Emerging Threat of Invasive Fungal Infections

Emerging Threat of Invasive Fungal Infections Introduction Emerging threat of Invasive Fungal Infections Invasive fungal infection continues to be a major problem associated with high morbidity and mortality mainly to immunocompromised patients as well as to immunocomptent patients but to a much lower extent. (1) Invasive fungal infection and fungemia are caused by a variety of fungal pathogens. The most commonly isolated yeasts are Candida species (spp.) and Cryptococcus spp. Aspergillus species remains the most common mould however, Fusarium spp., Scedosporium spp., Penicillium spp. and Zygomycetes are increasingly isolated.(2) Patients mostly become colonized during hospitalization however, very few patients who become colonized develop sever infection. Nosocomial fungal infections can represent up to 15% of all nosocomial infections.(3) The spectrum of opportunistic invasive fungal infections has increased substantially owing to the rapidly growing population of immunocompromised patients.(4) Due to lack of specificity of symptoms diagnosis of fungal infections can be challenging.(3 ) Candida infections are mostly prevalent in critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICUs) and very low birth weight infants. Candidaemia is highly fatal with a reported mortality in the range from 36% to 63%.(5) In the recent years, mortality rates in ICU patients have decreased substantially probably due to earlier initiation of antifungal therapy.(6) Conversely, aspergillosis is the most common fungal infection in immunocompromised most specifically in haematological malignancy and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients. Incidence of aspergillosis has increased considerably but mortality has decreased owing to better diagnosis and treatment.(7) Treatment of Invasive Fungal Infections Treatment and prophylaxis of invasive fungal infections involves systemic antifungal therapy. Historically amphotericin B and Flucytosine have been the only available antifungals; these were followed by the development of the older triazole antifungals; fluconazole and itraconazole in the late 1980s. More recent advances have led to the release of amphotericin lipid formulas, newer broad spectrum triazoles (voriconazole, posaconazole) and the newest class of echinocandins.(8) Amphotericin B either as a deoxycholate or in lipid formulations has been the backbone of antifungal therapy for many years. The triazole antifungals have also emerged as front-line treatment and prophylaxis for many systemic fungal infections. Triazole antifungals used systemically include fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole and voriconazole. Fluconazole has a major role in prophylaxis and treatment of both invasive and superficial fungal infection. Voriconazole is the drug of choice in invasive aspergillosis of the lung. Posaconazole is used as a salvage therapy for invasive aspergillosis as well as a prophylaxis in HSCT and neutropenic patients.(9) Itraconazole is active against most fungi except for Zygomycetes.(10) Terbinafine which is widely used in skin infections is also effective against systemic candidiasis including vulvovaginal candidiasis although less effective than fluconazole and itraconazole.(11,12) Flucytosine is used in combination with amphotericin B for treat ment of severe systemic mycoses and has also in combination with other antifungals for treatment of colorectal carcinoma.(13) Echinocandins Introduced Despite the advantages in medical practice and introduction of newer agents, mortality due to fungal infections remained high with mortality due to Aspergillus approaching 100% in HSCT patients.(14,15) There has also been a change in epidemiology of fungal infections with non-albicans species reaching up to 50% with no significant change in mortality in spite of these newer agents in two studies conducted 15 years apart.(16,17) Echinocandins is a newer class of systemic antifungals introduced after almost 15 years of no new agents. They work by inhibiting ÃŽ ²-D glucan in fungal cell wall. Echinocandins have favourable kinetics which allows their once daily dosing. (18) The first echinocandin product to be licensed is caspofungin (FDA approved in 2001), that was followed by micafungin (FDA approved in 2005), and anidulafungin (FDA approved in 2006). (19)The discovery of the echinocandin antifungals has provided a new alternative for patients with equal if not higher efficacy relative to older agents and apparently lower toxicity.(20,21) Echinocandins are extensively used in the treatment of invasive fungal infections mainly invasive candidiasis in neutropenic and critically ill patients.(22)They are also approved as a salvage treatment for invasive aspergillosis.(23) The major advantage of the echinocandins members is their higher efficacy against many candida species including C. glabrata and C. krusei res istant to fluconazole added to their lower toxicity rates compared to older antifungals.(20,21,24) The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recommends echinocandins as first line treatment of Candidaemia while caspofungin is offered as an alternative to voriconazole for treatment of invasive aspergillosis.(22,23) Echinocandins showed equal efficacy to triazole antifungals and even superior efficacy in subgroup analysis since it demonstrates superior efficacy for prophylaxis in patients with hematologic malignancies and undergoing HSCT.(25) Echinocandins Safety Treatment of fungal infections is challenging and riddled with adverse events. (26,27) Echinocandins showed no difference in drug related adverse events and all-cause mortality as compared to triazole antifungals where both groups have shown to be generally well tolerated, nevertheless, echinocandins has significantly decreased adverse event related mortality compared to triazole antifungals.(25) Echinocandins have revealed hepatic toxicity in clinical trials yet the incidence is considered low.(28) The most commonly reported toxicities associated with echinocandins in clinical trials are rash, phlebitis, and nausea. The renal profile of this class appears to be superior to that of older agents.(29,30) Serious adverse events reported with echinocandins in the context of clinical trials are very few with atrial fibrillation and seizures in two cases treated with anidulafungin and disseminated intravascular coagulation in another one treated with micafungin.