Aggregation in activity-based costing and the short run activity cost function

This paper first identifies the conditions that support the construction of an aggregate output, i.e. the conditions under which a single measure of output can be used to accurately determine cost object incremental costs within a cost pool. This is a significant issue which has not been fully explored in the management accounting literature. Two conditions are jointly necessary and sufficient. The first one is the linear homogeneity property associated with each cost object production function. This condition ensures that costs are linear with output, which is essential if the cost reported by an activity-based costing (ABC) system is also to be a relevant cost for decision?making. The second is that all (cost object) cost driver rates for a given cost pool are equal. This condition guarantees that the cost function at a given activity depends on only one cost driver. The short run structure of ABC is also introduced. It is shown that the fundamental ABC property of linearly between costs and output does not generally hold in the short run, even assuming that technologies are linearly homogeneous. Only under very particular conditions, such as when inputs are combined in completely fixed proportions, are short run costs linear with output.activity-based costing; aggregate output; cost driver; multi-output technologies; short run activity cost function

How to control market power of activity centres? A theoretical model showing the advantages of implementing competition within organizations

One important issue in firms’ governance is how to create incentives so that activity centres can become more efficient. In this paper, we first introduce an agency contract where the salary of the manager of an activity centre that produces an intermediate product is dependent of its performance. Secondly, we add competition within the organization. This latter point is new in the literature. We then develop a "static analysis" comparing a firm that has only one activity centre producing an intermediate product with another firm that has two activity centres producing the same intermediate product, in a context where the technology manifests increasing returns to scale. We conclude that the introduction of internal competition makes the firm globally more efficient, even though it cannot fully explore the existence of increasing returns to scale.Activity centres, internal market power, firm efficiency

Como controlar o ‘poder de mercado’ dos centros de custos? Um modelo teórico das vantagens da implementação de concorrência dentro das organizações

Um dos problemas mais discutidos na “governação” das organizações é como criar incentivos para que os diversos centros de actividades se tornem mais eficientes. Neste trabalho introduzimos, em primeiro lugar, um contrato de agência em que a remuneração do gestor de um centro de actividades que produz um bem intermédio é dependente da sua performance. Acrescentamos, seguidamente, concorrência dentro da organização. Este segundo elemento é novo na literatura. Finalmente, fazemos uma análise de “estática comparada” entre uma empresa que utiliza apenas um centro de actividades, e que aproveita a existência de rendimentos crescentes à escala na produção de um bem intermédio, e uma outra que produz esse bem intermédio através da duplicação dos centros de actividades. Concluímos que a concorrência interna torna a empresa globalmente mais eficiente, apesar de não poder aproveitar, pelo menos na sua totalidade, a existência de rendimentos crescentes à escala.One important issue in firms’ governance is how to create incentives so that activity cost centres can become more efficient. In this paper we first introduce an agency contract where the salary of the manager of an activity cost centre that produces an intermediate good is dependent of its performance. Secondly, we add competition within the organization. This latter point is new in the literature. We then develop a "static analysis" comparing a firm that has only one activity cost centre, which manifests increasing returns to scale in the production of an intermediate good, with another firm that has two activity cost centres producing the same intermediate good. We conclude that the introduction of internal competition makes the firm globally more efficient, even though it cannot fully benefit from the existence of increasing returns to scale

nutrition and performance in football

Nutrition is an undeniable part of promoting health and performance among football (soccer) players. Nevertheless, nutritional strategies adopted in elite football can vary significantly depending on culture, habit and practical constraints and might not always be supported by scientific evidence. Therefore, a group of 28 Portuguese experts on sports nutrition, sports science and sports medicine sought to discuss current practices in the elite football landscape and review the existing evidence on nutritional strategies to be applied when supporting football players. Starting from understanding football?s physical and physiological demands, five different moments were identified: preparing to play, match-day, recovery after matches, between matches and during injury or rehabilitation periods. When applicable, specificities of nutritional support to young athletes and female players were also addressed. The result is a set of practical recommendations that gathered consensus among involved experts, highlighting carbohydrates periodisation, hydration and conscious use of dietary supplements.D915-7373-ED16 | Cesar LeaoN/

Proposta de antibioticoterapia empírica para tratamento de SEPSE primária em CTI / Empirical antibiotic therapy proposal for the treatment of primary SEPSIS in the ICU

Os antimicrobianos se apresentam como uma das principais drogas utilizadas nos centros de terapia intensiva (CTIs). Contudo, sua indicação ainda é preocupantemente caracterizada por tratamentos inadequados, apresentando um consequente aumento de bactérias multirresistentes. Nesse contexto, tem-se a antibioticoterapia empírica como importante ferramenta para redução de taxas de mortalidade em quadros de sepse primária. Assim, este estudo objetiva avaliar o perfil de sensibilidade antimicrobiana dos agentes etiológicos de sepse primária em CTI de adultos, embasando terapia empírica para tratamento dessa complicação e, por conseguinte, contribuindo para a elaboração de estratégias de uso racional dos antimicrobiano

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio