Columbus's First Voyage: Profit Or Loss From A Historical Accountant's Perspective

Determining the cost of Columbus's first voyage to the new world is very difficult to do with any degree of accuracy.  The primary reasons for this is that the complete set of records does not exist and may not have ever existed.  As a result, scholars have proposed a wide variety of figures supposedly representing the costs of Columbus's first voyage. Because of the conflicting information associated with this voyage, a three-step decision-making model approach was developed and used when deciding between conflicting accounting figures. In addition, several historical events, such as the sinking of the Santa Maria and the lifetime finder's fee annuity for being the first to spot land in the new world was reviewed for their possible effect on the accounting for this voyage. Overall, the purpose of this paper is to prepare a pro-forma financial statement in order to determine whether or not Columbus's first voyage was profitable or not.&nbsp

Extraversion-Introversion Personality Traits Of Local Firm CPAs Who Previously Worked For A National CPA Firm: An Empirical Study

Prior research on the personality types of CPAs has focused on which personality types were most attracted to national or local public accounting firms. Previous studies indicate that national-firm CPAs are twice as likely to be extraverts whereas local-firm CPAs are twice as likely to be introverts. No prior studies have evaluated the extraversion-introversion personality types of those who first started with a national firm before working for a local firm. This study postulates that for extraversion-introversion, CPAs who worked for a national firm before working for a local firm are statistically similar to those who have only worked for a local firm and statistically different from those who have only worked for a national firm.  With respect to extraversion-introversion for those who first started work for a national firm before working for a local CPA firm, this study supports the hypothesis that they would be different from those who had only worked for a national firm and does not support their similarity with those who had only worked for a local CPA firm.  &nbsp

A Multispecialty Evaluation of Thiel Cadavers for Surgical Training

Background: Changes in UK legislation allow for surgical procedures to be performed on cadavers. The aim of this study was to assess Thiel cadavers as high-fidelity simulators and to examine their suitability for surgical training. Methods: Surgeons from various specialties were invited to attend a 1 day dissection workshop using Thiel cadavers. The surgeons completed a baseline questionnaire on cadaveric simulation. At the end of the workshop, they completed a similar questionnaire based on their experience with Thiel cadavers. Comparing the answers in the pre- and post-workshop questionnaires assessed whether using Thiel cadavers had changed the surgeons’ opinions of cadaveric simulation. Results: According to the 27 participants, simulation is important for surgical training and a full-procedure model is beneficial for all levels of training. Currently, there is dissatisfaction with existing models and a need for high-fidelity alternatives. After the workshop, surgeons concluded that Thiel cadavers are suitable for surgical simulation (p = 0.015). Thiel were found to be realistic (p < 0.001) to have reduced odour (p = 0.002) and be more cost-effective (p = 0.003). Ethical constraints were considered to be small. Conclusion: Thiel cadavers are suitable for training in most surgical specialties

Severe traumatic injury during long duration spaceflight: Light years beyond ATLS

Traumatic injury strikes unexpectedly among the healthiest members of the human population, and has been an inevitable companion of exploration throughout history. In space flight beyond the Earth's orbit, NASA considers trauma to be the highest level of concern regarding the probable incidence versus impact on mission and health. Because of limited resources, medical care will have to focus on the conditions most likely to occur, as well as those with the most significant impact on the crew and mission. Although the relative risk of disabling injuries is significantly higher than traumatic deaths on earth, either issue would have catastrophic implications during space flight. As a result this review focuses on serious life-threatening injuries during space flight as determined by a NASA consensus conference attended by experts in all aspects of injury and space flight

Instructional Case: A Manufacturing Project

Colleges and universities frequently require business majors to take managerial accounting. Since many non-accounting majors find accounting boring this may be one of the reasons why they may have a difficult time learning the fundamental concepts of the course. This paper describes a project I employ when teaching managerial accounting to make cost accounting interesting and relevant. One of the reasons students may have a difficult time learning managerial accounting is that traditional accounting assignments generally provide students with all of the numbers. Thus, there is very little involvement or attachment to the numbers. This project was designed to get students involved with the numbers by simulating a real- world manufacturing process that they can understand and replicate. Since the students are active participants in making the product (Treats), the financial numbers they work with should have more meaning and relevance than in a traditional assignment. This project requires students to obtain all of the ingredients in order to manufacture a variety of Rice Krispie Treats. After manufacturing the product, students then calculate their labor and materials costs. In time, since they will make the product several times, they can then compute and evaluate variance reports. In addition, this project requires students to learn how to benchmark their product against their fellow students’. Furthermore, students who participate in these assignments also end up preparing cost budgets and how to work in an environment that encourages continuous improvement. Overall, this project provides students with a hands-on activity that helps them to understand and apply fundamental cost accounting techniques to everyday business activities. This project has been successful because, unlike regular managerial accounting assignments, the accounting numbers in this case have meaning to students since they created the numbers by actually shopping for the materials and manufacturing the product(s) themselves. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part provides an introduction to and an overview of the assignments. The second part represents the actual assignments given to the students. The third part provides the teaching notes to help provide the instructor with the necessary insight into the purpose of each assignment

An exploratory investigation of the potential relationship between student learning styles, course grade, cumulative grade point average and selected demographics in on-line undergraduate business courses

Researchers have made significant progress in understanding human cognitive learning styles, which refer typically to a single capability or preference that possibly enhances learning in some situations and in others hinders learning. Sums up further research should be encouraged to identify the students to become more successful in online courses in the future. © 2003, MCB UP Limite