(31,32) Unfortunately, till now there is insufficient data on the frequency of hepatic and renal toxicities in normal clinical settings although they have already been reported in context of clinical trials. Moreover, as these agents became more widely used outside clinical trials, new adverse reactions are surfacing. Anidulafungin has been reported to be associated with alopecia in a female patient after several months of treatment.(33) Anidulafungin has also been associated with life-threatening haemodynamic stability in another patient during administration.(34) Three cases has shown a considerable drop in their cardiac index or a worsening of the mean arterial pressure, one following caspofungin administration and the other two post anidulafungin administration.(35) Echinocandins has also been associated with a decrease in cardiac contractility in few case reports and in vitro studies which warrant further investigations.(36,37) Further studies seem to be mandatory to investigate this po tential risk. Limitations on Detecting Risk Pre-marketing studies are incapable of detecting rare events. In addition due to their short duration they are also unable to detect delayed toxicities. It’s worth noting that to detect doubling of a 0.1% event with 80% power; more than 50,000 subjects need to be studied. This leads to drugs being authorized without serious rare events are adequately studied. One cannot also be sure that the safety profile demonstrated in the pre-marketing clinical trials with limited number of subjects remains unchanged when used by millions of patients in normal settings. This difference in safety profile demonstrated is not only attributed to difference in number of users but may also be due to choosing of healthier subjects to participate in clinical trials, providing better care to clinical trials participants in addition to shorter duration of exposure in clinical trials as compared to normal settings. This difference in safety profile may as well be attributed to the fact that participa nts in clinical trials are rarely representative to the general patient population. (38,39) Post Marketing Risk Detection Pharmacovigilance is defined as the continuous process of detecting, evaluating, communicating and improving safety of medicines under normal conditions.(40) Post marketing data on adverse events include spontaneous case reports, medical record databases, and data collected in prospective postmarketing studies.(41) Spontaneous reports are unsolicited reports of clinical observations originating outside of a formal clinical trial and that are submitted to regulatory agencies or drug manufacturers.(42) The report is considered important if it involves an ADR that is new, rare, serious or occurring at a higher frequency than expected.(43) Spontaneous reporting systems have a potential for detecting or ‘signalling’ new ADRS that have not been previously recognized in clinical trials.(38) The most crucial factor that determines the value of spontaneous reports is the quality of submitted reports and whether it has a complete description of the ADR, patient demographics, baseline characteristics other confounding factors or medication and temporal relation.(42) Signal detection using large postmarketing ADRs databases is the first step in detecting unknown and unexpected associations between drug exposure and adverse events which has to be followed by qualitative case-by-case analysis to identify signals that may be of value or warrant further investigation.(44,45) Safety evaluators usually look at common trends or patterns or and potential causal relations. (42) Advantages and Limitations of Spontaneous Reporting In all countries, the nation pharmacovigilance system relies on spontaneous reporting by healthcare practitioners, patients and manufacturers to the national coordinating center.(46) Spontaneous reporting is the only source of pharmacovigilance that provides the highest volume of data at the lowest cost.(47) The most important function of spontaneous reporting is early detection of signals which helps in hypothesis formulation that may lead to initiation of confirmatory investigations or regulatory actions that may end up with warnings, label changes or product withdrawal.(48,49) Large postmarketing databases are the most important source for mining of drug safety data, however, analysing data from these databases is very challenging owing to the limitations of these unsolicited reporting systems.(50) One of the most important limitations of spontaneous reporting is the quality of data since cases are mostly poorly documented with no follow up data which necessitates contacting the reporter for more data.(42) Another limitation is under-reporting whose extent is very hard to estimate and which depends on many factors including the severity of the reported ADR among many other factors.(51,52) Reporting rate also undergoes fluctuation along the drug life cycle with higher rates noticed when the drug is newly introduced to the market (weber effect). Higher reporting rates are also noticed for serious medical events or after negative publicity. (53) It’s estimated that FDA receives only 1% of ADRs in one study and 8% in another of all occurring ADRs which affects is reflected on the inability of spontaneous reporting system to estimate incidence of a specified ADR. (54,55) Role of Data mining in Pharmacovigilance The role of data mining in the field of pharmacovigilance is evolving. At the outset, it’s worth noting that data mining methods involve identifying the observed relation between a drug and a certain ADR. These relation identification methods are based totally on the frequency with which the drug and event are reported. The relations identified using these data mining techniques cannot be used to prove or negate a causal relation.(50) Data mining methods can elucidate complex drug issues such as concomitant medications or conditions that may not be investigated using traditional methods. However, this is usually confronted by the non-systematic attainment of background rates of adverse events and drug exposure data which hinder estimation of risk based on spontaneous reporting databases.(56,57) In the context of data mining, the term ‘signal’ is used to refer to a quantitative association between a drug and an event which exceeds a certain threshold set by the investigator that warrant further evaluation. The ‘signal score’ is the number reflecting the strength of the quantitative association which reflects how much the observed frequency differs from that expected.