Effect of cloud accounting on an accounting firm’s costs

The accounting profession experienced a significant revolution when paper-based practices, such as manual bookkeeping of ledgers and trial balances, shifted to the use of specialised accounting software. However, most of the accounting software used by accounting firms were standalone packages that were not supported by the Web; therefore the demand from accounting firms for an integrated software that could act more like an overall business management system which could cater for various financial activities such as accounts, tax, payroll, administrative tasks and point of sales systems emerged. The demand for having a single integrated platform for all accounting services with greater accessibility to real time information gave rise to cloud based accounting software applications. The accelerating speed at which accounting firms are adopting cloud accounting software leads us to the primary research question of understanding the effects the introduction of cloud accounting software has on the operational cost of accounting firms. This study also aims to investigate the factors that motivate small accounting firms to embrace cloud technology. The primary method for data collection was through the distribution of questionnaires to 6 Small Accounting firms in Hamilton who have adopted the use of cloud accounting software. The researcher was able to gather some interesting findings from this study, in terms of understanding the effect of staff training and information technology costs that Accounting firms are faced with through the implementation of cloud accounting software. The majority of firms in this study agreed that they have experienced an overall increase in their operational costs, but believe that there has been an increase in their general organisational efficiency

Political Economy of Higher Education: South Africa in a comparative perspective

Dr. Sanjiv Shrivastava is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Physics, who teaches very large classes of nearly 1000 students at the university of the Witwatersrand. He has been using the ubiquitous smart phone technology to engage students and to impart learning to large classes of First year Engineers. Due to my interest in the political economy of higher education, in terms of government and international policies that are continually putting pressure on universities worldwide to force them to become more dependent of student fees and to keep increasing the size of their classes, I was intrigued to see how this translated on the ground and how instructors were using technology in innovative ways to cope with the fundamental changes to teaching and learning in the university environment. Therefore, we co-wrote and co-presented a paper at this conference. We had a very well attended session. The attached paper is a working draft of our ongoing research. There was lively discussion throughout the conference. Several delegates asked for copies of our paper. We were asked by the conference organizer to finalize the research and submit it as a chapter for an upcoming book. I would like to thank Athabasca University and the APDF committee for providing financial support to attend this useful conference.Education is one of the major linchpins of economic, social and political development of any nation. There is overwhelming evidence suggesting that higher education can produce both public and private benefits. Thus, the role of the state in making education policy, and funding education is indeed critical, and cannot be left to be determined by market forces alone. Nevertheless, the trend of inadequate government funding for universities, loss of autonomy, infrastructural decay, falling academic standards, politicization and privatization of education, etc. appear to be a worldwide phenomenon and not just restricted to the developing world. South African higher education shows much promise with respect to knowledge production and dissemination, to contributing to social equity, economic and social development and democracy, and to the development needs of the Southern African region and the African continent. However, higher education in South Africa is under considerable stress due to a number of reasons. The first part of the paper will provide an overview of the conditions that are exerting negative pressures on higher education in the global context, the developmental implications of investment in higher education, and compare South Africa to trends in other parts of the world to draw lessons for government policies on higher education. The second part of the paper will consider a case study to cope with large class sizes through the use of mobile technology. The paper will discuss the technological viability and the pedagogical implications of the use of mobile technology in large size classes. The paper argues that this mode of delivery can be implemented in a variety of settings, bridging the limitations of distance as well as campus-based universities

Globalizing `Global Studies’: Vehicle for Disciplinary and Regional Bridges?

The most contentious and critical questions of contemporary times relate to the nature, scope, impact and conceptualization of globalization. The intensified impact of globalization and the acceptance that it is a contemporary social reality has manifested itself noticeably in a variety of disciplines. However, the inherently multidimensional processes of globalization demand new insights. The resultant rise of a Global Studies approach is expected to be unencumbered by dominant perspectives and existing academic loyalties by placing global theorizing and issues first. In light of this context, the paper raises several epistemological and ontological questions while outlining the broad contours of this emerging field. The analysis is based on academic literature as well as the examination of a selection of global studies programs in academic institutions to ascertain the contemporary application and perceptions of what constitutes global studies. The ensuing discussion explains why global studies is regarded as an overwhelmingly North American phenomenon. Finally, the paper suggests ways of broadening the disciplinary lens, which may also help global studies to overcome the wide regional divide

