Leopold Letter: A Newsletter of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Winter 2013

The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Leopold Center believes contribute to a healthy ways of thinking about markets for Iowa farmers, a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economic practices, and partnerships with consumers.

Leopold Letter: A Newsletter of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Spring 2014

The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Leopold Center believes contribute to a healthy ways of thinking about markets for Iowa farmers, a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economic practices, and partnerships with consumers.

Leopold Letter: A Newsletter of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Summer 2014

The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Leopold Center believes contribute to a healthy ways of thinking about markets for Iowa farmers, a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economic practices, and partnerships with consumers.

Leopold Letter: A Newsletter of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Fall 2014

The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Leopold Center believes contribute to a healthy ways of thinking about markets for Iowa farmers, a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economic practices, and partnerships with consumers.

Leopold Letter: A Newsletter of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Winter 2014

The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Leopold Center believes contribute to a healthy ways of thinking about markets for Iowa farmers, a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economic practices, and partnerships with consumers.

Issue review : projected impact of elimination of the Federal Family Education Loan Program.

The federal Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 ended the Federal Family Education Loan Program, or FFELP, and no new FFELP loans will be issued after June 30, 2010. The Iowa College Student Aid Commission received approximately 14 million dollars of its 14.7 million dollar fiscal year 2010 administrative budget from the various fees associated with the FFELP program and services. With the cessation of FFELP loans, the commission project's revenues will decline, as the currently existing FFELP loans are paid off, beginning with a 2.7 million dollar decline in fiscal year 2011. This issue review examines the prison system fiscal year 2010 budget, including receipts and expenditures, average annual costs, personnel and inmate assaults.

Leopold Letter: A Newsletter of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Spring 2015, vol. 27, no.1

The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Leopold Center believes contribute to a healthy ways of thinking about markets for Iowa farmers, a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economic practices, and partnerships with consumers.

Writing for the contemporany naturalistic stage: a personal process of creation

El objetivo principal de este proyecto es desarrollar más a fondo y consolidar los objetivos formativos y competencias del grado en Estudios Ingleses a través de un trabajo de escritura creativa, en concreto, la creación de una obra teatral original. Este trabajo consiste en, por un lado, una introducción al Naturalismo, como género literario en un marco cultural y metodológico, y por otro lado, la creación personal de una obra naturalista que incluye la primera parte del manuscrito. Este proyecto incluye un proceso completo de creatividad justificado gracias a las principales teorías de algunos escritores naturalistas, como: Émile Zola – como precursor del Naturalismo – y August Strindberg como uno de los mayores mentores de este género literario. Los resultados obtenidos en este trabajo son: la creación de una obra teatral original, una especialización en el movimiento Naturalista aplicado al teatro contemporáneo, y un profundo conocimiento de la lengua inglesa a través de la perspectiva de un dramaturgo.

Effective corporate governance : experimental evidence on international auditors'judgments and the contribution of financial accounting education