(50,56,58) The application of computational and statistical methods to large drug safety databases for identifying drug-event pairs disproportionately reported at higher frequency than expected by a statistical independence model is referred to as ‘Safety data mining’ and ‘disproportionality analysis’. Many data-mining methods are applied to pharmacovigilance; the ones that are most commonly reported in the literature are the proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and the reporting odds ratio (ROR) in addition to the Bayesian and empirical Bayesian methods.(59–62) Signal Detection Methods Disproportionality analysis is the main concept behind computerized pharmacovigilance methods. Disproportionality analysis is dependent on the construction of a 22 contingency table as shown in table (1). (63) Disproportionality methods differ in how they are calculated and how they account for low counts. They are generally classified into Frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Drug of interestOther drugs Event of interestab Other event cd Table 1: Statistical significance in spontaneous reporting is calculated using the frequencies in the table above Frequentist approaches Frequentist approach usually accompanied by hypothesis testing of independence using chi-square or Fisher’s exact test.(64) Proportional reporting rate (PRR) or Case/Non-case design PRR can be considered as an approximation of conditional probability and is calculated using the following equation: PRR= = a/(a+c) à · b/(b+d). Where a/(a+c) can be perceived as the probability of developing the event of interest given that the drug of interest is taken and an event in turn, b/(b+d) can also be perceived as the probability of developing the event of interest given that another drug is received given that any other drug is taken and an event occurred.(63) PRR is a valuable aid to signal generation which is easy to calculate and interpret with various refinements made possible.(59) Reporting Odds Ratio ROR is a ratio of two ratios and is calculated according to the equation: ROR= a/bà ·c/d where a/b is the ratio of the patients who had the event of interest a divided by the number of patients who had the event while taking other medications. This ratio in turn is divided by c/d which is calculated by dividing all patients who had the drug of interest but did not have the event of interest by all other patients who did not have the event of interest given that they took any other drugs. (63) ROR is not affected by general under reporting for a specific drug or as specific event.(65) It has been proposed that ROR may be less biased than other disproportionality methods being considered as the case-control studies analysis.(66) Nevertheless, others believe that in practice there is no difference in performance between ROR and PRR.(60,67) Bayesian approaches Bayesian approaches tries to account for uncertainty in disproportionality measure calculated from small samples by shrinking the disproportionality measure towards baseline case of no association. This shrinking is a reduction of spurious associations when there are not enough data to support it and is proportional to the variability in the disproportionality statistics.(64) The Bayesian approaches include Multi-item Gamma Poisson Shrinker (MGPS) which is currently used by the FDA.(68,69) MGPS is based on an empirical Bayes framework and its computed measure is called empirical Bayes geometric mean (EBGM) which is the Bayesian version of the Relative Reporting Ratio (RRR). RRR is the ratio of the incidence of the observed incidence rate of a drug-event pair to its expected rate under the assumption that the drug and event are independent.(70) Another Bayesian approach adopted by the WHO is called Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN), which estimates a Bayesian version of the Information Component (IC). A positive IC indicates that based on all reports in the database the drug-event pair is reported more often than expected. (61) Postmarketing Safety Databases for Signal Detection Databases utilized in drug safety data mining are postmarketing databases maintained by manufactures, regulators and different consortia. These databases are different in their reporting guidelines, coding dictionaries and rules for data entry. These databases vary in size and may reach millions of reports. The analysis of these databases may yield different results and so a single database available to all stakeholders is needed. Ideally this database will not have duplicate reports or missing data and is consistently coded for drug and event name. A number of databases are commonly available for signal detection activities, however; they differ in accessibility. These include the database of the WHO International Drug Monitoring Programme and the FDA’s public release safety database (AERS).(50) WHO Safety Database The WHO safety database is a large database receiving AEs from the national collaborating centers participating in the WHO Drug monitoring program.(71) It has the advantage of having the drug names coded according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and ADRS are coded using the WHO Adverse Reaction Terminology. However, data is accessible by subscription only.(68) European Medicines Agency EudraVigilance database The EMEA pharmacovigilance system is called the EudraVigilance. It has 2 modules one for clinical trials and another for post marketing surveillance. It has analytical capabilities and performs signal detection in terms of PRR and ROR. It has restricted access even to manufacturers who can only see reports that they have submitted to the EMEA.(72) US FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) AERS is the FDA’s postmarketing safety database. AERS database is intended to support the FDAs post-marketing safety surveillance program for drugs. It relies on unsolicited reports submitted by healthcare professionals and patients on adverse events and medication error reports as well as required reports by manufacturers and so represents a useful resource for investigating drug safety.(73) The public-release version of AERS is available beginning with January 2004 as quarterly data directly downloadable from the FDA website. The new FDA FAERS was launched in the 10th September, 2012, and replaced the Adverse Event Reporting System (also known as Legacy AERS).(74) The main aim of the current study is to: Map the safety profile of echinocandins antifungals.as compared to other drugs. Compare the safety profile of echinocandins to that of other systemic antifungals. Assess the effect of changing the reference group on the top signals identified. To achieve these aims data mining methods and disproportionality analysis will be employed to the FDA AERS to achieve these aims. This study will therefore add to the knowledge on the safety profile of this newer class of antifungals.