Detection of Geometric Transformations in Copy-Move Forgery of Digital Images

Digital Forensics is a branch of forensic science which is related to cyber crime. It basically involves the detection, recovery and investigation of material found in digital devices. Digital images and videos plays most important role in digital forensics. They are the prime evidences of any crime scene. So the fidelity of the image is important. Digital images can be easily manipulated and edited with the help of image processing tools. Copy-move Forgery is the most primitive form of cyber attack on digital images. In Copy-move forgery a part of image (region) itself is copied and pasted into another part of the same image. The intension behind this type of attack is to “add” or “disappear” some objects from the image. Hence to break the fidelity of the image and fool the viewer. Copy-move attack is more prevalent in images having uniform texture or patterns, for e.g. sand, grass, water etc. In this thesis exact block matching is used as a detection technique. This technique is based on block matching, for these the whole image is divided into number of block and then the matching process is applied. Sometimes the copied region is processed before pasted i.e. some geometric transformations is applied on the pasted region. The transformations like scaling, rotation etc. It is not possible for human eyes to detect such kind of forgeries. Whenever forgery is done in this manner the common techniques like block matching, exhaustive search, auto-correlation and robust match etc. are not able to detect the forgery having geometric transformations. So that for identification of forged region we need some technique which are based on local features and also invariant to transformations. In this thesis SIFT is used for forgery detection. SIFT stands for Scale Invariant Feature Transform, this gives local feature points which are invariant to scales. The key points helps to find the duplicated region with different matching algorithm

Protein-protein interaction between multi-functional protein CAD and protein phosphastase 1 (PP1)

Uncontrolled cell proliferation, a hallmark of cancer, is associated with activation of CAD, a multifunctional protein that catalyzes the first three steps in pyrimidine biosynthesis. The cell cycle dependent regulation of pyrimidine biosynthesis is a consequence of sequential phosphorylation of CAD Thr-456 and Ser-1406 by the MAP kinase and PKA cascades, respectively. The mechanism that controls the timing of these events is not well understood. Our hypothesis is that timing of the activation and nucleocytoplasmic dynamics of CAD is controlled by signaling complexes with kinases and phosphatases. Interestingly, a consensus sequence for PP1 targeting proteins is located immediately adjacent to Thr-456. Peptides were synthesized corresponding to residues 444-460 of CAD that encompasses both the PP1 consensus sequence and Thr-456 as well as two mutant peptides in which Thr-456 was replaced with Ala or Asp. The wild type peptide and Ala mutant were able to bind to PP1 while the Asp mutant which, mimics phosphorylated CAD, does not

Invisible Women in History and Global Studies: Reflections from an Archival Research Project

This article questions the continuing invisibility of the significant scale of the involvement of women in historical movements/moments. The focus is on Mahatma Gandhi-led Civil Disobedience movement (1930-33), which was a historic turning point enabling the political involvement of masses of women in South Asia. Using an individual narrative, multi-archival research, and secondary literature survey, this article contends that the thriving subaltern and feminist historical traditions have had limited impact on historical ‘gender mainstreaming’. Furthermore, the paper argues that revealing the diverse nature and the substantial scale of women’s involvement in social/political change is important for two reasons: firstly, it contributes to a fuller understanding of history and; secondly, because historical research is essential for contemporary policy-making. Reclaiming the role of ordinary women in disparate history writing traditions thus can be a tool to understand and counter persistent gender inequality, in South Asia and in the larger global community

Patient presentations during the 2010 FIFA World Cup: Cape Town, South Africa's public emergency centres

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.In light of the inconclusive findings highlighted within the literature currently, suggestions have been made that further studies are required in order to gain deeper insight into the dynamics and variables which may influence patient presentation to emergency centres during major sporting events, as well as their significance, if any. The primary aim of the study is to determine what impact the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaTM had on emergency centre presentations. The objective of the study is to conduct a retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study utilizing previously collected audit data from emergency centre records during the period of a major sporting event, the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaTM, ie. 11th June 2010 to 11th July 2010. The data of the WC2010 audit will be analysed to assess the presence of any statistically significant differences between analyzed variables within the period in question as compared with the control period (11th June to 11th July 2009), in which there was an absence of such an event. A comparison of the data described, to control periods with an absence of major sporting events may allow insight into whether such events require consideration of staffing requirements, capacity/throughput assessment and contingency planning, or not