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Gut microbial changes are associated with diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes and may be influenced by diet patterns. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the effects of alcohol, sodium chloride (NaCl) and dietary restriction on the composition of the gut microflora.

Five-week-old male C57BL/6N mice were orally administered by gavage with ethanol (ET; 4 g/kg), 200 µL of 6% NaCl (NC), or equivalent volumes of phosphate-buffered saline (ET-control and NC-control) every two days for 10 weeks. The mice were also orally administered by gavage with the recommended diet (RD-control; 3 g per mouse per day), or with 40% (RD-40) or 60% restricted level (RD-60). DNA samples obtained from mice ceca were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq Sequencing system; raw data were analyzed using BIOiPLUG software.

This study shows that high ethanol and NaCl consumption, and diet restriction can change the composition of the intestinal microflora, especially Akkermansia muciniphila in ET (p = 0.0050) and NT (p = 0.0366) groups. In addition, the ratio of Bacteriodetes/Firmicutes and the diversity of microflora were generally reduced (p = 0.0487-0.4929).

These results raise the possibility of a relationship between diet patterns, change of intestinal microbiome and disease, which must be further evaluated.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the change in accounting standards from the rules-based local GAAP to the principles-based IFRS influences a manager’s opportunistic auditor choice for a favorable audit opinion, opinion shopping (OS) behavior. The authors view that IFRS adopters exploit the flexibility of IFRS to their advantage and search for auditors that are more likely to give clean opinions. However, auditors may refuse to yield to client pressure for OS, because of the greater potential audit risk under principles-based standards.

This study applies a difference-in-differences methodology by using Korean listed firms (i.e. IFRS adopters) as a treatment sample and Korean unlisted firms that do not voluntarily adopt IFRS (i.e. K-GAAP users) as the control sample. OS behavior is measured by the methodology of Lennox (2000).

The results of this study show that the OS behavior of IFRS adopters increases after IFRS adoption compared to that of K-GAAP users. This phenomenon is more prevalent when they are audited by non-Big 4 auditors or when they are economically important to auditors. These suggest that the principles-based IFRS without specific rules increase the scope of OS, and auditors tend to accept OS clients by weighing up its costs and benefits.

This study contributes to the literature on OS by presenting that the approach of accounting standards can be an important influencing factor on a firm’s successful engagement in OS. This finding also provides policy implications for many economies by suggesting mechanisms that can be developed to reduce clients’ opportunistic auditor choices under principles-based accounting standards.