Resource Consumption Accounting Where Does It Fit?

With the increasing sophistication of recent costing innovations, such as resource consumption accounting, the selection of a costing system can be a daunting decision as one seeks to choose the appropriate costing methodology for a given (1) decision context, (2) production environment, and/or (3) information system available to a firm. Taking a big picture perspective, this article illustrates the distinguishing features of RCA, ABC, and TOC as compared to the traditional costing approach (as a benchmark) and attempts to offer some basic guidance as to when each system may be appropriate. This comparative presentation of RCA is designed to provide time-pressured management accounting practitioners a frame of reference for considering RCA (or one of the other methodologies) prior to a more in-depth investigation. Managers may also use this comparison to support organizational efforts to train staff with varying levels of management accounting background on the similarities and dissimilarities between the various product costing alternatives. Finally, we believe this presentation can benefit teachers of cost accounting who are interested in exposing their students to the conceptual differences between RCA and the other costing methodologies

Community policing: re-evaluating what has become a program instead of a paradigm shift

Suggests that community policing hasn't adequately transformed from a discrete program to a shift within the departments themselves, and that a solution might be a combination of community policing and COMPSTAT

The Impact of Spatial Variation in Land Use Patterns and Aquifer Characteristics on the Agricultural Cost of Groundwater Conservation for the Southern Ogallala Aquifer

Land Economics/Use,

Use of a Portable Sawmill for Forestry Instruction

The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, has implemented an experiential learning exercise to improve student learning related to the forest products industry. During the week-long sophomore- or junior-level course Harvesting and Processing, forestry students tour multiple wood products facilities such as sawmills. These mills use complex technologies to maximize the lumber produced from each log, and students were having difficulty understanding the underlying concepts. As part of this course beginning in 2012, students began working in teams to estimate the lumber that will be recovered from a log and then actually sawing their own log using a portable sawmill. Since the introduction of this experiential learning project, student comments, instructor observations, and an increase in the mean course grades suggest that the sawmill activity is not only popular among students, it also allows for a fun, competitive, and engaging way to prepare future natural resource managers for their careers

The Impact of Spatial Heterogeneity in Land Use Practices and Aquifer Characteristics on Groundwater Conservation Policy Cost

Estimation of agricultural policy cost for a given level of groundwater conservation requires the establishment of an accurate baseline condition. This is especially critical when the benefits and cost of any conservation program are generally estimated relative to the status quo policy or baseline situation. An inaccurate baseline estimate will lead to poor estimates of potential water conservation savings and agricultural policy cost. Over a 60-year planning horizon per acre net present value is as much as 29.8% higher for a study area when aquifer characteristics are assumed to be homogenous and set to their average area value than when the heterogeneity in aquifer characteristics is explicitly modeled.Aquifer Modeling, Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Test of the Mean Distance Method for Forest Regeneration Assessment

A new distance-based estimator for forest regeneration assessment, the mean distance method, was developed by combining ideas and techniques from the wandering quarter method, T-square sampling and the random pairs method. The performance of the mean distance method was compared to conventional 4.05 square meter plot sampling through simulation analysis on 405 square meter blocks of a field surveyed clumped distribution and a computer generated random distribution at different levels of density of 100, 50 and 25%. The mean distance method accurately estimated density on the random populations but the mean distance method estimates were more variable than those of 4.05 square meter plot sampling. The mean distance method overestimated actual density and was less precise than plot sampling when both methods were tested on the clumped populations. The optimum sample sizes needed for the mean distance method to achieve the same precision as 4.05 square meter plot sampling at all three density levels, for both the random and clumped spatial distributions, were at least 10 times larger than the sample size used for 4.05 square meter plot sampling

Predicting Faculty Intentions to Assign Writing in Their Classes

Teachers who offer undergraduate courses agree widely on the importance of writing assignments to further undergraduate education. And yet, there is a great deal of variance among teachers in their writing assignments; some teachers assign no writing whatsoever. To determine the variables that influence the decisions of teachers about whether to assign writing, we predicted their intentions to assign writing from attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control, and perceived difficulty pertaining to assigning writing. Zero-order correlations and hierarchical regression analyses implicate attitude and perceived difficulty as the most important predictors of teacher’s intentions to assign writing in two studies. We also obtained open-ended belief statements in Study 1 and used them to obtain quantitative belief data in Study 2 to find and validate the importance of the impact of particular specific beliefs on intentions to assign writing