The Extent to Which the Use of Accounting Software and Excel is Incorporated in HE Accountancy Courses

The accounting practitioner will almost inevitably use accounting software packages in their working life. The first aim of this project was to review the extent to which such skills are taught as part of HE accounting courses and then propose whether and how such skills should be included in UMS modules as part of the proposed degree in Accountancy in Worcester Business School. The research motivation here was simply to ensure that our curriculum was fit for purpose. A second aim was to review the use of Excel in teaching accounting courses. As with accounting software, the use of Excel or similar spreadsheets is part and parcel of an accountant’s working life. In addition some seminar activities are based in computer labs and depend on a certain level of expertise in using Excel to solve accounting problems. Marriott (2004) discusses some of the pedagogical benefits of using spreadsheets to enable learning of accounting concepts, stressing the role of experiential learning. The research motivation here was twofold; to give some measure of students’ expertise in Excel for business use and to investigate whether learning outcomes were compromised by the level of expertise

Creative Teaching for Tomorrow: Fostering a Creative State of Mind Deal

`Creative Teaching for Tomorrow: Fostering a Creative State of Mind' is a study by distinguished authors Teresa Cremin, Jonathan Barnes and Stephen Scoffham. Based on a research project undertaken during 2004-2005 by Canterbury Christ Church University and Future Creative, the book explores the characteristics of creative teachers, identifying the behaviours and environments that support the development of these attributes. `Creative Teaching for Tomorrow' involves a survey of 20 schools, revealing evidence that creative thinking benefits students economically, socially and academically. Real-life interviews with teachers and students, complete with questions and answers, attest that creative approaches do help to increase learners' personal curiosity and desire to learn, to realise the importance of risk-taking and to become more engaged with the learning experience as well as the world around them

An Efficient Hardware Implementation of Target Recognition Algorithms and Investigation of Secure Wireless Communication for a Modified Manet

This paper presents a scheme for effective wireless security of a open broadcast mobile ad-hoc network, MANET, network without significant loss of bandwidth and data integrity through a double tiered encryption scheme, and the feasibility of reducing the target tracking algorithm in [1] into a compact and efficient hardware package. Due to the open nature of MANET, modifications are necessary to secure wireless data in a potential hostile environment. Furthermore, due to power and processing limitations of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the processing intensive calculations of image processing, a sample hardware implementation of key functions of the target tracking algorithm is described. Using hardware simulation and modeling to implement key elements, results are compared against identical function blocks in a software environment. The results of this research allow for further work in open broadcast MANET security and target tracking hardware implementation to be confidently pursued; it also suggests the tools, methodology, and overall architecture for a larger project

Energy transfer between surface plasmon polariton modes with hybrid photorefractive liquid crystal cells

In this thesis, a hybrid photorefractive liquid crystal cell structure with the addition of a thin 40nm Gold layer is proposed that demonstrates significant photorefractive control of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPP). The photorefractive effects are generated through optically controlling the conductivity of a ~100nm photoconducting poly-N-vinyl-carboxyl (PVK) layer. Therefore, when a potential is applied across the cell, the liquid crystal alignment and the SPP wavevector is able to be controlled with light. The aim for developing this device is for the eventual demonstration of SPP gain to offset the high optical losses and increase the characteristically short propagation length of SPP. The mechanism we intend to use to demonstrate gain is analogous to the asymmetric energy transfer in a wave mixing system for two laser beams used to typically characterise photorefractive materials.We first characterise the electrical and optical behaviour of the novel photorefractive plasmonic structure proposed with uniform illumination. Our system demonstrates a good photorefractive wavevector shift of 0.207µm-1 for a 1.24eV SPP; this shift is in excess of the FWHM of the SPP resonance in the attenuated total reflection spectrum (0.154µm-1). However, the electric behaviour of the system is found to be highly complex and cannot be fully characterised by an equivalent electrical circuit. In addition, due to electronic stability issues, we require a slow AC potential to demonstrate consistent photorefractive effects.In a step towards realising SPP gain, we then consider the SPP interaction with a refractive index grating written into the liquid crystal layer with the interference pattern of crossed laser beams. We find that a SPP is diffracted into additional SPP modes. Our investigation then determines the ideal parameters that maximise the energy transfer by examining the diffraction efficiency dependence of each variable of the system. The maximum energy transfer observed is 25.3±2.3% for a 1.05eV SPP from a 4µm grating. With the assistance of a numerical simulation of our system we present a series of qualitative and semi-analytical descriptions to describe the mechanisms behind the observed trends. We discover that the diffraction efficiency is dependent of three important effects; the orientation of the grating, the penetration depth of the SPP into the liquid crystal and the magnitude of the periodic electric field in the liquid crystal. In addition, to fully describe the quantitative values observed we must also consider the presence of a thin 100nm region of the liquid crystal near the photoconductor interface that does not strongly respond to the applied electric field due to anchoring forces

Isoflavones and PPAR Signaling: A Critical Target in Cardiovascular, Metastatic, and Metabolic Disease

Isoflavone intake through foods and dietary supplements has both health advocates and critics. The latter come from a concern about the estrogenic effects of isoflavones in certain species. However, careful removal of isoflavones and other estrogens from the diet of rodents leads to the metabolic syndrome. These results suggest that isoflavones have other mechanisms of action, potentially those involving regulation of fatty acid metabolism via the nuclear receptors PPARα and PPARγ. The goal of this paper was to examine the evidence for isoflavone/PPAR signaling and to identify diseases in which such signaling would have an important impact. It is therefore of note that investigators using a chemical structure approach to discover PPAR ligands identified isoflavones as the best structures in the library of compounds that they tested. Future studies will involve careful identification of the underlying mechanisms whereby isoflavones have their action via PPAR signaling

Plant Ultrastructure in the Scanning Electron Microscope

Preparative techniques which have been used to study internal details of plant cells in the scanning electron microscope are reviewed. A number of methods have previously been described which involve selective extraction of materials from freeze-fractured surfaces and can be referred to as freeze-fracture and cytoplasmic maceration. One of these techniques which involves an extended period of cytoplasmic maceration with dilute osmium tetroxide has been applied to the study of Cichorium intybus (chicory) pollen ontogeny. The results obtained, including changes in the numbers of mitochondria and the form of endoplasmic reticulum during the course of development demonstrate the value of the approach in showing the three dimensional arrangement of organelles and wall layers. The findings emphasise that pollen grains with similar mature morphologies may differ in the details of their ontogeny