Hermann Hesse: A Classic Take on the Modern Age Essay -- Biography Bio

Hermann Hesse: A Classic Take on the Modern Age Hermann Hesse, writing in the twentieth century, extolled many of the virtues of the past. His unique style, dependent upon German Romanticism, adapted the issues of the modern age. Using subject matter from various sources, Hesse built fictional worlds that mirrored reality. In the novel Siddhartha, Hesse deals specifically with the spiritual quest. Although writing about the spiritual landscape of India, this work addresses the desire for meaning that the entire world felt after the events of World War I. Born in Germany in 1877, Hesse would live through the complete change in existence that occurred in the twentieth century. Coming from a family of devout Protestants, Hesse had been exposed to the traditional Christian existence. He began to write while still in his teens. A lifelong pacifist, Hesse would continue to fight against the violence of his age. The works of Hesse were always tinged with the notion of the outsider (The Steppenwolf) or the search for meaning (Siddhartha). Utilizing a higher artistic style than many of his colleagues, Hesse acknowledged Romanticism in his work. His subject matter could be highly simple in the case of Gertrude or extremely complex like Magister Ludi:The Glass Bead Game, for which he would win the Noble Prize in the year 1946. Until his death in 1962, Hesse would struggle to find meaning in the horrible events in his lifetime. Although Hesse concerns himself with the same issues of isolation and meaninglessness that Franz Kafka addresses, he utilizes a poetic writing style to bring out the beauty of his subject. The lofty style helps "with the construction of an ideal as an escape from his emotional crisis of the war years" (Ziolk... ...ction of the previous paths. Humanity could no longer be content with religion or with consumer needs. A spiritual truth had to be found, but it would require a long journey and many failures along the way. Mankind could learn as much about the beliefs of the past in order to discover "the condition of the present world and a revelation of the relationship of all things to one another" (Ziolkowski 154), the lesson that all things are interconnected. All of the past, present and future are inextricably linked as part of a continuous flow. Works Cited Freedman, Ralph. Hermann Hesse: Pilgrim of Crisis. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation And Bantam Books, 1951. Ziolkowski, Theodore. The Novels of Hermann Hesse: A Study in Theme and Structure. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965.

Corporate Governance Mechanism Essay

Executive Summary This paper will reviews the extent to which corporate governance acts as efficient tool to protect investors against corporate fraud, thus contributing to summarize the literatures on role of corporate governance on preventing occurrence of corporate fraud. In a more recent study, corporate fraud is part of earnings manipulation done outside the law and standards. Whereas, the activities covered by the terms earnings management (such as income smoothing and big bath) and creative accounting (or window dressing) normally remain within the regulations. In this regard, corporate governance mechanism, particularly effective boards, audit committees, and auditors, decrease the likelihood of corporate fraud occurs. At very last contemplation, vigilant structure within corporation as holding stakeholders interests with shift in ethics and values will likely stop greedy executives to take personal advantages. Keywords: Corporate fraud, earnings management, corporate governance, board effectiveness, audit committee effectiveness and auditor effectiveness. 1. Introduction There are a number of legal cases involving the accounting manipulation in leading companies in the United States of America (USA) and also other countries, such as Enron and WorldCom in USA, and HIH Insurance and One.Tel in Australia. These have led investors, regulators, and academics to focus on improving dimension of corporate governance to unveil that unethical financial reporting practice. Scholars commonly attribute that poor corporate governance in such companies caused their earnings manipulation. For instance, Lavelle (2002) asserts that Enron’s bankruptcy was caused by the audit committee’s lack of independence, which determined from poor governance, which is part of corporate governance mechanism. This paper will reviews the extent to which corporate governance acts as efficient tool to protect investors against corporate fraud, thus contributing to summarize the literatures on role of corporate governance on preventing occurrence of corporate fraud. In addition, from the practical point of view, this paper is expected to provide information on how board and audit committee, auditor and regulator indicate and anticipate which firm’s corporate governance mechanism that cause the likelihood to fail to prevent commit corporate fraud and loose stakeholders. In general discussion, corporate governance mechanism assures a crucial role in improving the efficiency of capital market through its impact on corporate operating efficiency and effectiveness, sustainable growth, and integrity and quality of financial report. Blue Ribbon Committee (1999) asserts good governance promotes relationship of accountability among primary corporation participants to enhance corporate performance. This mechanism holds management accountable to the board and the board accountable to stockholders. The key element of board oversight is working with corporation management to achieve corporate legal and ethical compliance. Board oversight mechanism can be taken in place to deter fraud, anticipate financial risk, and promote high quality, accurate, and timely disclosure to the board, to the public market and to the shareholders. This paper is organized as follows. In the next section, it will be presented the literature review regarding the corporate fraud and earnings management. It is continued by discussing the effectiveness of board oversight and audit committee, role of external auditor and closing thoughts at curbing fraud. 2. Fraud and Earnings Management In this section, it will be distinguished between corporate frauds from earnings management. Existing literatures seem no clear agreement on differentiating both those two event in corporate reporting. 