Auditor-Client Disagreements, Auditor Resignations, And Audit Fees Charged By Successor Auditors

This paper investigates the effects of auditor-client disagreement disclosure on auditor resignations and audit fee charged by successor auditors. Using a matched sample of auditor changes over the period 2003-2016, we find that auditor resignations are more often accompanied by auditor-client disagreements. We also find that Big 4 auditors are more likely to resign from their engagements when they disagree with their clients. Further, we document that successor auditors charge higher audit fees for firms that have disagreements with their predecessor auditors. Relative to non-Big 4 auditors, Big 4 successor auditors charge even higher audit fee for disagreement firms

From External Propaganda to Mediated Public Diplomacy: The Construction of the Chinese Dream in President Xi Jinping’s New Year Speeches

Manifested by China’s increasing influence and importance, the emergence of a hetero-polar world is one of the main drivers of uncertainty within the realm of international relations. Looking for ways to manage this process, the Chinese state has adopted marketing strategies such as branding in proactive propaganda which constitutes a major part of China’s internal and external political communication. The advancement of key political policies often involves systematic branding collaborations between government bodies, media (consisting of both state-controlled and commercial media, across traditional and social media platforms) and the cultural industries. This chapter theorises the success and failure of the Chinese Dream as mediated public diplomacy. We analyse the metanarrative of the Chinese Dream and the it multimodal construction across six Presidential new year speeches and argue that the successful application of the ‘Chinese Dream’ depends on the cultural congruency established by the American Dream and a range of convergent media strategies. The Chinese Dream is the continuation of formal diplomacy while incorporating various grassroots nationalistic expressions. Convergent state-controlled media and Western social media platforms have been employed to reach foreign populations and disseminate positive cultural messages from China, aiming to foster favourable opinions about the country’s continuing prosperity. Finally, a distinct ‘friend vs foe’ dichotomy within the new year speeches is used to attract foreign nations based on shared values and common beliefs. Simultaneously though, it is also a potential trigger for diplomatic uncertainties signalling tensions and conflicts

Does the Dirac Cone Exist in Silicene on Metal Substrates?

Absence of the Dirac cone due to a strong band hybridization is revealed to be a common feature for epitaxial silicene on metal substrates according to our first-principles calculations for silicene on Ir, Cu, Mg, Au, Pt, Al, and Ag substrates. The destroyed Dirac cone of silicene, however, can be effectively restored with linear or parabolic dispersion by intercalating alkali metal atoms between silicene and the metal substrates, offering an opportunity to study the intriguing properties of silicene without further transfer of silicene from the metal substrates

Branding the Chinese Dream: Reception of China’s Public Diplomacy in Britain’s “Cultural China”

Over four decades, China’s transformed propaganda system has embraced public diplomacy to dispel its perceived “threat.” The most recent strategy has been the branding of the Chinese Dream narrative. Although there has been some academic focus on China’s nation branding, little has been written about its reception by overseas audiences. Accordingly, this article draws on focus-group data and employs Tu Wei-ming’s “cultural China” framework in exploring how the Chinese Dream is received and interpreted in the United Kingdom. This article contributes to understandings of nation branding by recognising how Chinese diaspora communities and British intellectual and professional elites engage with and promote brand values. It argues that the socio-cultural aspect of branding is important for China’s identity and that using the Chinese Dream as a branding narrative is successful when it focuses on cultural and economic messaging but divides opinion when political ideology is used

Hamiltonian modeling and structure modified control of diesel engine

YesA diesel engine is a typical dynamic system. In this paper, a dynamics method is proposed to establish the Hamiltonian model of the diesel engine, which solves the main difficulty of con-structing a Hamiltonian function under the multi-field coupling condition. Furthermore, the control method of Hamiltonian model structure modification is introduced to study the control of a diesel engine. By means of the principle of energy-shaping and Hamiltonian model structure modification theories, the modified energy function is constructed, which is proved to be a quasi-Lyapunov function of the closed-loop system. Finally, the control laws are derived, and the simulations are carried out. The study reveals the dynamic mechanism of diesel engine operation and control and provides a new way to research the modeling and control of a diesel engine system.This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 51869007

Alcohol Consumption Promotes Colorectal Carcinoma Metastasis via a CCL5-Induced and AMPK-Pathway-Mediated Activation of Autophagy

There is a definite relationship between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer (CRC) development. We investigated effect of alcohol consumption on CRC patients’ progression and prognosis by utilizing epidemiological data and found patients with alcohol consumption increased risks of tumor-node-metastasis (TNM), organ metastasis and poorer prognosis. Because their tumor tissues displayed increased expression of C-C chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5), we hypothesized CCL5 might participate in cancer progression in such patients. Ethanol increased the secretion of CCL5 in two CRC cell lines, HT29 and DLD-1. Treatment with CCL5 directly increased migratory ability of these cells, whereas neutralization or knockdown of CCL5 can partially block alcohol-stimulated migration. We further investigated underlying mechanism of CCL5-induced migration. Our results indicated that effects of CCL5 on migration are mediated by the ability of CCL5 to induce autophagy, a cellular process known to be critical for migration. Using high-throughput sequencing and western blotting, we found induction of autophagy by CCL5 takes place via AMPK pathway. Aforementioned ethanol increases CCL5 secretion, CCL5 activates autophagy through AMPK pathway, and autophagy increases migration was confirmed by experiments with autophagy or AMPK inhibitors. To sum up, our study demonstrates that chronic alcohol consumption may promote metastasis of CRC through CCL5-induced autophagy