On the Mechanics of Measuring the Production of Financial Institutions

With the emergence of new technologies, innovative financial instruments and the integration of global market operations national accountants are confronted with a series of new challenges and complexities in determining the output of financial institutions. The SNA93 recommended measure, the FISIM – financial intermediation services indirectly measured - which focused around the traditional deposits and loans business is currently under scrutiny as numerous views have been expressed questioning its validity in measuring the financial output. Critics have argued that the FISIM, as is defined, fails to capture the recent developments in financial markets and the technological advances and thus undermine the true economic contribution of these institutions. Several OECD task groups have examined this issue and currently considering changes to the existing methodologies. The goal of this study is two-fold. First, it explores a number of emerging areas in finance that are critically important for national accounting purposes. Second, by using the latest I-O tables the paper examines empirically how the recent technological advances and the global market environment have impacted the Canadian financial sector and provides some insights as to how the current SNA practices could be extended to account for such changes. *FISIM, Financial Economics

Comparing reporting of MYOB Enterprise Reporter vs Xero HQ Reporter

ABC Chartered Accountants is a public accounting practice located in Te Awamutu, providing professional accounting services to a range of clients. MYOB Enterprise (MYOB AE) is used as office accounting software, and financial statements are produced by MYOB AE reporter. This research compares reporting of the existing MYOB AE reporter with Xero HQ reporter, as an alternative for compliance, efficiency, consistency, and report customizing process, and also to find out any other additional reports that Xero HQ can produce compared to MYOB AE. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the insight of MYOB AE reporter and Xero HQ reporter. Actual MYOB AE software, together with some MYOB supporting materials, were used (MYOB. Reporter 3.3.help Designing & Generating reports for your practice .Reporter 3.2) and Xero reporting videos (Xero Partner Resources. 2018), with some Xero reporting information published from Xero (www Xero.com/report template in action) were used. The major findings are that MYOB AE and Xero HQ offer compliance reporting templates for different types of entities. Both software allow customised reports to reflect practice preferences. Customising reports help to keep report consistency and report efficiency at the practice. When customising reports in MYOB AE, formats are created, and in Xero HQ Rich Text Editor, Layout Editor and Report Setting Editor are used. When customizing reports, the time spend on planning a new report will maximize the benefit to the practice. So, the difference between the two reporters is the method of customizing reports

The experience of living with traumatic bereavement: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

This dissertation explores the lived experience of traumatic bereavement in adults between the ages of 21 and 50. The term traumatic bereavement refers to a specific type of bereavement where the loss is unexpected (without forewarning), untimely, and often (but not always) associated with horrific or frightening circumstances. The study sought to identify common existential themes underlying the experience, and therefore did not restrict itself to investigating a particular mode of death. A total of 7 traumatically bereaved individuals (6 females and 1 male) were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, and the data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 1999). Three superordinate themes were identified. The first theme pertained to traumatic bereavement having a holistic impact on lived experience, the second to traumatic bereavement leading to a grappling with meaning, and the third, traumatic bereavement having a significant relational component. Participants are seen to experience a transformation that transcends post traumatic growth. Findings are discussed in light of existing literature and are framed by existential thought. Given the emerging importance of meaning-making, a meaning-making model specific to traumatic bereavement is proposed. Finally, this dissertation makes suggestions for a clinical approach to working with traumatically bereaved adults

Exchange rate exposure of stock returns at firm level

The use of conventional augmented CAPM specification in estimating the exchange rate exposure may result in less reliable estimates for, at least, two reasons. First, it does not take into account a few important stylized facts associated with financial time series. Second, one cannot estimate the total impact of the exchange rate changes on stock returns as a single coefficient with it and for this reason it does not help us analyze the reinforcing or offsetting interactions between direct and indirect exchange rate exposure effects. In this paper, we suggest an orthogonalized GJR-GARCH-t version of augmented CAPM that simultaneously addresses the above issues. Our findings have important implications for hedging and investment decision making.Exchange rate exposure, GARCH, t distribution, Asymmetric volatility

Flow behaviour of dielectric liquids in an electric field

A family of 10 silicone oils with electrical conductivity similar to 10(-13) S m(-1) (a regime hitherto systematically unexplored) and viscosities ranging from 1 to 2000mPas have been Subjected to an electrical field of up to 1.5kV mm(-1) during flow from a needle. The flow behaviour of these liquids is investigated experimentally in the flow rate regime 10(-8)-10(-12) m(3) s(-1) and we analyse the results using the Ohnesorge number. Due to the low electrical conductivity and high electrical relaxation time of the silicone oils, only unsteady transient jets were found. The onset of this type of jetting has been defined using current measurements and, in contrast to conducting liquids, the non-dimensional jet diameter increases with increase in Ohnesorge number. The time elapsed between the start and finish of jetting increases with increasing Ohnesorge number

