WorldCom and its former top executives have drawn intense scrutiny since last week, when the company disclosed it had discovered that $3.8 billion in operating expenses had been improperly accounted ...for, inflating the company's profits in 2001 and part of 2002. It fired Scott Sullivan as chief financial officer. Earlier this week, WorldCom also said it was investigating additional accounting problems, which people familiar with the matter said could add at least $1 billion to the company's accounting discrepancies. After allegedly being rebuffed by Mr. Sullivan, Ms. Cynthia Cooper took her findings to Max Bobbitt, chairman of the audit committee of WorldCom's board, who delayed taking action on her findings, according to a person close to the investigation. WorldCom has said that Mr. Bobbitt later turned over Ms. Cooper's findings to KPMG. Prosecutors have secured Ms. Cooper as a witness as they decide whether to bring criminal charges against WorldCom and some of its executives. The House Financial Services Committee, which is scheduled to hold hearings on WorldCom Monday, has been asked by the Justice Department to not call Ms. Cooper or Mr. Bobbitt to testify, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Other executives are expected to testify, including WorldCom Chief Executive John Sidgmore.
After allegedly being rebuffed by Mr. Sullivan, Ms. Cynthia Cooper took her findings to Max Bobbitt, chairman of the audit committee of WorldCom's board, who delayed taking action on her findings, ...according to a person close to the investigation. WorldCom has said that Mr. Bobbitt later turned over Ms. Coopers's findings to KPMG LLP, the company's current outside auditing firm. Prosecutors have secured Ms. Cooper as a witness as they decide whether to bring criminal charges against WorldCom and some executives. WorldCom last week disclosed it had discovered that $3.8 billion in operating expenses had been improperly accounted for, inflating the company's profits in 2001 and part of 2002. It fired Scott Sullivan as chief financial officer. Earlier this week, WorldCom also said it was investigating additional accounting problems, which people familiar with the matter said could add at least $1 billion to the company's accounting discrepancies.
Shares of Qwest have fallen 85% in the past year, and its new management is trying to sell assets to relieve its crushing debt load. Qwest's outside attorney, Jonathan Schiller, said Qwest's ...accounting, including for swaps, was "reasonable," and that "Qwest would hope to bring the SEC to that conclusion as well." Three top company officials, including Joseph P. Nacchio, who resigned under pressure as chief executive last week, have testified before the SEC's Denver office. Qwest's chief financial officer and its president also have testified, according to people close to the matter. The SEC is questioning executives of other telecom companies, including Global Crossing Ltd., which swapped fiber capacity with Qwest. "Was the guidance reasonable and did they follow the guidance or did they do something that went beyond what was allowed," are among the questions regulators are asking, said a person familiar with the probe. In addition, the SEC is described by some people familiar with the investigation as focusing on whether the guidance itself was proper. Qwest has been defending its accounting to the SEC by referring to guidance it received from Arthur Andersen, specifically a "white paper" that gave clients such as Qwest accounting guidance.
Shares of Qwest have fallen more than 85% in the past year, and its new management is trying to sell assets to relieve its crushing debt load. Qwest's outside attorney, Jonathan Schiller, said ...Qwest's accounting, including for swaps, was "reasonable," and that "Qwest would hope to bring the SEC to that conclusion as well." Three top company officials, including Joseph P. Nacchio, who resigned under pressure as chief executive last week, have testified before the SEC's Denver office. Qwest's chief financial officer and its president also have testified, according to people close to the matter. The SEC is questioning executives of other telecom companies, including Global Crossing Ltd., which swapped fiber capacity with Qwest. "Was the guidance reasonable and did they follow the guidance or did they do something that went beyond what was allowed," are among the questions regulators are asking, said a person familiar with the probe. In addition, the SEC is described by some people familiar with the investigation as focusing on whether the guidance itself was proper. Qwest has been defending its accounting to the SEC by referring to guidance it received from Arthur Andersen, specifically a "white paper" that gave clients such as Qwest accounting guidance.
Qwest's outside attorney, Jonathan Schiller, said Qwest's accounting, including for swaps, was "reasonable," and added that "Qwest would hope to bring the SEC to that conclusion as well." At the same ...time, congressional interest in Qwest's accounting also is growing. At least one Qwest executive already has been called to testify at the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to a person familiar with the federal investigations. And House and SEC inquiries of Global Crossing have taken a strong look at Qwest's roles in telecom transactions during 2000 and 2001. The accounting rules that allowed Qwest to book the revenue in one chunk have a number of stringent qualifications. One of the most important is that Qwest -- when selling its telecom capacity -- would have to specify exactly what it sold to another telecom carrier. That means a Qwest customer could not, for example, buy $50 million in capacity and determine later how it would be used.
The additional $400 million debt obligation stems from investments that the Rigas family, which controls Adelphia, agreed to make in the cable company earlier this year. People close to the company ...say the Rigases paid for the shares with loans guaranteed by Adelphia and made to Highland Holdings, the main off-balance-sheet entity. Adelphia, which is the sixth-largest cable-television company in the U.S., didn't return calls seeking comment. The SEC declined to comment.
The company is now considering selling assets to help lighten its load, though analysts and some large shareholders say Adelphia may have no choice but to sell the company. With its debt on review ...for a possible downgrade and its stock price down 42% since the disclosure, Adelphia is under pressure from institutional shareholders to find a solution. The additional $400 million debt obligation stems from investments the Rigas family, which controls Adelphia, agreed to make in the cable company earlier this year. People close to the company say the Rigases likely paid for many of the shares with loans guaranteed by Adelphia and made to Highland Holdings, the main off-balance sheet entity.
A history of periodontal disease and the presence of circulating antibodies to selected oral pathogens have been associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer; however, direct relationships of ...oral microbes with pancreatic cancer have not been evaluated in prospective studies. We examine the relationship of oral microbiota with subsequent risk of pancreatic cancer in a large nested case-control study.
We selected 361 incident adenocarcinoma of pancreas and 371 matched controls from two prospective cohort studies, the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II and the National Cancer Institute Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. From pre-diagnostic oral wash samples, we characterised the composition of the oral microbiota using bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene sequencing. The associations between oral microbiota and risk of pancreatic cancer, controlling for the random effect of cohorts and other covariates, were examined using traditional and L1-penalised least absolute shrinkage and selection operator logistic regression.
Carriage of oral pathogens,
and
, were associated with higher risk of pancreatic cancer (adjusted OR for presence vs absence=1.60 and 95% CI 1.15 to 2.22; OR=2.20 and 95% CI 1.16 to 4.18, respectively). Phylum
and its genus
were associated with decreased pancreatic cancer risk (OR per per cent increase of relative abundance=0.94 and 95% CI 0.89 to 0.99; OR=0.87 and 95% CI 0.79 to 0.95, respectively). Risks related to these phylotypes remained after exclusion of cases that developed within 2 years of sample collection, reducing the likelihood of reverse causation in this prospective study.
This study provides supportive evidence that oral microbiota may play a role in the aetiology of pancreatic cancer.
Certain individuals, when infected by SARS-CoV-2, tend to develop the more severe forms of Covid-19 illness for reasons that remain unclear.
To determine the demographic and clinical characteristics ...associated with increased severity of Covid-19 infection.
Retrospective observational study. We curated data from the electronic health record, and used multivariable logistic regression to examine the association of pre-existing traits with a Covid-19 illness severity defined by level of required care: need for hospital admission, need for intensive care, and need for intubation.
A large, multihospital healthcare system in Southern California.
All patients with confirmed Covid-19 infection (N = 442).
Of all patients studied, 48% required hospitalization, 17% required intensive care, and 12% required intubation. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, patients requiring a higher levels of care were more likely to be older (OR 1.5 per 10 years, P<0.001), male (OR 2.0, P = 0.001), African American (OR 2.1, P = 0.011), obese (OR 2.0, P = 0.021), with diabetes mellitus (OR 1.8, P = 0.037), and with a higher comorbidity index (OR 1.8 per SD, P<0.001). Several clinical associations were more pronounced in younger compared to older patients (Pinteraction<0.05). Of all hospitalized patients, males required higher levels of care (OR 2.5, P = 0.003) irrespective of age, race, or morbidity profile.
In our healthcare system, greater Covid-19 illness severity is seen in patients who are older, male, African American, obese, with diabetes, and with greater overall comorbidity burden. Certain comorbidities paradoxically augment risk to a greater extent in younger patients. In hospitalized patients, male sex is the main determinant of needing more intensive care. Further investigation is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these findings.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
A survey of minicomputer data base management systems was conducted to determine the current state of the industry. The results of the survey are highlighted in this paper to provide a broad view of ...the features of commercially available mini-data base systems. Among the topics presented are hardware requirements, software implementation, data independence, binding, integrity, privacy controls, installation base, availability, and user considerations. In addition, the relationship between the growth of the minicomputer market and mini-DBMS market in the second half of the 70's is emphasized.
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