Board structure and modified audit opinions: the case of the Portuguese Stock Exchange

Prior research has found evidence that some characteristics of the board of directors influence the quality of accounting information (e.g., Beasley, 1996; Dechow et al., 1996; Klein, 2002a; Xie et al., 2003). In this study we extend the literature by analysing a different dimension of accounting information quality, the probability of a firm receiving a modified audit opinion. Using a sample of companies listed on Euronext Lisbon where firms can publish financial statements not in accordance with GAAP, unlike the current situation in other markets like the US, and 91 firm-year observations for the period 2002-03, we find evidence consistent with the hypotheses that board diligence and independence contribute negatively to the probability of a modified opinion, while board size is not statistically significant. Our results are robust to different specifications and also show that financial health, performance, growth opportunities and the existence of dividend payments are additional factors affecting the likelihood of a modified audit opinion.auditing, modified opinions, accounting quality, board structure, corporate governance, non-executive directors

Discurso escolar e ideología en Mafalda

En el presente trabajo se analiza el texto 1085 del Cómic Mafalda, se utiliza un esquema de análisis que incluye elementos gráficos como la tipografía; el color, las imágenes y la distribución del espacio, a la par con los niveles lingüísticoscomo: sonidos, morfología, sintaxis, semántica y pragmática. La deconstrucción evidencia cómo el texto critica el nacionalismo propagado en el lenguaje oficial; el contraste con otras fuentes permite descubrir la posición del autor enrelación con esta idea. Uno de los medios más determinantes en la consolidación de las ideologías es el discurso escolar; Quino presenta una escena que patentiza la forma como procede la educación para fundar los pensamientos de las colectividades

Amantes que se desvanecen en el tiempo: la memoria etnográfica o la compleja significación de las leyendas

Los mitos y leyendas no están tan lejos como a veces se ha creído del rumor o del cuento, pues con ellos comparten -a menudo- los mismos asuntos. Pero, a diferencia de ellos -que son cosa del instante o claramente intemporales-, mito y leyenda constituyen una parte poco conocida y, sin embargo, muy importante de la memoria colectiva. Sus relatos aluden a la vez al pasado y presente de los pueblos, contribuyendo a configurar un tiempo y una memoria continuos que -por haber sido estudiados especialmente desde la antropologíapodríamos denominar “etnográficos”. A través del análisis de la compleja formación de algunas leyendas, este trabajo propone que hay algún tipo de “verdad” en lo legendario: que nos dice algo importante sobre la visión que unas gentes tienen de sí mismas y de los otros a lo largo del tiempo.Myths and legends are not so distant from rumour or tales as has often been believed, for they share -frequently- the same topics. But, in contrast to the later -which are momentary or clearly not temporary- myth and legend furthermore constitute a little known and yet very important part of collective memory. Their accounts allude to both the past and the present of peoples, contributing to the shaping of a continuous time and memory which -by having been studied especially from an anthropological perspective- we could designate as “ethnographical”. Through the analysis of the complex formation of some legends, this paper suggests that there exists some sort of “truth” in the legendary: that tell us something important about the view held by some peoples of themselves and of others

La nación imperial y la legislación colonial: la justificación ideológica de un régimen de excepción

La oleada de revoluciones que sacudió al mundo atlántico entre finales del siglo XVIII e inicios del XIX significó el paso de los antiguos Estados absolutistas, monarquías compuestas formadas por agregación dinástica y con pluralidad jurídica, a los modernos Estados-nación, que sancionaron una igualación jurídica y proclamaron una serie de derechos consagrados en sus constituciones liberales. Sin embargo, además de las dificultades para la implantación y consolidación de estas transformaciones en los propios espacios metropolitanos, los extensos dominios coloniales que estos incipientes Estados-nacionales habían heredado de su actividad colonizadora durante la Edad Moderna quedaron frecuentemente excluidos de estos procesos y fueron sometidos a una legislación “especial” que negaba la extensión de estos derechos y los relegaba a una situación de arbitrariedad e inferioridad jurídica. Los principales objetivos de este trabajo son examinar brevemente las características generales y el proceso por el que se gestó esta legislación colonial y sobre todo analizar los discursos invocados para la justificación de esta legislación de excepción por parte de los principales teóricos e ideólogos de los diferentes imperios, agrupándolos en una serie de categorías para su análisis en perspectiva comparada

