Corporate Governance: The Impact on the Role, Position, and Scope of Services of the Internal Audit Function

Corporate scandals during the last decade fostered many Corporate Governance reports. These reports aimed at restoring checks and balances in companies to prevent fraudulent behaviour and restore public trust. One of the functions active in many organizations is Internal Audit. This function operates under the umbrella of the Management Board and is geared towards monitoring lower level management. Due to the Corporate Governance reports the interest in the work of internal auditors has increased. In many reports special attention is paid to this function. The Supervisory Board and the Audit Committee are required to oversee the activities and results of external as well as internal auditors. Furthermore, regulators are also keen on the results of their work. The aim of this study was to research the impact of Corporate Governance reports on the role, position, and scope of services of the Internal Audit Function. Agency Theory and Transaction Cost Economics were applied to further theory around internal auditing. Information asymmetry and asset specificity were used to test whether there was a correlation between high scores on information asymmetry and/or asset specificity for the organization and the size of an Internal Audit Function, the ‘make or buy’ issue, or its scope of services. Results showed that such was the case for the size but not for the ‘make or buy issue or the scope of services. Furthermore, this study contains descriptive characteristics of internal audit functions.Financiële schandalen in het afgelopen decennium hebben geleid tot een stroom aan Corporate Governance rapporten. Deze rapporten hadden tot doel om de beheersingsmaatregelen te versterken en daarmee het vertrouwen van het maatschappelijk verkeer te herstellen. Een van de functies actief in organisaties is Internal Audit. Deze functie opereert onder de hoede van de Raad van Bestuur/Directie en is gericht op het monitoren van het management onder de Raad van Bestuur/Directie. Dankzij die Corporate Governance rapporten is de belangstelling voor het werk van internal auditors toegenomen. In vele rapporten wordt ook aandacht besteed aan deze functie. De Raad van Commissarissen en het Audit Committee worden geacht toe te zien op het functioneren van zowel externe als internal auditors. Ook regelgevers en toezichthouders zijn geïnteresseerd in de resultaten van hun werk. Het doel van deze studie was na te gaan wat de invloed is van de Corporate Governance rapporten op de rol, positie en taakopdracht van de Internal Audit Functie. Agency Theory en Transaction Cost Economics zijn gebruikt om de theorie rondom internal auditing te versterken. Information asymmetry en asset specificity zijn gebruikt om te testen of er een correlatie bestaat tussen hoge scores voor information asymmetry en/of asset specificity van de organisatie en de omvang van de Internal Audit functie, het in- of uitbestedingsvraagstuk en de taakopdracht. De resultaten toonden aan dat dit wel het geval was voor de omvang maar niet voor het in- of uitbestedingsvraagstuk, noch de taakopdracht. Verder bevat deze studie beschrijvende karakteristieken van internal audit functies

Drop on a Bent Fibre

Inspired by the huge droplets attached on cypress tree leaf tips after rain, we find that a bent fibre can hold significantly more water in the corner than a horizontally placed fibre (typically up to three times or more). The maximum volume of the liquid that can be trapped is remarkably affected by the bending angle of the fibre and surface tension of the liquid. We experimentally find the optimal included angle ($\sim {36}{^\circ}$) that holds the most water. Analytical and semi-empirical models are developed to explain these counter-intuitive experimental observations and predict the optimal angle. The data and models could be useful for designing microfluidic and fog harvesting devices

Patterns of polymorphism and selection in the subgenomes of the allopolyploid Arabidopsis kamchatica

Genome duplication is widespread in wild and crop plants. However, little is known about genome-wide selection in polyploids due to the complexity of duplicated genomes. In polyploids, the patterns of purifying selection and adaptive substitutions may be affected by masking owing to duplicated genes or homeologs as well as effective population size. Here, we resequence 25 accessions of the allotetraploid Arabidopsis kamchatica, which is derived from the diploid species A. halleri and A. lyrata. We observe a reduction in purifying selection compared with the parental species. Interestingly, proportions of adaptive non-synonymous substitutions are significantly positive in contrast to most plant species. A recurrent pattern observed in both frequency and divergence–diversity neutrality tests is that the genome-wide distributions of both subgenomes are similar, but the correlation between homeologous pairs is low. This may increase the opportunity of different evolutionary trajectories such as in the HMA4 gene involved in heavy metal hyperaccumulation

