The Accounting Profession’s Engagement with Accounting Standards: Conceptualizing Accounting Complexity through Big 4 Comment Letters

Regulators, standard setters, and the accounting profession maintain that complexity in accounting standards is a significant issue. However, it is unclear what complexity means in the context of accounting standards. This study examines, via comment letter submissions, the accounting profession’s engagement with complexity in accounting standards. We analyze comment letters submitted to the Financial Accounting Standards Board over a 12-year period and find the profession characterizes complexity through three dimensions – multiplicity, diversity, and interrelatedness. We examine the Big 4’s discourse on these dimensions and observe consistency between audit firms in their discourse on several features. For instance, we find that firms primarily oppose proposed FASB changes when firms perceive those changes to increase rather than decrease complexity. Additionally, firms perceive proposed changes to affect financial statement preparers more often than other stakeholders. However, the Big 4 do not hold universal opinions as to the root causes of complexity. At the cross-firm level, we find inconsistencies that imply heterogeneity in the Big 4’s discourse on root causes. Such inconsistency may, in and of itself, construct accounting complexity. Ultimately, we maintain that the Big 4’s engagement with accounting standards has consequences for how complexity is thought and acted upon in accounting standards

A theory of effective computer-based instruction for adults

Computer-based instruction (CBI) was considered the technological phenomenon to revolutionize education and training. Today, the Internet and computer technology are reported to have significantly altered the education landscape (Johnson & Aragon, 2002). The rapid advances in technology, the need for lifelong learning, and the growth of non-traditional students have encouraged the use of the computer as a method of instructional delivery. Evaluating the effectiveness of CBI as a whole technology is very difficult. The inability to measure effectiveness is attributable in part to the fact that CBI is not just one component, but a complex range of services and activities carried out for instructional and learning purposes (Gibbons & Fairweather, 2000). This study presents a theory of critical components that impact the effectiveness of computer-based instruction for adults. The theory was developed to provide a framework for research to explain or predict effective learning by adults using a desktop computer. The five conclusions drawn from this research are: (1) the characteristics of self-directedness and computer self-efficacy of adult learners play an important role in designing CBI for adults; (2) learning goal level impacts instructional design strategy and instructional control component of CBI design; (3) external support and instructional support are needed to provide a positive CBI experience; (4) CBI design is interwoven with the units of self-directedness, computer self-efficacy, learning goal level, instructional design, and external support; and (5) the theory draws together the isolated variables researchers consider important in the adult learning process and aligns them to provide effective CBI

Exploring the Futures of Mobiles for Social Development Using Ethnographic Futures Research

As new technologies such as mobile phones impact peoples’ daily lives, interest into their potential is also growing. In this research paper we aim to identify and explore how a particular research approach, in this instance, ethnographic futures research (EFR), can be utilized for future predictions of mobiles phones in social development activities in developing countries. The paper describes the process and offers reasoning for utilizing this approach. By undertaking this research, the benefits are that academics will learn of an approach that will allow the study of and understanding social development activities achieved by novel mobile applications. For practitioners, such research offers the potential of obtaining a rich, simple and clearer understanding of mobile application development. By obtaining such an understanding, regions around the globe can be targeted and diffusion strategies leading to increasing mobile phone users will occur. By applying EFR it is concluded that there is definitely a need for a different way of thinking about how mobile phone services should be created and deployed to marginalized communities to avoid the unsustainable models used for the initial tele‐center deployments over a decade ago

Improving performance through concept formation and conceptual clustering

Research from June 1989 through October 1992 focussed on concept formation, clustering, and supervised learning for purposes of improving the efficiency of problem-solving, planning, and diagnosis. These projects resulted in two dissertations on clustering, explanation-based learning, and means-ends planning, and publications in conferences and workshops, several book chapters, and journals; a complete Bibliography of NASA Ames supported publications is included. The following topics are studied: clustering of explanations and problem-solving experiences; clustering and means-end planning; and diagnosis of space shuttle and space station operating modes

