The GOODSTEP project: General Object-Oriented Database for Software Engineering Processes

The goal of the GOODSTEP project is to enhance and improve the functionality of a fully object-oriented database management system to yield a platform suited for applications such as software development environments (SDEs). The baseline of the project is the O2 database management system (DBMS). The O2 DBMS already includes many of the features regulated by SDEs. The project has identified enhancements to O2 in order to make it a real software engineering DBMS. These enhancements are essentially upgrades of the existing O2 functionality, and hence require relatively easy extensions to the O2 system. They have been developed in the early stages of the project and are now exploited and validated by a number of software engineering tools built on top of the enhanced O2 DBMS. To ease tool construction, the GOODSTEP platform encompasses tool generation capabilities which allow for generation of integrated graphical and textual tools from high-level specifications. In addition, the GOODSTEP platform provides a software process toolset which enables modeling, analysis and enaction of software processes and is also built on top of the extended O2 database. The GOODSTEP platform is to be validated using two CASE studies carried out to develop an airline application and a business application

Современные технические средства в работе секретаря

The article examines the technical devices used in the secretary work. Guided books and magazines for secretarial business, makes recommendations for the proper selection and use of technical devices. Furthermore, in this article the author gives examples of the most popular and commonly used programs for personal computers. All of these techniques can significantly reduce the cost of working time and improve the quality of performing their job duties

Ethical perceptions of accounting students in a Portuguese university: the influence of individual factors and personal traits

Our purpose is to empirically examine whether gender, age, work experience, and attendance of a course on ethics affect the ethical perceptions of Portuguese accounting students and analyze the influence of some individual factors that may affect their ethical decision-making. Additionally, we consider the degree of importance assigned to a list of personal traits and their relationship with those factors. We concluded that gender influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to initiative/entrepreneurship, obedience, and responsibility; age influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to integrity; work experience influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to obedience; and attendance of a course on ethics influenced the degree of importance attributed to independence. For each of these factors, the influence did not prove to be statistically significant in decision-making. Similarly, the study identified some reservations regarding attitudes the students’ peers might have, and when asked about this, they had negative opinions, believing their colleagues would have lower ethical standards. Our results add to the literature, especially because, in Portugal, little has been done to understand which factors may affect students’ ethical decision-making processes. We expect to bring added value to stakeholders, teachers, and scholars engaged with these matters

Cognitive behaviour therapy for anxiety in psychosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background : Anxiety is common in people with psychosis. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for anxiety in people without psychosis.Given the prevalence of anxiety in those with psychosis, the efficacy of CBT in this population is important to consider. This review and meta-analysis therefore investigates the efficacy of CBT for anxiety in people with psychosis. Method : Twenty-nine studies were identified through systematic review, including controlled, uncontrolled and case report designs. Seventeen controlled anduncontrolled studies were included in the quantitative synthesis. Results : A medium, significant effect was found at post-treatment and follow-up when controlled and uncontrolled data were combined. For controlled between-groups data only, a small, significant effect was found at post-treatment and follow-up. The effect of CBT for anxiety on psychotic symptoms was investigated, resulting in a medium, significant effect for controlled and uncontrolled post-treatment data and a small, significant effect for controlled between-group data. Conclusions : CBT might have some effect in treating anxiety in people with psychosis. However, this review highlights a lack of scientifically rigorous studies in this area. Further research is required, including the use of well-designed randomised controlled trials (RCTs)

"Don't try to teach me, I got nothing to learn": Management students' perceptions of business ethics teaching

[EN] Interest is growing towards including business ethics in university curricula, aiming at improving ethical behaviour of future managers. Extant literature has investigated the impact of ethics education on different ethics-related students' cognitive and/or behavioural outcomes, considering variables related to training programmes and students' demographic aspects. Accordingly, we aim at assessing students' understanding of business ethics issues, by focusing on the differences in students' perceptions depending on gender, age, work experience, and ethics courses taken. Testing our hypotheses on a sample of 307 management students at a Polish university, and controlling for social desirability bias, we obtained mixed and partially surprising results. We found significant differences in students' understanding of business ethics depending on their gender and age (female and older students showed more ethical inclinations), but not depending on having taken ethics courses-actually perceptions of such courses worsened after taking them. Besides, work experience was not a significant variable. Moreover, course exposure intensiveness (i.e., number of ethics courses completed), and time passed since completion of the latest course, did not confirm hypothesized effects on most of the dependent (sub)variables. These findings stimulate further questions and challenges for future research (e.g., around course design and methodology, and social/cultural/contextual issues).Tormo-Carbó, G.; Oltra, V.; Klimkiewicz, K.; Seguí-Mas, E. (2019). "Don't try to teach me, I got nothing to learn": Management students' perceptions of business ethics teaching. 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An experimental examination of the effects of individual and situational factors on unethical behavioral intentions in the workplace. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(5), 511-523. doi:10.1007/bf00381927Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model. The Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 366. doi:10.2307/258867Kaynama, S. A., King, A., & Smith, L. W. (1996). The impact of a shift in organizational role on ethical perceptions: A comparative study. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(5), 581-590. doi:10.1007/bf00381933Kish-Gephart, J. J., Harrison, D. A., & Treviño, L. K. (2010). Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: Meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 1-31. doi:10.1037/a0017103Kinach-Brzozowska, K. (1995). Window on Eastern Europe: Teaching Ethics in Gda?sk. Business Ethics: A European Review, 4(4), 233-235. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8608.1995.tb00121.xLarkin, J. M. (2000). Journal of Business Ethics, 23(4), 401-409. doi:10.1023/a:1006150718834Lau, C. L. L. (2009). A Step Forward: Ethics Education Matters! Journal of Business Ethics, 92(4), 565-584. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0173-2Lehnert, K., Park, Y., & Singh, N. (2014). Research Note and Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: Boundary Conditions and Extensions. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(1), 195-219. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2147-2Lewicka‐Strzalecka, A. (2006). Opportunities and limitations of CSR in the postcommunist countries: Polish case. Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, 6(4), 440-448. doi:10.1108/14720700610689559Loe, T. W., Ferrell, L., & Mansfield, P. (2000). Journal of Business Ethics, 25(3), 185-204. doi:10.1023/a:1006083612239Low, M., Davey, H., & Hooper, K. (2008). Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and educational challenges. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 19(2), 222-254. doi:10.1016/j.cpa.2006.05.010Luthar, H. K., & Karri, R. (2005). Exposure to Ethics Education and the Perception of Linkage between Organizational Ethical Behavior and Business Outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 61(4), 353-368. doi:10.1007/s10551-005-1548-7Macfarlane, B., & Ottewill, R. (2004). Business Ethics in the Curriculum: Assessing the Evidence from U.K. Subject Review. Journal of Business Ethics, 54(4), 339-347. doi:10.1007/s10551-004-1823-zMaclagan, P., & Campbell, T. (2011). Focusing on individuals’ ethical judgement in corporate social responsibility curricula. Business Ethics: A European Review, 20(4), 392-404. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8608.2011.01634.xMadison, R. L., & Schmidt, J. J. (2006). Survey of Time Devoted to Ethics in Accountancy Programs in North American Colleges and Universities. Issues in Accounting Education, 21(2), 99-109. doi:10.2308/iace.2006.21.2.99Malinowski, C., & Berger, K. A. (1996). Undergraduate student attitudes about hypothetical marketing dilemmas. 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E., Watts, L. L., Mulhearn, T. J., Steele, L. M., Mumford, M. D., & Connelly, S. (2017). What is Working, What is Not, and What We Need to Know: a Meta-Analytic Review of Business Ethics Instruction. Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(3), 245-275. doi:10.1007/s10805-017-9281-2Nguyen, N. T., & Biderman, M. D. (2008). Studying Ethical Judgments and Behavioral Intentions Using Structural Equations: Evidence from the Multidimensional Ethics Scale*. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(4), 627-640. doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9644-5O’Fallon, M. J., & Butterfield, K. D. (2005). A Review of The Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 1996–2003. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(4), 375-413. doi:10.1007/s10551-005-2929-7Pan, Y., & Sparks, J. R. (2012). Predictors, consequence, and measurement of ethical judgments: Review and meta-analysis. Journal of Business Research, 65(1), 84-91. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.02.002Peppas, S. C., & Diskin, B. A. (2001). 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Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence from Korea

This paper studies the empirical relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance in Korea using a sample of 1122 firm-years during 2002-2008. We measure corporate social responsibility by both an equal-weighted CSR index and a stakeholder-weighted CSR index suggested by Akpinar et al. (2008). Corporate financial performance is measured by ROE, ROA and Tobin’s Q. We find a positive and significant relation between corporate financial performance and the stakeholder-weighted CSR index, but not the equal-weighted CSR index. This finding is robust to alternative model specifications and several additional tests, providing evidence in support of instrumental stakeholder theory

Predicting the impact of Lynch syndrome-causing missense mutations from structural calculations

Accurate methods to assess the pathogenicity of mutations are needed to fully leverage the possibilities of genome sequencing in diagnosis. Current data-driven and bioinformatics approaches are, however, limited by the large number of new variations found in each newly sequenced genome, and often do not provide direct mechanistic insight. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that saturation mutagenesis, biophysical modeling and co-variation analysis, performed in silico, can predict the abundance, metabolic stability, and function of proteins inside living cells. As a model system, we selected the human mismatch repair protein, MSH2, where missense variants are known to cause the hereditary cancer predisposition disease, known as Lynch syndrome. We show that the majority of disease-causing MSH2 mutations give rise to folding defects and proteasome-dependent degradation rather than inherent loss of function, and accordingly our in silico modeling data accurately identifies disease-causing mutations and outperforms the traditionally used genetic disease predictors. Thus, in conclusion, in silico biophysical modeling should be considered for making genotype-phenotype predictions and for diagnosis of Lynch syndrome, and perhaps other hereditary diseases

Corporate social responsibility: an empirical investigation of U.S. organizations

Organizations that believe they should give something back to the society have embraced the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Although the theoretical underpinnings of CSR have been frequently debated, empirical studies often involve only limited aspects, implying that theory may not be congruent with actual practices and may impede understanding and further development of CSR. The authors investigate actual CSR practices related to five different stakeholder groups, develop an instrument to measure those CSR practices, and apply it to a survey of 401 U.S. organizations. Four different clusters of organizations emerge, depending on the CSR practice focus. The distinctive features of each cluster relate to organizational demographics, perceived influence of stakeholders, managers perceptions of the influence of CSR on performance, and organizational performance