International Accounting Standards, Budgeting and Controlling in Private and Public Sector

The purpose of this article is to present the ability of convergence in budgeting and control mechanisms between Private and Public Sectors, based on the standardization of financial events in accordance with International Accounting Standards (IAS). The necessity arises from the trend –expressed as New Public Management (NPM) theory – of adopting in Public Sector entities, management procedures that are followed in the Private Sector. The research concludes that the common structure of financial statements under IAS/IFRS and IPSAS allows the convergence of budgeting and control mechanisms between Public and Private Sectors. In the herein presented article, the budgeting and controlling models applied in the Private Sector entities have been applied in the Public Sector organizations considering the different directions of the mechanisms that generate these models. The research enhances the accountability and decision-making in the Public Sector, while contributing to further discussions about the effectiveness of the application of Private-sector techniques in Public entities.     Keywords: Audit; Accounting, IAS/IFRS/IPSAS, Financial Contro

An Analysis of Critical Variables Affecting Working Capital in Infrastructure Projects

The research aims at exploring the critical variables that affect public works contractors’ working capital in the delivery of infrastructure projects. Effective financial management has long been recognized as the ‘lifeblood’ of construction contractors, especially during economic periods of recession. The main reason for insolvency in the built environment is the lack of working capital to support contractors’ site operations. Therefore, it is vital to accurately predict the project working capital requirements at the pre-tender stage and closely monitor project cash-flow during the physical production process. The proposed methodology entails the development of a cash-flow/ working capital calculation process based on spreadsheet modelling and the Gantt chart for the derivation of project disbursements S-curves, revenue step function curves, and maximum/net cash-flow profiles. The model is implemented to a recently delivered typical infrastructure project – the construction of a new peripheral highway reinforced concrete bridge – and a sensitivity analysis is conducted to reach useful conclusions concerning the significance in infrastructure working capital of the following variables examined: the retention percentage, the ‘front-end rate loading’ by the contractor, and the premium advance incentive by the owner. The lowest maximum working capital requirement results from the provision of an advance mobilization payment by the owner to the contractor at project start-up and the selection of the latest start times site work execution program. The herein presented study is expected to assist both researchers and practitioners operating within the public construction sector in decision-making towards more effective financial management of infrastructure projects.     Keywords: infrastructure projects, public works contractors, cash-flow management, working capital, Gantt chart, S-curv

ΥΔΑΤΙΚΟ ΑΠΟΤΥΠΩΜΑ ΤΩΝ ΚΑΛΛΙΕΡΓΕΙΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΠΕΔΙΑΔΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΝΕΣΤΟΥ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΑ ΜΕ ΤΗ ΜΕΘΟΔΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΚΤΙΜΗΣΗΣ ΚΥΚΛΟΥ ΖΩΗΣ

Η αλόγιστη χρήση των υδατικών αποθεμάτων μιας περιοχής για την άρδευση καλλιεργειών μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε εξάντληση των πόρων της περιοχής και συνεπώς σε αναποτελεσματική άρδευση. Επίσης, η εφαρμογή της καλλιέργειας μπορεί να οδηγήσει και σε υποβάθμιση των υδατικών πόρων, λόγω μεταφοράς συστατικών των λιπασμάτων στα υδατικά σώματα. Η αλληλεξάρτηση αυτή καλλιέργειας και οικοσυστήματος καλλιεργούμενης περιοχής, μπορεί να αποτυπωθεί και ποσοτικοποιηθεί μέσω του Υδατικού Αποτυπώματος της καλλιέργειας, σύμφωνα με τις αρχές της Εκτίμησης Κύκλου Ζωής. Στην παρούσα εργασία προσδιορίζεται το Υδατικό Αποτύπωμα των καλλιεργειών της πεδιάδας του ποταμού Νέστου. Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης στοχεύουν στην αποτελεσματική άρδευση της περιοχής, μέσω της ολοκληρωμένης και βιώσιμης διαχείρισης των υδατικών της πόρων

