Strategies to Reduce Occupational Fraud in Small Restaurants

Occupational fraud is a growing business risk that is causing greater financial losses in small businesses than large businesses. Business owners lose approximately 5% of their revenues due to occupational fraud. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by some business owners of small restaurants to reduce occupational fraud. The fraud triangle theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Three small restaurant owners from Puerto Rico participated in face-to-face, semistructured interviews to reveal their successful strategies to minimize fraud. The data collection process also included business documents and researcher observations that assisted in establishing methodological triangulation. Using Yin\u27s 5-step process, data were coded and analyzed to identify emergent themes. The primary emergent themes obtained from data analysis revealed that owner monitoring, analytical procedures, and segregation of duties are effective strategies to minimize employee fraud. Participants revealed that the implementation of these strategies may reduce organizational losses associated to fraud. The findings of this study may contribute to social change by reducing fraud activities, business failures, unemployment level, and criminality rate while promoting trust between community members and their institutions

A Grounded Theory Approach to Understanding Mu-Fi Interventions on the Digital Divide

Grounded theory is the most rigorous method of providing preliminary research in an area where research is scarce. Using grounded theory, this paper explores the extent to a recent government initiative failed to achieve its goal. Specifically, the study explored the role of U.S. municipal wireless broadband networks (Mu-Fi) in bridging the so-called “digital divide.” Grounded theory was useful as it allowed the researcher to present an interdisciplinary and holistic vision of Mu-Fi vis-à-vis a complex and evolving division between groups with access to ICT to those without. The paper aims to stimulate discussion about how governments may effectively remedy this social ill

The Roles Of Human Cytomegalovirus Tegument Proteins Pul48 And Pul103 During Lytic Infection

THE ROLES OF HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS TEGUMENT PROTEINS pUL48 AND pUL103 DURING LYTIC INFECTION by DANIEL A. ORTIZ December 2015 Advisor: Dr. Philip E. Pellett Major: Immunology and Microbiology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus that causes severe disease in newborns and immunocompromised patients. During infection, HCMV is able to reconfigure the host cell machinery to establish a virus producing factory, termed the cytoplasmic virion assembly complex (cVAC). Generating drugs that affect cVAC development or function provides an alternative mode of action for HCMV antivirals that can essentially eliminate virion production. The objective of this work is aimed at identifying regulators of cVAC biogenesis that may serve as potential drug targets. We identified three HCMV genes (UL48, UL94, and UL103) whose silencing or protein degradation had major effects on cVAC development, including failure to form the Golgi ring and dispersal of markers of early and recycling endosomes. In addition, we found that mutant viruses expressing an unstable form of the UL103 protein causes a reduction in plaque size and the aberrant formation of intracellular virions. To help define the mechanisms of action and predict additional functions of pUL103, we investigated its viral and cellular protein-protein interactions. We applied a dual method approach, co-immunoprecipitation and proximity biotinylation affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry to enrich for pUL103 interaction partners in uninfected and HCMV infected cells. This led to identification of pUL103 in nuclei, delineation of a novel ALIX binding domain, and a role for pUL103 in ALIX localization in infected cells

Localization and oscillations of Majorana fermions in a two-dimensional electron gas coupled with dd-wave superconductors

We study the localization and oscillation properties of the Majorana fermions that arise in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and a Zeeman field coupled with a d-wave superconductor. Despite the angular dependence of the d-wave pairing, localization and oscillation properties are found to be similar to the ones seen in conventional s-wave superconductors. In addition, we study a microscopic lattice version of the previous system that can be characterized by a topological invariant. We derive its real space representation that involves nearest and next-to-nearest-neighbors pairing. Finally, we show that the emerging chiral Majorana fermions are indeed robust against static disorder. This analysis has potential applications to quantum simulations and experiments in high-$T_c$ superconductors.Comment: revtex4 file, color figure

Quantum Error Correction with the Semion Code

We present a full quantum error correcting procedure with the semion code: an off-shell extension of the double semion model. We construct open strings operators that recover the quantum memory from arbitrary errors and closed string operators that implement the basic logical operations for information processing. Physically, the new open string operators provide a detailed microscopic description of the creation of semions at their endpoints. Remarkably, topological properties of the string operators are determined using fundamental properties of the Hamiltonian, namely the fact that it is composed of commuting local terms squaring to the identity. In all, the semion code is a topological code that, unlike previously studied topological codes, it is of non-CSS type and fits into the stabilizer formalism. This is in sharp contrast with previous attempts yielding non-commutative codes.Comment: REVTeX 4 file, color figure

Intellectual Capital (Intangible Assets) Valuation Considering The Context

This article seeks to illustrate the evolution of intangible assets studies to the broader concept of intellectual capital and its valuation methods; then clarifies misunderstood concepts about the existence of intangible liabilities. A systemic dynamics approach to the IC valuation method considering the context finally is explained

The impact of the genotype on the prevalence of classical scrapie at population level

Total number and genotypes of animals in holdings selected for the genotype & cull option in the Compulsory Scrapie Flock Scheme (CSFS) in Great Britain were extracted from the National Scrapie Plan data warehouse. The association between various genotype-related measures and scrapie prevalence infection was tested using zero-inflated negative binomial models with the counts of positive cases as dependent variable, and country, number of flocks in the scheme, flock size, surveillance source and the following genotype-related measurements: the centered-log ratios (clr) oof the 15 genotypes, of the proportions of the 5 alleles at codons 136, 154 and 171, of the proportions of the 5 NSP types, and two flock-susceptibility risk indicators, as explanatory variables. A total of 319341 genotyped animals from 168 holdings were included in the analysis. An increased proportion of the ARR/ARR genotype corresponded to a decrease in the number of scrapie cases. ARR/AHQ, AHQ/VRQ, ARH/VRQ and ARQ/VRQ genotypes, NSP type V, ARH, ARQ, AHQ and VRQ alleles and the low and high-susceptibility risk indicators are all associated with an increase risk in the number of scrapie cases

Esquema de aprendizaje por competencias en un programa educativo de nivel superior a distancia

Se agradece el financiamiento del articulo al SIEZ.Esquema de aprendizaje por competencias en un programa educativo de nivel superior a distancia. Nuestro análisis está basado en investigaciones previas y avances encontrados sobre el tema con el objetivo de “determinar los factores que cubren las expectativas de un egresado de programas de educación a distancia a nivel superior, para que pueda ser competente en el campo laboral”. Para nuestro análisis utilizamos el enfoque cualitativo, -que se guía por áreas o temas significativos de la investigación-, y así pudimos definir la situación actual y alcances de la Educación a Distancia (EaD) en México, en un esquema de investigación a nivel descriptivo. Hemos encontrado elementos que permiten visualizar campos de acción sobre el futuro de las opciones de educación a distancia en México, para favorecer el aprendizaje de personas que por diversas razones (tiempo, costo y cercanía entre otras), no tienen acceso a una preparación profesional en esquemas presenciales. La contribución de este proyecto al campo de la educación a distancia es la propuesta de un esquema que integre los elementos que permitan a esas personas una preparación profesional a distancia y ser competentes en el campo laboral. Educación a distancia, competente y campo laboralSecretaria de Investigación UAEM