Earnings Quality and the Likelihood of Material Misstatement in the Financial Statements

The purpose of this study is to identify financial indicators of poor earnings quality and to determine whether these indicators can distinguish firms with a high likelihood of material misstatement in their financial statements. Firms with significant accrual estimation errors are considered to have a high likelihood of material misstatement. A logistic regression model is developed using 10 financial indicators of poor earnings quality. Using a large sample across a 19 year period, the model is able to correctly classify up to 98% of firms as having either a high or a low likelihood of material misstatement

I, Robot: You Gotta Have Heart

I Robot is a rousing sci-fi action story which explores Artificial Intelligence and its consequences. Deep philosophical themes abound, such as existential crisis and identity-defining choice, the nature of personhood, purpose in life, cognition and mental interpretive structures, faith vs. reason, divine command theory, and freedom vs. determinism. It also brims with biblical symbolism, including the fall, messianic figures, the exodus from bondage, theophany, ambiguity of the feminine, sacrificial death and the trinity. Finally it is about personal and collective redemption, making a clear statement about the heart and emotions as the seat of will, faith, and morality

A Mystery in the Georgia Woods: The Woolfolk Murders

When you take a walk in the woods to hunt or just to enjoy the outdoor beauty, you never know what might have happened there in the past. A large tract of woodlands in Bibb County is a good example. When I visited there recently, the woods were calm and quiet and the mature oak trees stood in silent witness to the violence that occurred here many years ago. But on August 6, 1887 nine persons were slain at this location in the woods, just off highway 74 in Bibb County. The house where the murders occurred is long gone, but nine members of the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society (strangely, number of murder victims here also was nine!) came to investigate and to re-establish the lost location of the house site. In this goal we were successful and located the house site, along with supporting house debris (such as bricks, hinges, and an old window weight), and the old well. We came to this site not to judge prior events, but to re-examine an historical event and document physical remains of the murder site as an official Georgia archaeological site

A neural network based intelligent predictive sensor for cloudiness, solar radiation and air temperature

Accurate measurements of global solar radiation and atmospheric temperature, as well as the availability of the predictions of their evolution over time, are important for different areas of applications, such as agriculture, renewable energy and energy management, or thermal comfort in buildings. For this reason, an intelligent, light-weight and portable sensor was developed, using artificial neural network models as the time-series predictor mechanisms. These have been identified with the aid of a procedure based on the multi-objective genetic algorithm. As cloudiness is the most significant factor affecting the solar radiation reaching a particular location on the Earth surface, it has great impact on the performance of predictive solar radiation models for that location. This work also represents one step towards the improvement of such models by using ground-to-sky hemispherical colour digital images as a means to estimate cloudiness by the fraction of visible sky corresponding to clouds and to clear sky. The implementation of predictive models in the prototype has been validated and the system is able to function reliably, providing measurements and four-hour forecasts of cloudiness, solar radiation and air temperature

The Effect of the Achilles Tendon on Trabecular Structure in the Primate Calcaneus

Humans possess the longest Achilles tendon relative to total muscle length of any primate, an anatomy that is beneficial for bipedal locomotion. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the Achilles tendon has been challenging, in part because soft tissue does not fossilize. The only skeletal evidence for Achilles tendon anatomy in extinct taxa is the insertion site on the calcaneal tuber, which is rarely preserved in the fossil record and, when present, is equivocal for reconstructing tendon morphology. In this study, we used high‐resolution three‐dimensional microcomputed tomography (micro‐CT) to quantify the microstructure of the trabecular bone underlying the Achilles tendon insertion site in baboons, gibbons, chimpanzees, and humans to test the hypothesis that trabecular orientation differs among primates with different tendon morphologies. Surprisingly, despite their very different Achilles tendon lengths, we were unable to find differences between the trabecular properties of chimpanzee and human calcanei in this specific region. There were regional differences within the calcaneus in the degree of anisotropy (DA) in both chimpanzees and humans, though the patterns were similar between the two species (higher DA inferiorly in the calcaneal tuber). Our results suggest that while trabecular bone within the calcaneus varies, it does not respond to the variation of Achilles tendon morphology across taxa in the way we hypothesized. These results imply that internal bone architecture may not be informative for reconstructing Achilles tendon anatomy in early hominins. Anat Rec, 296:1509–1517, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100175/1/ar22739.pd

The Teachings of Church Leaders Regarding the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ: 1852–2018

