Comparing ‘apples with apples’: professional accounting practices in university classroom discourse

How are professional accounting practices represented in university classroom discourse and what are the implications of this for theory and practice in professional learning? Professional accounting practices order the world, and are also ordered. In reducing the complexities of social activity to abstract meanings that render it measurable, diverse and complex structures can be compared ‘apples with apples’. This study investigates the relocalization of professional accounting practices in university classroom discourse, working with tools from Legitimation Code Theory, systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis. Findings draw on digital recordings of seminars presented by three lecturers in different subjects of a Master of Accounting program in an Australian metropolitan university. The analysis examines movements between context-independent and more context-dependent meanings in classroom discourse that mark shifts in emphasis from accounting as a system of representation, to accounting as interpersonal exchange. It considers two sets of social relations at play in the professional classroom: those between lecturers and students, and those within professional practice that are relocalized in classroom discourse. The framework developed in this study complements current research within the sociology of education. Discussion connects the analysis with recent explorations of knowledge practices in education within Legitimation Code Theory. It draws on foundational principles of a systemic functional model of language, considering the basis of professional practice and professional learning in interpersonal exchange. Conclusions are oriented towards theory and practice in professional learning, recognizing professional educators as agents of change and mediators of ways of thinking and acting in their field that are potentially transformative

Determinants of fish consumption in older people: a community-based cohort study

Objectives: Habitual fish consumption and its determinants in older people have not been well investigated. We addressed these issues through a population-based cohort study. Methods: In 2001-2003 we interviewed a random sample of 3336 residents aged ≥60 years in China, documenting socioeconomic status (SES) and disease risk factors. In 2007-2009 we re-interviewed 1757 survivors, additionally surveying average self-reported intake of fish over the past two years. Results: Of 1757 participants, 1697 responded to the fish consumption questionnaire; 23.0% of whom had “never eat” fish, 43.4% “once a week”, 26.9% “more than twice a week”, and 6.7% “≥once a day”. There was an inverse association of fish consumption with older age (multivariate adjusted odds ratio 0.64 [95% CI 0.45-0.92] and 0.35 [0.24-0.52] at ages of 75-79, and ≥80 years), female gender (0.63, 0.47-0.84), smoking (0.65, 0.48-0.88), living in a rural area (0.10, 0.07-0.15), having educational level of ≤primary school (0.10, 0.05-0.19), occupation of peasant (0.08, 0.05-0.14), low income (0.11, 0.07-0.18), financial difficulties (0.25, 0.18-0.34), being never married/divorced (0.48, 0.28-0.81), having undetected hypertension (0.71, 0.55-0.91), depression (0.50, 0.29-0.84) and dementia (0.64, 0.41-0.98). However, participants with central obesity and heart disease at baseline had increased odds of fish consumption. Separate data analysis for different levels of fish consumption showed a dose-response trend for these associations. Conclusion: In older Chinese, there are large socioeconomic inequalities, and certain lifestyle, psychosocial factors and health-related conditions are strong determinants of fish consumption. Such information is important for future development or refinement of effective dietary interventions targeting older adults.</jats:p

Simulation of the thermally induced austenitic phase transition in NiTi nanoparticles

The reverse martensitic ("austenitic") transformation upon heating of equiatomic nickel-titanium nanoparticles with diameters between 4 and 17 nm is analyzed by means of molecular-dynamics simulations with a semi-empirical model potential. After constructing an appropriate order parameter to distinguish locally between the monoclinic B19' at low and the cubic B2 structure at high temperatures, the process of the phase transition is visualized. This shows a heterogeneous nucleation of austenite at the surface of the particles, which propagates to the interior by plane sliding, explaining a difference in austenite start and end temperatures. Their absolute values and dependence on particle diameter are obtained and related to calculations of the surface induced size dependence of the difference in free energy between austenite and martensite.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in "The European Physical Journal B

Measurement of (anti)deuteron and (anti)proton production in DIS at HERA

The first observation of (anti)deuterons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been made with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 300--318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The measurement was performed in the central rapidity region for transverse momentum per unit of mass in the range 0.3<p_T/M<0.7. The particle rates have been extracted and interpreted in terms of the coalescence model. The (anti)deuteron production yield is smaller than the (anti)proton yield by approximately three orders of magnitude, consistent with the world measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO