Actors, power, and discourses of growth limits

Interventions in a public debate about government policies to limit tourism growth in Malta are evaluated from an actor perspective on political economy. Attempts to influence growth policies are examined for their discourses, knowledge frameworks, and relative influence on the government. Government-related organizations led one intervention advocating sustainable development, but actually it was much affected by business considerations and technical rationality. A second effort by a heritage organization emphasized environmental concerns, but this lacked power to influence official policies. While a trade association had more direct influence on government, its call to halt hotel construction appears more influenced by concerns about profitability than conservation.     

Conceptual blending in advertising

Conceptual blending occurs at the moment of perception and creates new meanings out of existing ways of thinking. Analysis of data collected in phenomenological interviews reveals the blending processes consumers use to “make sense” of advertisements. We recognize subtle similarities and differences between metaphor and blending, and examine their occurrence in three types of blending networks in ads.     

Product classification to support approximate life-cycle assessment of design concepts

Many companies are beginning to change the way they develop products due to increasing awareness of sustainable development. Designers, who play a key role in product development, are being asked to incorporate environmental criteria into the design process. The need for analytically based conceptual design methods for integrated life-cycle assessment (LCA) has motivated the development of an approximate life-cycle assessment concept based upon learning algorithms. Although preliminary tests on general approximate models showed promise, it was observed that grouping products to create specialized learning surrogate LCA models for different classes of products might further improve results. This paper presents work to develop an automated classification system to support the specialization of surrogate LCA models for different groups of products. Hierarchical clustering is used to guide a systematic identification of product groups based upon environmental categories. These groupings are then used to create automated classification schemes using the C4.5 decision tree algorithm. Although further data are needed to induce good generalization performance, resulting product classification systems are considered to be a viable approach to support specialized learning surrogate LCA models for different classes of products.     

非营利组织会计概念框架NPOCF构建

本文透视了财务会计框架的起因,界定了其涵义,提出非营利组织构建会计概念框架的意义及其应遵循的原则,构筑了非营利组织会计概念框架的层次及其内容。     

A theory of formal conceptual definitions: developing theory-building measurement instruments

This study develops the need for formal conceptual definitions (sometimes called nominal definitions) and how to develop better measurement instruments for theory-building. It develops the underlying theory for ‘good’ formal conceptual definitions by defining terms, demonstrating that formal conceptual definitions are needed for all theory-building empirical research, explains how and why ‘good’ formal conceptual definitions are used to develop properties and their measures, and last, it logically explains that good formal conceptual definitions are necessary conditions for construct validity (content validity, criterion validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity) while statistical tests are sufficient conditions for validity. This theory development explains why formal conceptual definitions are necessary before any traditional statistical empirical validity tests are performed. This study suggests that any statistical validity tests are not meaningful if the concept is not formally defined.In short, the theory of formal conceptual definitions provides a structure to develop ‘good’ measures of the formal theory that leads to ‘good’ empirical theory-building.     

Applying Conceptual Framework Principles to Superannuation1 Fund Accounting

The Australian accounting standard AAS 25, Financial Reporting by Superannuation Plans, was the first pension accounting standard internationally to apply established conceptual framework (CF) principles. In Australia those principles have guided standard setting for more than a decade. However, AAS 25 has been criticized for failing to provide useful financial information. The analysis provided in this article addresses this paradox. The findings reveal major anomalies in AAS 25 associated with the treatment of accrued benefits that distort financial position and performance measures. The conceptual flaws in the standard are attributed to the misapplication of CF principles and an absence of adequate guidance in the CF for non‐corporate entities such as superannuation funds. Distorted financial information produced by superannuation plans has potential undesirable taxation and social outcomes. Consequently, there is an urgent need to update the Australian and international conceptual frameworks to provide guidance for revising accounting standards that better reflect current fiduciary and ownership relationships in non‐corporate entities such as superannuation funds.     

概念设计在建筑结构设计中的应用

阐述了概念设计的概念及其重要性，并针对目前建筑结构设计当中墨守成规的现象，提倡采用概念设计思想来促进结构工程师的创造性。推动结构设计的发展。     

我国政府会计体系改革研究

在发达国家,项目执行预算PPB（Program and Performance Budget）在政府会计中的应用已有很多年的历史。而在发展中国家关于项目执行预算（PPB）还处在探索阶段,本文的研究表明权责发生制的核算基础是政府会计的改革方向,而改革的基石必定是公认会计准则,这样才会使预算会计在各级政府活动中实现其真正的效能。     

A conceptual framework for agent-based modelling of logistics services

This paper presents an agent-based microsimulation framework that represents the diversity of roles and functions of actors in the freight system, how they interact through markets and how interactions between actors are established in markets through contracts. The framework provides sensitivity to technology trends, business trends, and policy scenarios. Logistics costs, outsourcing of logistics services to third party logistics firms, growth or retraction of various industry sectors, and the impact of new supply channels are explicitly represented. Data sources available in Toronto, Canada and new data collection efforts required for model estimation are described.     

Formative assessment in accounting education and some initial evidence on its use for instructional sequencing

Formative assessment (FA) provides instructors and students with feedback to improve learning. Across a variety of education settings FA is one of the most effective classroom interventions for improving student learning outcomes. Yet the accounting education literature is almost devoid of any work related to FA. One barrier for developing FA in accounting education is the significant background knowledge needed to implement FA successfully. The purpose of this paper is to provide some of that background. The paper includes conceptual discussion from the general education literature to explain how FA improves learning and discussion of research that has identified features that affect the efficacy of FA practice. One of these features is how instructors use FA data to adjust instruction. An empirical study illustrates that accounting educators can use FA data to inform a decision about instructional sequencing. Instructional sequencing principles have been used to develop new accounting curricula and courses, and accounting education research has used empirical data to inform an instructional sequencing decision. The current study tests, using a sample of introductory accounting students, alternate versions of two FA tasks to determine which version is better for identifying deficiencies in student learning outcomes. Results suggest that one version of each task is better for identifying deficiencies, but an adjustment to instructional sequencing may be needed to ensure efficacy of one of the tasks, depending on how the FA practice is implemented.