An intelligent strategy for endurance training based on a virtual lactate sensor

Capítulo 5 confidencial a solicitud del autor. Tesis completa 210 p. --- Tesis censurada 196 p.In this thesis, a first fully operational virtual LT sensor was created for recreational runners. This way, a so demanded operational solution to help the training of recreational runners was created. Moreover, the Lactatus software was created to guide, ease the athletes' LT estimation process and implement the additional information obtained in this thesis into their training decision-making process. This way, the work of this thesis is made tangible, widely available and usable to recreational runners. This solution grew from the creation and formalization of a strategy to help pose and apply ML to complex phenomena, an important contribution of this thesis. This strategy combined an iterative meta-process and a satisficing approach to deal with the problem boundary discovery and reduce the problem complexity. Then, the design of the virtual LT sensor was divided into three steps: context characterization, content representation and next step decision. The formalization of this methodology and a modification of next step decision are novel contributions. Additionally, several novel techniques are used, including a standardization of the temporal axis, a modified stratified sampling and a computational algorithm to discover the inherent noise that the features may contain. This way, a robust strategy and methodology is created to design virtual sensors for problems with similar characteristics. The application of this methodology led to an important conclusion. Concretely, the Dmax LT intrinsic error analysis showed that a higher accuracy of the virtual LT sensor was unnecessary and even non-characterizable. This manifested the importance of understanding the variability of the output features with respect to the input errors. The computation algorithm also allows to LT protocols could also be evaluated from this perspective in order to quantitatively address their reliability. This may allow to make an objective cross-comparison of the accuracy of different LT protocols, something that, is not well addressed in the literature. One of the possible limitations of this solution is that the recreational runner population here characterized may not be representative of recreational runners of other culture, ethnicity or different contexts. However, one of the main advantages of providing a simple solution is that, unlike other black-box models, it is easily reproducible and adjustable, meaning that we have set a common ground for other researchers to evaluate the impact of our proposal. In the best-case scenario, future experiments done in other contexts will validate that we have been capable of discovering a common characteristic of recreational runner population. In the worst-case scenario, we have provided an easy to follow methodology and a strong prior that will allow to adjust the estimator according to individual characteristics of different populations

Design of a socio-economic processes monitoring system based on network analysis and big data

Socio-economic policy should satisfy the interests of the society as much as possible and contribute to improving the quality of life. This actualizes the role of developing the theoretical and methodological foundations for building an innovative information system for monitoring the socio-economic situation and population responses. The study built and tested an algorithm for supporting management decisions based on the collection of large data sets of socio-economic information based on the principles of the digital economy and processing them through network analysis. The algorithm is focused on building a monitoring system that presupposes a synergy of the authorities and the society, not only in its pensionary part, but also among the masses, which are diverse in their representativeness. The result of the study was the formation of a theoretical and methodological framework for creating a system for making management decisions and assessing the effectiveness of the activities of government bodies, based on the principles of reflection of the final beneficiaries of economic policy.peer-reviewe

Integrated evaluation of livestock health programs: a contribution based on the case of public-private partnerships

Si les partenariats public-privé (PPP) en santé publique sont étudiés depuis les années 1980, dans le domaine vétérinaire peu d'entre eux ont été évalués. Pourtant, de nombreux PPP dans ce domaine sont mis en œuvre à travers le monde. Ces PPP représentent des approches conjointes dans lesquelles les services vétérinaires publics et des parties prenantes privées tels que des vétérinaires privé·es, des associations de producteur·rices ou des entreprises privées, travaillent ensemble pour relever des défis complexes en matière de santé animale. Dans cette thèse, il est question de PPP pour la surveillance, la prévention et le contrôle de maladies animales infectieuses. Si des avantages de ces formes de collaborations existent, elles présentent aussi des risques. L’objectif de cette thèse était de développer un cadre d’évaluation intégrée en s’intéressant aux attributs et aux propriétés de ces PPP. Ces derniers informeraient l’évaluation du processus et de la portée de ces PPP pour en limiter les risques et favoriser des effets positifs. Ce travail de thèse s’appuie à la fois sur des cadres pré-existants (de l’approche réaliste en santé publique et de la durabilité), sur une revue de la littérature, et sur les thèmes émergeant de l’analyse de 4 cas d’étude, qui ont été mis en dialogue pour aboutir à un cadre d’évaluation. Des approches participatives ont été mobilisées dans les cas d’études, permettant de considérer la pluralité des points de vue des parties prenantes impliquées ou impactées par ces PPP. Des opinions, perceptions, et interprétations nuancées et diverses ont ainsi été recueillies. Ces approches ont ainsi permis d’appréhender l’organisation des PPP et leurs effets tels que perçus par ces acteur·rices, favorisant une vision systémique du PPP. Dans un premier temps, une revue de la littérature sur les évaluations des PPP dans le domaine vétérinaire et de la santé publique a permis d’identifier les différentes méthodologies et critères d’évaluation existants. Cette revue nous a permis de proposer une première ébauche de cadre d’évaluation des PPP centré sur le concept de la durabilité. Le cadre d’évaluation proposé peut se découper en analyse du contexte, analyse du processus et analyse des résultats des PPP. Dans une deuxième partie de la thèse, pour être en mesure d’opérationnaliser l’analyse de contexte, deux méthodologies sont proposées. Une perspective historique d’un PPP au Paraguay permet de retracer l’émergence de la collaboration entre le secteur public et le secteur privé pour le contrôle de la fièvre aphteuse, et d’identifier les différents facteurs qui ont influencé la structuration de ce PPP. Une cartographie de parties prenantes au Laos, dans une perspective ex ante d’un éventuel PPP pour la gestion de l’antibiorésistance, permet d’identifier les connexions entre les parties prenantes, de comprendre comment elles s’influencent mutuellement, et d’explorer leurs intérêts et contraintes. Dans une troisième partie de cette thèse, pour être en mesure d’analyser le processus de fonctionnement d’un PPP, un outil d’évaluation de la qualité du processus des PPP a été développé. Ce développement a été permis grâce aux critères identifiés dans la revue de littérature, une élicitation d’opinions d’expert·es (du secteur public et du secteur privé) et deux cas d’études. Cet outil s’intéresse particulièrement au fonctionnement de coordination, de collaboration et de gouvernance des PPP. Cet outil a ensuite été appliqué sur un PPP en Tunisie correspondant au mandat sanitaire vétérinaire. Finalement, dans une quatrième partie de la thèse, une application participative du chemin d’impact sur un PPP en Ethiopie dans le secteur de la volaille a permis de s’intéresser aux résultats et impacts permis par le PPP, ainsi que la contribution du PPP pour atteindre ces impacts. Les parties prenantes ont identifié une diversité d’impacts qui ont été caractérisés par des indicateurs. Le cadre d’évaluation intégrée développé dans cette thèse vise à identifier des points d’amélioration des processus et des résultats des PPP en matière de santé des humains, des animaux et des écosystèmes, dans une perspective de durabilité. Ces objectifs s’intègrent donc explicitement dans une approche One Health, comprise comme appartenant aux sciences de la durabilité. Plusieurs difficultés liées à l’opérationnalisation de l’évaluation ont été identifiées, notamment la considération de la dimension environnementale et la participation des parties prenantes impactées négativement par les PPP. Ces difficultés limiteront la mise en place de changements des PPP évalués et donc les chances de favoriser une trajectoire plus durable. Pour dépasser ces difficultés opérationnelles, ce cadre d’évaluation peut être utilisé dans une perspective d’accompagnement sur le long terme par une équipe interdisciplinaire d’évaluateur·rices. Ces travaux méritent d’être continués et ce cadre d’évoluer. Par exemple, il serait intéressant de considérer d’autres échelles d’évaluation comme l’échelle individuelle ou l’échelle des réseaux d’acteur·rices. Il serait aussi intéressant de proposer des analyses de risques, d’approfondir l’analyse des jeux de pouvoir, et de réfléchir à une réelle considération de la dimension environnementale dans l’évaluation des PPP en santé animale.Although public-private partnerships (PPPs) in public health have been studied since the 1980s, few have been evaluated in the veterinary domain. However, many PPPs in this field are being implemented around the world. These PPPs represent joint approaches in which public veterinary services and private actors, such as private veterinarians, producer associations or private companies, work together to address complex animal health challenges. This thesis focuses on PPPs for the surveillance, prevention and control of infectious animal diseases. While there are advantages to these forms of collaboration, there