312 research outputs found
Accountability and Accounting Standards: the Effect of Providing Indicative but Incomplete Guidance Rules
Abstract Purpose: This paper tests the interaction effects of education and accounting standard type (principles-or rules-based) for students who are exercising judgement in the face of accountability. Method: An experimental model is employed in which the type of accounting standard is manipulated. The effect of the type of accounting standard is then compared for students in introductory and final year accounting courses. Findings/Results: Our results indicate that the inclusion of indicative, but incomplete rules leads to increased conformance to pressure. Education improves the application of principles but incomplete rules continue to have a detrimental effect, even for students who have effectively completed their university studies. Implications: This research is important in providing guidance to the regulatory bodies as they determine the extent to which guidance rules should be included in new and revised accounting standards. It is also important to educators as they consider the effect of their teaching on the students' application of professional judgement
Lessons from Love-Locks: The archaeology of a contemporary assemblage
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Journal of Material Culture, November 2017, published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved.Loss of context is a challenge, if not the bane, of the ritual archaeologist’s craft. Those who research ritual frequently encounter difficulties in the interpretation of its often tantalisingly incomplete material record. Careful analysis of material remains may afford us glimpses into past ritual activity, but our often vast chronological separation from the ritual practitioners themselves prevent us from seeing the whole picture. The archaeologist engaging with structured deposits, for instance, is often forced to study ritual assemblages post-accumulation. Many nuances of its formation, therefore, may be lost in interpretation. This paper considers what insights an archaeologist could gain into the place, people, pace, and purpose of deposition by recording an accumulation of structured deposits during its formation, rather than after. To answer this, the paper will focus on a contemporary depositional practice: the love-lock. This custom involves the inscribing of names/initials onto a padlock, its attachment to a bridge or other public structure, and the deposition of the corresponding key into the water below; a ritual often enacted by a couple as a statement of their romantic commitment. Drawing on empirical data from a three-year diachronic site-specific investigation into a love-lock bridge in Manchester, UK, the author demonstrates the value of contemporary archaeology in engaging with the often enigmatic material culture of ritual accumulations.Peer reviewe
Maternal deaths in Pakistan : intersection of gender, class and social exclusion.
Background: A key aim of countries with high maternal mortality rates is to increase availability of competent
maternal health care during pregnancy and childbirth. Yet, despite significant investment, countries with the
highest burdens have not reduced their rates to the expected levels. We argue, taking Pakistan as a case study,
that improving physical availability of services is necessary but not sufficient for reducing maternal mortality
because gender inequities interact with caste and poverty to socially exclude certain groups of women from
health services that are otherwise physically available.
Methods: Using a critical ethnographic approach, two case studies of women who died during childbirth were
pieced together from information gathered during the first six months of fieldwork in a village in Northern Punjab,
Pakistan.
Findings: Shida did not receive the necessary medical care because her heavily indebted family could not afford it.
Zainab, a victim of domestic violence, did not receive any medical care because her martial family could not afford
it, nor did they think she deserved it. Both women belonged to lower caste households, which are materially poor
households and socially constructed as inferior.
Conclusions: The stories of Shida and Zainab illustrate how a rigidly structured caste hierarchy, the gendered
devaluing of females, and the reinforced lack of control that many impoverished women experience conspire to
keep women from lifesaving health services that are physically available and should be at their disposal
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Demonstration of the event identification capabilities of the NEXT-White detector
In experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay, the possibility of identifying the two emitted electrons is a powerful tool in rejecting background events and therefore improving the overall sensitivity of the experiment. In this paper we present the first measurement of the efficiency of a cut based on the different event signatures of double and single electron tracks, using the data of the NEXT-White detector, the first detector of the NEXT experiment operating underground. Using a 228Th calibration source to produce signal-like and background-like events with energies near 1.6 MeV, a signal efficiency of 71.6 ± 1.5 stat± 0.3 sys% for a background acceptance of 20.6 ± 0.4 stat± 0.3 sys% is found, in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. An extrapolation to the energy region of the neutrinoless double beta decay by means of Monte Carlo simulations is also carried out, and the results obtained show an improvement in background rejection over those obtained at lower energies. [Figure not available: see fulltext.
