Firm-Manager Matching and the Tradeoffs of CFO Accounting Expertise

We examine the tradeoffs of CFO accounting expertise and their role in firm-manager matching decisions. Although prior work examines the positive effects of accounting expertise on several financial reporting outcomes, there is little evidence on the tradeoffs this expertise entails, much less how firms compensate for these tradeoffs. We conjecture that acquiring accounting expertise requires costly tradeoffs in terms of acquiring other skills, including operational knowledge and strategic expertise. We find that these tradeoffs are reflected in firms’ hiring decisions ex ante and affect several ex post employment decisions. Collectively, the results suggest accounting expertise is a carefully weighed attribute of CFO hires that shapes and is shaped by the composition of the top management team

Understanding Earnings Quality: A Review of the Proxies, Their Determinants and Their Consequences

Researchers have used various measures as indications of “earnings quality” including persistence, accruals, smoothness, timeliness, loss avoidance, investor responsiveness, and external indicators such as restatements and SEC enforcement releases. For each measure, we discuss causes of variation in the measure as well as consequences. We reach no single conclusion on what earnings quality is because “quality” is contingent on the decision context. We also point out that the “quality” of earnings is a function of the firm’s fundamental performance. The contribution of a firm’s fundamental performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work

Prosocial CEOs and Accounting Information Quality

This paper examines the association between Chief Executive Officers’ (CEOs’) prosocial tendency and their companies’ accounting information quality. We measure CEOs’ prosocial tendency using their involvement with charitable organizations. Our results suggest that prosocial CEOs are less likely to manipulate financial statements, proxied by accounting irregularities identified by material non-reliance restatements and SEC or DOJ enforcement actions. Moreover, a company is less likely to have accounting irregularities and regulatory enforcement actions after a prosocial CEO replaces a non-prosocial CEO than after other types of CEO replacements. The effect of prosocial CEOs on accounting manipulations is concentrated in situations where firms are under financial distress, when Chief Financial Officers are also prosocial, and when the direct aim of the charitable organization(s) that CEOs are involved with is to improve the welfare of people in need. Further, we find that prosocial CEOs are less likely to withhold bad news and issue more earnings forecasts. Taken together, our results suggest that prosocial CEOs, who are less subject to the agency problem, provide higher quality accounting information to investors than non-prosocial CEOs

The immunomodulatory mechanisms for acupuncture practice

The system physiology approaches that emerge in western countries in recent years echo the holistic view of ancient Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices that deal with the root, rather than only the symptoms of diseases. Particularly, TCM practices, including acupuncture, emphasize the mobilization of self-healing mechanisms to bring back body homeostasis. Acupuncture has been practiced for over two thousand years to modulate body physiology via stimulation at specific body regions (acupoints). With the development of various research on acupuncture therapy, its regulatory effect on the immune system has been gradually recognized, especially on immunological diseases, including infectious and allergic diseases. In this study, we reviewed the immunomodulatory mechanism of acupuncture and systematically integrates existing research to respectively elucidate the modulatory mechanisms of acupuncture on the innate immune system, adaptive immune system, and well-known neuroanatomical mechanisms, including intact somatosensory-autonomic reflex pathway. With the advances made in recent systems physiology studies, we now have a great opportunity to gain insight into how acupuncture modulates immunity, and subsequently improves its efficacy

Role of Ammonia on the Feedback Between AWC and Inorganic Aerosol Formation During Heavy Pollution in the North China Plain

Atmospheric NH3 plays a vital role not only in the environmental ecosystem but also in atmosphere chemistry. To further understand the effects of NH3 on the formation of haze pollution in Beijing, ambient NH3 and related species were measured and simulated at high resolutions during the wintertime Air Pollution and Human Health-Beijing (APHH-Beijing) campaign in 2016. We found that the total NHx (gaseous NH3+particle NH4 +) was mostly in excess of the SO4 2−-NO3 −-NH4 +-water equilibrium system during our campaign. This NHx excess made medium aerosol acidity, with the median pH value being 3.6 and 4.5 for polluted and nonpolluted conditions, respectively, and enhanced the formation of particle phase nitrate. Our analysis suggests that NH4NO3 is the most important factor driving the increasing of aerosol water content with NO3 − controlling the prior pollution stage and NH4 + the most polluted stage. Increased formation of NH4NO3 under excess NHx, especially during the nighttime, may trigger the decreasing of aerosol deliquescence relative humidity even down to less than 50% and hence lead to hygroscopic growth even under RH conditions lower than 50% and the wet aerosol particles become better medium for rapid heterogeneous reactions. A further increase of RH promotes the positive feedback “aerosol water content-heterogeneous reactions” and ultimately leads to the formation of severe haze. Modeling results by Nested Air Quality Prediction Monitor System (NAQPMS) show the control of 20% NH3 emission may affect 5–11% of particulate matter PM2.5 formation under current emissions conditions in the North China Plain

lncRNA LOC100911717-targeting GAP43-mediated sympathetic remodeling after myocardial infarction in rats

ObjectiveSympathetic remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI) is the primary cause of ventricular arrhythmias (VAs), leading to sudden cardiac death (SCD). M1-type macrophages are closely associated with inflammation and sympathetic remodeling after MI. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are critical for the regulation of cardiovascular disease development. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the lncRNAs involved in MI and reveal a possible regulatory mechanism.Methods and resultsM0- and M1-type macrophages were selected for sequencing and screened for differentially expressed lncRNAs. The data revealed that lncRNA LOC100911717 was upregulated in M1-type macrophages but not in M0-type macrophages. In addition, the lncRNA LOC100911717 was upregulated in heart tissues after MI. Furthermore, an RNA pull-down assay revealed that lncRNA LOC100911717 could interact with growth-associated protein 43 (GAP43). Essentially, immunofluorescence assays and programmed electrical stimulation demonstrated that GAP43 expression was suppressed and VA incidence was reduced after lncRNA LOC100911717 knockdown in rat hearts using an adeno-associated virus.ConclusionsWe observed a novel relationship between lncRNA LOC100911717 and GAP43. After MI, lncRNA LOC100911717 was upregulated and GAP43 expression was enhanced, thus increasing the extent of sympathetic remodeling and the frequency of VA events. Consequently, silencing lncRNA LOC100911717 could reduce sympathetic remodeling and VAs

Next-Generation Sequencing of Cerebrospinal Fluid for the Diagnosis of Neurocysticercosis

Background: Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common helminthic infection of the central nervous system (CNS). The diagnosis of NCC is sometimes challenging due to its heterogenous clinical manifestations and the variable sensitivity and specificity of neuroimaging and serological tests.Methods: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was used to detect pathogens in patients with clinically suspected CNS infections. A series of patients diagnosed with NCC is reviewed here.Results: Using NGS of CSF, four patients were diagnosed with NCC. The reads corresponding to Taenia solium ranged from 478 to 117,362, with genomic coverage of 0.0564–11.15%. Reads corresponding to T. solium were not found in non-template controls and far exceeded those of the background microorganisms in patients with NCC, facilitating the interpretation of the NGS results.Conclusions: This case series demonstrates that NGS of CSF is promising in the diagnosis of NCC in difficult to diagnose cases. Larger studies are needed in the future