2.1 What is Corporate Fraud? In the beginning of 2000s, US investors has been hit by intentionally falsify of financial reporting in the biggest and prominent public company. The companies such as Enron, Worldcom, HIH Insurance and One.Tel, to name but a few, has perpetrated and resulted a monumental losses for the investing public. For instance, Enron that recorded as the seventh largest corporation by its market capitalization in US, averaging $90 per share and worth US$70 billion in 2000, was suddenly collapsed in late 2001. Morrison (2004) asserts that the cause of the collapse is the largest corporate fraud and audit failure. Then, it can be understood that the massive corporate fraud caused by fraudulent financial reporting have contributed to a very sharp decline in the US stock market. Many of these corporate scandals include such as action of account manipulation, earnings management, restatement and other failing to report the significant events to investing public. Then, what corporate fraud does really mean? One of the answers, corporate fraud is defined as an intentional or reckless conduct, whether by act or omission, that results in materially misleading financial statements (National Comission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting of the United States, 1987). Many prior studies (Persons, 2006; BÃ ©dard, Chtourou & Courteau 2004; Uzun, Szewczyk & Varma, 2004; Abbott, Parker & Peters, 2000; Beasley, 1996) have found that corporate fraud generally involves the accounting irregularities notion, such as: * Manipulation, falsification or alteration of accounting records or supporting documents from which financial statements are prepared. * Misrepresentation in or intentional omission from, the financial statements of events, transactions, or other significant information. * Misapplication of accounting principles relating to amounts, classification, manner of presentation, or disclosure. Stolowy and Breton (2004) proposed the framework to understand the classification of account manipulation. They classify the manipulation that is outside the law and standards constitutes as fraud (known as corporate fraud, financial fraud, and accounting irregularities, interchangeability). Whereas, the activities covered by the terms earnings management (such as income smoothing and big bath) and creative accounting (or window dressing) normally remain within the regulations. Figure 1 presents that framework for understanding account manipulation (adopted from Stolowy and Breton 2004). Figure 1 Framework for Understanding Account Manipulation Fraud, in large extent, occurs when somebody commits an illegal act. In accounting notion, for example, fabricating false invoice to increase revenue number is fraud, while interpreting consignment sales as ordinary sales is errors. This different sometime does not clear to everyone, particularly who does not really understand how accounting treatment is. In short, it can be conclude that fraud exists when the account manipulation done outside the limit of the regulations (law and standards). 2.2 Earnings Management It is always hard to frame a useful definition to such a broad subject ‘earnings management’. Account manipulation done within law and standard is categorized into earnings management and creative accounting. The objective of this type account manipulation is to alter the wealth transfer mechanism: earnings per share (EPS on income statement side) and debt to equity ratio (balance sheet side). Based on figure 1, earnings management is a reporting activity done by manipulating the income statement into two ways: first, by presenting item before or after the profit used to calculate EPS and second, by removing or adding particular revenues or expenses (modification of total net income). In addition, ‘creative accounting’ term has been developed mainly by practitioners and commentators on market activity. The chartist concern comes from observing the market, not from any fundamental analysis. Windows dressing activities are done by manipulating structural risk to influence the level of firm’s debt to equity ratio. For example, interpretation at off balance sheet transaction such as leasing. Earnings management can be beneficial, neutral, and pernicious (Ronen & Yaari 2006). It is beneficial since it signals long term value. Managers take advantage of flexibility in the choice of accounting methods to signal internal information on future company’s cash flows. Then, it can be neutral when it reveals short-term true firm value. Managers can chose the accounting treatment either economically efficient or opportunistic behaviours. On the contrary, it is pernicious since it conceals short- or long term performance. This practice usually involves tricks to mislead or reduce the transparency of the financial information. Since the last decade, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had stated its concern about earnings management (Levitt 1998) and other scholar wonders the condition of the audit committees’ incapacity to deal with earning management which using accounting tricks to camouflage a firm’s true operating performance (Warrick 1999). As account manipulation is done outside law and standards, indeed it constitutes fraudulent financial reporting (Stolowy & Breton 2004). In this regard, scholars commonly find association between less fraudulent financial reporting and good corporate governance mechanism (Beasley 1996; Abbott, Parker and Peters 2000). 3. Governance Mechanism in Preventing Fraud In this section, it will be reviewed role of corporate governance in describing and preventing such as occurrence of corporate fraud. A vast number of previous literature reveal that company in default (fraud) have less effective boards, audit committees, and external auditors. 3.1. Board and Audit Committee Oversight Effectiveness The board of directors and its audit committee play a prominent role in corporate governance particularly in controlling top management. Back in 1983, Fama and Jansen argue that the board as a corporation’s highest level of control mechanism with ultimate responsibility over the way company is run. The literature review on fraudulent financial statement, restatement and financial reporting quality commonly indicates that characteristic and composition of the board do influence its effectiveness. A vast number of study examining proxies for the board’s power, independence and competence by: * The presence of financial expert; this characteristic of boardroom prevent the accounting fraud and minimize their seriousness (Farber 2005). * Proportion of independence directors on the board; the percentage of independent directors in fraudulent firms is likely to be smaller than in compliant firm. In the same way, the presence of non-affiliated block holder on the board will be negatively associated with the level of non-compliance of