1,225 research outputs found
AUDIT FIRM REPUTATION, AUDITOR SWITCHES, AND CLIENT STOCK PRICE REACTIONS: THE ANDERSEN EXPERIENCE
No full textThe financial scandal surrounding the collapse of Enron caused erosion in the reputation of its auditor, Andersen, leading to concerns about Andersen’s ability to continue in existence and ultimately its demise. In this paper we investigate the timing of switch by former Andersen’s clients. We find that the timing of the switch is related to variables hypothesized to be associated with the cost of switch. Specifically these are client size, auditor industry specialization, provision of non-audit services, auditor tenure, quality of earnings and financial distress In addition we find that clients with the greatest market losses attributable to disclosures pertaining to Andersen’s audit of Enron, and strongest corporate governance were more likely to switch early, while those with the strongest ties to Andersen were more likely to delay switching. We also find that clients switching from Andersen experienced positive abnormal returns during the three-day window surrounding the announcement. Importantly we find this positive return to be greater for clients with greater prior losses.Auditor Reputation, Auditor Change, Arthur Andersen, Enron
Analyzing differences between restricted mean survival time curves using pseudo-values
No full textHazard ratios are ubiquitously used in time to event analysis to quantify treatment effects. Although hazard ratios are invaluable for hypothesis testing, other measures of association, both relative and absolute, may be used to fully elucidate study results. Restricted mean survival time (RMST) differences between groups have been advocated as useful measures of association. Recent work focused on model-free estimates of the difference in restricted mean survival through follow-up times, instead of focusing on a single time horizon. The resulting curve can be used to quantify the association in time units with a simultaneous confidence band. In this work a model-based estimate of the curve is proposed using pseudo-values allowing for possible covariate adjustment. The method is easily implementable with available software and makes possible to compute a simultaneous confidence region for the curve. The pseudo-values regression using multiple restriction times is in good agreement with the estimates obtained by standard direct regression models fixing a single restriction time. Moreover, the proposed method is flexible enough to reproduce the results of the non-parametric approach when no covariates are considered. Examples where it is important to adjust for baseline covariates will be used to illustrate the different methods together with some simulations
Ships Observing Marine Climate: a catalogue of the VOS participating in the VSOP-NA
No full textOur present knowledge of the marine climate, as represented by data sets such as COADS (Woodruff et al., 1987), is based on meteorological observations from the Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS). Because the VOS are merchant ships, rather than specially designed meteorological platforms, errors and biases exist in the data. However there is little information readily available to the climatologist either on the nature of the VOS fleet or on the observing practises which are used. This report, describing the forty-six ships that participated in the Voluntary Observing Ships' Special Observing Project - North Atlantic (VSOP-NA), therefore serves two purposes:(i) it provides a reference document to aid analysis of the VSOP-NA data set,(ii) it gives a detailed description of a subset of the VOS, which will be of value in the interpretation of marine climate data sets.This report is in two parts, Part 1 is an overall summary of the ship characteristics, Part 2 is a ship by ship description. The next section will briefly describe the VSOP-NA project, followed by a summary of the characteristics of the VSOP-NA ships (Section 3). Since these ships were specially selected (Section 2.2), the degree to which they are representative of the whole VOS fleet will be carefully considered. The meteorological instrumentation used by the VOS varies depending on which meteorological agency recruited the ships. That used on the chosen VSOP-NA ships is typical of VOS recruited by the countries bordering the North Atlantic, and will be described in Section 4. Section 5 is a summary of Part 1 of the report.Part 2 presents the VSOP-NA ship catalogue. This includes, for each ship, diagrams of the layout (indicating in particular the exposure of the sensors), a summary of the geographical positions at which observations were obtained, and details of the instrumentation used.<br/
Menjawab Serangan Pemikiran Liberalisme Terhadap Islam menerusi Novel Daun Karya Malim Ghozali P.K.