1 Summary This dissertation deals with two major aspects of corporate governance that grew in importance during the last years: the internal audit function and financial accounting education. In three essays, I contribute to research on these topics which are embedded in the broader corporate governance literature. The first two essays consist of experimental investigations of internal auditors' judgments. They deal with two research issues for which accounting research lacks evidence: The effectiveness of internal controls and the potentially conflicting role of the internal audit function between management and the audit committee. The findings of the first two essays contribute to the literature on internal auditors' judgment and the role of the internal audit function as a major cornerstone of corporate governance. The third essay theoretically examines a broader issue but also relates to the overall research question of this dissertation: What contributes to effective corporate governance? This last essay takes the perspective that the root for quality corporate governance is appropriate financial accounting education. r develop a public interest approach to accounting education that contributes to the literature on adequate accounting education with respect to corporate governance and accounting harmonization. The increasing importance of both the internal audit function and accounting education for corporate governance can be explained by the same recent fundamental changes that still affect accounting research and practice. First, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX, 2002) and the 8th EU Directive (EU, 2006) have led to a bigger role for the internal audit function in corporate governance. Their implications regarding the implementation of audit committees and their oversight over internal controls are extensive. As a consequence, the internal audit function has become increasingly important for corporate governance and serves a new master (i.e. the audit committee) within the company in addition to management. Second, the SOX (2002) and the 8th EU Directive introduced additional internal control mechanisms that are expected to contribute to the reliability of financial information. As a consequence, the internal audit function is expected to contribute to a greater extent to the reliability of financial statements. Therefore, effective internal control mechanisms that strengthen objective judgments and independence become important. This is especially true when external- auditors rely on the work of internal auditors in the context of the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 610 and the equivalent US Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 65 (see IFAC, 2009 and AICPA, 1990). Third, the harmonization of international reporting standards is increasingly promoted by means of a principles-based approach. It is the leading approach since a study of the SEC (2003) that was required by the SOX (2002) in section 108(d) was in favor of this approach. As a result, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) commit themselves to the development of compatible accounting standards based on a principles-based approach. Moreover, since the Norwalk Agreement of 2002, the two standard setters have developed exposure drafts for a common conceptual framework that will be the basis for accounting harmonization. The new .framework will be in favor of fair value measurement and accounting for real-world economic phenomena. These changes in terms of standard setting lead to a trend towards more professional judgment in the accounting process. They affect internal and external auditors, accountants, and managers in general. As a consequence, a new competency set for preparers and users of financial statements is required. The basil for this new competency set is adequate accounting education (Schipper, 2003). These three issues which affect corporate governance are the initial point of this dissertation and constitute its motivation. Two broad questions motivated a scientific examination in three essays: 1) What are major aspects to be examined regarding the new role of the internal audit function? 2) How should major changes in standard setting affect financial accounting education? The first question became apparent due to two published literature reviews by Gramling et al. (2004) and Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright (2004). These studies raise various questions for future research that are still relevant and which motivate the first two essays of my dissertation. In the first essay, I focus on the role of the internal audit function as one cornerstone of corporate governance and its potentially conflicting role of serving both management and the audit committee (IIA, 2003). In an experimental study, I provide evidence on the challenges for internal auditors in their role as servant for two masters -the audit committee and management -and how this influences internal auditors' judgment (Gramling et al. 2004; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2004). I ask if there is an expectation gap between what internal auditors should provide for corporate governance in theory compared to what internal auditors are able to provide in practice. In particular, I focus on the effect of serving two masters on the internal auditor's independence. I argue that independence is hardly achievable if the internal audit function serves two masters with conflicting priorities. The second essay provides evidence on the effectiveness of accountability as an internal control mechanism. In general, internal control mechanisms based on accountability were enforced by the SOX (2002) and the 8th EU Directive. Subsequently, many companies introduced sub-certification processes that should contribute to an objective judgment process. Thus, these mechanisms are important to strengthen the reliability of financial statements. Based on a need for evidence on the effectiveness of internal control mechanisms (Brennan & Solomon, 2008; Gramling et al. 2004; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2004; Solomon & Trotman, 2003), I designed an experiment to examine the joint effect of accountability and obedience pressure in an internal audit setting. I argue that obedience pressure potentially can lead to a negative influence on accountants' objectivity (e.g. DeZoort & Lord, 1997) whereas accountability can mitigate this negative effect. My second main research question - How should major changes in standard setting affect financial accounting education? - is investigated in the third essay. It is motivated by the observation during my PhD that many conferences deal with the topic of accounting education but very little is published about what needs to be done. Moreover, the Endings in the first two essays of this thesis and their literature review suggest that financial accounting education can contribute significantly to quality corporate governance as argued elsewhere (Schipper, 2003; Boyce, 2004; Ghoshal, 2005). In the third essay of this thesis, I therefore focus on approaches to financial accounting education that account for the changes in standard setting and also contribute to corporate governance and accounting harmonization. I argue that the competency set that is required in practice changes due to major changes in standard setting. As the major contribution of the third article, I develop a public interest approach for financial accounting education. The major findings of this dissertation can be summarized as follows. The first essay provides evidence to an important research question raised by Gramling et al. (2004, p. 240): "If the audit committee and management have different visions for the corporate governance role of the IAF, which vision will dominate?" According to the results of the first essay, internal auditors do follow the priorities of either management or the audit committee based on the guidance provided by the Chief Audit executive. The study's results question whether the independence of the internal audit function is actually achievable. My findings contribute to research on internal auditors' judgment and the internal audit function's independence in the broader frame of corporate governance. The results are also important for practice because independence is a major justification for a positive contribution of the internal audit function to corporate governance. The major findings of the second essay indicate that the duty to sign work results - a means of holding people accountable -mitigates the negative effect of obedience pressure on reliability. Hence, I found evidence that control .mechanisms relying on certifications may enhance the reliability of financial information. These findings contribute to the literature on the effectiveness of internal control mechanisms. They are also important in the light of sub-certification processes that resulted from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the 8th EU Directive. The third essay contributes to the literature by developing a measurement framework that accounts for the consequences of major trends in standard setting. Moreovér, it shows how these trends affect the required .competency set of people dealing with accounting issues. Based on this work, my main contribution is the development of a public interest approach for the design of adequate financial accounting curricula. 2 Serving two masters: Experimental evidence on the independence of internal auditors Abstract Twenty nine internal auditors participated in a study that examines the independence of internal auditors in their potentially competing roles of serving two masters: the audit committee and management. Our main hypothesis suggests that internal auditors' independence is not achievable in an institutional setting in which internal auditors are accountable to two different parties with potentially differing priorities. We test our hypothesis in an experiment in which the treatment consisted of two different instructions of the Chief audit executive; one stressing the priority of management (cost reduction) and one stressing the priority of the audit committee (effectiveness). Internal auditors had to evaluate internal controls and their inherent costs of different processes which varied in their degree of task complexity. Our main results indicate that internal auditors' evaluation of the processes is significantly different when task complexity is high. Our findings suggest that internal auditors do follow the priorities of either management or the audit committee depending on the instructions of a superior internal auditor. The study's results question whether the independence of the internal audit function is actually achievable. With our findings, we contribute to research on internal auditors' judgment and the internal audit function's independence in the frame of corporate governance.

