An analysis of the role of the textbook in the construction of accounting knowledge

This report examines the role of the textbook and training manual in the teaching of introductory financial accounting. Although it has long been recognised that the textbook plays an important role in the education process, the issue has not been systematically examined in a comprehensive manner with respect to the teaching of introductory financial accounting. Based on research carried out in 2005, the current report addresses this issue. It does so using a research framework proposed by Thompson (1990) which recommends a comprehensive approach to the understanding of texts involving three separate aspects: the production of the textbook/training manual; the content of the textbook/training manual; the usage of the textbook/training manual

Constructing meaning in the service of power : an analysis of the typical modes of ideology in accounting textbooks

This paper provides an analysis of the typical modes of ideology in introductory financial accounting textbooks and training materials. Drawing on Thompson's (1990) schema concerning the typical linguistic modes through which ideology operates, this research suggests that the operation of ideology is apparent within educational accounting texts, with particular strategies being more evident than others: in particular, the strategies of universalization, narrativization, rationalization and naturalization. Given the predominantly technical nature of introductory financial accounting textbooks and training manuals, the modes of ideology identified in the texts were often quite subtle; more specifically, the ideological characteristics displayed in each of the six texts analysed were often expressions of implicit or taken-for-granted assumptions

High Precision X-ray CT-scanning of Biological Samples

Visualizing the micro-scale details of an item without disturbing its natural structure is always desirable because critical information is often lost during dissection or destructive analysis. High precision X-ray CT scans are used in engineering analyses to non-destructively view samples with volume elements as small as 10micro-meters, but this technique is problematic for non-rigid biological samples. Other problems arise from low x-ray contrast of tissue and the long scan times required. We will present results of micro-CT scans performed on biological samples as small as a bovine embryo and as large at a coyote skull. We will also discuss techniques to enhance the details captured in the x-ray images using contrast enhancers such as iodine (stains). We are working on post scan techniques to improve image quality, reduce scan times and to isolate items appearing in CT scans so they can be accurately recreated using a 3-D printer. Results and progress will be reported

Parents, Politicians, and the Public: Hume\u27s Natural History of Justice is Humean Enough

David Hume argues that reflections upon public utility explain the psychological foundations of justice and the moral feelings attendant on it. Adam Smith objects that Hume’s theory of justice is psychologically implausible. A just punishment attracts the approval of every citizen on Hume’s alleged view. Not every citizen can consider the abstract public interest every time, Smith observes, so Hume can’t have explained all of justice. I argue, in response, that Smith’s objection has not accounted for all of the causal processes that Hume draws upon in support of reflections upon public utility. Conventions establish the very possibility of public interest, and socializing processes lend the public interest its moral salience. Human nature includes a species-general passion for acquiring property for the sake of family. The motivational centrality and universal scope of this passion, coupled with the dramatic psychological power of sympathy, generates the first moral feelings. Social conditioning develops those feelings into attitudes about reward and punishment. Hume’s theory of justice, with his conjectures about sociocultural processes, is both psychologically plausible and more complex than commentators tend to appreciate

Spring Fever Victims Are Missing Out!

Brush away the cobwebs. Open your eyes. Breathe. It\u27s spring

Income inequality and child mortality in wealthy nations

This chapter presents evidence of a relationship between child mortality data and socio-economic factors in relatively wealthy nations. The original study on child mortality that is reported here, which first appeared in a UK medical journal, was undertaken in a school of business by academics with accounting and finance backgrounds. The rationale explaining why academics from such disciplines were drawn to investigate these issues is given in the first part of the chapter. The findings related to child mortality data were identified as a special case of a wide range of social and health indicators that are systematically related to the different organisational approaches of capitalist societies. In particular, the so-called Anglo-American countries show consistently poor outcomes over a number of indicators, including child mortality. Considerable evidence has been adduced in the literature to show the importance of income inequality as an explanation for such findings. An important part of the chapter is the overview of a relatively recent publication in the epidemiological literature entitled The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better for Everyone, which was written by Wilkinson and Pickett.</p

Alii Nui Provides Last-Minute Gift Idea

From the land of coconut palms and coral reefs emerges the muu-muu. The contribution of our 50th state is quickly becoming a college classic lounge and study uniform