No full textThis study aims to analyse the liberal critiques of Islamic ideology as depicted in the novel Daun by Malim Ghozali P.K. The main issues highlighted in this article are: [i] the historical context of the development of liberalism in Malaysia as presented in both within and outside the creative work; [ii] explaining how liberal groups attempt to shape an interpretation of Islam to fit their respective agendas. This study is conducted based on a literature review that finds the attitudes of postmodernist scholars, who are evidently unsatisfied and continually deconstructing new theories that ohlm.se the true values of Islam. Therefore, this study employs the concept of New Historicism proposed by Stephen Greenblatt (1988) as an analytical framework, utilizing the concepts of constraint and mobility to view texts as constructed from sociocultural references, specifically the social values that permeate the author's identity through the societal crises the author experienced. The findings of the study indicate that Malim Ghozali P.K. strives to provide a new meaning in order to reject the liberalism ideology prevailing in society, while also critising the government's attitude at the time the novel was written, which use religious issues as a political agenda to gain support.
Full text: PDFKajian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis serangan pemikiran liberalisme terhadap pemikiran Islam tradisional menerusi novel Daun karya Malim Ghozali P.K. Isu utama yang diketengahkan dalam artikel ini ialah: [i] perhubungan konteks sejarah perkembangan liberalisme di Malaysia yang wujud dalam karya dan luar karya; [ii] menjelaskan bagaimana golongan liberalis cuba membentuk acuan Islam yang ditakrifkan sesuai berdasarkan agenda masing-masing. Kajian ini dijalankan berdasarkan sorotan literatur yang mendapati sikap ahli pascamodenis yang ternyata tidak menyenangi dan sentiasa mendekonstruksi teori-teori baharu yang menentang nilai Islam sebenar. Kajian ini memanfaatkan gagasan teori Historisisme Baru yang dikemukakan oleh Stephen Greenblatt (1988) sebagai kerangka analisis dengan memanfaatkan konsep kekangan dan mobiliti yang melihat teks dibina daripada rujukan sosiobudaya, iaitu nilai sosial yang meresap dalam diri pengarang melalui kemelut yang melanda masyarakat dalam situasi pengarang. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa Malim Ghozali P.K. berusaha memberikan pemaknaan baharu demi menolak gagasan pemikiran liberalisme yang sedang berlaku dalam masyarakat seterusnya mengkritik sikap pemerintah ketika novel ini ditulis yang menjadikan isu agama sebagai agenda politik untuk meraih sokongan.
Text penuh: PD
Audit market structure, fees and choice in a period of structural change: evidence from the UK – 1998–2003
No full textThis paper presents evidence on audit market concentration and auditor fee levels in the UK market in the crucial period of structural change following the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) merger and encompassing Andersen’s demise (1998–2003). Given the current interest in auditor choice, analysis is also undertaken at the individual audit firm level and by industry sector. There is evidence of significant upward pressure on audit fees since 2001 but only for smaller auditees. Audit fee income for top tier auditors (Big 5/4) did not change significantly while the number of auditees fell significantly, consistent with a move towards larger, less risky, clients. A decomposition analysis of the aggregate Big 5/4 concentration ratio changes over the period identifies the impact of four distinct consumer-based reasons for change: leavers; net joiners; non-par auditor switches; and (only for the audit fees measure) audit fee changes. Andersen’s demise markedly reduced the level of inequality among the top tier firms but PwC retained its position as a ‘dominant firm’. On switching to the new auditor, former Andersen clients experienced an initial audit fee rise broadly in line with inflation, with no evidence of fee premia or discounting. They also reported significantly lower NAS fees, consistent with audit firms and auditees responding to public concerns about perceptions of auditor independence. There is no general evidence of knowledge spillover effects or cross-subsidisation of the audit fee by NAS. The combined findings provide no evidence to indicate that recent structural changes have resulted in anticompetitive pricing; the key concerns remain the lack of audit firm choice and issues concerning the governance and accountability of audit firms
Hydraulic Fracture Containment in Sand
No full textThe mechanism of hydraulic fracturing in soft, high permeability material is considered fundamentally different from that in hard, low permeability rock, where a tensile fracture is created and conventional linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) applies. The fracturing and associated modeling work is then a relatively new area. Particularly, the fracture containment in layered formations remains unknown. This research is aiming to capture the basic physics of the process of hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation in such materials, and further the fracture containment in layered samples. It consists of experimental and simulation studies with application in the petroleum industry. Laboratory tests are performed on lightly cohesive/cohesionless sands. They are pure sand, sand