Memory Revisited in Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending

An accumulation of years brings with it an accumulation of experiences. The revision of such experiences usually becomes more recurrent after retirement, a transition time from one period of life to another and, as such, a time in which we, human beings, have a tendency to take stock of our lives. This is actually one of the main issues present in Julian Barnes's last novel The Sense of an Ending (2011). When the main protagonist, a retired man quite comfortable and contented with his present life, receives an unexpected inheritance from the mother of a girlfriend from his university years, he is forced to track down a part of his life that he had left at the back of his mind a long time ago. As he explains his story, the protagonist and narrator of the novel raises a number of questions related to the quality and function of memory as one gets into old age. He experiments the unreliability of memory and questions to what extent memory is constructed through the remembered emotions that invaded him over that episode of his life rather than through the events as they actually took place. On the other hand, the act of revisiting and revising that specific episode, brings with it feelings of guilt and remorse as the protagonist realises that his past acts were not as noble as he remembered them to be. However, these acts are part of the past and they cannot be changed; thus, another question that the novel raises is how to account for those actions of which one does not feel proud and, more importantly, how to manage those bad memories as one gets older.

Knowledge Sharing between Generations in an Organisation - Retention of the Old or Building the New?

The study explores knowledge transfer between retiring employees and their successors in expert work. My aim is to ascertain whether there is knowledge development or building new knowledge related to this organisational knowledge transfer between generations; in other words, is the transfer of knowledge from experienced, retiring employees to their successors merely retention of the existing organisational knowledge by distributing it from one individual to another or does this transfer lead to building new and meaningful organisational knowledge. I call knowledge transfer between generations and the possibly related knowledge building in this study knowledge sharing between generations. The study examines the organisation and knowledge management from a knowledge-based and constructionist view. From this standpoint, I see knowledge transfer as an interactive process, and the exploration is based on how the people involved in this process understand and experience the phenomenon studied. The research method is organisational ethnography. I conducted the analysis of data using thematic analysis and the articulation method, which has not been used before in organisational knowledge studies. The primary empirical data consists of theme interviews with twelve employees involved in knowledge transfer in the organisation being studied and five follow-up theme interviews. Six of the interviewees are expert duty employees due to retire shortly, and six are their successors. All those participating in the follow-up interviews are successors of those soon to retire from their expert responsibilities. The organisation in the study is a medium-sized Finnish firm, which designs and manufactures electrical equipment and systems for the global market. The results of the study show that expert work-related knowledge transfer between generations can mean knowledge building which produces new, meaningful knowledge for the organisation. This knowledge is distributed in the organisation to all those that find it useful in increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the whole organisation. The transfer and building of knowledge together create an act of knowledge sharing between generations where the building of knowledge presupposes transfer. Knowledge sharing proceeds between the expert and the novice through eight phases. During the phases of knowledge transfer the expert guides the novice to absorb the knowledge to be transferred. With the expert’s help the novice gradually comes to understand the knowledge and in the end he or she is capable of using it in his or her work. During the phases of knowledge building the expert helps the novice to further develop the knowledge being transferred so that it becomes new, useful knowledge for the organisation. After that the novice takes the built knowledge to use in his or her work. Based on the results of the study, knowledge sharing between generations takes place in interaction and ends when knowledge is taken to use. The results I obtained in the interviews by the articulation method show that knowledge sharing between generations is shaped by the novices’ conceptions of their own work goals, knowledge needs and duties. These are not only based on the official definition of the work, but also how the novices find their work or how they prioritise the given objectives and responsibilities. The study shows that the novices see their work primarily as maintenance or development. Those primarily involved in maintenance duties do not necessarily need knowledge defined as transferred between generations. Therefore, they do not necessarily transfer knowledge with their assigned experts, even though this can happen in favourable circumstances. They do not build knowledge because their