accounting manipulation outside law and regulation (fraud) (Beasley 1996, Beasley et al. 2000 and Abbott et al. 2004). * The number of seats directors; board size increases the likelihood of corporate fraud increases. The rational of this finding is a smaller board provide more of controlling function than do a larger board (Beasley 1996 and Jensen 1993). * Low board of director tenure; when turnover is high, so there will be a few employees (senior staff) who are still work with the company can memorize the corporation’s fraudulent activity. Few new employees are likely to join the line of power elite and therefore it will more foster insider power (senior staff) to institutionalize their position of power within corporation (Dunn 2004). * Separation of the CEO position and chairman of the board. Dunn (2004) argues that structural power, when managers also sit as key person in the board negates the advantages of a division of labour and can lead to adverse corporation outcomes. These above characteristics show that excessive power of board, percentage of unrelated directors and presence of financial experts will likely determine the level of company’s compliance with law and regulations. Indeed, this governance mechanism has been incorporated into corporate governance guideline in some prominent organisation and regulators (OECD 2004 and ASX 2008). For instance, in second edition ASX under principle 2 ‘the structure the board to add value’ requires that ‘the roles of chair and chief executive officer should not be exercised by the same individual’. In some extent this empirical finding has been taken into account by some market self regulatory such as ASX. It is important to note that audit committee effectiveness is negatively associated with the occurrence of corporate fraud (Farber 2005; Abbott et al 2004; and Agrawal and Chadha 2005). Its committee’s effectiveness commonly is measured by number of outside directors and number of financial expert on firm audit committee. In addition, ASX 2008 states the importance of independence and competence of audit committee. International practice is moving towards an audit committee only comprised of independent directors. Regarding technical expertise, audit committee should include members who are all financially literate (able to read and understand financial statements), which at least one have accounting qualification and one who understand the industry practise which corporation operates. 3.2. Auditor Effectiveness Many previous studies argue that external auditor plays a crucial role in preventing and detecting accounting fraud (Farber 2005, Piot and Janin 2005, Myers et al. 2003, and Johnson et al. (2002). Farber (2005) finds that firms audited by one of Big 4 (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) are less often announcing fraudulent financial reporting compared to firms audited by non Big 4. Moreover, Piot and Janin (2005) states that the occurrence of restatement (low level of fraudulent financial reporting) is often proceeded by a change of external auditor. Then, it may be considered that auditor effectiveness can be measured by engaging Big 4 as external auditor and no suddenly change of auditor before their rotation period. In addition, there is debate over the benefit of rotation period. Myer et al. (2003) find that longer auditor tenure constrains management’s discretion with accounting accruals, which suggests high audit quality. This is consistent with Johnson et al. (2002) that also find accruals are larger and less persistent for firms with short auditor tenure relative to those with medium or long tenure. They argue that longer tenure can improve auditor expertise from superior client-specific knowledge. However, proponent of mandatory auditor rotation argues that lengthy auditor tenure erodes independence, which in turn impairs audit quality. Since independence is an abstract thing, regulators, practitioners, and academics often rely on the appearance dimension to operationalize the auditor independence (Dupuch et al. 2003). In common sense, auditor will be perceived less independence when provide such material amount of particular kinds of non-audit service to audit clients. Ladakis (2005) describes that in the year of 2000 alone, Enron as detected fraudulent corporation paid Andersen audit fees of US$25 million, and non-audit fees of US$27 million. 4. Closing Thoughts There are so many regulatory efforts aiming to curb corporate fraud and any other accounting irregularities within company, then people will find inconclusive answer that all regulation is not enough to deter the fraud in the future. Dishonest people inside corporation will insist to commit fraud and other type of crimes within or outside standards and regulations. Those who have no commitment to firms and society may always find a way to do fraud for personal advantages. They will override the regulations in even new creative practice to hide theft. Then, last hope to stop this is only good structure as holding between economic and social goal, individual and communal goal incorporated with shift in ethics and value. People must always remember that greedy executive who wants to acquire the personal benefit cannot be stopped by even best controls and regulations. Companies would be perform better by addressing the fraud issues specific to their own firm, and then developing an ethical corporate values that will hold them well in the long run. Corporate governance compliance within company and proactive fraud prevention effort by professional can decrease the corporation’s likelihood of being victimized by fraud. 5. List of References ABBOTT, L., PARK, Y. & PARKER, S. (2000) The Effect of Audit Committee Activity and Independence on Corporate Fraud. Managerial Finance, 26, 55-67. ABBOTT, L., PARKER, S. & PETER, G. (2004) Audit Committee Characteristics and Restatements. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, 23, 69-87. AGRAWAL, A. & CHADHA, S. (2005) Corporate Governance and Accounting Scandals. Journal of Law and Economics, 48, 371-390. AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (2008) Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations. ASX Corporate Governance Council, 2nd Edition. BEASLEY, M. S. (1996) An Empirical Analysis of the Rotation Between the Board of Director Composition and Financial Statement Fraud. Accounting Review, 71, 443-465. BEASLEY, M. S., CARCELLO, J. V., HERMANSON, D. R. & LAPIDES, P. D. (2000) Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Consideration of Industry Traits and Corporate Governance Mechanisms. Accounting Horizons, 14, 441-454. BÉDARD, J., CHTOUROU, S. M. & COURTEAU, L. (2004) The Effect of Audit Committee Expertise, Independence, and Activity on Aggressive Earnings Management. Auditing, 23 (2), 13-35 BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE (1999) Report and Recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees, New York: New York Stock Exchange and National Association of Securities Dealers. DUNN, P. (2004) The Impact of Insider Power on Fraudulent Financial Reporting. Journal of Management, 30, 397-412. DOPUCH, N., R. R. KING, AND R. SCHWARTZ. (2003) Independence in Appearance and in Fact: An empirical investigation. Contemporary Accounting Research 65, 83-113. FAMA, E. F. & JENSEN, M. C. (1983) Agency Problems and Residual Claims. The Journal of Law and Economics, 26, 327. FARBER, D. B. (2005) Restoring Trust After Fraud: Does Corporate Governance Matter? The Accounting Review, 80, 539-561. JENSEN, M.C. (1993) The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems. The Journal of Finance, 48, 831-880. JOHNSON, V. E., KHURANA, I.K., & REYNOLDS, J.K. (2002) Audit-Firm Tenure and the Quality of Financial Reports. Contemporary Accounting Research, Winter, 637-660. LADAKIS, E. (2005) The Auditor as Gatekeeper for the Investing Public: Auditor Independence and the CLERP Reforms – a Comparative Analysis. Company and Securities Law Journal, 23. LAVALLE, L. (2002) Enron: How Governance Rules Failed. Business Week, 3766, 28-29. LEVITT, A. (1998) The Number Game. Address to NYU Centre for Law and Business, September 28. MORRISON, J. (2004) Legislating For Good Corporate Governance: Do We Expect Too Much? The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 121(13). MYERS, J., MYERS, L. & OMER, T. (2003) Exploring the Term of Auditor-Client Relationship and the Quality of Earnings: A Case for Mandatory Auditor Rotation? The Accounting Review, 78 (3), 779-799. ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (2004) OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. PERSONS, O.S. (2006) Corporate Governance and Non-Financial Reporting Fraud. The Journal of Business and Economic Studies,12 (1), 27-40. PIOT, C. & JANIN, R. (2005) Audit Quality and Earnings Management in France. SSRN eLibrary. RONEN, J. & YAARI, V. (2006) Earnings Management: Emerging Insight in Theory, Practice, and Research. Springer. STOLOWY, H. & BRETON, G. (2004) Accounts Manipulation: A Literature Review And Proposed Conceptual Framework. The Review of Accounting and Finance, 3, 5-65. UZUN, H., SZEWCZYK, S. H. & VARMA, R. (2004) Board Composition and Corporate Fraud. Financial Analysts Journal, 60 (3), 33-43. WARRICK, W. W. (1999) Post-Blue Ribbon Committee thoughts on developing the audit committee’s charter and annual report. Directorship, 25, 6.

Free Essays on Kashmir

Kashmir – The Indian Tyranny There can never be peace when nations take unfair advantage of being strong against weak. It is a threat to humanity and peace. There have always been territorial disputes all over the world, but most of them have been solved in a noble way. One of the unsolved, long-time disputes is in South Asia is ‘The Kashmir Conflict’ between Pakistan and India, which has remained tentative for more than half a century. The main question arises here is that should India control Kashmir. And the answer to that is, India should not have any control over Kashmir because Kashmir is a Muslim majority state, it is also essential for Pakistan for its national identity and Kashmiri have the right to choose their own government. India’s unreasonable determination to make Kashmir part of India even though they don’t have any right to control that piece of land which leads to the fact that India is responsible for the Kashmir dispute. The first reason is that Kashmir is a Muslim majority state and India’s forcible occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is the main cause of the dispute. India claims to have signed a controversial document, the Instrument of Accession, on 26th October 1947 with the Maharaja of Kashmir, which gives them a fair right to govern Kashmir. However, the people of Kashmir and Pakistan don’t accept the Indian claim. Pakistan claims that Maharaja Hari Singh was traveling to Srinagar on 26th so there is no possibility of him signing the document. The UN also invalidates such claim and there are doubts about the very existence of this Instrument of Accession. Kashmir was always the Muslim majority area and it not only had geographical nearness with Pakistan, but also had the important economic links with other territories of Pakistan. One of the main causes of this dispute was religion. During the years before the partition of Pakistan and India, a Hindu leader Maharaja Hari S... Free Essays on Kashmir Free Essays on Kashmir Kashmir – The Indian Tyranny There can never be peace when nations take unfair advantage of being strong against weak. It is a threat to humanity and peace. There have always been territorial disputes all over the world, but most of them have been solved in a noble way. One of the unsolved, long-time disputes is in South Asia is ‘The Kashmir Conflict’ between Pakistan and India, which has remained tentative for more than half a century. The main question arises here is that should India control Kashmir. And the answer to that is, India should not have any control over Kashmir because Kashmir is a Muslim majority state, it is also essential for Pakistan for its national identity and Kashmiri have the right to choose their own government. India’s unreasonable determination to make Kashmir part of India even though they don’t have any right to control that piece of land which leads to the fact that India is responsible for the Kashmir dispute. The first reason is that Kashmir is a Muslim majority state and India’s forcible occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is the main cause of the dispute. India claims to have signed a controversial document, the Instrument of Accession, on 26th October 1947 with the Maharaja of Kashmir, which gives them a fair right to govern Kashmir. However, the people of Kashmir and Pakistan don’t accept the Indian claim. Pakistan claims that Maharaja Hari Singh was traveling to Srinagar on 26th so there is no possibility of him signing the document. The UN also invalidates such claim and there are doubts about the very existence of this Instrument of Accession. Kashmir was always the Muslim majority area and it not only had geographical nearness with Pakistan, but also had the important economic links with other territories of Pakistan. One of the main causes of this dispute was religion. During the years before the partition of Pakistan and India, a Hindu leader Maharaja Hari S...

