Controlling outsourced management accounting to build legitimacy

PurposeThis paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor's perspective.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data from within the relationship are analysed in a legitimacy-theory framework, illustrating how controls within the relationship are intended to build the contractor's legitimacy and what kinds of implications the controls have in relation to conflicts between interests inherent in the relationship.FindingsThe legitimacy perspective clarifies that while controls are aimed at ensuring efficiency for the client, they may also provide symbolic displays of the appropriateness of the contractor's actions both at an inter-organisational level for the client and at an individual level for the contractor's employees. While the contractor intends to build legitimacy with the client by demonstrating utility in the form of efficiency, the process also gives the client influence and allows the disposition in terms of shared values to be demonstrated. However, this process has some negative consequences for the contractor's employees as it is insufficient for serving the boundary-spanning employees' interests connected with the nature of their work. Hence, the same controls need to yield benefits and fair outcomes for employees. The controls simultaneously foster interconnections that contribute to permanence and formalise the outsourcing of complex services, thereby rendering such processes comprehensible and transferable to other settings, which can be seen to serve the contractor's continuity interests.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to academic research by illustrating how controls within inter-organisational relationships not only steer boundary-spanners' work to conform to a client's needs but may also help to build legitimacy via symbolic properties in the presence of conflicting interests at both an inter-organisational and individual level. It specifically highlights the important role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisational structure, who both affect and are influenced by the intentions to build legitimacy with the client

Inkluusio ja inklusiivinen liikunnanopetus

Tiivistelmä. Tämän tutkielman aiheena oli selvittää inkluusiota ja sen vaikutusta liikunnanopetukseen, tarkoituksenaan huomioida oppilaan tarpeet opetuksessa, sekä opetussuunnitelman perusteiden tuomien vaatimusten mukaan opetuksen järjestäminen opettajan näkökulmasta. Tutkielman perusteella pyrittiin selventämään inkluusiota käsitteenä, sekä luomaan kuvaa inklusiivisen liikunnanopetuksen huomioitavista seikoista ja tarjota tietoa sen vaatimuksista. Tutkimus toteutettiin käyttäen inkluusiota sekä osallisuutta käsittelevää aiempaa tutkimusaineistoa, sekä toisaalta liikunnanopetusta sekä soveltavaa liikunnanopetusta käsittelevää tutkimusaineistoa. Tutkielman tutkimus toteutettiin käyttämällä kuvailevan kirjallisuuskatsauksen integroivaa metodia, joka kokoaa aihealueen tutkimukset yhteen, sekä luo yhteenvedon ja pohdinnan avulla tietoa aiheesta. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen perusteella huomattiin inkluusion olevan lähtökohtaisesti kaikkien oppilaiden osallistamista opetukseen lähtökohdista riippumatta (Qvortrup & Qvortrup, 2018) ja varsinkin liikunnanopetuksessa näkymätöntä (Saari ym., 2008), kun opettaja ymmärtää inklusiivisen kasvatuksen ytimen (Watkins & Donnelly, 2012). Tässä erityisesti onnistunut eriyttäminen oli tärkeää jo suunnitteluvaiheessa, näin huomioiden oppilaiden erilaiset lähtökohdat ja vahvuudet (Kattilakoski & Tarvainen, 2011) ja koko ryhmän tavoitteet (Opetushallitus, 2014) sekä ympäristö (Louhela, 2012). Samat tavoitteet ja seikat tulee ottaa huomioon myös tunnin valmistelussa, tarvittaessa soveltaen sääntöjä ja välineiden käyttötarkoituksia sopiviksi (Heikinaro-Johansson & Lyyra, 2018). Opetuksen toteutuksessa taas läsnäolo, ikätasoisuus (Sääkslahti & Lauritsalo, 2017) sekä osallisuus (Max-Neef, 1991), sekä opetussuunnitelman mukaan myös oppimisen ilo ja tuki olivat keskiössä (Opetushallitus, 2014). Loppujen lopuksi tutkielmassa todettiin inkluusiokirjallisuuden, sekä -tutkimuksen olevan hyvinkin linjassa liikunnan perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteiden kanssa, jossa ohjauksen, eriyttämisen ja tuen tarkoituksena on taata oppilaalle riittävät motoriset taidot, suunnitella ja ohjeistaa opetus selkeästi ja toteuttaa se turvallisessa ilmapiirissä vahvuuksien, sekä positiivisten ja osallistavien liikuntakokemusten kautta (Opetushallitus, 2014, 149–150, 275). Tulevaisuudessa olisikin hyvä tarkastella lisää inkluusiota ja osallisuutta, sekä opettajien pätevyyttä ja valmiuksia tällaisen opetuksen järjestämiseen liikunnassa. Myös inkluusion tuoman suuremman työtaakan mukana mahdollisesti syntyvää työuupumusta ja sen ratkaisuja olisi hyvä tutkia lisää