From the beginnings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (herein referred to as “the Church”), the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ has been at the heart of its theology. In numerous revelations received by Joseph Smith, the Savior is identified as having been “crucified for the sins of the world” (D&C 53:2; see also 21:9, 35:2, 46:13, 54:1, 76:41). President Brigham Young taught that salvation was only “through the name and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the atonement he made on Mount Calvary.”1 President John Taylor said that Christ “was crucified and put to death to atone for the sins of the world.”2 President Wilford Woodruff stated, “The Lord Jesus was crucified on Mount Calvary for the sins of the world.”3 And President Lorenzo Snow taught that Christ “sacrificed his life on Mount Calvary for the salvation of the human family.”4 In 1918, President Joseph F. Smith wrote “that redemption had been wrought through the sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross” (D&C 138:35), and in 1941, President Heber J. Grant testified that Christ “came to this earth with a divine mission to die upon the cross as the Redeemer of mankind, atoning for the sins of the world.”5 In brief, every President of the Church has similarly testified that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of the world. At the start of the twenty-first century, the united First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve proclaimed that Christ was “sentenced to die on Calvary’s cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind.”6 Clearly, Christ’s Crucifixion is central to the theology of the Church

Noise Reduction for CFA Image Sensors Exploiting HVS Behaviour

This paper presents a spatial noise reduction technique designed to work on CFA (Color Filtering Array) data acquired by CCD/CMOS image sensors. The overall processing preserves image details using some heuristics related to the HVS (Human Visual System); estimates of local texture degree and noise levels are computed to regulate the filter smoothing capability. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed technique. The method is also suitable for implementation in low power mobile devices with imaging capabilities such as camera phones and PDAs

Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) Foraging Efficiency Reduced by Fast Flows

Predators can strongly influence prey populations and the structure and function of ecosystems, but these effects can be modified by environmental stress. For example, fluid velocity and turbulence can alter the impact of predators by limiting their environmental range and altering their foraging ability. We investigated how hydrodynamics affected the foraging behavior of the green crab (Carcinus maenas), which is invading marine habitats throughout the world. High flow velocities are known to reduce green crab predation rates and our study sought to identify the mechanisms by which flow affects green crabs. We performed a series of experiments with green crabs to determine: 1) if their ability to find prey was altered by flow in the field, 2) how flow velocity influenced their foraging efficiency, and 3) how flow velocity affected their handling time of prey. In a field study, we caught significantly fewer crabs in baited traps at sites with fast versus slow flows even though crabs were more abundant in high flow areas. This finding suggests that higher velocity flows impair the ability of green crabs to locate prey. In laboratory flume assays, green crabs foraged less efficiently when flow velocity was increased. Moreover, green crabs required significantly more time to consume prey in high velocity flows. Our data indicate that flow can impose significant chemosensory and physical constraints on green crabs. Hence, hydrodynamics may strongly influence the role that green crabs and other predators play in rocky intertidal communities

A survey of knowledge, attitudes and practice of emergency contraception among university students in Cameroon

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Unsafe abortion is a major public health problem in low-and-middle income countries. Young and unmarried women constitute a high risk group for unsafe abortions. It has been estimated that widespread use of emergency contraception may significantly reduce the number of abortion-related morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and experiences on emergency contraceptive pills by the university students in Cameroon in order to develop and refine a national health programme for reducing unwanted pregnancies and their associated morbidity and mortality.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A convenient sample of 700 students of the University of Buea (Cameroon) was selected for the study. Data was collected by a self-administered, anonymous and pre-tested questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The response rate was 94.9% (664/700). General level of awareness of emergency contraceptive pills was 63.0% (418/664). However, knowledge of the general features of emergency contraceptive pills was low and misinformation was high among these students. Knowledge differed according to the source of information: informal source was associated with misinformation, while medical and informational sources were associated with better knowledge. Although the students generally had positive attitudes regarding emergency contraceptive pills, up to 65.0% (465/664) believed that emergency contraceptive pills were unsafe. Those with adequate knowledge generally showed favourable attitudes with regards to emergency contraceptive pills (Mann-Whitney U = 2592.5, p = 0.000). Forty-nine students (7.4%) had used emergency contraceptive pills themselves or had a partner who had used them.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Awareness of emergency contraception pills by Cameroonian students is low and the method is still underused. Strategies to promote use of emergency contraception should be focused on spreading accurate information through medical and informational sources, which have been found to be reliable and associated with good knowledge on emergency contraceptive pills.</p