with silt and sand with cement. The mechanical behavior is independently determined in triaxial tests at different confining stress (up to 60 MPa) and porosities. The material is described within the framework of elasto-plasticity. Material parameters are then derived from the simulations, which are performed to match stress-strain behavior of uniform deformation in triaxial tests. In addition, particle breakage and boundary induced deformation localization in large strain tests are also investigated. Hydraulic fracturing injection tests are first performed using different fluids to select an appropriate fracturing fluid. They are viscous Newtonian fluid, bentonite slurry, linear gel, crosslinked gel, and BXLG. Fluid rheology and leak-off have a strong influence on the tendency to fracturing. The test observation shows that BXLG is a fairly efficient fracturing fluid at high stress, so that the following injection tests are performed with BXLG. Injection tests are carried out on sand at different confining stress (up to 20 MPa). Utilizing an X-ray CT scanner provides real-time visualization of the fracture geometry during injection. This technique helps reveal the mechanism of the fracturing. Based of injection tests and associated simulations, the considered fracturing behavior involves leak-off, initiation pressure, propagation behavior, effect of material parameters, and fracture closure. Leak-off in high permeability material is characterized by two-dimensional whole gel leak-off. Both external and internal filtercakes are observed. This results in the fracture tip lagging behind the fluid leak-off front; also, a significant part of the pressure drop occurs across the internal filtercake. Pressurization of the borehole is intrinsically related to the fracture initiation. The onset of shear bands of a pressurized borehole can be considered as the upper bound of fracture initiation. The observed high pressure is then determined by the borehole instability due to shearing. The propagation behavior is related to the leak-off and the associated change in pore pressure. Shear failure occurs at the fracture tip within the internal filtercake. BXLG that builds a relatively efficient filtercake results in smooth closure of the fracture tip. The fracture initiates and propagates at an oblique angle. This is consistent with the mechanism that it propagates in shear. Simulation of fracture propagation shows that besides the confining stress, all the considered constitutive parameters have influence on the predicted pressure and geometry. A higher pressure is required for material of larger Young’s modulus, smaller Poisson ratio, smaller friction angle and larger dilation angle. Furthermore, dilatancy plays a more significant role for fracturing in soft, high permeability material than in hard rock. Fracture recession is an important phenomenon during closure, which can be explained by more intensive leak-off at the tip. Also, CT scans show that the fracture closes mechanically far below the confining stress. The most important deviation from elastic prediction is a larger injection pressure, larger width, and closure pressure much lower than the confining stress. In addition, injection tests on cemented sands of different strength show that the threshold value of soft material and hard rock is about 0.5 MPa in tensile strength, below which the dominant fracturing mechanism appears to be failure in shear. The fracture initiation and propagation across layers are tested on layered samples, which have a difference in permeability or strength. A uniform confining stress is applied over the entire sample so that any containment would be determined by material properties. In tests with a permeability contrast, the sand layer has permeability some 3-4 times larger than the sand+silt layer; and, they both have no tensile strength. The tests show that fractures may be strongly contained by the high permeability layer. The simulation of a two-dimensional layered model qualitatively explains the mechanism. When the tip penetrates the high permeability layer, the pressure must increase to open the fracture. Also, the fluid needs to leak-off to build enough effective stress. This requires a relatively long time. In a three-dimensional situation it may explain the larger propagation rate in the other direction, within the low permeability layer. That means that the fracture will propagate much further into low permeability layers. In another kind of layered test, the two layers are sand with cement and sand with silt. They differ in tensile strength and shear resistance but they have the same permeability. The fracture develops better in the cemented sand. The simulation shows that this can be explained by the combined influence of the constitutive parameters. Comparing qualitatively strength and permeability contrast, most fracture containment is observed in the low permeability layer. Under the conditions of the present study, permeability is more important than strength for containment.GeotechnologyCivil Engineering and Geoscience
The effect of residual oil on deep bed filtration and formation damage
No full textAbstract not availableCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Transport of polymer in soils and solute in gels for contaminant remediation and containment
No full textAbstract not availableCivil Engineering and Geoscience
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