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Radiogenic backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment
Natural radioactivity represents one of the main backgrounds in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Within the NEXT physics program, the radioactivity- induced backgrounds are measured with the NEXT-White detector. Data from 37.9 days of low-background operations at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc with xenon depleted in 136Xe are analyzed to derive a total background rate of (0.84±0.02) mHz above 1000 keV. The comparison of data samples with and without the use of the radon abatement system demonstrates that the contribution of airborne-Rn is negligible. A radiogenic background model is built upon the extensive radiopurity screening campaign conducted by the NEXT collaboration. A spectral fit to this model yields the specific contributions of 60Co, 40K, 214Bi and 208Tl to the total background rate, as well as their location in the detector volumes. The results are used to evaluate the impact of the radiogenic backgrounds in the double beta decay analyses, after the application of topological cuts that reduce the total rate to (0.25±0.01) mHz. Based on the best-fit background model, the NEXT-White median sensitivity to the two-neutrino double beta decay is found to be 3.5σ after 1 year of data taking. The background measurement in a Qββ±100 keV energy window validates the best-fit background model also for the neutrinoless double beta decay search with NEXT-100. Only one event is found, while the model expectation is (0.75±0.12) events. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
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Energy calibration of the NEXT-White detector with 1% resolution near Q ββ of 136Xe
Excellent energy resolution is one of the primary advantages of electroluminescent high-pressure xenon TPCs. These detectors are promising tools in searching for rare physics events, such as neutrinoless double-beta decay (ββ0ν), which require precise energy measurements. Using the NEXT-White detector, developed by the NEXT (Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC) collaboration, we show for the first time that an energy resolution of 1% FWHM can be achieved at 2.6 MeV, establishing the present technology as the one with the best energy resolution of all xenon detectors for ββ0ν searches. [Figure not available: see fulltext.
Clusters of galaxies : observational properties of the diffuse radio emission
Clusters of galaxies, as the largest virialized systems in the Universe, are
ideal laboratories to study the formation and evolution of cosmic
structures...(abridged)... Most of the detailed knowledge of galaxy clusters
has been obtained in recent years from the study of ICM through X-ray
Astronomy. At the same time, radio observations have proved that the ICM is
mixed with non-thermal components, i.e. highly relativistic particles and
large-scale magnetic fields, detected through their synchrotron emission. The
knowledge of the properties of these non-thermal ICM components has increased
significantly, owing to sensitive radio images and to the development of
theoretical models. Diffuse synchrotron radio emission in the central and
peripheral cluster regions has been found in many clusters. Moreover
large-scale magnetic fields appear to be present in all galaxy clusters, as
derived from Rotation Measure (RM) studies. Non-thermal components are linked
to the cluster X-ray properties, and to the cluster evolutionary stage, and are
crucial for a comprehensive physical description of the intracluster medium.
They play an important role in the cluster formation and evolution. We review
here the observational properties of diffuse non-thermal sources detected in
galaxy clusters: halos, relics and mini-halos. We discuss their classification
and properties. We report published results up to date and obtain and discuss
statistical properties. We present the properties of large-scale magnetic
fields in clusters and in even larger structures: filaments connecting galaxy
clusters. We summarize the current models of the origin of these cluster
components, and outline the improvements that are expected in this area from
future developments thanks to the new generation of radio telescopes.Comment: Accepted for the publication in The Astronomy and Astrophysics
Review. 58 pages, 26 figure
Actin Nemaline Myopathy Mouse Reproduces Disease, Suggests Other Actin Disease Phenotypes and Provides Cautionary Note on Muscle Transgene Expression
Mutations in the skeletal muscle α-actin gene (ACTA1) cause congenital myopathies including nemaline myopathy, actin aggregate myopathy and rod-core disease. The majority of patients with ACTA1 mutations have severe hypotonia and do not survive beyond the age of one. A transgenic mouse model was generated expressing an autosomal dominant mutant (D286G) of ACTA1 (identified in a severe nemaline myopathy patient) fused with EGFP. Nemaline bodies were observed in multiple skeletal muscles, with serial sections showing these correlated to aggregates of the mutant skeletal muscle α-actin-EGFP. Isolated extensor digitorum longus and soleus muscles were significantly weaker than wild-type (WT) muscle at 4 weeks of age, coinciding with the peak in structural lesions. These 4 week-old mice were ∼30% less active on voluntary running wheels than WT mice. The α-actin-EGFP protein clearly demonstrated that the transgene was expressed equally in all myosin heavy chain (MHC) fibre types during the early postnatal period, but subsequently became largely confined to MHCIIB fibres. Ringbinden fibres, internal nuclei and myofibrillar myopathy pathologies, not typical features in nemaline myopathy or patients with ACTA1 mutations, were frequently observed. Ringbinden were found in fast fibre predominant muscles of adult mice and were exclusively MHCIIB-positive fibres. Thus, this mouse model presents a reliable model for the investigation of the pathobiology of nemaline body formation and muscle weakness and for evaluation of potential therapeutic interventions. The occurrence of core-like regions, internal nuclei and ringbinden will allow analysis of the mechanisms underlying these lesions. The occurrence of ringbinden and features of myofibrillar myopathy in this mouse model of ACTA1 disease suggests that patients with these pathologies and no genetic explanation should be screened for ACTA1 mutations
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