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Independence is the cornerstone of the auditing profession. Even so, it is often assumed that acquiescing to the audit client when a disagreement occurs is more beneficial to the auditor-client relationship than asserting one’s independence (e.g., see Wang & Tuttle, 2009). We look more closely at the issue in the context of auditor-client management disagreements as recalled by experienced auditors.

We find that for most disagreements in which the auditor did not make any concession at all, the auditor-client relationship was either unaffected or strengthened. We find that a client’s use of pressure tactics did not appear to influence whether or not the auditor made a concession, but that a client’s use of pressure tactics, was associated with damage to the auditor-client relationship. The importance of the issue causing a disagreement was positively associated with the likelihood of the auditor staying with his/her initial position.

THE POST‐WAR PERIOD has produced some major changes in methods of training of professional engineers, one of the most significant being the widespread adoption of various forms of sandwich course aimed at closer integration of academic study and practical experience. The ‘sandwich’ idea is not, however, a post‐war development; in fact, a number of college and university courses have been run on similar lines for many years. These were the prototypes of the thin‐sandwich arrangements involving alternating periods, usually of about six months, in college and in industry which characterise the courses leading to the recently instituted Diploma in Technology.

The management of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) requires a multimodal approach of behavioural, educational and pharmacological treatments. At present, there are no available drugs to treat the core symptoms of ASDs and therefore a wide range of psychotropic medications are used in the management of problems behaviours, co-occurring psychiatric disorders and other associated features. The purpose of this paper is to map the literature on pharmacological treatment in persons with ASD in order to identify those most commonly used, choice criteria, and safety.

A systematic mapping of the recent literature was undertaken on the basis of the following questions: What are the most frequently used psychoactive compounds in ASD? What are the criteria guiding the choice of a specific compound? How effective and safe is every psychoactive drug used in ASD? The literature search was conducted through search engines available on Medline, Medmatrix, NHS Evidence, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library.

Many psychotropic medications have been studied in ASDs, but few have strong evidence to support their use. Most commonly prescribed medications, in order of frequency, are antipsychotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and stimulants, many of them without definitive studies guiding their usage. Recent animal studies can be useful models for understanding the common pathogenic pathways leading to ASDs, and have the potential to offer new biologically focused treatment options.

This is a practice review paper applying recent evidence from the literature.

IN recent years the bogie type of multi‐wheel undercarriage has been introduced on the medium and heavy range of aircraft. The trend began because of the necessity of keeping runway loadings to a minimum and the difficulty of stowing a large diameter single wheel in the wing or fuselage during flight. By spreading the main undercarriage ground reaction through two, four or more wheels, existing runways are able to accommodate heavier aircraft, while faster operational flight speeds have resulted in relatively thinner wing sections aggravating the stowage problem of the undercarriage. The interpretation of the bogie into practical undercarriages with their manifold performance duties has led to several types of mechanisms each with distinctive dynamical features. One such mechanism is the semi‐articulated bogie type and its general features have been previously described, The claims made for this undercarriage have been substantiated through several years of successful operational experience. Since this particular arrangement has obvious future applications both as a twin‐ or multi‐wheel version and, as it possesses characteristic dynamical features, it is considered appropriate to place on record the analysis of its landing performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of combined risperidone (RIS) and pivotal response treatment (PRT) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

In all, 34 children diagnosed with ASD (mean age of 12.36 years) were randomly divided into two groups: an RIS treatment group (n=18) and an RIS plus PRT (n=16). Communication skills were evaluated with the child communication checklist (CCC).

Total score of the CCC was increased in both groups after three months compared with the score prior to treatment. The total score of the CCC was significantly higher in the combined treatment group than in the RIS group.

Treatment with RIS combined with PRT may result in a better outcome in communication skill for children with autism than RIS training alone.

Deficiencies or imbalances in dietary fat intake may influence on mental and neurological functions of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study aims to compare body mass index (BMI) and the amount of fatty acids intake in the autistic patients with the comparison group.

This case-control was carried out on 200 randomly selected children from 5 to 15 years old (100 autistic patients as the case group and 100 healthy children as the comparison group) in Tehran, Iran. The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess the intake of calorie, macronutrients and different types of dietary fatty acids including saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), linoleic acid (LA), α-Linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and trans fatty acids.