Optimal methods for fitting probability distributions to propagule retention time in studies of zoochorous dispersal

Background: Propagule retention time is a key factor in determining propagule dispersal distance and the shape of “seed shadows”. Propagules dispersed by animal vectors are either ingested and retained in the gut until defecation or attached externally to the body until detachment. Retention time is a continuous variable, but it is commonly measured at discrete time points, according to pre-established sampling time-intervals. Although parametric continuous distributions have been widely fitted to these interval-censored data, the performance of different fitting methods has not been evaluated. To investigate the performance of five different fitting methods, we fitted parametric probability distributions to typical discretized retention-time data with known distribution using as data-points either the lower, mid or upper bounds of sampling intervals, as well as the cumulative distribution of observed values (using either maximum likelihood or non-linear least squares for parameter estimation); then compared the estimated and original distributions to assess the accuracy of each method. We also assessed the robustness of these methods to variations in the sampling procedure (sample size and length of sampling time-intervals). Results: Fittings to the cumulative distribution performed better for all types of parametric distributions (lognormal, gamma and Weibull distributions) and were more robust to variations in sample size and sampling time-intervals. These estimated distributions had negligible deviations of up to 0.045 in cumulative probability of retention times (according to the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic) in relation to original distributions from which propagule retention time was simulated, supporting the overall accuracy of this fitting method. In contrast, fitting the sampling-interval bounds resulted in greater deviations that ranged from 0.058 to 0.273 in cumulative probability of retention times, which may introduce considerable biases in parameter estimates. Conclusions: We recommend the use of cumulative probability to fit parametric probability distributions to propagule retention time, specifically using maximum likelihood for parameter estimation. Furthermore, the experimental design for an optimal characterization of unimodal propagule retention time should contemplate at least 500 recovered propagules and sampling time-intervals not larger than the time peak of propagule retrieval, except in the tail of the distribution where broader sampling time-intervals may also produce accurate fitsPeer reviewe

Migratory Birds as Global Dispersal Vectors

Propagule dispersal beyond local scales has been considered rare and unpredictable. However, for many plants, invertebrates, and microbes dispersed by birds, long-distance dispersal (LDD) might be regularly achieved when mediated by migratory movements. Because LDD operates over spatial extents spanning hundreds to thousands of kilometers, it can promote rapid range shifts and determine species distributions. We review evidence supporting this widespread LDD service and propose a conceptual framework for estimating LDD by migratory birds. Although further research and validation efforts are still needed, we show that current knowledge can be used to make more realistic estimations of LDD mediated by regular bird migrations, thus refining current predictions of its ecological and evolutionary consequences.Peer reviewe

New PCA-based Category Encoder for Cybersecurity and Processing Data in IoT Devices

Increasing the cardinality of categorical variables might decrease the overall performance of machine learning (ML) algorithms. This paper presents a novel computational preprocessing method to convert categorical to numerical variables ML algorithms. It uses a supervised binary classifier to extract additional context-related features from the categorical values. Up to two numerical variables per categorical variable are created, depending on the compression achieved by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The method requires two hyperparameters: a threshold related to the distribution of categories in the variables and the PCA representativeness. This paper applies the proposed approach to the well-known cybersecurity NSLKDD dataset to select and convert three categorical features to numerical features. After choosing the threshold parameter, we use conditional probabilities to convert the three categorical variables into six new numerical variables. After that, we feed these numerical variables to the PCA algorithm and select the whole or partial numbers of the Principal Components (PCs). Finally, by applying binary classification with ten different classifiers, we measure the performance of the new encoder and compare it with the other 17 well-known category encoders. The new technique achieves the highest performance related to accuracy and Area Under the Curve (AUC) on high cardinality categorical variables. Also, we define the harmonic average metrics to find the best trade-off between train and test performances and prevent underfitting and overfitting. Ultimately, the number of newly created numerical variables is minimal. This data reduction improves computational processing time in Internet of things (IoT) devices in future telecommunication networks.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

