Congressional Power to Regulate Noncommercial Activity Overseas: Interstate Commerce Clause Precedent Indicates Constitutional Limitations on Foreign Commerce Clause Authority

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled any statutes criminalizing the conduct of Americans overseas unconstitutional under the Foreign Commerce Clause, three U.S. Courts of Appeals decisions use the concept of enumerated powers—important in U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate statutes grounded in the Interstate Commerce Clause—to suggest limitations on Congress\u27s Foreign Commerce Clause power. In two decisions, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Ninth Circuits employed the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s Interstate Commerce Clause framework when analyzing statutes under the Foreign Commerce Clause. In so doing, these courts suggest that Foreign Commerce Clause power is not plenary—the constitutional concerns driving the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize limitations on Congress\u27s Interstate Commerce Clause power also impose limitations on Congress\u27s Foreign Commerce Clause power. In the third decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals suggested a similar limitation, holding that Congress could enact a statute under its Foreign Commerce Clause power only if the statute demonstrated a constitutionally tenable nexus with foreign commerce by including an economic component. Section 2423(0(1) of the PROTECT Act, which criminalizes noncommercial sexual abuse of minors overseas, fails to withstand Foreign Commerce Clause scrutiny under current U.S. Courts of Appeals analyses because the statute regulates criminal conduct occurring outside the channels of foreign commerce and does not include an economic component

Improving The Writing Skills Of Accounting Students: An Experiment

This paper reports the results a writing improvement initiative in an accounting department at a small western university.  Numerous surveys of accounting professionals have established the importance of writing skills for accounting graduates, and challenge business schools to revise curricula accordingly. To determine if a writing initiative in an accounting department could improve the writing skills of accounting students, a series of one-page essays were given to students in four accounting classes during the fall semester. The essays were evaluated on six writing skills recently judged by accounting professionals to be most important for new hires to possess. Feedback was provided after each essay. Results showed that the writing skills improved significantly after each essay.  Accounting students can improve their writing skills if the accounting faculty is committed to providing timely feedback

Economic Sizing of Batteries for the Smart Home

Growing rooftop photovoltaics (PV) adoption is beginning to challenge the electric power grid in some locations today. During many hours of the year, power is flowing out of PV-enabled buildings and back into grid. When this happens in many homes, the entire feeder voltage is raised significantly, which can be unsafe for grid assets and home appliances. Battery storage provides a good solution to this problem. By storing energy within the home, less energy flows back onto the grid. Scheduling a battery to charge during times a home would otherwise export energy, and discharge when it would otherwise import energy, the bidirectional flow of energy on the feeder is reduced. However, batteries are still expensive and need to be introduced optimally. Battery sizing is not well studied in the literature; most research uses rule of thumb to determine the battery size whereas others use tool-based methods. This paper presents a methodology to economically size a residential battery based on parametric analysis using a home energy management system (HEMS) software to optimally dispatch the battery along with controllable loads under several use cases. The study accounts for connected equipment, controls, renewable resources, and accounts for other factors such as occupancy patterns, and house characteristics. The paper defines an initial analytical pathway for such a sizing tool, develops initial sizing guidance, and clarifies technical and market opportunities for home batteries in the context of existing and emerging equipment and control technologies. One of the unique contributions of our paper is that we demonstrate how dynamic control of building equipment may change the selection, operation, lifespan and economics of solar and battery storage. We use the HEMS to optimally control the same solar-enabled residential building in three different use cases: a) with controllable loads, b) with controllable battery, and c) with controllable loads and battery. As more loads can be interactively controlled, they can relieve the burden of some of the battery’s use. This may change the cycling use cases for the battery, and possibly enable smaller batteries to be used in conjunction with equipment homeowners are already purchasing to achieve the same outcomes. In our initial study, a parametric analysis that included 132 scenarios has been performed based on different combinations of pertinent parameters. Results indicate that four parameters dominate the decision-making process: utility tariffs, application scenarios, existence of HEMS, and the anticipated payback time. Life-cycle cost analysis indicated in the absence of utility incentives, batteries plus HEMS haveat least 10-year payback time for new construction under time-of-use rate structure and feed-in tariff; larger batteries have longer payback time but may provide more benefits to utilities on power backfeed reduction under certain circumstances

Betty Vinson, Cynthia Cooper, And Moral Courage: A Case Study In Accounting Ethics At Worldcom

In this case study you will read about the ethical pressure faced by Betty Vinson and Cythia Cooper as they each balanced conflicting loyalties between family, employer, and profession. Betty first balked then caved to the pressure and ruined her career; Cynthia did not cave and was named one of three “Persons of the Year” by Time Magazine in 2002 for her moral courage at WorldCom (Lacayo and Ripley 2002)

Identifying Strategies That Encourage Resolve To Exhibit Moral Courage

Recent highly-publicized business scandals involving accounting ethical failures have encouraged research and recommendations to teach business ethics throughout the business curriculum. Research studies provide evidence that increasing moral sensitivity and judgment is possible over short periods of moral instruction, however, having higher moral sensitivity and judgment does not guarantee that moral courage will be displayed under duress. This study identifies personal moral courage intention strategies to support morally courageous acts

Improving The Moral Judgment Of Accounting Students: An Experiment

Recent highly publicized scandals involving accounting ethical failures have renewed recommendations to include ethics education in the accounting curriculum. Hundreds of studies confirm that the moral judgment of students improves during the college years, but the cause is unclear. Using a pretest-posttest design and the Defining Issues Test, we measured the effect of ethical dilemmas on the moral judgment of 81 accounting students over a semester. Results showed that the moral judgment of accounting students improved significantly

The Effect Of Church And Service On Ethics Education: An Experiment With Accounting Students

Recent highly-publicized scandals involving accounting ethical failures have renewed recommendations to include ethics education in the accounting curriculum. Hundreds of studies confirm that the ability of students to recognize ethical dilemmas and make moral judgments improves during the college years. However, pre-existing conditions that may influence the improvement are unclear. Using a pretest-posttest control group design and a survey instrument of 25 ethics vignettes, we measured the effect of ethics education on the moral judgment of 81 accounting students over one semester. Results showed that the effectiveness of short-term accounting ethics education is influenced by prior participation in church and service activities. Students with participation showed significant improvement in moral judgment; students without participation did not improve. These results suggest that accounting students with prior church and service activities are more likely to be influenced by ethics education

Partnership Law

This Article describes and analyzes major developments in partnership law that occurred in Texas between December 1 and November 30 of 2022