31 research outputs found
Money laundering through consulting firms
The aim of this article is to illustrate potential conduits for money laundering in the consulting
sector in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. A qualitative content
analysis of 100 semi-standardized expert interviews with both criminals and prevention
experts was conducted, along with a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers, allowing
for the identification of concrete methods of money laundering in the consulting sector. Due
to their excellent reputation, consulting companies in German-speaking countries in Europe
continue to be extraordinarily attractive to money launderers. Most notably, they can be
used for layering and integration, as well as for working around various issues with tax
codes. As the qualitative findings are based on semi-standardized interviews, they are limited
to only the 100 interviewees’ perspectives. The identification of loopholes and weaknesses
in the current anti-money laundering mechanisms is meant to provide compliance officers,
law enforcement agencies, and legislators with valuable insights into how criminals operate,
with the aim of helping them to more effectively combat money laundering. While the
previous literature focuses on organizations fighting money laundering and on the improvement
of anti-money laundering measures, this article illustrates how money launderers
operate to avoid arrest. Prevention methods and criminal perspectives are equally taken
into account
Book Review
The book critically assesses cooperation in the German healthcare sector. In particular, it
analyzes the role of bribery and discusses various forms of legal and illegal cooperation with
and between healthcare institutions. In this context, it also provides a detailed overview of
competition law implications. The book concludes by illustrating the practical role of bribery
in the German healthcare sector and provides concrete suggestions for criminal defense lawyers
Eliminating bribery - an incentive-based approach
This article discusses the potential role of incentive systems in combating bribery. In particular,
it uses an agency theory approach to show how a combination of bonus and malus
payments could help to eliminate bribery in multinational corporations. Expert interviews
with 35 anti-bribery specialists from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland
were conducted and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. It was found that employees
should be rewarded for both productivity and compliance. In addition, performance
should be measured in a matrix and whistleblowers should receive a bonus for reporting
undesired behavior. Conversely, significant risks associated with incentives for whistleblowing
were also identified. Whilst the empirical findings focus on Europe, their implications
could be applied globally
The Human Lung Cell Atlas: A High-Resolution Reference Map of the Human Lung in Health and Disease.
Lung disease accounts for every sixth death globally. Profiling the molecular state of all lung cell types in health and disease is currently revolutionizing the identification of disease mechanisms and will aid the design of novel diagnostic and personalized therapeutic regimens. Recent progress in high-throughput techniques for single-cell genomic and transcriptomic analyses has opened up new possibilities to study individual cells within a tissue, classify these into cell types, and characterize variations in their molecular profiles as a function of genetics, environment, cell-cell interactions, developmental processes, aging, or disease. Integration of these cell state definitions with spatial information allows the in-depth molecular description of cellular neighborhoods and tissue microenvironments, including the tissue resident structural and immune cells, the tissue matrix, and the microbiome. The Human Cell Atlas consortium aims to characterize all cells in the healthy human body and has prioritized lung tissue as one of the flagship projects. Here, we present the rationale, the approach, and the expected impact of a Human Lung Cell Atlas.Supported by the Helmholtz Association and the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) (H.B.S.); the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement 753039 (L.M.S.); U.K. Medical Research Council grant G0900424 (E.L.R.); National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants ES013995, HL071643, and AG049665, and Veterans Administration grant BX000201 and Department of Defense grant PR141319 (G.R.S.B.); NIH grants HL135124 and AI135964 and Department of Defense grant PR141319 (A.V.M.); NIH grants R01HL141852, R01HL127349, UHHL3123886, U01HL122626, and UG3TR002445, and Department of Defence grant PR151124 (N.K.); and the Netherlands Lung Foundation grants 5.1.14.020 and 4.1.18.226 (M.C.N.)
The discovAIR project:a roadmap towards the Human Lung Cell Atlas
The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) consortium aims to establish an atlas of all organs in the healthy human body at single-cell resolution to increase our understanding of basic biological processes that govern development, physiology and anatomy, and to accelerate diagnosis and treatment of disease. The lung biological network of the HCA aims to generate the Human Lung Cell Atlas as a reference for the cellular repertoire, molecular cell states and phenotypes, and the cell-cell interactions that characterise normal lung homeostasis in healthy lung tissue. Such a reference atlas of the healthy human lung will facilitate mapping the changes in the cellular landscape in disease. The discovAIR project is one of six pilot actions for the HCA funded by the European Commission in the context of the H2020 framework program. DiscovAIR aims to establish the first draft of an integrated Human Lung Cell Atlas, combining single-cell transcriptional and epigenetic profiling with spatially resolving techniques on matched tissue samples, as well as including a number of chronic and infectious diseases of the lung. The integrated Lung Cell Atlas will be available as a resource for the wider respiratory community, including basic and translational scientists, clinical medicine, and the private sector, as well as for patients with lung disease and the interested lay public. We anticipate that the Lung Cell Atlas will be the founding stone for a more detailed understanding of the pathogenesis of lung diseases, guiding the design of novel diagnostics and preventive or curative interventions
An integrated cell atlas of the lung in health and disease
Single-cell technologies have transformed our understanding of human tissues. Yet, studies typically capture only a limited number of donors and disagree on cell type definitions. Integrating many single-cell datasets can address these limitations of individual studies and capture the variability present in the population. Here we present the integrated Human Lung Cell Atlas (HLCA), combining 49 datasets of the human respiratory system into a single atlas spanning over 2.4 million cells from 486 individuals. The HLCA presents a consensus cell type re-annotation with matching marker genes, including annotations of rare and previously undescribed cell types. Leveraging the number and diversity of individuals in the HLCA, we identify gene modules that are associated with demographic covariates such as age, sex and body mass index, as well as gene modules changing expression along the proximal-to-distal axis of the bronchial tree. Mapping new data to the HLCA enables rapid data annotation and interpretation. Using the HLCA as a reference for the study of disease, we identify shared cell states across multiple lung diseases, including SPP1+ profibrotic monocyte-derived macrophages in COVID-19, pulmonary fibrosis and lung carcinoma. Overall, the HLCA serves as an example for the development and use of large-scale, cross-dataset organ atlases within the Human Cell Atlas
Eliminating bribery - an incentive-based approach
This article discusses the potential role of incentive systems in combating bribery. In particular,
it uses an agency theory approach to show how a combination of bonus and malus
payments could help to eliminate bribery in multinational corporations. Expert interviews
with 35 anti-bribery specialists from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland
were conducted and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. It was found that employees
should be rewarded for both productivity and compliance. In addition, performance
should be measured in a matrix and whistleblowers should receive a bonus for reporting
undesired behavior. Conversely, significant risks associated with incentives for whistleblowing
were also identified. Whilst the empirical findings focus on Europe, their implications
could be applied globally
Eliminating bribery - an incentive-based approach
This article discusses the potential role of incentive systems in combating bribery. In particular,
it uses an agency theory approach to show how a combination of bonus and malus
payments could help to eliminate bribery in multinational corporations. Expert interviews
with 35 anti-bribery specialists from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland
were conducted and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. It was found that employees
should be rewarded for both productivity and compliance. In addition, performance
should be measured in a matrix and whistleblowers should receive a bonus for reporting
undesired behavior. Conversely, significant risks associated with incentives for whistleblowing
were also identified. Whilst the empirical findings focus on Europe, their implications
could be applied globally
Money laundering through consulting firms
The aim of this article is to illustrate potential conduits for money laundering in the consulting
sector in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. A qualitative content
analysis of 100 semi-standardized expert interviews with both criminals and prevention
experts was conducted, along with a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers, allowing
for the identification of concrete methods of money laundering in the consulting sector. Due
to their excellent reputation, consulting companies in German-speaking countries in Europe
continue to be extraordinarily attractive to money launderers. Most notably, they can be
used for layering and integration, as well as for working around various issues with tax
codes. As the qualitative findings are based on semi-standardized interviews, they are limited
to only the 100 interviewees’ perspectives. The identification of loopholes and weaknesses
in the current anti-money laundering mechanisms is meant to provide compliance officers,
law enforcement agencies, and legislators with valuable insights into how criminals operate,
with the aim of helping them to more effectively combat money laundering. While the
previous literature focuses on organizations fighting money laundering and on the improvement
of anti-money laundering measures, this article illustrates how money launderers
operate to avoid arrest. Prevention methods and criminal perspectives are equally taken
into account
Money laundering through consulting firms
The aim of this article is to illustrate potential conduits for money laundering in the consulting
sector in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. A qualitative content
analysis of 100 semi-standardized expert interviews with both criminals and prevention
experts was conducted, along with a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers, allowing
for the identification of concrete methods of money laundering in the consulting sector. Due
to their excellent reputation, consulting companies in German-speaking countries in Europe
continue to be extraordinarily attractive to money launderers. Most notably, they can be
used for layering and integration, as well as for working around various issues with tax
codes. As the qualitative findings are based on semi-standardized interviews, they are limited
to only the 100 interviewees’ perspectives. The identification of loopholes and weaknesses
in the current anti-money laundering mechanisms is meant to provide compliance officers,
law enforcement agencies, and legislators with valuable insights into how criminals operate,
with the aim of helping them to more effectively combat money laundering. While the
previous literature focuses on organizations fighting money laundering and on the improvement
of anti-money laundering measures, this article illustrates how money launderers
operate to avoid arrest. Prevention methods and criminal perspectives are equally taken
into account