Positively selected modifications in the pore of TbAQP2 allow pentamidine to enter Trypanosoma brucei

Mutations in the Trypanosoma brucei aquaporin AQP2 are associated with resistance to pentamidine and melarsoprol. We show that TbAQP2 but not TbAQP3 was positively selected for increased pore size from a common ancestor aquaporin. We demonstrate that TbAQP2’s unique architecture permits pentamidine permeation through its central pore and show how specific mutations in highly conserved motifs affect drug permeation. Introduction of key TbAQP2 amino acids into TbAQP3 renders the latter permeable to pentamidine. Molecular dynamics demonstrates that permeation by dicationic pentamidine is energetically favourable in TbAQP2, driven by the membrane potential, although aquaporins are normally strictly impermeable for ionic species. We also identify the structural determinants that make pentamidine a permeant although most other diamidine drugs are excluded. Our results have wide-ranging implications for optimising antitrypanosomal drugs and averting cross-resistance. Moreover, these new insights in aquaporin permeation may allow the pharmacological exploitation of other members of this ubiquitous gene family

Normalization in MALDI-TOF imaging datasets of proteins: practical considerations

Normalization is critically important for the proper interpretation of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) imaging datasets. The effects of the commonly used normalization techniques based on total ion count (TIC) or vector norm normalization are significant, and they are frequently beneficial. In certain cases, however, these normalization algorithms may produce misleading results and possibly lead to wrong conclusions, e.g. regarding to potential biomarker distributions. This is typical for tissues in which signals of prominent abundance are present in confined areas, such as insulin in the pancreas or β-amyloid peptides in the brain. In this work, we investigated whether normalization can be improved if dominant signals are excluded from the calculation. Because manual interaction with the data (e.g., defining the abundant signals) is not desired for routine analysis, we investigated two alternatives: normalization on the spectra noise level or on the median of signal intensities in the spectrum. Normalization on the median and the noise level was found to be significantly more robust against artifact generation compared to normalization on the TIC. Therefore, we propose to include these normalization methods in the standard “toolbox” of MALDI imaging for reliable results under conditions of automation

Resonance enhanced isotope-selective photoionization of YbI for ion trap loading

Neutral Ytterbium (YbI) and singly ionized Ytterbium (YbII) is widely used in experiments in quantum optics, metrology and quantum information science. We report on the investigation of isotope selective two-photoionisation of YbI that allows for efficient loading of ion traps with YbII. Results are presented on two-colour (399 nm and 369 nm) and single-colour (399 nm) photoionisation and their efficiency is compared to electron impact ionisation. Nearly deterministic loading of a desired number of YbII ions into a linear Paul trap is demonstrated.Comment: 9 pages. Considerably extended and revised version including new dat

Proteomic Analyses of Host and Pathogen Responses during Bovine Mastitis

The pursuit of biomarkers for use as clinical screening tools, measures for early detection, disease monitoring, and as a means for assessing therapeutic responses has steadily evolved in human and veterinary medicine over the past two decades. Concurrently, advances in mass spectrometry have markedly expanded proteomic capabilities for biomarker discovery. While initial mass spectrometric biomarker discovery endeavors focused primarily on the detection of modulated proteins in human tissues and fluids, recent efforts have shifted to include proteomic analyses of biological samples from food animal species. Mastitis continues to garner attention in veterinary research due mainly to affiliated financial losses and food safety concerns over antimicrobial use, but also because there are only a limited number of efficacious mastitis treatment options. Accordingly, comparative proteomic analyses of bovine milk have emerged in recent years. Efforts to prevent agricultural-related food-borne illness have likewise fueled an interest in the proteomic evaluation of several prominent strains of bacteria, including common mastitis pathogens. The interest in establishing biomarkers of the host and pathogen responses during bovine mastitis stems largely from the need to better characterize mechanisms of the disease, to identify reliable biomarkers for use as measures of early detection and drug efficacy, and to uncover potentially novel targets for the development of alternative therapeutics. The following review focuses primarily on comparative proteomic analyses conducted on healthy versus mastitic bovine milk. However, a comparison of the host defense proteome of human and bovine milk and the proteomic analysis of common veterinary pathogens are likewise introduced