Louisiana State University

About: Louisiana State University is a education organization based out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 40206 authors who have published 76587 publications receiving 2566076 citations. The organization is also known as: LSU & Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

National and Office-Specific Measures of Auditor Industry Expertise and Effects on Audit Quality

Abstract: Our paper examines whether audit quality is higher for industry audit specialists at the national and city-office levels using the framework developed in Ferguson et al. [2003] and Francis et al. [2005]. We find that auditors who are both national and city-specific industry specialists have clients with the lowest abnormal accruals, suggesting that joint national and city-specific industry specialists have the highest audit quality. In addition, we find some evidence that abnormal accruals of firms audited by city-industry specialists alone (without also being national specific industry specialists) are lower than those audited by non-industry specialists. Using alternative measures of audit quality, we find that when the auditor is both a national and a city-specific industry specialist, its clients are less likely to meet or beat analysts’ earnings forecasts by one penny per share and more likely to be issued a going-concern audit opinion. Together these results provide consistent evidence that audit quality is higher when the auditor is both a national and city-specific industry specialist, suggesting that auditors’ national positive network synergies and the individual auditors’ deep industry knowledge at the office level are jointly important factors in delivering higher audit quality.

Toward Contextualized Theories of Trust: The Role of Trust in Global Virtual Teams

Abstract: Although trust has received much attention in many streams of information systems research, there has been little theorizing to explain how trust evokes sentiments and affects task performance in IT-enabled relationships. Many studies unquestionably assume that trust is intrinsically beneficial, and dismiss the possibility that the effects of trust may be dependent on the situation (or conditions) at present. This paper theoretically and empirically examines outcomes of an individual's trust in global virtual teams under differing situations (or conditions). In Study 1, we find that early in a team's existence, a member's trusting beliefs have a direct positive effect on his or her trust in the team and perceptions of team cohesiveness. Later on, however, a member's trust in his team operates as a moderator, indirectly affecting the relationships between team communication and perceptual outcomes. Study 2 similarly suggests that trust effects are sensitive to the particular situation or condition. Combined, the studies find that trust affects virtual teams differently in different situations. Future studies on trust will need to consider situational contingencies. This paper contributes to the literature on IT-enabled relationships by theorizing and empirically testing how trust affects attitudes and behaviors.

Obesity: a chronic relapsing progressive disease process. A position statement of the World Obesity Federation.

Abstract: This paper considers the argument for obesity as a chronic relapsing disease process. Obesity is viewed from an epidemiological model, with an agent affecting the host and producing disease. Food is the primary agent, particularly foods that are high in energy density such as fat, or in sugar-sweetened beverages. An abundance of food, low physical activity and several other environmental factors interact with the genetic susceptibility of the host to produce positive energy balance. The majority of this excess energy is stored as fat in enlarged, and often more numerous fat cells, but some lipid may infiltrate other organs such as the liver (ectopic fat). The enlarged fat cells and ectopic fat produce and secrete a variety of metabolic, hormonal and inflammatory products that produce damage in organs such as the arteries, heart, liver, muscle and pancreas. The magnitude of the obesity and its adverse effects in individuals may relate to the virulence or toxicity of the environment and its interaction with the host. Thus, obesity fits the epidemiological model of a disease process except that the toxic or pathological agent is food rather than a microbe. Reversing obesity will prevent most of its detrimental effects.

Crop losses due to diseases and their implications for global food production losses and food security

Abstract: The status of global food security, i.e., the balance between the growing food demand of the world population and global agricultural output, combined with discrepancies between supply and demand at the regional, national, and local scales (Smil 2000; UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2011; Ingram 2011), is alarming. This imbalance is not new (Dyson 1999) but has dramatically worsened during the recent decades, culminating recently in the 2008 food crisis. It is important to note that in mid-2011, food prices were back to their heights of the middle of the 2008 crisis (FAO 2011). Plant protection in general and the protection of crops against plant diseases in particular, have an obvious role to play in meeting the growing demand for food quality and quantity (Strange and Scott 2005). Roughly, direct yield losses caused by pathogens, animals, and weeds, are altogether responsible for losses ranging between 20 and 40 % of global agricultural productivity (Teng and Krupa 1980; Teng 1987; Oerke et al. 1994; Oerke 2006). Crop losses due to pests and pathogens are direct, as well as indirect; they have a number of facets, some with short-, and others with long-term consequences (Zadoks 1967). The phrase “losses between 20 and 40 %” therefore inadequately reflects the true costs of crop losses to consumers, public health, societies, environments, economic fabrics and farmers. The components of food security include food availability (production, import, reserves), physical and economic access to food, and food utilisation (e.g., nutritive value, safety), as has been recently reviewed by Ingram (2011). Although crop losses caused by plant disease directly affect the first of these components, they also affect others (e.g., the food utilisation component) directly or indirectly through the fabrics of trade, policies and societies (Zadoks 2008). Most of the agricultural research conducted in the 20th century focused on increasing crop productivity as the world population and its food needs grew (Evans 1998; Smil 2000; Nellemann et al. 2009). Plant protection then primarily focused on protecting crops from yield losses due to biological and non-biological causes. The problem remains as challenging today as in the 20th century, with additional complexity generated by the reduced room for manoeuvre available environmentally, economically, and socially (FAO 2011; Brown 2011). This results from shrinking natural resources that are available to agriculture: these include water, agricultural land, arable soil, biodiversity, the availability of non-renewable energy, human labour, fertilizers (Smil 2000), and the deployment of some key inputs, such as high quality seeds and planting material (Evans 1998). In addition to yield losses caused by diseases, these new elements of complexity also include post harvest quality losses and the possible accumulation of toxins during and after the S. Savary (*) : J.-N. Aubertot INRA, UMR1248 AGIR, 24 Chemin de Borde Rouge, Auzeville, CS52627, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan Cedex, France e-mail: Serge.Savary@toulouse.inra.fr

Multiple-Locus Variable-Number Tandem Repeat Analysis Reveals Genetic Relationships within Bacillus anthracis

Abstract: Bacillus anthracis is one of the most genetically homogeneous pathogens described, making strain discrimination particularly difficult. In this paper, we present a novel molecular typing system based on rapidly evolving variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) loci. Multiple-locus VNTR analysis (MLVA) uses the combined power of multiple alleles at several marker loci. In our system, fluorescently labeled PCR primers are used to produce PCR amplification products from eight VNTR regions in the B. anthracis genome. These are detected and their sizes are determined using an ABI377 automated DNA sequencer. Five of these eight loci were discovered by sequence characterization of molecular markers (vrrC1, vrrC2, vrrB1, vrrB2, and CG3), two were discovered by searching complete plasmid nucleotide sequences (pXO1-aat and pXO2-at), and one was known previously (vrrA). MLVA characterization of 426 B. anthracis isolates identified 89 distinct genotypes. VNTR markers frequently identified multiple alleles (from two to nine), with Nei's diversity values between 0.3 and 0.8. Unweighted pair-group method arithmetic average cluster analysis identified six genetically distinct groups that appear to be derived from clones. Some of these clones show worldwide distribution, while others are restricted to particular geographic regions. Human commerce doubtlessly has contributed to the dispersal of particular clones in ancient and modern times.