AudioInSpace : exploring the creative fusion of generative audio, visuals and gameplay

Computer games are unique creativity domains in that they elegantly fuse several facets of creative work including visuals, narra- tive, music, architecture and design. While the exploration of possibil- ities across facets of creativity o ers a more realistic approach to the game design process, most existing autonomous (or semi-autonomous) game content generators focus on the mere generation of single domains (creativity facets) in games. Motivated by the sparse literature on mul- tifaceted game content generation, this paper introduces a multifaceted procedural content generation (PCG) approach that is based on the in- teractive evolution of multiple arti cial neural networks that orchestrate the generation of visuals, audio and gameplay. The approach is evaluated on a spaceship shooter game. The generated artifacts|a fusion of audio- visual and gameplay elements | showcase the capacity of multifaceted PCG and its evident potential for computational game creativity.This re-search is supported, in part, by the FP7 ICT project C2Learn (project no: 318480) and by the FP7 Marie Curie CIG project AutoGameDesign (project no: 630665).peer-reviewe

Iconoscope : Designing a Game for Fostering Creativity

This paper introduces Iconoscope, a game aiming to foster the creativity of a young target audience in formal or infor- mal educational settings. At the core of the Iconoscope de- sign is the creative, playful interpretation of word-concepts via the construction of visual icons. In addition to that, the game rewards ambiguity via a scoring system which favors icons that dichotomize public opinion. The game is played by a group of players, with each player attempting to guess which of the concepts provided by the system is represented by each opponent's created icon. Through the social interac- tion that emerges, Iconoscope prompts co-creativity within a group of players; in addition, the game o ers the poten- tial of human-machine co-creativity via computer-generated suggestions to the player's icon. Experiments with early prototypes, described in this paper, provide insight into the design process and motivate certain decisions taken for the current version of Iconoscope which, at the time of writing, is being evaluated in selected schools in Greece, Austria and the United Kingdom.peer-reviewe

Diagnostic Significance of Peritubular Capillary Basement Membrane Multilaminations in Kidney Allografts: Old Concepts Revisited

Injury to peritubular capillaries and capillary basement membrane multilamination (PTCL) is a hallmark of antibody-mediated chronic renal allograft rejection. However, the predictive diagnostic value of PTCL is incompletely studied

Retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomy with a small incision for renal cell carcinoma: Comparison with the conventional method

<p>Abstract</p> <p>purpose</p> <p>When retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma was introduced into our institution, we performed a combined small skin incision method. In this method, a small incision was made to approach the retroperitoneal space prior to setting trockers and thereafter a LAPDISC was placed in the incision to start the retroperitoneoscopic procedure. In this study, we compared the outcomes between the combined small skin incision method ("A method" hereinafter) and the conventional method ("B method" hereinafter).</p> <p>material and methods</p> <p>Among the cases of T1N0M0 suspicious renal cell carcinoma treated at Yokohama City University between May 2003 and June 2009, the A method was performed in 51 cases and the B method was performed in 33 cases. The factors in the outcomes compared between the A and B methods were the duration of procedure, volume of bleeding, volume of transfusion, weight of the specimen, incidence of peritoneal injury, rate of conversion to open surgery, and perioperative complications.</p> <p>results</p> <p>The duration of the procedure was 214.4 ± 46.9 minutes in the A method group and 208.1 ± 36.4 minutes in the B method group (p = 0.518). The volume of bleeding and the weight of the specimen were 105.5 ± 283.2 ml and 335.1 ± 137.4 g in the A method group and 44.8 ± 116 ml (p = 0.247) and 309.2 ± 126 g (p = 0.385) in the B method group. There was no significant difference in all factors analyzed.</p> <p>conclusion</p> <p>The A method would be highly possible to produce stable results, even during the introduction period when the staff and the institution are still unfamiliar with the retroperitoneoscopic surgery.</p