Exploring the forensic accounting practice in the UK: evidence from the profession

Since the recent accounting scandals, policy makers and regulators have been developing strict measures coupled with continuous improvements in corporate governance practices to protect the economy from corruption and fraudulent acts. Forensic accounting has emerged in an effort to detect and prevent these financial crimes. This research focuses on investigating the practice of forensic accounting in the UK and the role of the accounting profession in the professionalisation of forensic accounting. Drawing from Abbott’s (1988) thesis of a system of professions, the study sets out to examine the problem that has initiated the need for this professional work; how the accounting profession’s subjective interpretation of this problem has impacted their legitimation of the forensic accounting practice; the professional work that the accounting profession has managed to legitimise through such subjective interpretation; the abstract and professional knowledge needed to legitimise, strengthen and extend the accounting profession’s expertise into new jurisdictions of the forensic accounting practice; and the regulatory role to protect the boundaries of professional work from competitors; and, the internal and external disturbances that have shaped the forensic accounting practice. Those disturbances result in professional rivalry, competition and eventual jurisdictional settlement, areas also investigated in this study. Although recent studies in the field of forensic accounting have focused on issues relating to the emergence of its practice, much literature remains silent with respect to the role of the accounting profession in the professionalisation process of forensic accounting, which has lead to the emergence and recent boom of this area of expertise. Furthermore, the role of social actors such as the big four accounting firms in the professionalisation process is invisible in the accounting literature. This is because very little mainstream accounting research focuses on the social construction of the accounting practice. Therefore, the contribution of this study is two-fold. First, it adds to the rare forensic accounting literature by providing in-depth account of the features and functions of forensic accounting. Second, it provides empirical evidence on the role of the accounting profession in the professionalisation process of forensic accounting. The author has, therefore, employed an interpretive approach that considers the political and social factors influencing the current outlook of the forensic accounting practice. A multiple case study design was employed, where three subjects of investigation were chosen, namely Big Four firms, specialist forensic investigative firms, and accounting professional bodies. Employing a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches; interviews, documentation analysis and postal-survey questionnaires were chosen as the appropriate methods for an in-depth investigation of the development of forensic accounting. The findings of this study highlight that forensic accounting professionalisation has been greatly influenced by the subjective interpretation of the accounting profession, where powerful legitimacy and marketing strategies have been employed by the accounting profession to legitimise the forensic accounting practice. The accounting profession was able to claim, strengthen and extend its legitimacy in almost all practice areas of forensic accounting, thus becoming the main provider of forensic accounting services. The study finds that state regulation, the technological explosion, globalisation and the economic downturn have all contributed to the accounting profession success in claiming such status. The study further finds that intra-professional competition plays a major role in shaping the dynamics of the forensic accounting practice. Such competition, together with the relative lack of regulating standards within the forensic accounting practice, had shed light on a new form of professionalisation, where the big four accounting firms had a major role in regulating the market. This latter point is of importance to policy makers and standard setters

Self-Assembly and Characterization of Germanium Quantum Dots on Silicon by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Self-assembled Ge quantum dots (QD) are grown on Si(100)-(2×1) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). In situ reflection-high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and post-deposition atomic force microscopy (AFM) are used to study the growth dynamics and morphology of the QDs. Several films of different thicknesses were grown at a substrate temperature of 400°C using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (λ = 1064 mu, 40 ns pulse width, 23 J/cm2 fluence, and 10 Hz repetition rate). At low film thicknesses, but clusters that are faceted by different planes, depending on their height, are observed after the completion of the wetting layer. With increasing film thickness, the size of the clusters grows, and they gradually lose their facetation and become more rounded. With further thickness increase, the shape of these clusters becomes dome-like with some pyramids observed among the majority of domes. The effect of the laser fluence on the morphology of the grown clusters was studied. The cluster density was found to increase dramatically while the average cluster size decreased with the increase in the laser fluence. For a laser fluence of 70 J/cm2, dome-shaped clusters that are smaller than the large huts formed at 23 J/cm2 were observed. At a substrate temperature of 150°C, misoriented three-dimensional (3D) clusters formed producing only a RHEED background. At 400 and 500°C, huts and a lower density of domes formed, respectively. Above 600°C, 3D clusters formed on top of a discontinuous textured layer. As an application, pulsed laser deposition is used to fabricate multilayered Ge quantum-dot photodetector on Si(100). Forty successive Ge quantum dot layers, each covered with a thin Si layer, were deposited. Deposition and growth are monitored by in situ reflection-high energy electron diffraction and the morphology is further studied by ex situ atomic force microscopy. The difference in the current values in dark and illumination conditions was used to measure the device sensitivity to radiation. Spectral responsivity measurements reveal a peak around 2 μm, with responsivity that increases three orders of magnitude as bias increases from 0.5 to 3.5 V. The effects of laser-induced electronic excitations on the self-assembly of Ge quantum dots on Si(100)-2×1 grown by pulsed laser deposition are also studied. Electronic excitations, due to laser irradiation of the Si substrate and the Ge film during growth, are shown to decrease the roughness of films grown at a substrate temperature of ∼120°C. At this temperature, the grown films are nonepitaxial. However, electronic excitation results in the formation of an epitaxial wetting layer and crystalline Ge quantum dots at ∼260°C, a temperature at which no crystalline quantum dots form without excitation under the same deposition conditions. Finally, the very early stages of formation of Ge but clusters on Si(100) has been studied by UHV STM. Growth starts by the formation of a very low density of asymmetric huts with high aspect ratios. Further deposition results in a higher density of clusters characterized by their narrow size and height distributions. These clusters are almost of the same lateral size as those deposited at lower thicknesses