La evanescencia del pueblo y los usos del romancero como factor de identidad política

The compilation and study of the ballad tradition in general and the romancero in particular, have constituted, since they began to wake up the interest of the romantic folklorists, a specially propitious field to be used like factor of reconstruction of political identities. The fact that music and text they are in all ballad traditions united and combined fosters that potentiality. What this work discusses is why in the case of romancero the dominant tendency in research has been characterized until present times by the approach on a national or Hispanic scale, getting to even advise against the practice of the regional or provincial collections. And what methodological changes have been carried out by this position, which cannot be separated, on the other hand, from a theoretical concept of folk as national folk and which determines, in parallel, the evanescence and liquation of located and particular people, those who not only transmit, but also create culture, the true folk.La recopilación y el estudio de la balada en general, y del romancero en particular, ha constituido, desde que se empieza a despertar el interés de los folkloristas románticos, un campo especialmente propicio para ser utilizado como factor de reconstrucción de identidades políticas. El hecho de que música y texto estén en toda baladística inseparablemente unidos favorece esa potencialidad. Lo que este trabajo se plantea es por qué en el caso del romancero la tendencia dominante en su estudio se ha caracterizado hasta el presente por un enfoque a escala nacional o hispánico, llegando a desaconsejarse incluso la práctica de las colecciones regionales o provinciales. Y qué condicionamientos metodológicos ha acarreado esta postura, a la que no se puede desligar –de otro lado– de una determinada concepción teórica de pueblo, como pueblo-nación, la cual viene a determinar –paralelamente– la evanescencia y licuación de una gente o pueblo más localizados y concretos: quienes no sólo transmiten, sino también crean la cultura, el verdadero folk

El folklore dentro de las disciplinas antropológicas : tradición y nuevos enfoques

Este artículo trata de las relaciones entre folklore y antropología a lo largo de la historia. Y plantea el posible o recomendable entronque, para la -en su momento- emergente antropología española, de los estudios de folklore dentro de las disciplinas antropológicas en un marco académico y científico internacional. Para ello, hace un repaso conceptual, que va de su definición al surgir como romántico "descubrimiento del pueblo" a las redefiniciones actuales. Y reivindica el sentido que tiene su inclusión en una visión integral de la antropología como la subdisciplina o especialización que se ocuparía de los aspectos estéticos y creativos de las culturas en su conjunto.Aquest article tracta de les relacions entre folklore i antropologia al llarg de la història. I planteja el possible o recomanable entroncament, per a la -en el seu moment- emergent antropologia espanyola, dels estudis de folklore dins de les disciplines antropològiques en un marc acadèmic i científic internacional. Per això, fa un repàs conceptual, que va de la seva definició en sorgir com a romàntic "descobriment del poble" a les redefinicions actuals. I reivindica el sentit que té la seva inclusió en una visió integral de l'antropologia com la subdisciplina o l'especialització que s'ocuparia dels aspectes estètics i creatius de les cultures en conjunt.This article deals with the relationships between folklore and anthropology throughout history. And it raises the possible or recommendable connection, for the -at the time- emerging Spanish anthropology, of folklore studies within anthropological disciplines in an international academic and scientific framework. To do this, it makes a conceptual review, which goes from its definition when it emerged as a romantic "discovery of the people" to the current redefinitions. And it vindicates the meaning of its inclusion in an integral vision of anthropology as the subdiscipline or specialization that would deal with the aesthetic and creative aspects of cultures as a whole.Este artigo trata das relações entre folclore e antropologia ao longo da história. E levanta a conexão possível ou recomendável, para a -então emergente antropologia espanhola, dos estudos folclóricos dentro das disciplinas antropológicas em um quadro acadêmico e científico internacional. Para isso, faz uma revisão conceitual, que vai desde sua definição quando surgiu como uma "descoberta do povo" romântica até as redefinições atuais. E reivindica o sentido de sua inclusão em uma visão integral da antropologia como a subdisciplina ou especialização que lidaria com os aspectos estéticos e criativos das culturas como um todo