An Empirical Study of Public Accountants\u27 Risk-Taking Propensities

J. W. Martin is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and E. R. Mansfield is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Alabama

Standard setting in Australian medical schools

Background: Standard setting of assessment is critical in quality assurance of medical programs. The aims of this study were to identify and compare the impact of methods used to establish the passing standard by the 13 medical schools who participated in the 2014 Australian Medical Schools Assessment Collaboration (AMSAC). Methods: A survey was conducted to identify the standard setting procedures used by participating schools. Schools standard setting data was collated for the 49 multiple choice items used for benchmarking by AMSAC in 2014. Analyses were conducted for nine schools by their method of standard setting and key characteristics of 28 panel members from four schools. Results: Substantial differences were identified between AMSAC schools that participated in the study, in both the standard setting methods and how particular techniques were implemented. The correlation between the item standard settings data by school ranged from − 0.116 to 0.632. A trend was identified for panel members to underestimate the difficulty level of hard items and overestimate the difficulty level of easy items for all methods. The median derived cut-score standard across schools was 55% for the 49 benchmarking questions. Although, no significant differences were found according to panel member standard setting experience or clinicians versus scientists, panel members with a high curriculum engagement generally had significantly lower expectations of borderline candidates (p = 0.044). Conclusion: This study used a robust assessment framework to demonstrate that several standard setting techniques are used by Australian medical schools, which in some cases use different techniques for different stages of their program. The implementation of the most common method, the Modified Angoff standard setting approach was found to vary markedly. The method of standard setting used had an impact on the distribution of expected minimally competent student performance by item and overall, with the passing standard varying by up to 10%. This difference can be attributed to the method of standard setting because the ASMSAC items have been shown over time to have consistent performance levels reflecting similar cohort ability. There is a need for more consistency in the method of standard setting used by medical schools in Australia

A systematic approach to model-based engineering of cyber-physical systems of systems

PhD ThesisThis thesis describes and evaluates methods for the model-based engineering of Systems of Systems (SoSs) where constituents comprise both computational and physical elements typical of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). Such Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems (CPSoSs) use sensors and actuators to link the digital and physical worlds, and are composed of operationally and managerially independent constituent systems that interact to deliver an emerging service on which reliance is placed. The engineering of CPSoSs requires a combination of techniques associated with both CPS engineering and SoS engineering. Model-based SoS engineering techniques address organisation and integration of diverse systems through the use of disciplined architectural frameworks and contractual modelling approaches. Advances in model-based CPS engineering address the additional challenges of integrating semantically heterogeneous models of discrete and continuous phenomena. This thesis combines these approaches to develop a coherent framework for the model-based engineering of CPSoSs. The proposed approach utilises architectural frameworks to aid in the development of rich abstract models of CPSoSs. This is accompanied by the specification of an automated transformation process to generate heterogeneous co-models based on the architectural description. Verification of the proposed engineering approach is undertaken by its application to a case study describing the control of trains over a section of rail network, in which the (cyber) behaviour of control infrastructure must be considered in conjunction with the (physical) dynamics of train movements. Using the proposed methods, the development of this CPSoS uses architectural descriptions to generate an executable model to enable the analysis of safety and efficiency implications of the implemented control logic. The utility of the approach is evaluated by consideration of the impact of the proposed techniques on advancing the suitability and maturity of baseline technologies for the engineering of CPSoS. It is concluded that the proposed architectural framework provides effective guidance for the production of rich architectural descriptions of CPSoSs, and that the conversion between architectural and executable models is viable for implementation in a suitable open tools framework

A strategic architecture and its role in enhancing the performance of commercial web-enabled enterprises

Thesis (PhD (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.In the economic paradigm of the previous century a well-crafted strategy delivered successful competitive advantage. This research questions whether, with the advent of the internet and its networked economy, this premise remains valid. In the past, technological shocks such as the telephone, railroads and electricity changed the way markets worked. Noting this, some astute practitioners developed effective patterns of competitive behaviour and achieved results of lasting value. The internet has precipitated a similar disturbance and may be consigned to a matching destiny. Today’s internet pioneers are the electronic businesses competing at the frontiers of strategy by learning, innovating and doing. This study, conducted at the early, emergent phase of the internet, endeavours to determine the strategy characteristics of winning firms. Once the competitive advantages accruing to online businesses through the deployment of internet technologies disappear, all business will inevitably find itself in the networked economy - the findings of this work may prove of timeous benefit to such as these

Anti-Screening by Quarks and the Structure of the Inter-Quark Potential

The inter-quark potential is dominated by anti-screening effects which underly asymptotic freedom. We calculate the order g^6 anti-screening contribution from light fermions and demonstrate that these effects introduce a non-local divergence. These divergences are shown to make it impossible to define a coupling renormalisation scheme that renormalises this minimal, anti-screening potential. Hence the beta function cannot be divided into screening and anti-screening parts beyond lowest order. However, we then demonstrate that renormalisation can be carried out in terms of the anti-screening potential.Comment: 11 pages, some clarifications and typographical corrections, to appear in Physics Letters

Thickness dependence of higher-order Laue zone line positions at strongly dynamic zone axes

Simulation of bright-field convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) discs has revealed that, at zone axes where there are two strongly excited branches of the zero-layer dispersion surface that may interact with the HOLZ, the deficiency HOLZ line positions should be sensitive to changes in thickness. Examination of experimental patterns at carefully chosen accelerating voltages have corroborated the findings of the calculations. The effects are subtle; however, they are large enough to introduce significant errors into lattice parameter or strain measurements made by monitoring HOLZ positions. The magnitude of the effect is considerably reduced at zone axes where the dynamic diffraction is weaker (e.g. ), so much so that, with care, these axes are suitable for use in strain or lattice parameter determination.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31012/1/0000687.pd