69 research outputs found

    Applying the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to Examine Student Behavior when using Technology

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    This study contributes to the discussion on student perceptions of questionable academic behavior. Students evaluate behavioral scenarios to see whether they judge the behavior as ethical and to examine potential predictors of that judgment. The scenarios used isolate academic integrity decisions that involve the use of IT. The respondents were given items to examine the influence of moral equity, egoism, relativism, contractualism, and utilitarianism on three dependent variables: individual intention, peer intention, and ethical awareness of students in an academic-setting. This instrument incorporates dimensions from traditional ethical philosophies to determine which reasoning affects ethicality. This research aims to bridge the gap between faculty and student expectations by gaining a deeper understanding of the students’ decision making in a theoretical framework. The results suggest that students incorporate a number of philosophical frameworks in judging a specific behavior. Moral equity was the theory that was employed most frequently by the subjects

    Students’ Ethical Decision-Making in an Information Technology Context: A Theory of Planned Behavior Approach

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    Business educators have increased the focus on ethics in the classroom. In order for students to become ethical professionals, they must first be held to an ethical standard as students. As information technology continues to permeate every aspect of students’ lives, it becomes increasingly important to understand student decision-making in this context. This study seeks to apply a modified form of the Theory of Planned Behavior to assess influences on behavioral intention when IT is involved in an academic setting. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, moral judgment, and perceived importance are investigated. After pilot testing four scenarios and the instrument, 90 survey responses are gathered from undergraduate business students from two southwestern universities in the United States. Using SmartPLS, results are assessed by scenario. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, moral judgment and perceived importance are significant in some of the scenarios, whereas perceived behavioral control is not significant in any scenarios. A discussion of the contributions of this study, as well as limitations, is provided

    Using Giving Voice to Values to Improve Student Academic Integrity in Information Technology Contexts

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    Academic integrity continues to be a concern for universities and faculty. Yet practical methods for conveying ethical behavior can be difficult to achieve. This study uses the multidimensional ethics scale to gain insight into three situations involving students. The findings from those scenarios are then framed using the Giving Voice to Values ethics pedagogy in order to provide common rationales given by students and to create levers or arguments that can be used to combat the rationales. The common rationales and levers provided in this study, along with the scenarios, can be used as teaching tools to promote ethical action among current students

    Riding the Wave: Reconciling the Roles of Disease and Climate Change in Amphibian Declines

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    We review the evidence for the role of climate change in triggering disease outbreaks of chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease of amphibians. Both climatic anomalies and disease-related extirpations are recent phenomena, and effects of both are especially noticeable at high elevations in tropical areas, making it difficult to determine whether they are operating separately or synergistically. We compiled reports of amphibian declines from Lower Central America and Andean South America to create maps and statistical models to test our hypothesis of spatiotemporal spread of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and to update the elevational patterns of decline in frogs belonging to the genus Atelopus. We evaluated claims of climate change influencing the spread of Bd by including error into estimates of the relationship between air temperature and last year observed. Available data support the hypothesis of multiple introductions of this invasive pathogen into South America and subsequent spread along the primary Andean cordilleras. Additional analyses found no evidence to support the hypothesis that climate change has been driving outbreaks of amphibian chytridiomycosis, as has been posited in the climate-linked epidemic hypothesis. Future studies should increase retrospective surveys of museum specimens from throughout the Andes and should study the landscape genetics of Bd to map fine-scale patterns of geographic spread to identify transmission routes and processes

    Riding the Wave: Reconciling the Roles of Disease and Climate Change in Amphibian Declines

    Get PDF
    We review the evidence for the role of climate change in triggering disease outbreaks of chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease of amphibians. Both climatic anomalies and disease-related extirpations are recent phenomena, and effects of both are especially noticeable at high elevations in tropical areas, making it difficult to determine whether they are operating separately or synergistically. We compiled reports of amphibian declines from Lower Central America and Andean South America to create maps and statistical models to test our hypothesis of spatiotemporal spread of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and to update the elevational patterns of decline in frogs belonging to the genus Atelopus. We evaluated claims of climate change influencing the spread of Bd by including error into estimates of the relationship between air temperature and last year observed. Available data support the hypothesis of multiple introductions of this invasive pathogen into South America and subsequent spread along the primary Andean cordilleras. Additional analyses found no evidence to support the hypothesis that climate change has been driving outbreaks of amphibian chytridiomycosis, as has been posited in the climate-linked epidemic hypothesis. Future studies should increase retrospective surveys of museum specimens from throughout the Andes and should study the landscape genetics of Bd to map fine-scale patterns of geographic spread to identify transmission routes and processes

    Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) Study: Study Design

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    The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) is a national prospective study of adults comprising 14 established US prospective cohort studies. Starting as early as 1971, investigators in the C4R cohort studies have collected data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, including behavior, cognition, biomarkers, and social determinants of health. C4R links this pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) phenotyping to information on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and acute and postacute COVID-related illness. C4R is largely population-based, has an age range of 18-108 years, and reflects the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity of the United States. C4R ascertains SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 illness using standardized questionnaires, ascertainment of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths, and a SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey conducted via dried blood spots. Master protocols leverage existing robust retention rates for telephone and in-person examinations and high-quality event surveillance. Extensive prepandemic data minimize referral, survival, and recall bias. Data are harmonized with research-quality phenotyping unmatched by clinical and survey-based studies; these data will be pooled and shared widely to expedite collaboration and scientific findings. This resource will allow evaluation of risk and resilience factors for COVID-19 severity and outcomes, including postacute sequelae, and assessment of the social and behavioral impact of the pandemic on long-term health trajectories

    The Relative Importance of Financial Statement Items for Lending Decisions

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    Loan officers examine a variety of information when considering loan applications. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relative importance of accounting information during loan application evaluations. Professional loan officers and students were asked to rank thirty portfolios, based on six criteria, on their likelihood of receiving a loan. Three of the criteria are non-financial statement items while three criteria are derived from financial statements (ratios). Judgment analysis reveals that the loan officers and the novices deem credit history, a non-financial statement item, as the most important item when evaluating loan applications. Interestingly, the least important item is the type of audit opinion the loan applicant received

    The Effects Of Income Source, Context, And Income Level On Tax Compliance Decisions In A Dynamic Experiment

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    This study employs a laboratory experiment to explore the joint effect of income source (earned versus endowed) and decision context (tax versus nontax) on tax compliance behavior. During the experiment, subjects faced various income levels and made multiple reporting decisions. The results indicate that overall compliance is not significantly affected by the interaction of income source and context. However, this joint effect influences the relationship between income level and compliance and how compliance behavior evolves over time. In both cases, the treatment group with earned income in a tax context displays behavior that is distinct from the other three groups

    Generic and Specific Skills: Stakeholders\u27 Perceptions and Evidence of Change

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    We survey accounting professionals currently working in industry about the skills students entering the profession both need to be successful and those that they already possess. The list of twenty skills is adapted from those outlined in the AICPA core competency framework. The results show that professionals perceive the need for generic skills to be more important than specific skills. Further, the professionals indicate that the students come to work with better training in generic skills. These results provide positive news for accounting educators who have adapted curricula and teaching methods to emphasize generic skills. Although the practicing professionals perceive that the need for all skills is greater than the level possessed by those starting their careers, this deficiency is not more pronounced for either generic or specific skills
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