Do Chief Audit Executives Matter? Evidence from Turnover Events

We investigate the chief audit executive’s (CAE) internal audit supervisory role by examining the change in internal audit monitoring effectiveness following the turnover of CAEs. Using a sample of firms listed on the small and medium enterprise board of China’s stock exchange, we find that CAE turnover is accompanied by a reduction in financial reporting/internal control quality and that the reduction is more pronounced for firms whose successor CAEs have lower financial expertise than their predecessors. Further analysis shows that the negative association with financial reporting/internal control quality is stronger when the turnover is for personal reasons than when it is for internal transfer of the CAE. These findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks, including placebo tests and matching diagnostics. Our results highlight the importance of the CAE for a firm’s internal audit functions.

A Sequential and Intensive Weighted Language Modeling Scheme for Multi-Task Learning-Based Natural Language Understanding

Multi-task learning (MTL) approaches are actively used for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks. The Multi-Task Deep Neural Network (MT-DNN) has contributed significantly to improving the performance of natural language understanding (NLU) tasks. However, one drawback is that confusion about the language representation of various tasks arises during the training of the MT-DNN model. Inspired by the internal-transfer weighting of MTL in medical imaging, we introduce a Sequential and Intensive Weighted Language Modeling (SIWLM) scheme. The SIWLM consists of two stages: (1) Sequential weighted learning (SWL), which trains a model to learn entire tasks sequentially and concentrically, and (2) Intensive weighted learning (IWL), which enables the model to focus on the central task. We apply this scheme to the MT-DNN model and call this model the MTDNN-SIWLM. Our model achieves higher performance than the existing reference algorithms on six out of the eight GLUE benchmark tasks. Moreover, our model outperforms MT-DNN by 0.77 on average on the overall task. Finally, we conducted a thorough empirical investigation to determine the optimal weight for each GLUE task.

Knowledge transfer for innovativeness in family businesses

Family businesses (FB) are important in the most of national economies. We explored whether successors' innovativeness is positively associated with the transfer of the founders' innovativeness through knowledge transfer and creation processes in a form of the internal transfer of founders' tacit and experiential knowledge and skills and with the external transfer of knowledge, when potential successors attend educational programs, external training, or gain working experience in other companies. Our research reveals that when the actual forms of internal knowledge transfer are discussed, the positive correlations exist between innovativeness of successors and their early inclusion into FB, apprenticeship, inclusion of successors into meetings with business partners and strategic planning before they get involved in FB. Our survey partially confirmed that regarding external transfer of knowledge, working experiences of successors in other companies and participation in academic courses are positively associated with their innovativeness.

Intra-transfer of ownership factors and external transfer of ownership effects: evidence from the Gauteng enterprising community, South Africa

Purpose This paper aims to determine the perceptions of family-owned small enterprises on the external transfer of ownership and intra-transfer of ownership using empirical data. This permitted the research to successfully point out the factors that influence the internal transfer of ownership, and also, the effects of intra-transfer of ownership from a viewpoint of both family members and non-family members in small family-owned enterprises. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research design was used to conduct this research, where primary data was gathered from a sample of 257 respondents using convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Data was collected through a survey instrument distributed via internet-based surveys (SurveyMonkey) and through a drop-off method. The gathered data was then captured, coded and analysed using Stata (version 15) statistical software. Findings The results divulged that intra or internal transfer of ownership is the preferred avenue compared to external transfer of ownership. This is because, when a family business is transferred to the next generation, it presents some benefits to family members working in the business and to the family at large. As a result, the empirical results show that factors that influence the internal transfer of ownership include: favouritism; security, stability and growth; a formal and structured succession plan. Business improvement and organisational change are then the effects of external transfer ownership. Although these effects make business sense, family members will advocate for internal transfer of ownership for them not to lose the benefits that come with the internal transfer of ownership. Research limitations/implications This paper adds to the current family business research in South Africa, thus reducing the shortage of such research. Moreover, the paper proposes further research that will provide tested, practical and detailed guidelines of survival in the next generation. Practical implications The paper empirically highlights the perils of selecting a successor based on favouritism rather than merit and possible consequences, thereby assisting those involved in family enterprise succession to make an informed decision when choosing a successor. Originality/value This research paper provides empirical evidence of the internal transfer of ownership factors and external transfer of ownership effects from a South African perspective.