The autistic patients had higher BMI, birth weight and mother’s BMI compared to the comparison group (All p < 0.01). No significant difference was found in the amount of dietary calorie, protein, carbohydrate and total fat intake between two groups. The risk of ASD was associated with higher intake of MUFAs (OR: 3.18, CI%:1.13–4.56, p = 0.04), PUFAs (OR: 4.12, CI95%: 2.01–6.25, p < 0.01) and LA (OR: 4.76, CI95%: 1.34–14.32, p < 0.01).

The autistic children had higher BMI and higher intake of unsaturated fatty acids except for omega-3 fatty acids. Further longitudinal studies are warranted.

Metacognitive beliefs and processes have been found to perpetuate anxiety and depression in youth and adults. However, the presence of metacognitive beliefs in children with autism spectrum disorder is somewhat unclear and has received limited research attention to date. The purpose of this paper is to explore metacognitive beliefs in children with autism and associations with anxiety and depression.

In total, 23 high functioning participants (17 male and 6 female) between the ages of 8 and 12 (M=10.38) diagnosed on the autism spectrum completed the study. Participants completed the Revised Children’s Scale of Anxiety and Depression and the Metacognitions Questionnaire for Children.

Correlation analyses revealed that positive and negative metacognitive beliefs were found, as hypothesised, to be prevalent in this sample.

Despite methodological limitations, this is one of the first research evaluations to provide evidence for metacognitive beliefs in high functioning children with autism and comorbid anxiety or low mood.

This paper aims to examine the effects of firm size on audit proposal readability and audit proposal readability on auditor selection using readability metrics.

Adopting the Flesch reading ease readability formula, the authors analyze the readability of 370 hand-collected audit proposals submitted by audit firms for US state and local governments’ audit service contracts.

The authors find differences in readability across audit firm size, specifically the proposals written by smaller firms are more readable than those submitted by larger firms. The results further indicate that readability metrics correlate with auditor selection, i.e. an increase in audit proposal readability from the first to third quartile improves the likelihood of a firm winning the engagement by about 6 per cent, ceteris paribus. In addition, while audit fees and an existing auditor–client relationship are associated with engagement success, proxies for audit quality (i.e. audit firm size, audit experience of lead partner) are not.

The Flesch reading ease measure is a simple linear combination of text attributes, which assumes that readability is a single, unidimensional construct. Simple readability metrics, such as the Flesch reading ease, may confound environmental complexity with readability.

Readability improves audit proposal success.

The results provide insight to accounting stakeholders regarding the potential influence of readability on audit firm selection. In short, readability matters.

This article surveys recent developments in the evaluation of point and density forecasts in the context of forecasts made by vector autoregressions. Specific emphasis is placed on highlighting those parts of the existing literature that are applicable to direct multistep forecasts and those parts that are applicable to iterated multistep forecasts. This literature includes advancements in the evaluation of forecasts in population (based on true, unknown model coefficients) and the evaluation of forecasts in the finite sample (based on estimated model coefficients). The article then examines in Monte Carlo experiments the finite-sample properties of some tests of equal forecast accuracy, focusing on the comparison of VAR forecasts to AR forecasts. These experiments show the tests to behave as should be expected given the theory. For example, using critical values obtained by bootstrap methods, tests of equal accuracy in population have empirical size about equal to nominal size.

Autism spectrum disorder is a kind of neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of sensory integration intervention on emotional-behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This research was conducted in a pretest-posttest design with control group. The participants were 30 children with autism spectrum disorder (6–11 years old) who were selected through convenience sampling from among children with autism spectrum disorder in Zeinab center of Isfahan and were randomly divided into two groups of 15 subjects. The children of the experimental group received 14 sessions of sensory integration intervention while the control group did not receive this intervention. To measure emotional-behavioral problems, the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition was used. To analyze the data, ANCOVA and MANCOVA tests were used.

The results showed that sensory integration intervention improves emotional-behavioral problems and its subscales (hyperactivity, aggression, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, somatization, attention problems, learning difficulties, atypicality and withdrawal) in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Therefore, it can be concluded that sensory integration intervention can be a suitable treatment for reducing sensory problems and improving emotional-behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The study of the effect of sensory integration on emotional-behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder is necessary as a simple and non-side-effect educational and therapeutic method, both as a step to fill the research gap in this field, besides being a cheap and affordable way for improving the various skills of children with autism spectrum disorder for professionals, teachers, parents and educators.