Multi-body dynamics in full-vehicle handling analysis

This paper presents a multidegrees-of-freedom non-linear multibody dynamic model of a vehicle, comprising front and rear suspensions, steering system, road wheels, tyres and vehicle inertia. The model incorporates all sources of compliance, stiffness and damping, all with non-linear characteristics. The vehicle model is created in ADAMS (automatic dynamic analysis of mechanical systems) formulation. The model is used for the purpose of vehicle handling analysis. Simulation runs, in-line with vehicle manoeuvres specified under ISO and British Standards, have been undertaken and reported in the paper

Evaluation of a power driven residue manager for no-till drills

The main operational problem in direct drilling of paddy straw residue is the accumulation and wrapping of loose straw within/on the tines and frame of no-till drills and traction problems with the ground wheel. A residue management equipment (RME) is developed to cut and remove paddy straw away from furrow openers of the no-till drill. The equipment consisted of nine parts; each part consisted of two powered wheels, one wheel for cutting the residue and the other wheel for removing them away from no-till drill furrow openers. This equipment was attached with the no-till drill with inverted "T" type furrow opener and the experiments have been conducted to compare the no-till drill with RME and same no-till drill without RME. No-till drill with RME increased the fuel consumption and time required by 29.6 % and 13.14 %, respectively. Adding RME to the no-till drill decreased the amount of residue clogged by 33% and increased the percentage of cut hill from 14.9 to 63.7%. The average numbers of effective tiller, spike length and plant heights were more for no-till drill with RME. Furthermore, the grain yield was increased by 12.4% for fields with no-drill with RME

Nonthermal Laser-Induced Formation of Crystalline Ge Quantum Dots on Si(100)

The effects of laser-induced electronic excitations on the self-assembly of Ge quantum dots on Si (100) - (2×1) grown by pulsed laser deposition are studied. Electronic excitations due to laser irradiation of the Si substrate and the Ge film during growth are shown to decrease the roughness of films grown at a substrate temperature of ∼120 °C. At this temperature, the grown films are nonepitaxial. Electronic excitation results in the formation of an epitaxial wetting layer and crystalline Ge quantum dots at ∼260 °C, a temperature at which no crystalline quantum dots form without excitation under the same deposition conditions.© 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3041493

Assessment of the association of serum progranulin with autophagy in diabetic patients

Introduction: Progranulin (PGRN) has newly arisen as an important regulatory protein of glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Progranulin expression is interrelated with lysosomal function strongly linked to autophagy pathway. We aimed to evaluate the correlation between PGRN protein and microtubule-associated protein light chain 3B (LC3B) expression level in diabetic patients. Material and methods: Blood samples of 70 type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients were provided for analysis of concentrations of serum progranulin and interleukin 6 (IL-6) using ELISA, and quantifying expression of LC3B RNA level using qPCR. A group of 20 healthy volunteers were also enrolled. Results: Serum levels of PGRN and IL-6 as well as LC3B gene expression levels were markedly higher in type 2 diabetic patients. Additionally, our study revealed a cut-off value of 18.14 ng/mL for progranulin serum level and 3.23 for LC3B expression level, with sensitivities of 83.6% and 75.4% and specificities of 83.8% and 58.3%, respectively. Circulating PGRN levels are positively correlated with body mass index (BMI), glucose concentration, and IL-6. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that progranulin is introduced as a novel marker of chronic inflammatory response in type 2 diabetes that aggravates insulin resistance via activated autophagy, indicating the importance of this novel adipokine in the regulation of glucose metabolism and as a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of diabetes. Key words: diabetes; progranulin; autophagy; microtubule-associated proteins light chain 3B; interleukin