Coexistence of innovation and standardization: evidence from the lean environment of business process outsourcing

It has been argued that companies face the challenge of being innovative while at the same time having to standardize and control organizational processes. While management control research has mostly focused on how control supports innovation, the present study aims to improve our understanding of how controls can support the co-existence of process and management innovations with standardization. The paper adopts a single-case study method and analyses the use of a management control system in the context of a business process outsourcing company which faces the simultaneous need for process and management innovation and standardization. The study examines the relationships between different levers of control and their nature to explain how levers of control can create consistent and countervailing reinforcement that supports the co-existence of innovation and standardization. Moreover, we provide an insight into how certain controls, specifically diagnostic and interactive lean controls, combine the levers of control, so creating countervailing reinforcement. We show that the identified reinforcement enables the coexistence of different innovations and standardization at various organizational levels. Thus, the current study contributes to the stream of research on how management controls work collectively, acknowledging their impact on innovation and the concurrent need for standardization.</p

On the shortness of vectors to be found by the Ideal-SVP quantum algorithm

The hardness of finding short vectors in ideals of cyclotomic number fields (hereafter, Ideal-SVP) can serve as a worst-case assumption for numerous efficient cryptosystems, via the average-case problems Ring-SIS and Ring-LWE. For a while, it could be assumed the Ideal-SVP problem was as hard a

Comprehensive evaluation of coding region point mutations in microsatellite-unstable colorectal cancer

Microsatellite instability (MSI) leads to accumulation of an excessive number of mutations in the genome, mostly small insertions and deletions. MSI colorectal cancers (CRCs), however, also contain more point mutations than microsatellite-stable (MSS) tumors, yet they have not been as comprehensively studied. To identify candidate driver genes affected by point mutations in MSI CRC, we ranked genes based on mutation significance while correcting for replication timing and gene expression utilizing an algorithm, MutSigCV. Somatic point mutation data from the exome kit-targeted area from 24 exome-sequenced sporadic MSI CRCs and respective normals, and 12 whole-genome-sequenced sporadic MSI CRCs and respective normals were utilized. The top 73 genes were validated in 93 additional MSI CRCs. The MutSigCV ranking identified several well-established MSI CRC driver genes and provided additional evidence for previously proposed CRC candidate genes as well as shortlisted genes that have to our knowledge not been linked to CRC before. Two genes, SMARCB1 and STK38L, were also functionally scrutinized, providing evidence of a tumorigenic role, for SMARCB1 mutations in particular. © 2018 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 licensePeer reviewe

The INtegrated CAtchment model of phosphorus dynamics (INCA-P): description and demonstration of new model structure and equations

INCA-P is a dynamic, catchment-scale phosphorus model which has been widely applied during the last decade. Since its original release in 2002, the model structure and equations have been significantly altered during several development phases. Here, we provide the first full model description since 2002 and then test the latest version of the model (v1.4.4) in a small rural catchment in northeast Scotland. The particulate phosphorus simulation was much improved compared to previous model versions, whilst the latest sorption equations allowed us to explore the potential time lags between reductions in terrestrial inputs and improvements in surface water quality, an issue of key policy relevance. The model is particularly suitable for use as a research tool, but should only be used to inform policy and land management in data-rich areas, where parameters and processes can be well-constrained. More long-term data is needed to parameterise dynamic models and test their predictions

Faster maturation of selective attention in musically trained children and adolescents : Converging behavioral and event-related potential evidence

Previous work suggests that musical training in childhood is associated with enhanced executive functions. However, it is unknown whether this advantage extends to selective attention-another central aspect of executive control. We recorded a well-established event-related potential (ERP) marker of distraction, the P3a, during an audio-visual task to investigate the maturation of selective attention in musically trained children and adolescents aged 10-17 years and a control group of untrained peers. The task required categorization of visual stimuli, while a sequence of standard sounds and distracting novel sounds were presented in the background. The music group outperformed the control group in the categorization task and the younger children in the music group showed a smaller P3a to the distracting novel sounds than their peers in the control group. Also, a negative response elicited by the novel sounds in the N1/MMN time range (similar to 150-200 ms) was smaller in the music group. These results indicate that the music group was less easily distracted by the task-irrelevant sound stimulation and gated the neural processing of the novel sounds more efficiently than the control group. Furthermore, we replicated our previous finding that, relative to the control group, the musically trained children and adolescents performed faster in standardized tests for inhibition and set shifting. These results provide novel converging behavioral and electrophysiological evidence from a cross-modal paradigm for accelerated maturation of selective attention in musically trained children and adolescents and corroborate the association between musical training and enhanced inhibition and set shifting.Peer reviewe