view of their work goals and duties does not require the building of new knowledge. Those primarily involved in development duties, however, do need knowledge available from their assigned experts. Therefore, regardless of circumstances they transfer knowledge with their assigned experts and also build knowledge because their work goals and duties create a basis for building new knowledge. The literature on knowledge transfer between generations has focused on describing either the knowledge being transferred or the means by which it is transferred. Based on the results of this study, however, knowledge sharing between generations, that is, transfer and building is determined by how the novice considers his or her own knowledge needs and work practices. This is why studies on knowledge sharing between generations and its implementation should be based not only on the knowledge content and how it is shared, but also on the context of the work in which the novice interprets and shares knowledge. The existing literature has not considered the possibility that knowledge transfer between generations may mean building knowledge. The results of this study, however, show that this is possible. In knowledge building, the expert’s existing organisational knowledge is combined with the new knowledge that the novice brings to the organisation. In their interaction this combination of the expert’s “old” and the novice’s “new” knowledge becomes new, meaningful organisational knowledge. Previous studies show that knowledge development between the members of an organisation is the prerequisite for organisational renewal which in turn is essential for improved competitiveness. Against this background, knowledge building enables organisational renewal and thus enhances competitiveness. Hence, when knowledge transfer between generations is followed by knowledge building, the organisation kills two birds with one stone. In knowledge transfer the organisation retains the existing knowledge and thus maintains its competitiveness. In knowledge building the organisation developsnew knowledge and thus improves its competitiveness.

Effectiveness of Pilotage

The objective of the pilotage effectiveness study was to come up with a process descrip-tion of the pilotage procedure, to design performance indicators based on this process description, to be used by Finnpilot, and to work out a preliminary plan for the imple-mentation of the indicators within the Finnpilot organisation. The theoretical aspects of pilotage as well as the guidelines and standards used were determined through a literature review. Based on the literature review, a process flow model with the following phases was created: the planning of pilotage, the start of pilo-tage, the act of pilotage, the end of pilotage and the closing of pilotage. The model based on the literature review was tested through interviews and observation of pilotage. At the same time an e-mail survey directed at foreign pilotage organisations, which included a questionnaire concerning their standards and management systems, operations procedures, measurement tools and their attitude to the passage planning, was conducted. The main issues in the observations and interviews were the passage plan and the bridge team co-operation. The phases of the pilotage process model emerged in both the pilotage activities and the interviews whereas bridge team co-operation was relatively marginal. Most of the pilotage organisations, who responded to the query, also use some standard-based management system. All organisations who answered the survey use some sort of a pilotage process model. According to the query, the main measuring tools for pilotage are statistical information concerning pilotage and the organisations, the customer feedback surveys, and financial results. Attitudes to-wards passage planning were mostly positive among the organisations. A workshop with pilotage experts was arranged where the process model constructed on the basis of the literature review was tuned to match practical pilotage. In the workshop it was determined that certain phases and the corresponding tasks, through which pilo-tage can be described as a process, were identifiable in all pilotage. The result of the workshop was a complemented process model, which separates incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as the fairway pilotage and harbour pilotage from each other. Addition-ally indicators divided according to the data gathering method were defined. Data con-cerning safety and traffic flow is gathered in the form of customer feedback. The pilot's own perceptions of the pilotage process are gathered through self-assessment. The measurement data which is connected to the phases of the pilotage process is generated e.g. by gathering statistics of the success of the pilot dispatches, the accuracy of the pi-lotage and the incidents that occurred during the pilotage, near misses, deviations and accidents. The measurement data is collected via the PilotWeb at the closing of the pilo-tage. A separate project and a project group with pilots also participating will be established for the deployment of the performance indicators. The phases of the project are: the definition phase, the implementation phase and the deployment phase. The purpose of the definition phase is to prepare questions for ship commanders concerning the cus-tomer feedback questionnaire and also to work out the self-assessment queries and the queries concerning the process indicators.