Medication Discrepancies Involving Hospitalized Children At A High-Complexity Public Hospital

Background: Children are more susceptible to medication errors and adverse reactions. In addition, variation in body mass and medication discrepancies are the major causes of medication errors, which pose a risk of harm to children. When unresolved, these issues can lead to longer hospital stays, increased hospital readmissions, and emergency room care that burden the healthcare system. Many organizations have struggled to implement medication reconciliation. In this context, studies demonstrated that reliability and improvement science methods can be used to implement a successful and sustained medication reconciliation process. One of the initial steps involved in medication reconciliation process is determining the sector for implementation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of medication discrepancies occurring throughout the course of a hospital stay and describe the types of discrepancies and medications most commonly involved in pediatric cases. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out from July 2017 to March 2018 in the pediatric department of a high-complexity public hospital in Brazil. Data collection consisted of: collection of sociodemographic data, clinical interview with the patient's caregiver, registration of patient prescriptions, and evaluation of medical records. Discrepancies were classified as intentional or unintentional and included omission of medication, therapeutic duplicity, different dose, frequency, route of administration than prescribed. Study approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CAAE: 36927014.4.0000.5546). Results: During care transitions, 114 children were followed. Patients presented unintentional discrepancies, of which 16 (14.0%) presented discrepancies at hospital admission, 42 (36.8%) during ward transfer, and 52 (45.6%) during discharge. Omission represented 74% (n=20) ofthe errors at admission, 38% (n=26) at ward transfer, and 100% (n=80) at discharge. The most frequent discrepancies in the three transitions were related to antimicrobials, representing 43.3% of discrepancies at admission, 38.8% at internal transfer, and 61.2% during discharge. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that the main transition levels when unintentional discrepancies occurred in children in this hospital were during internal transfer and discharge and indicated difficulties in interprofessional communication and poor documentation. Evaluation of all transition points is essential for determining the most critical point in the quality of care provided at hospitals.

Interne Untersuchungen und Informationsaustausch

The major advantages of conducting internal investigations only come to light when the results can be disclosed to third parties. At the interface of data protection and criminal procedure law, the work explores how the group-internal transfer of the outcome and the cooperative disclosure to German and US authorities can be justified. The emphasis is placed on the suspect employee. Due to less strict investigation regulations under private law, the information transfer to authorities carries a potential risk of undermining his position as a suspect according to criminal procedure law. The contribution discusses if the new data protection law can adjust the structural imbalances and if it leads to a fairer approach to conducting internal investigations. Besides the highly relevant impact of disclosure orders from US authorities and Art. 48 DS-GVO as a “blocking statute”, the work also analyses the exclusion of gained evidence under criminal procedure law.

Recycling of single-stranded DNA-binding protein by the bacterial replisome

ABSTRACTSingle-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs) support DNA replication by protecting single-stranded DNA from nucleolytic attack, preventing intra-strand pairing events, and playing many other regulatory roles within the replisome. Recent developments in single-molecule approaches have led to a revised picture of the replisome that is much more complex in how it retains or recycles protein components. Here we visualise how anin vitroreconstitutedE. colireplisome recruits SSB by relying on two different molecular mechanisms. Not only does it recruit new SSB molecules from solution to coat newly formed single-stranded DNA on the lagging strand, but it also internally recycles SSB from one Okazaki fragment to the next. We show that this internal transfer mechanism is balanced against recruitment from solution in a manner that is concentration dependent. By visualising SSB dynamics in live cells, we show that both internal transfer and external exchange mechanisms are physiologically relevant.