Mortality by age, gene and gender in carriers of pathogenic mismatch repair gene variants receiving surveillance for early cancer diagnosis and treatment: a report from the prospective Lynch syndrome database

BACKGROUND: The Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database (PLSD) collates information on carriers of pathogenic or likely pathogenic MMR variants (path_MMR) who are receiving medical follow-up, including colonoscopy surveillance, which aims to the achieve early diagnosis and treatment of cancers. Here we use the most recent PLSD cohort that is larger and has wider geographical representation than previous versions, allowing us to present mortality as an outcome, and median ages at cancer diagnoses for the first time. METHODS: The PLSD is a prospective observational study without a control group that was designed in 2012 and updated up to October 2022. Data for 8500 carriers of path_MMR variants from 25 countries were included, providing 71,713 years of follow up. Cumulative cancer incidences at 65 years of age were combined with 10-year crude survival following cancer, to derive estimates of mortality up to 75 years of age by organ, gene, and gender. FINDINGS: Gynaecological cancers were more frequent than colorectal cancers in path_MSH2, path_MSH6 and path_PMS2 carriers [cumulative incidence: 53.3%, 49.6% and 23.3% at 75 years, respectively]. Endometrial, colon and ovarian cancer had low mortality [8%, 13% and 15%, respectively] and prostate cancers were frequent in male path_MSH2 carriers [cumulative incidence: 39.7% at 75 years]. Pancreatic, brain, biliary tract and ureter and kidney and urinary bladder cancers were associated with high mortality [83%, 66%, 58%, 27%, and 29%, respectively]. Among path_MMR carriers undergoing colonoscopy surveillance, particularly path_MSH2 carriers, more deaths followed non-colorectal Lynch syndrome cancers than colorectal cancers. INTERPRETATION: In path_MMR carriers undergoing colonoscopy surveillance, non-colorectal Lynch syndrome cancers were associated with more deaths than were colorectal cancers. Reducing deaths from non-colorectal cancers presents a key challenge in contemporary medical care in Lynch syndrome. FUNDING: We acknowledge funding from the Norwegian Cancer Society, contract 194751-2017

Adult-Onset Anti-Citrullinated Peptide Antibody-Negative Destructive Rheumatoid Arthritis Is Characterized by a Disease-Specific CD8+T Lymphocyte Signature

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a complex autoimmune disease targeting synovial joints. Traditionally, RA is divided into seropositive (SP) and seronegative (SN) disease forms, the latter consisting of an array of unrelated diseases with joint involvement. Recently, we described a severe form of SN-RA that associates with characteristic joint destruction. Here, we sought biological characteristics to differentiate this rare but aggressive anti-citrullinated peptide antibody-negative destructive RA (CND-RA) from early seropositive (SP-RA) and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis (SN-RA). We also aimed to study cytotoxic CD8+ lymphocytes in autoimmune arthritis. CND-RA, SP-RA and SN-RA were compared to healthy controls to reveal differences in T-cell receptor beta (TCR beta) repertoire, cytokine levels and autoantibody repertoires. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) followed by single-cell RNA-sequencing (sc-RNA-seq) was performed to study somatic mutations in a clonally expanded CD8+ lymphocyte population in an index patient. A unique TCR beta signature was detected in CND-RA patients. In addition, CND-RA patients expressed higher levels of the bone destruction-associated TNFSF14 cytokine. Blood IgG repertoire from CND-RA patients recognized fewer endogenous proteins than SP-RA patients' repertoires. Using WES, we detected a stable mutation profile in the clonally expanded CD8+ T-cell population characterized by cytotoxic gene expression signature discovered by sc-RNA-sequencing. Our results identify CND-RA as an independent RA subset and reveal a CND-RA specific TCR signature in the CD8+ lymphocytes. Improved classification of seronegative RA patients underlines the heterogeneity of RA and also, facilitates development of improved therapeutic options for the treatment resistant patients