Teaching Basic Transfer Pricing Inductively Using A Student Price-Negotiation Case

Students in an introductory management accounting course are given a brief introduction to the concept of transfer pricing and presented with a transfer pricing problem without any guidance on how to solve the problem. The problem requires groups of students to play the role of a selling(buying) division and determine an acceptable minimum(maximum) price for their group before negotiating with other groups. Students learn transfer pricing inductively as they work through the details of the case and arrive at a profit maximizing price for the product they are selling(buying)

Audit Firm Affiliations with Companies Backdating Executive Stock Options

Several reports during 2005 -2007 questioned how over one-hundred pub-licly-traded companies had apparently backdated stock-option grants beginning in the 1990s. An analysis of the external audit firms affiliated with these companies revealed that these firms are dis-proportionally represented as compared to relative audit-market shares of all public companies. After controlling for industry-adjusted audit-market shares, statistically fewer backdating companies than expected used Arthur Andersen as their auditors. Overall, the results argue against the notion of audit firm involvement as a conduit for these transactions

Accounting Firm Internet Sites That Work (And Those That Do Not)

Gives advice to accounting firms in creating and maintaining an effective Internet site. Items commonly found on the accounting firm Internet sites; Suggestions in building an Internet site; Most important aspect of Internet site content

Analysts’ Evaluation of the Information Content of Changes in Auditor Types

Companies hire auditors to meet legal requirements if they are publicly traded and to provide credibility to their financial statements. However, all auditors may not provide the same level of service to third parties. Prior research regarding such events as initial public offerings has found qualitative differences among big Five and non-Big Five auditors. Companies may, therefore, switch auditors to attain some perceived qualitative difference in the audit engagement. The degree that this auditor change is or is not incorporated by financial analysts into analysts\u27 forecasts has not been fully researched for the benefit of determining if there is any information content associated with the auditor change on security prices. The results of this study show that financial analysts do not fully incorporate information relative to auditor changes in their forecasts. This study might provide insight into the currently accepted view of the Efficient Market Hypothesis with respect to the information content of auditor changes and the market\u27s interpretation of the information. In addition, analysts may need to scrutinize auditor changes more closely in order to fully understand the signal that may be included in the decision to change auditors

Silicon Valley Meets Norwalk

The article discusses financial reporting issues raised by the U. S. corporations in the increasing use of the Internet. The Internet is affecting traditional statements and audits as companies explore online options. Financial information is now easily available online, creating a new readership. CPAs must consider how to help make this information useful to the expanded public. Companies need to identify who will use their sites and provide appropriate features. Search engines help users connect information from all over a given Web site. Analysts may want to download financials into spreadsheets

The Internet: Changing the Way Corporations Tell Their Story

Discusses the effect of technological changes in the dissemination of financial information. Potential of the Internet to change the way decision makers can use the information; Future of financial disclosure

Gastrointestinal Dysfunction Criteria in Critically Ill Children: The PODIUM Consensus Conference

CONTEXT Prior criteria to define pediatric multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) did not include gastrointestinal dysfunction. OBJECTIVES Our objective was to evaluate current evidence and to develop consensus criteria for gastrointestinal dysfunction in critically ill children. DATA SOURCES Electronic searches of PubMed and EMBASE were conducted from January 1992 to January 2020, using medical subject heading terms and text words to define gastrointestinal dysfunction, pediatric critical illness, and outcomes. STUDY SELECTION Studies were included if they evaluated critically ill children with gastrointestinal dysfunction, performance characteristics of assessment/scoring tools to screen for gastrointestinal dysfunction, and assessed outcomes related to mortality, functional status, organ-specific outcomes, or other patient-centered outcomes. Studies of adults or premature infants, animal studies, reviews/commentaries, case series with sample size ≤10, and non-English language studies with inability to determine eligibility criteria were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION Data were abstracted from each eligible study into a standard data extraction form along with risk of bias assessment by a task force member. RESULTS The systematic review supports the following criteria for severe gastrointestinal dysfunction: 1a) bowel perforation, 1b) pneumatosis intestinalis, or 1c) bowel ischemia, present on plain abdominal radiograph, computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or gross surgical inspection, or 2) rectal sloughing of gut mucosa. LIMITATIONS The validity of the consensus criteria for gastrointestinal dysfunction are limited by the quantity and quality of current evidence. CONCLUSIONS Understanding the role of gastrointestinal dysfunction in the pathophysiology and outcomes of MODS is important in pediatric critical illness

Exuberant fibroblast activity compromises lung function via ADAMTS4

© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Severe respiratory infections can result in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)1. There are no effective pharmacological therapies that have been shown to improve outcomes for patients with ARDS. Although the host inflammatory response limits spread of and eventually clears the pathogen, immunopathology is a major contributor to tissue damage and ARDS1,2. Here we demonstrate that respiratory viral infection induces distinct fibroblast activation states, which we term extracellular matrix (ECM)-synthesizing, damage-responsive and interferon-responsive states. We provide evidence that excess activity of damage-responsive lung fibroblasts drives lethal immunopathology during severe influenza virus infection. By producing ECM-remodelling enzymes—in particular the ECM protease ADAMTS4—and inflammatory cytokines, damage-responsive fibroblasts modify the lung microenvironment to promote robust immune cell infiltration at the expense of lung function. In three cohorts of human participants, the levels of ADAMTS4 in the lower respiratory tract were associated with the severity of infection with seasonal or avian influenza virus. A therapeutic agent that targets the ECM protease activity of damage-responsive lung fibroblasts could provide a promising approach to preserving lung function and improving clinical outcomes following severe respiratory infections

Publisher Correction: Exuberant fibroblast activity compromises lung function via ADAMTS4 (Nature, (2020), 587, 7834, (466-471), 10.1038/s41586-020-2877-5)

© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Improving benchmarking by using an explicit framework for the development of composite indicators: an example using pediatric quality of care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The measurement of healthcare provider performance is becoming more widespread. Physicians have been guarded about performance measurement, in part because the methodology for comparative measurement of care quality is underdeveloped. Comprehensive quality improvement will require comprehensive measurement, implying the aggregation of multiple quality metrics into composite indicators.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To present a conceptual framework to develop comprehensive, robust, and transparent composite indicators of pediatric care quality, and to highlight aspects specific to quality measurement in children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We reviewed the scientific literature on composite indicator development, health systems, and quality measurement in the pediatric healthcare setting. Frameworks were selected for explicitness and applicability to a hospital-based measurement system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We synthesized various frameworks into a comprehensive model for the development of composite indicators of quality of care. Among its key premises, the model proposes identifying structural, process, and outcome metrics for each of the Institute of Medicine's six domains of quality (safety, effectiveness, efficiency, patient-centeredness, timeliness, and equity) and presents a step-by-step framework for embedding the quality of care measurement model into composite indicator development.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The framework presented offers researchers an explicit path to composite indicator development. Without a scientifically robust and comprehensive approach to measurement of the quality of healthcare, performance measurement will ultimately fail to achieve its quality improvement goals.</p