ICT and Accounting Education. An innovative teaching method: the Practice Enterprise

The training of future accountants also needs to take into account the changes which have taken place in the accounting profession following profound transformations at economic level. Most of all, however, it should promote a teaching approach which manages to go beyond traditional frontal lectures in order to facilitate active learning. For all these reasons, the various accounting education syllabuses should be integrated with the use of ICT, thus helping achieve skills which are considered fundamental for employment purposes. These include problem solving, decision making, and team working, which is what the literature about accounting education continuously suggests. This paper is dedicated to discussing how all this can become possible through what is known as the Practice Enterprise methodology. The latter allows students to get to know the company by shaping it, as well as to apply accounting disciplines in a proactive and involved manner, making use of the most advanced ICT tools. The intent of this paper is also to show, also through research outcomes, how this method can reshape the teaching of accounting and allow for students’ training in an environment where they can apply effectively their theoretical knowledge and thus develop new knowledge, skills and competences.Gualdi, D. (2020). ICT and Accounting Education. An innovative teaching method: the Practice Enterprise. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):1101-1108. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11208OCS1101110830-05-202

El papel de los vínculos organizativos en las empresas virtuales. El caso de Perting SRL

El artículo analiza los vínculos organizativos recreados en los departamentos o áreas funcionales de Perting LtD, empresa virtual que desde 2001 se ha venido desarrollando en la Universidad de Bolonia. Estos vínculos se analizaron entre dichos departamentos y los profesores/tutores (vínculos educativos), entre los propios departamentos (vínculos operativos internos), y con agentes externos (vínculos operativos externos), durante el primer semestre del curso académico 2016/2017. Los resultados delatan una cierta estabilidad en la evolución de los vínculos y una prevalencia de vínculos internos. Además, en relación al feedback o tiempo de espera en la respuesta fue menor en las relaciones internas entre los departamentos de Perting que en los contactos externos

The contribution of virtual enterprises to competence-based learning: An assessment from the students' perspective: Case study

The use of virtual enterprises has evolved from secondary, vocational and professional education to the university level, becoming in recent times a relevant experiential e-learning tool based on the simulation of the functioning of a company. The purpose of this study is to analyze the perspective of students taking part in virtual enterprises about their acquisition of generic and specific managerial skills fostered by this e-learning methodology. We analyzed data of 76 students from Faculties of Business and Economics, who had participated during the academic year 2014-2015 in a virtual company during the development of their degrees at two different Italian universities, University of Bologna and Parma. Our results show that the most valued generic skills were related to the capacity of learning and adaptation, problem solving and teamwork, whilst the least valued ones were related to the skills of communication and interaction with people of other countries and cultures. In the case of specific managerial skills, the most valued ones were about understanding managerial concepts and the role and functions of economic agents, and the least valued were skills related to providing managerial advice, dealing with risks and analyzing financial statements. Besides, the analyses conducted to determine the existence of a learning profile in the students reveal that the skills acquired were quite similar, not being affected by the students' gender or the economic activity developed by the virtual enterprise. This study makes a contribution in terms of the effectiveness of virtual enterprises for competence-based learning

Extreme events representation in CMCC-CM2 standard and high-resolution general circulation models

The recent advancements in climate modeling partially build on the improvement of horizontal resolution in different components of the simulating system. A higher resolution is expected to provide a better representation of the climate variability, and in this work we are particularly interested in the potential improvements in representing extreme events of high temperature and precipitation. The two versions of the Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC-CM2) model used here adopt the highest horizontal resolutions available within the last family of the global coupled climate models developed at CMCC to participate in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects, Phase 6 (CMIP6) effort. The main aim of this study is to document the ability of the CMCC-CM2 models to represent the spatial distribution of extreme events of temperature and precipitation, under the historical period, comparing model results to observations, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA5), multi-source weighted-ensemble precipitation (MSWEP) and Climate Hazards Group infrared precipitation with station data (CHIRPS) observations. For a more detailed evaluation we use both 6-hourly and daily time series, to compute indices representative of intense and extreme conditions. In terms of mean climate, the two models are able to realistically reproduce the main patterns of temperature and precipitation. The high resolution version ( ∘ horizontal resolution) of the atmospheric model provides better results than the standard resolution one (1°), not only in terms of means but also in terms of intense and extreme events of temperature defined at daily and 6-hourly frequencies. This is also the case of average and intense precipitation. On the other hand the extreme precipitation is not improved by the adoption of a higher horizontal resolution

The Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC) decadal prediction system