Two-level pipelined systolic array graphics engine

The authors report a VLSI design of an advanced systolic array graphics (SAG) engine built from pipelined functional units which can generate realistic images interactively for high-resolution displays. They introduce a structured frame store system as an environment for the advanced SAG engine and present the principles and architecture of the advanced SAG engine. They introduce pipelined functional units into this SAG engine to meet the performance requirements. This is done by a formal approach where the original systolic array is represented at bit level by a finite, vertex-weighted, edge-weighted, directed graph. Two architectures built from pipelined functional units are described. A prototype containing nine processing elements was fabricated in a 1.6-¿m CMOS technolog

A study of change in human trabecular bone structure with age and during osteoporosis

The objective of this work was to develop new techniques to view trabecular bone three-dimensionally, and to study its structure and the changes that occur with age and in osteoporosis; the methods used included 3D methods in the SEM, laser confocal microscopy, pseudo-holograms and a "continuous motion parallax method". A detailed analysis of trabecular bone from fourth lumbar vertebral bodies used macro-stereophotographs produced by tilting a sample 10°. Models are proposed for both normal and osteoporotic architecture. A quantitative analysis of the lengths of horizontally oriented trabeculae was carried out. A significant decrease in the number of both vertically and horizontally oriented trabeculae was found. The importance of the influence of different developmental patterns on the formation of the normal structure and of the changing vascularisation on osteoporotic structure are emphasised. Two-dimensional fast Fourier transform methods were employed to study changes in the spatial frequency of trabeculae as a function of orientation. A decrease in spatial frequency was observed in both sexes, but in males this was evident only after the mid-sixth decade in the limited sample studied. Contoured power spectra discriminated different trabecular patterns and the intensity mapping of optical density provided volume density information. Templated reverse transformation was used to study individual orientations of trabeculae. Changes in the quality of trabecular bone with age were also investigated using techniques that analyse bone before and after removal of unmineralised matrix. All specimens were less stiff after removal of osteoid; this was more marked in older specimens. Locally defective mineralisation would explain the changed behaviour observed in some old and osteoporotic specimens. Trabecular fracture patterns had a strong relationship to architecture and microstructure. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study trabecular surfaces. An uncoupling between resorption and formation was evident in older specimens. Two resorption patterns responsible for thinning and perforation and removal trabecular elements were identified. Trabecular microfractures were also investigated

Phosphate Tether-Mediated Synthetic Studies- Applications in Natural Products Synthesis.

The focus of this dissertation is the utilization of phosphate tether mediated approaches to synthesize bioactive natural products and their analogs in аn efficient and effective manner. The several salient features, which are inherent to phosphate triesters, include: (i) orthogonal stability under acid conditions, (ii) leaving group ability, (iii) multivalent activation of carbinol centers, (iv) protecting group attributes, and serving as a (v) temporary tether that can be removed under various conditions. Taken collectively various transformations, including chemoselective reductions as well as oxidations of the exocyclic olefin, a diastereoselective cuprate addition and successful cross-metathesis of type I and type II olefins with the exocyclic double bond, all mediated by phosphate tether, have provided the facile synthetic routes towards the synthesis of several natural products. Application of this protocol toward the total synthesis of fostriecin and 8-epi-fostriecin are reported. Fostriecin, an antitumor antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces pulveraceus, is the most selective and potent inhibitor of protein phosphatases 2A and 4, known to-date (IC50s 3.2 nM and 3 nM, respectively). It has been shown to be active against L1210 and P388 leukemia cells in vivo and in vitro against leukemia, lung, breast, and ovarian cancer cells. Synthetic studies related to diastereoselective ring-closing metathesis reaction, regioselective oxidation, diastereoselective Grignard addition and cross metathesis, all mediated by a temporary phosphate tether, have established a scalable route toward the goal of total and analog synthesis of fostriecin and 8-epi-Fostriecin. In addition to the aforementioned transformations, the coupling of orthogonal transformations in a multi-step, one-pot, sequential RCM/CM/H2 process has also allowed for facile synthesis of advanced intermediates en route to the total synthesis of natural products. Application of three step, one-pot, sequential RCM/CM/H2 protocol in a library amenable, efficient and modular synthesis of strictifolione and (6R)-6-[(4R,6R)-4,6-dihydroxy-10-phenyldec-1-enyl]-5,6-dihydro-2H-pyran-2-one are also discussed. Both anti-fugal natural products were synthesized in seven linear steps starting from readily available 1,3-anti-diene-diol without incorporating additional protecting groups