Bookkeeping In The Cloud: Advancements In Accounting Software

In our constantly changing economy, it is crucial for a business to be able to stay flexible and responsive with the information it gathers, processes, and provides. Due to this fact, the relationship between information technology (IT) and businesses has grown tremendously through the years. One of the newest concepts from IT is cloud computing. This service allows for the connection of multiple devices to servers around the world from any location with an internet connection. Cloud computing has started to secure a foothold in the accounting software market. While the users of this new software are increasing every year, many firms and businesses are still cautious on making the switch. This paper will mitigate the concerns of accountants about the software by addressing how the software works and the various advantages and disadvantages that it provides to a firm

Seagrass Habitats as Nurseries for Reef-Associated Fish: Evidence from Fish Assemblages in and Adjacent to a Recently Established No-Take Marine Reserve in Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, USA

Scientists and managers worldwide have increasingly advocated the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) to protect at—risk fish stocks. Most MPAs, however, have been established to protect reefs, while nonreef habitats, such as seagrasses, have received less consideration. In January 2007, an MPA called the Research Natural Area (RNA), was established as a no—take marine reserve in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida (DTNP), becoming the first MPA within the park boundaries to offer direct protection to seagrasses and reef habitat. We conducted a study using small—mesh Antillean Z—traps to (1) characterize fish assemblages in seagrass and reef habitats and (2) assess if differences in community structure existed between the RNA and adjacent open—use areas. Over 3 sampling events (Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010), 3,163 individuals of 38 species were collected from 129 stations. Fish assemblages differed significantly among sampling events and between habitat types, but no differences were evident between the RNA and open—use areas. Unlike previous sampling efforts that focused on larger—bodied fish in the DTNP, Z—traps targeted small—bodied reef— and seagrass—associated fishes. Juvenile Haemulon plumierii and Epinephelus morio strongly contributed to community structure and were more abundant in seagrass habitats, which may serve as an important nursery area. Because the RNA was only established 2 years before this study was conducted, it could still be several years before benefits to the juvenile population become evident, but this study establishes the importance of consider-ing seagrass habitats when developing a reef—associated no—take marine reserve

Millimeter Dust Emission and Planetary Dynamics in the HD 106906 System

Debris disks are dusty, optically thin structures around main sequence stars. HD 106906AB is a short-period stellar binary, host to a wide separation planet, HD 106906b, and a debris disk. Only a few known systems include a debris disk and a directly imaged planet, and HD 106906 is the only one in which the planet is exterior to the disk. The debris disk is edge-on and highly asymmetric in scattered light. Here we resolve the disk structure at a resolution of 0.38" (39 au) with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. We model the disk with both a narrow and broad ring of material, and find that a radially broad, axisymmetric disk between radii of $\sim$50$-$100 au is able to capture the structure of the observations without evidence of any asymmetry or eccentricity, other than a tentative stellocentric offset. We place stringent upper limits on both the gas and dust content of a putative circumplanetary disk. We interpret the ALMA data in concert with scattered light observations of the inner ring and astrometric constraints on the planet's orbit, and find that the observations are consistent with a large-separation, low-eccentricity orbit for the planet. A dynamical analysis indicates that the central binary can efficiently stabilize planetesimal orbits interior to $\sim$100 au, which relaxes the constraints on eccentricity and semimajor axis somewhat. The observational constraints are consistent with in situ formation via gravitational instability, but cannot rule out a scattering event as the origin for HD 106906b's current orbit

DHODH modulates transcriptional elongation in the neural crest and melanoma

Melanoma is a tumour of transformed melanocytes, which are originally derived from the embryonic neural crest. It is unknown to what extent the programs that regulate neural crest development interact with mutations in the BRAF oncogene, which is the most commonly mutated gene in human melanoma1. We have used zebrafish embryos to identify the initiating transcriptional events that occur on activation of human BRAF(V600E) (which encodes an amino acid substitution mutant of BRAF) in the neural crest lineage. Zebrafish embryos that are transgenic for mitfa:BRAF(V600E) and lack p53 (also known as tp53) have a gene signature that is enriched for markers of multipotent neural crest cells, and neural crest progenitors from these embryos fail to terminally differentiate. To determine whether these early transcriptional events are important for melanoma pathogenesis, we performed a chemical genetic screen to identify small-molecule suppressors of the neural crest lineage, which were then tested for their effects on melanoma. One class of compound, inhibitors of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), for example leflunomide, led to an almost complete abrogation of neural crest development in zebrafish and to a reduction in the self-renewal of mammalian neural crest stem cells. Leflunomide exerts these effects by inhibiting the transcriptional elongation of genes that are required for neural crest development and melanoma growth. When used alone or in combination with a specific inhibitor of the BRAF(V600E) oncogene, DHODH inhibition led to a marked decrease in melanoma growth both in vitro and in mouse xenograft studies. Taken together, these studies highlight developmental pathways in neural crest cells that have a direct bearing on melanoma formation

Resolved Images of Large Cavities in Protoplanetary Transition Disks

Circumstellar disks are thought to experience a rapid "transition" phase in their evolution that can have a considerable impact on the formation and early development of planetary systems. We present new and archival high angular resolution (0.3" = 40-75 AU) Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of the 880 micron dust continuum emission from 12 such transition disks in nearby star-forming regions. In each case, we directly resolve a dust-depleted disk cavity around the central star. Using radiative transfer calculations, we interpret these dust disk structures in a homogeneous, parametric model framework by reproducing their SMA visibilities and SEDs. The cavities in these disks are large (R_cav = 15-73 AU) and substantially depleted of small (~um-sized) dust grains, although their mass contents are still uncertain. The structures of the remnant material at larger radii are comparable to normal disks. We demonstrate that these large cavities are common among the millimeter-bright disk population, comprising at least 20% of the disks in the bright half of the millimeter luminosity (disk mass) distribution. Utilizing these results, we assess some of the physical mechanisms proposed to account for transition disk structures. As has been shown before, photoevaporation models do not produce the large cavity sizes, accretion rates, and disk masses representative of this sample. It would be difficult to achieve a sufficient decrease of the dust optical depths in these cavities by particle growth alone: substantial growth (to meter sizes or beyond) must occur in large (tens of AU) regions of low turbulence without also producing an abundance of small particles. Given those challenges, we suggest instead that the observations are most commensurate with dynamical clearing due to tidal interactions with low-mass companions --young brown dwarfs or giant planets on long-period orbits.Comment: ApJ, in pres