Decadal climate predictions, obtained by constraining the initial condition of a dynamical model through a truthful estimate of the observed climate state, provide an accurate assessment of near-term climate change and are a useful tool to inform decision-makers on future climate-related risks. Here we present results from the CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) Decadal Climate Prediction Project (DCPP) decadal hindcasts produced with the operational CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change) decadal prediction system (DPS), based on the fully coupled CMCC-CM2-SR5 dynamical model. A 20-member suite of 10-year retrospective forecasts, initialized every year from 1960 to 2020, is performed using a full-field initialization strategy. The predictive skill for key variables is assessed and compared with theskill of an ensemble of non-initialized historical simulations so as toquantify the added value of the initialization. In particular, the CMCC DPS is able to skillfully reproduce past climate surface and subsurface temperature fluctuations over large parts of the globe. The North Atlantic Ocean is the region that benefits the most from initialization, with the largest skill enhancement occurring over the subpolar region compared to historical simulations. On the other hand, the predictive skill over the Pacific Ocean rapidly decays with forecast time, especially over the North Pacific. In terms of precipitation, the skill of the CMCC DPS is significantly higher than that of the historical simulations over a few specific regions, including the Sahel, northern Eurasia, and over western and central Europe. The Atlantic multidecadal variability is also skillfully predicted, and this likely contributes to the skill found over remote areas through downstream influence, circulation changes, and teleconnections. Considering the relatively small ensemble size, a remarkable prediction skill is also found for the North Atlantic Oscillation, with maximum correlations obtained in the 1-9 lead year range. Systematic errors also affect the forecast quality of the CMCC DPS,featuring a prominent cold bias over the Northern Hemisphere, which is notfound in the historical runs, suggesting that, in some areas, the adoptedfull-field initialization strategy likely perturbs the equilibrium state ofthe model climate quite significantly. The encouraging results obtained in this study indicate that climatevariability over land can be predictable over a multiyear range, andthey demonstrate that the CMCC DPS is a valuable addition to the currentgeneration of DPSs. This stresses the need to further explore the potentialof the near-term predictions, further improving future decadal systems andinitialization methods, with the aim to provide a reliable tool to inform decision-makers on how regional climate will evolve in the next decade

Global mean climate and main patterns of variability in the CMCC-CM2 coupled model

Euro‐Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change coupled climate model (CMCC‐CM2) represents the new family of the global coupled climate models developed and used at CMCC. It is based on the atmospheric, land and sea ice components from the Community Earth System Model coupled with the global ocean model Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean. This study documents the model components, the coupling strategy, particularly for the oceanic, atmospheric, and sea ice components, and the overall model ability in reproducing the observed mean climate and main patterns of interannual variability. As a first step toward a more comprehensive, process‐oriented, validation of the model, this work analyzes a 200‐year simulation performed under constant forcing corresponding to present‐day climate conditions. In terms of mean climate, the model is able to realistically reproduce the main patterns of temperature, precipitation, and winds. Specifically, we report improvements in the representation of the sea surface temperature with respect to the previous version of the model. In terms of mean atmospheric circulation features, we notice a realistic simulation of upper tropospheric winds and midtroposphere geopotential eddies. The oceanic heat transport and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation satisfactorily compare with present‐day observations and estimates from global ocean reanalyses. The sea ice patterns and associated seasonal variations are realistically reproduced in both hemispheres, with a better skill in winter. Main weaknesses of the simulated climate are related with the precipitation patterns, specifically in the tropical regions with large dry biases over the Amazon basin. Similarly, the seasonal precipitation associated with the monsoons, mostly over Asia, is weaker than observed. The main patterns of interannual variability in terms of dominant empirical orthogonal functions are faithfully reproduced, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere winter. In the tropics the main teleconnection patterns associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation and with the Indian Ocean Dipole are also in good agreement with observations.Published4A. Oceanografia e climaJCR Journa

Sex differences and rehabilitation needs after hospital discharge for COVID-19: an Italian cross-sectional study

COVID-19 can result in persistent symptoms leaving potential rehabilitation needs unmet. This study aims to describe persistent symptoms and health status of individuals hospitalised for COVID-19 according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health domains of impairments, limitations in activity, and participation restrictions

THE MANAGEMENT OF PRACTICE FIRM IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

he paper analyses Practice Firm experiences implemented in university for developing entrepreneurship education based on students\u2019 competencies. Practice Firm is an innovative didactical methodology featured by the reproduction of business structures and processes, where students experience the practical way to operate a firm. The research question is whether this methodology is addressed to develop entrepreneurial competencies of participants. The study, currently in progress, has been realized on 16 university Practice Firms from 13 countries during the period 2015-2016 to investigate different determinants of entrepreneurial competencies. The analysis identifies some key drivers of entrepreneurship education advising teachers to better Practice Firm application by facilitating the creation of operative conditions able to stimulate the entrepreneurial competencies of participants. Although similarities in multidisciplinariety and connection with real company are outlined among university Practice Firms, some differences concerned the students\u2019 inclination to work in real company and future creation of a start-u

The role of organizational ties managed by practice firms. The case of Perting Ltd

The paper analyzes the organizational ties created by the functional offices of Perting LtD, the Practice Firm established since 2001 in Bologna University, with teachers / tutors (educational ties), with other offices (operative-internal ties) and external parties (operative-external ties) during the first semester of the academic year 2016/2017. A certain stability in the evolution of ties and the prevalence of internal ties are outlined. Furthermore, the feedback, measured as waiting time for a response, inside Perting among their functional offices was lower than those related to external networking

Bag-Of-Words Classification of Miniature Illustrations

In this paper a system for illuminated manuscripts images analysis is presented. In particular the bag-of-keypoints strategy, commonly adopted for object recognition, image classification and scene recognition, is applied to the classification of automatically extracted miniatures. Pictures are characterized by SURF descriptors, and a classification procedure is performed, comparing the results of Naive Bayes and histogram intersection distance measures