IMCL accumulation but reflected by muscle mRNA and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 protein abundance changes, pointing to lack of muscle contraction per se as the primary signal for muscle adaptation

KELT-24b: A 5M_J Planet on a 5.6 day Well-Aligned Orbit around the Young V=8.3 F-star HD 93148

We present the discovery of KELT-24 b, a massive hot Jupiter orbiting a bright (V=8.3 mag, K=7.2 mag) young F-star with a period of 5.6 days. The host star, KELT-24 (HD 93148), has a T_(eff) =6508±49 K, a mass of M∗ = 1.461^(+0.056)_(−0.060) M_⊙, radius of R∗ = 1.506±0.022 R_⊙, and an age of 0.77^(+0.61)_(−0.42) Gyr. Its planetary companion (KELT-24 b) has a radius of R_P = 1.272^(+0.021)_(−0.022) R_J, a mass of MP = 5.18^(+0.21)_(−0.22) M_J, and from Doppler tomographic observations, we find that the planet's orbit is well-aligned to its host star's projected spin axis (λ = 2.6^(+5.1)_(−3.6)). The young age estimated for KELT-24 suggests that it only recently started to evolve from the zero-age main sequence. KELT-24 is the brightest star known to host a transiting giant planet with a period between 5 and 10 days. Although the circularization timescale is much longer than the age of the system, we do not detect a large eccentricity or significant misalignment that is expected from dynamical migration. The brightness of its host star and its moderate surface gravity make KELT-24b an intriguing target for detailed atmospheric characterization through spectroscopic emission measurements since it would bridge the current literature results that have primarily focused on lower mass hot Jupiters and a few brown dwarfs

Another Shipment of Six Short-Period Giant Planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -- TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), & TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 <G< 11.8, 7.7 <K< 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (R$_{P}$ = 1.00-1.45 R$_{J}$), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.35 M$_{J}$, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4753 $<$ T$_{eff}$ $<$ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 days, $e$ = $0.220\pm0.053$), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 days, $e$ = $0.182^{+0.039}_{-0.049}$), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 days, $e$ = $0.196^{+0.059}_{-0.053}$). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 $<$ $\log$ g $<$4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; $5.35^{+0.32}_{-0.35}$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2145 b) and $5.21\pm0.52$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use {\it TESS} to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies.Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures, 8 Tables, Accepted by MNRA

Corporate Governance Quality and Internal Control Reporting under SOX Section 302

I examine firm governance characteristics for a sample of companies disclosing material weaknesses under section 404 of SOX to examine what factors impact the likelihood that a company will disclose those material weaknesses prior to their first section 404 report (under section 302 reporting requirements). I find companies that were audited by industry leading auditors, that have higher quality audit committees, that have shorter auditor/client relationships, that recently restated their financial statements or have been the subject of an SEC AAER, or that have experienced poor financial performance are more likely to discover and disclose weaknesses in their controls under section 302. I find moderate evidence of a positive relationship between company's that have a CFO with financial accounting background and disclosure prior to the SOX 404 report and a negative relationship between a company's institutional ownership concentration and the probability that they disclose weaknesses in their controls prior to the SOX 404 report. In sensitivity tests, I find a positive relationship between a company's institutional ownership concentration and the probability that they disclose significant deficiencies in their controls prior to the SOX 404 report suggesting systematic misclassification of control problems as significant deficiencies rather than material weaknesses in high institutional ownership concentration settings

Nuclear Star Clusters & Black Holes

We summarize the recent results of our survey of the nearest nuclear star clusters. The purpose of the survey is to understand nuclear star cluster formation mechanisms and constrain the presence of black holes using adaptive optics assisted integral field spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy, and HST imaging in 13 galaxies within 5 Mpc. We discuss the formation history of the nuclear star cluster and possible detection of an intermediate mass BH in NGC 404, the nearest S0 galaxy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in "Hunting for the Dark: The Hidden Side of Galaxy Formation", Malta, 19-23 Oct. 2009, eds. V.P. Debattista and C.C. Popescu, AIP Conf. Ser., in pres

A NATIONAL STUDY OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF FIRE AND FIRE SURROGATE TREATMENTS

Many U.S. forests, especially those with historically short-interval, low- to moderate-severity fire regimes, are too dense and have excessive quantities of fuels. Widespread treatments are needed to restore ecological integrity and reduce the high risk of destructive, uncharacteristically severe fires in these forests. Among possible treatments, however, the appropriate balance among cuttings, mechanical fuel treatments, and prescribed fire is often unclear. For improved decisionmaking, resource managers need much better information about the consequences of alternative management practices involving fire and mechanicaVmanual fire surrogates. Long-term, interdisciplinary research thus should be initiated to quantify the consequences and tradeoffs of alternative fire and fire surrogate treatments. Ecological, economic and social aspects must all be included as integral components. The research needs to be experimental, rather than retrospective or correlative, to permit stronger inferences about cause-and-effect relationships. Only through such research will it be possible to determine which ecosystem functions of fire can be emulated satisfactorily by other means, which may be irreplaceable, and the implications for management. The human dimensions of the problem are equally important. Treatment costs and utilization economics, as well as social and political acceptability, strongly influence decisions about treatment alternatives. Such research must be a cooperative effort, involving land managers, researchers, and other interested parties. A team of scientists and land managers has designed an integrated national network of long-term research sites to address this need, with support from the USDAIUSDI Joint Fire Science Program (http://www.nifc.gov/joint_fire_sci/index.html). The steering committee and other participants in this national FirelFire Surrogate (FFS) study represent a number of federal and state agencies, universities, and private entities, as well as a wide range of disciplines and geographic regions. The study will use a common experimental design to facilitate broad applicability of results