Anatomical and histological characteristics of teeth in agouti (Dasyprocta prymnolopha Wagler, 1831)

The agouti species Dasyprocta prymnolopha (D. prymnolopha) is a medium-sized rodent, diurnal, and characteristic of northeastern Brazil, south of the Amazon. Several studies have been made on these rodents. However, there is a lack of analysis of masticatory system, in particular morphology of the teeth. Thus, this research seeks to describe anatomical and histological aspects of the agouti teeth. For this purpose, we used adult agouti, in which measurements and descriptions of teeth and dental tissues were made. It was observed that the dental arch of D. prymnolopha comprises of twenty teeth, evenly distributed in the upper and lower arch, being inferior teeth larger than their corresponding higher. The incisors are larger, and between the posterior premolars and molars, there is a gradual increase in length in the anterior-posterior arch. In microscopic examination, a prismatic appearance was observed consisting of enamel prisms arranged in different directions, behind the enamel and dentin with standard tubular dentinal tubules with variable diameter and far between, also showing a sinuous path from the inner portion to the junction with more superficial enamel. Morphological analysis of dental tissues showed that an enamel with structural organization adapted to the act of chewing and high impact dentin compatible with standard tubular function resilience and mechanical damping of masticatory forces, as found in larger animals, confirming the understanding of eating habits that define much of its ecological functions within the ecosystem they inhabit.

Value Creation in Crowd-Business: Developing a Framework for Successful Implementation of Crowdsourcing Initiatives

By recent years the phenomenon called crowdsourcing has been acknowledged as an innovative form of value creation that must be taken seriously. Crowdsourcing can be defined as an act of outsourcing tasks originally performed inside an organization, or assigned externally in form of a business relationship, to an undefinably large, heterogeneous mass of potential actors. This thesis constructs a framework for successful implementation of crowdsourcing initiatives. Firms that rely entirely on their own research and ideas cannot compete with the innovative capacity that crowd-powered firms have. Nowadays, crowdsourcing has become one of the key capabilities of businesses due to its innovative capabilities, in addition to the existing internal resources of the firm. By utilizing crowdsourcing the business gains access to an enormous pool of competence and knowledge. However, various risks remain such as uncertainty of crowd structure and loss of internal know-how. Crowdsourcing Success Framework introduces a step by step model for implementing crowdsourcing into the everyday operations of the business. It starts from the decision to utilize crowdsourcing and continues further into planning, organizing and execution. Finally, this thesis presents the success factors of crowdsourcing initiative.

The effect of feeding on the respiratory activity of the sloth

The aim of the present study was to confirm whether feeding influences the resting breathing rate and to observe possible alterations in blood gas and pH levels produced by feeding in unanesthetized sloths (Bradypus variegatus). Five adult male sloths (4.1 ± 0.6 kg) were placed daily in an experimental chair for a period of at least 4 h for sitting adaptation. Five measurements were made for each sloth. However, the sloths one, two and five were studied once and the sloths three and four were studied twice. Breathing rate was determined with an impedance meter and the output signal was digitized. Arterial blood samples were collected for blood gas analysis with a BGE electrolytes analyzer and adjusted for the animal's body temperature and hemoglobin content. The data are reported as mean ± SD and were collected during the resting period (8:00-10:00 h) and during the feeding period (16:00-18:00 h). The mean breathing rate increased during mastication of ymbahuba leaves (rest: 5.0 ± 1, feeding: 10 ± 1 bpm). No significant alterations were observed in arterial pH (rest: 7.42 ± 0.05, feeding: 7.45 ± 0.03), PCO2 (rest: 35.2 ± 5.3, feeding: 33.3 ± 4.4 mmHg) or PO2 (rest: 77.5 ± 8.2, feeding: 78.4 ± 5.2 mmHg) levels. These results indicate that in unanesthetized sloths 1) feeding evokes an increase in breathing rate without a significant change in arterial pH, PCO2 or PO2 levels, and 2) the increase in breathing rate produced by feeding probably is due to the act of mastication.