The potential adoption of IFRS for U.S. Issuers: a textual analysis of responses to the proposal

This paper uses textual analysis to analyse the comments received by the U.S. SEC on the proposal to allow U.S. listed companies to prepare financial statements following International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The paper contributes to the understanding of the overall desirability of international accounting convergence as well as the politics involved in attempting to reach consensus on such decisions. Most respondents supported the proposal. Respondents outlined the advantages of adopting IFRS as enhanced comparability, simplification, cost savings, extensive information sets, its capacity to improve the standard setting process, and its potential to serve U.S. interests. On the other hand, a minority of respondents were not supportive of the proposal. There was criticism of the lack of independence, enforcement mechanisms and resource availability of the IASB; the deleterious effect on U.S. interests; the questionable quality of the IFRS; and the perceived myths of convergence. Following the review of such comments, the paper outlines the implications of such a potential adoption of IFRS in U.S. to the Asian region as the pressure to extend IFRS to non-listed companies mounts. The paper also argues that Asian countries need to lobby for higher representation on the IASB and consider local customs, law and context while adopting IFRS, as such factors have been stressed upon by U.S. respondents to the SEC’s proposal.

The gainers

Performed over 3 nights, The Gainers is an exploration of object-led creative practice within a psychophysical performance approach. Exploring Gibbs (2005) proposition that places the body as central to perception, the research questioned the relationship between object, task and movement when devising and investigated how the inherent structure within each purpose (object’s purpose, the purpose of the task, and purposeful movement) interacted to support greater divergence within the creative work, and similarly acted to provide additional coherence in convergent stages. Perception, Gibbs claims, ‘is not something that only occurs through specific sensory apparatus (e.g. eyeballs and visual system) in conjunction with particular brain areas, but is a kinesthetic activity that includes all aspects of the body in action’ (12). The research, through practice, found that solo bodied are cohered around shared task and object purposes bringing a shared embodied vocabulary to the ensemble and enhancing the way the actor/s invest meaning between their bodies. Just one outcome from The Charlie Project in which the forms of Charlie Chaplin provide the context and are investigated as structures for inter-textual performativity and design led performance making, The Gainers was developed in February-June 2015, and played to three general public audiences: 3, 4, 5 June.

Is the frame broken? Seeking new metaphors for textual study in English

This article draws from a doctoral study of how female teachers design English curriculum around girls’ popular culture in a contemporary coeducational secondary setting and focuses on how English teachers contemplate the study of texts in the space of school-based curriculum planning. The article presents an argument for reflexivity around how we create both texts and identity through curriculum design; it advocates the pursuit of new metaphors for contemplating the study of text that might challenge models of education as delivery in a neoliberal imaginary, where curriculum design is depicted as the anonymous and rational articulation of aims and pedagogy to achieve outcomes.

Differentiating sub-groups of online depression-related communities using textual cues

Depression is a highly prevalent mental illness and is a comorbidity of other mental and behavioural disorders. The Internet allows individuals who are depressed or caring for those who are depressed, to connect with others via online communities; however, the characteristics of these online conversations and the language styles of those interested in depression have not yet been fully explored. This work aims to explore the textual cues of online communities interested in depression. A random sample of 5,000 blog posts was crawled. Five groupings were identified: depression, bipolar, self-harm, grief, and suicide. Independent variables included psycholinguistic processes and content topics extracted from the posts. Machine learning techniques were used to discriminate messages posted in the depression sub-group from the others.Good predictive validity in depression classification using topics and psycholinguistic clues as features was found. Clear discrimination between writing styles and content, with good predictive power is an important step in understanding social media and its use in mental health.

Navigating 21st Century multimodal textual environments: a case study of digital literacy

In the 21st century young people live and learn in a technological world that is fast paced and in a constant state of change. As technology becomes more and more accessible outside of the classroom,educators are challenged to re-consider the literacy skills required to be successfully literate. Enacting literacy teaching and learning in and for the 21st century requires teachers to update their pedagogicalknowledge, skills and contextual understanding of the world children live and learn in. This chapter offers a brief overview of the Australian Curriculum, locating it within a 21st century learning discourse.The authors interpret and analyse one young student’s creation of a digital text in a movie modality. Attention is paid to how the case study teacher created meaningful digital literacy learning experiences and opportunities for children to create and interact in social, multimodal textual environments, both within and beyond the school.