are also risks. The objective of this thesis was to develop an integrated evaluation framework by focusing on the attributes and properties of these PPPs. These would inform the evaluation of the process and outcomes of these PPPs to limit the risks and favor positive effects. This thesis work is based on pre-existing frameworks (realistic approach in public health and sustainability), on a literature review, and on the themes emerging from the analysis of four case studies, which were put into dialogue to arrive at an evaluation framework. Participatory approaches were mobilized in the case studies, allowing for the consideration of the plurality of viewpoints of stakeholders involved or impacted by these PPPs. Nuanced and diverse opinions, perceptions, and interpretations were thus collected. These approaches have made it possible to understand the organization of PPPs and their effects as perceived by these stakeholders, allowing a systemic vision of the PPP. First, a review of the literature on the evaluation of PPPs in the veterinary domain and public health allowed us to identify the different methodologies and evaluation criteria that exist. This review allowed us to propose a first draft of an evaluation framework for PPPs centered on the concept of sustainability. The proposed evaluation framework can be divided into context analysis, process analysis and outcome analysis of PPPs. In a second part of the thesis, in order to be able to operationalize the context analysis, two methodologies are proposed. A historical perspective of a PPP in Paraguay traces the emergence of the collaboration between the public and private sectors for the control of foot and mouth disease, and identifies the different factors that influenced the structuring of this PPP. A mapping of stakeholders in Laos, from an ex-ante perspective of a potential PPP for the management of antimicrobial resistance, allows us to identify the connections between stakeholders, to understand how they influence each other, and to explore their interests and constraints. In a third part of this thesis, in order to be able to analyze the operating process of a PPP, a tool for assessing the quality of the PPP process was developed. This development was made possible thanks to the criteria identified in the literature review, an elicitation of expert opinions (from the public and private sectors) and two case studies. This tool focuses on the coordination, collaboration and governance functioning of PPPs. This tool was then applied to a PPP in Tunisia corresponding to the veterinary health mandate. Finally, in the fourth part of this thesis, a participatory application of the impact pathway on a PPP in Ethiopia in the poultry sector focused on the outcomes and impacts enabled by the PPP, as well as the contribution of the PPP to achieving these impacts. Stakeholders identified a variety of impacts that were characterized by indicators. The integrated evaluation framework developed in this thesis aims to identify points of improvement in the processes and outcomes of PPPs in terms of human, animal and ecosystem health, from a territorial sustainability. These objectives are therefore explicitly integrated into a One Health approach, understood as belonging to the sciences of sustainability. Several difficulties related to the operationalization of the evaluation have been identified, including consideration of the environmental dimension and the participation of stakeholders negatively impacted by PPPs. These difficulties may limit the implementation of changes in the PPPs evaluated and therefore the chances of promoting a trajectory towards a more sustainable territory. To overcome these operational difficulties, this evaluation framework can be used in a long-term support perspective by an interdisciplinary team of evaluators. This work deserves to be continued, and this framework to evolve. For example, it would be interesting to consider other scales of evaluation such as the individual scale or the scale of stakeholder networks. It would also be interesting to propose risk analyses, to deepen the analysis of power games, and to reflect on a real consideration of the environmental dimension in the evaluation of PPPs in animal health.2. Zero hunger3. Good health and well-bein

Development of regional spatial data infrastructure (SDI) case study in hearth of Borneo

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.The Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative was declared on 12 February 2007 in Bali, with purpose to collaborate conservation activities in Borneo Island among Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia. The initiative will join 23 National Parks from three different countries. Concerning the fragmented geographic information from heterogeneous sources, there is a necessity to establish a better management of geographic information among three countries in Borneo Island. The establishment of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is one possible solution. In fact, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia have already developed National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI). The current status of NSDIs is critical for the development of a regional conservation SDI for HoB, but the information for current status of NSDI developments is not available. In this research, the current status of NSDI developments is examined by adopting Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP). The analysis continues with the identification of required components for developing a regional conservation SDI in HoB. The state of play analysis for the European SDI (INSPIRE) is adopted to investigate available and missing components. On this basis, recommendations for the regional SDI are provided. A prototypical geoportal for regional SDI in HoB is implemented by utilizing GeoNetwork software