How a Cartoonist-for-Hire Can Get Your Books Point Across

How a Cartoonist-for-Hire Can Get Your Books Point Across How Cartoonists Can Turn Ordinary Books Into Something Memorable Nate Fakes is a professional syndicated cartoonist for MAD Magazine. His work has been published worldwide in greeting cards, newspapers, magazines, books, and numerous other places. As a cartoonist-for-hire and a book illustrator, you can  check out his profile on Reedsy. If you run across a cartoon, more than likely, you’ll notice it. No, trust me: you probably will. Think of the last time you didn’t pay attention to a cartoon? They pop-up on your social media feeds, on greeting cards, magazines, and - every so often- books. Cartoons get noticed and leave a lasting impression. You read them, hopefully, get a laugh, and they stick out like a sore thumb. (But unlike a sore thumb, cartoons can hurt from too much laughter.)When I talk about using cartoons, the first thing I hear at the end of the conversation is usually, â€Å"Wow! I never thought of using cartoons before. When you explain it, it all makes sense!†Cartoons work well in many mediums, and books are certainly no exception. Tony Robbins uses them in business and self-improvement books like Awaken the Giant Within. Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series of middle-grade novels are structured around illustrations. They’re practically a mainstay in certain t ypes of how-to books. You’ll see them appear in memoirs, gift books, regional books, and†¦ I can go on and on.Using cartoons in your bookImages like cartoons can work wonders on your book, as long as they’re developed the right way, of course. Creating a cookbook? This cartoon could be a great segue into a chapter about using eggs.Most importantly, cartoons can help to humanize a dry topic. If you want to keep readers interested between chapters, a well-placed cartoon will add a much-appreciated burst of levity or humor. Creating a book about computers? A cartoon like this would work well if featured in a chapter about the frustrations of laptops.Give your social media channels a boostNow, more so than ever, cartoons are also a great marketing asset. They can add a lot of character to your website, blog, and social media; people will â€Å"like† and share them; they might even stick a good cartoon up on their fridge.A good example of this is a cartoon I created for 21st Century Fox and Super Bowl LI. They wanted a custom cartoon about the upcoming game and the new technology that was included. Their post that featured the cartoon had the highest number of views on their blog and - to this day- is still the most popular post of all-time.Actor George Takei has used over a dozen of my cartoons to help improve his social media presence. Currently, he’s up to over 10 million followers on Facebook. Here’s an example of how a cartoon can get shared by tens of thousands: The key is: cartoons get people talking. If the cartoon does its job well, it will get noticed - and whoever’s platform it’s featured on will get noticed, too.There are sites with cartoons available for licensing like Cartoonstock and Gag Cartoons, to name a few.Working with a Cartoonist-for-HireIf you really want to personalize your book, blog, newsletter, or social media project, consider hiring a professional cartoonist to create something unique. It’s a great way to enhance any publication with cartoons that are new and fresh. Cartoonists can take almost any idea and run with it. And if you get a true professional, think of this cartoon almost as a celebrity endorsement. They’re using their work to help your book. It’s not as affordable as licensing out cartoons, but it will add a certain quality to any manuscript.Costco used the  following custom cartoon that I created with my company, BizComics, to demonstrate how much people enjoy the free samples at their wholesale stores. The same concept can be applied toward your book.To go back to the first point I made in this post, answer this question: did you read the cartoons on this post? Thought so.A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So, give your fingers a break from typing and try a cartoon instead.Head to the Reedsy Marketplace for free quotes from Nate and other award-winning book illustrators. If you have any questions about cartoons in books, leave it in the comments and Nate will do his best to reply.

Research into Teaching Language to Apes Always Attracts Curiosity and Essay

Research into Teaching Language to Apes Always Attracts Curiosity and Attention - Essay Example Still our apes did not talk, but the belief that they could understand and communicate ensured that other methods were employed to test and confirm that belief. So American Sign Language, coloured plastic shapes as symbols for words, and specially designed computer keyboards were all tools utilized to research, teach and bring about the acquisition of linguistic skills. And to some extent, they all worked. The study of Kanzi, a bonobos (called a pygmy chimpanzee), who was never actually trained to use anything, but merely observed his adoptive mother in the laboratory for two years, provides us with good insight as to one way in which a child's linguistic abilities develop. The mother received the training, with words, signs and keyboard, but was unable to respond. She was returned to the Yerkes Primate Center and Kanzi stayed around the laboratory. Within a week, he was using the keyboard, and later putting together two and three-word sentences. He had learned by observation, and his understanding of language, when tested alongside that of a little girl of similar age (two and one half years), was found to be similar to hers. The important factors identified here for both ape and child wou

Political Belonging Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Political Belonging - Essay Example Through his work based on the sphere of Justice, Michael Wlazer provides that the essence of a given idea regarding social justice is to define spheres of distribution of a particular social good This creates a sense of distribution of certain sphere where its respective criteria of distribution does not influence the distribution of others from different spheres (Walzer, 1983, pp 20). This is a pull factor for migration of people. Subsequently, no existence of social goods will prevail as a monopolistic aspect that could otherwise trigger unnecessary social dominance. Migration trends and types is central to the organization of the social-political situation of different countries for instance, the European states have been projecting on a managed migrants policies where they allow migrants to enter their territories and settle given that they fulfill certain conditions and ways of belongings. The international rights of migrants regime has been presented as a discourse as opposed t o effective practical engagement. This results into a situation of cross-cutting violations of human rights. Indeed, human rights asserted on behalf of humanity ought to be guaranteed by the responsible authoritative political unit (Walzer, 1983, pp 62). This implies that the political body should identify with the strangers through acquittal with their rights and privileges. The advances that have been made with regard to human rights must be comprehended via a historical perspective relative to specific incidences in history.