Corporate governance, accountability and mechanisms of accountability: an overview

Purpose – This paper aims to review traditional corporate governance and accountability research, to suggest opportunities for future research in this field. Design/methodology/approach – The first part adopts an analytical frame of reference based on theory, accountability mechanisms, methodology, business sector/context, globalisation and time horizon. The second part of the paper locates the seven papers in the special issue in a framework of analysis showing how each one contributes to the field. The paper presents a frame of reference which may be used as a “roadmap” for researchers to navigate their way through the prior literature and to position their work on the frontiers of corporate governance research. The paper is primarily discursive and conceptual. Findings – The paper encourages broader approaches to corporate governance and accountability research beyond the traditional and primarily quantitative approaches of prior research. Broader theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, accountability mechanism, sectors/contexts, globalisation, and time horizons are identified. Research limitations/implications – Greater use of qualitative research methods are suggested, which present challenges particularly of access to the “black box” of corporate boardrooms. Originality/value – Drawing on the analytical framework, and the papers in the special issue, the paper identifies opportunities for further research of accountability and corporate governance. Keywords Corporate governance, Management accountability, Research Paper type General review

Problematising accounting for biodiversity

Purpose – This paper seeks to problematise “accounting for biodiversity” and to provide a framework for analysing and understanding the role of accounting in preserving and enhancing biodiversity on Planet Earth. The paper aims to raise awareness of the urgent need to address biodiversity loss and extinction and the need for corporations to discharge accountability for their part in the current biodiversity crisis by accounting for their biodiversity-related strategies and policies. Such accounting is, it is believed, emancipatory and leads to engendering change in corporate behaviour and attitudes. Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed the literature relating to biodiversity across a wide array of disciplines including anthropology, biodiversity, ecology, finance, philosophy, and of course, accounting, in order to build an image of the current state of biodiversity and the role which accounting can and “should” play in the future of biodiversity. Findings – It is found that the problems underlying accounting for biodiversity fall into four broad categories: philosophical and scientific problems, accountability problems, technical accounting problems, and problems of accounting practice. Practical implications – Through establishing a framework problematising biodiversity, a roadmap is laid out for researchers and practitioners to navigate a route for future research and policymaking in biodiversity accounting. It is concluded that an interdisciplinary approach to accounting for biodiversity is crucial to ensuring effective action on biodiversity and for accounting for biodiversity to achieve its emancipatory potential. Originality/value – Although there is a wealth of sustainability reporting research, there is hardly any work exploring the role of accounting in preserving and enhancing biodiversity. There is no research exploring the current state of accounting for biodiversity. This paper summarises the current state of biodiversity using an interdisciplinary approach and introduces a series of papers devoted to the role of accounting in biodiversity accepted for this AAAJ special issue. The paper also provides a framework identifying the diverse problems associated with accounting for biodiversity.

Performance analysis and deployment of VoLTE mechanisms over 3GPP LTE-based networks

Long Term Evolution based networks lack native support for Circuit Switched (CS) services. The Evolved Packet System (EPS) which includes the Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is a purely all-IP packet system. This introduces the problem of how to provide voice call support when a user is within an LTE network and how to ensure voice service continuity when the user moves out of LTE coverage area. Different technologies have been proposed for the purpose of providing a voice to LTE users and to ensure the service continues outside LTE networks. The aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the overall performance of these technologies along with Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) Inter-RAT handover to Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks/ GSM-EDGE radio access Networks (UTRAN/GERAN). The possible solutions for providing voice call and service continuity over LTE-based networks are Circuit Switched Fall Back (CSFB), Voice over LTE via Generic Access (VoLGA), Voice over LTE (VoLTE) based on IMS/MMTel with SRVCC and Over The Top (OTT) services like Skype. This paper focuses mainly on the 3GPP standard solutions to implement voice over LTE. The paper compares various aspects of these solutions and suggests a possible roadmap that mobile operators can adopt to provide seamless voice over LTE.

Buried screen-printed contacts for silicon solar cells

A Simple way to improve solar cell efficiency is to enhance the absorption of light and reduce the shading losses. One of the main objectives for the photovoltaic roadmap is the reduction of metalized area on the front side of solar cell by fin lines. Industrial solar cell production uses screen-printing of metal pastes with a limit in line width of 70-80 μm. This paper will show a combination of the technique of laser grooved buried contact (LGBC) and Screen-printing is able to improve in fine lines and higher aspect ratio. Laser grooving is a technique to bury the contact into the surface of silicon wafer. Metallization is normally done with electroless or electrolytic plating method, which a high cost. To decrease the relative cost, more complex manufacturing process was needed, therefore in this project the standard process of buried contact solar cells has been optimized in order to gain a laser grooved buried contact solar cell concept with less processing steps. The laser scribing process is set at the first step on raw mono-crystalline silicon wafer. And then the texturing etch; phosphorus diffusion and SiNx passivation process was needed once. While simultaneously optimizing the laser scribing process did to get better results on screen-printing process with fewer difficulties to fill the laser groove. This project has been done to make the whole production of buried contact solar cell with fewer steps and could present a cost effective opportunity to solar cell industries.

International conference site selection criteria : And a case study of Stockholm as an international conference city

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the destination site selection criteria for internationalconferences from the perspectives of the three main players of the conference industry,conference buyers (organizers and delegates) and suppliers. Additionally, the researchidentifies the strengths and weaknesses of the congress cities of Stockholm and Vienna.Through a comparison with Vienna, the top city for hosting international conferences, a roadmap for Stockholm has been designed, to strengthen its congress tourism opportunities, thus,obtaining a higher status as an international congress city. This qualitative research hascombined both primary and secondary data methods, through semi-standardized expertinterviews and secondary studies respectively, to fulfil the study’s aim. The data have beenanalysed by applying the techniques of qualitative content analysis; the secondary dataadopting an inductive approach according to Mayring (2003) while the expert interviewsusing a deductive approach according to Meuser & Nagel (2009). The conclusions of thesecondary data have been further compared and contrasted with the outcomes of the primarydata, to propose fresh discoveries, clarifications, and concepts related to the site selectioncriteria for international conferences, and for the congress tourism industry of Stockholm. Theresearch discusses the discoveries of the site selection criteria, the implications of thestrengths and weaknesses of Stockholm in comparison to Vienna, recommendations forStockholm via a road map, and future research areas in detail. The findings andrecommendation, not only provide specific steps and inceptions that Stockholm as aninternational conference city can apply, but also propose findings, which can aid conferencebuyers and suppliers to cooperate, to strengthen their marketing strategies and developsuccessful international conferences and destinations to help achieve a greater competitiveadvantage.

A Resource Centric Approach For Advancing Collaboration Through Hydrologic Data And Model Sharing

HydroShare is an online, collaborative system being developed for open sharing of hydrologic data and models. The goal of HydroShare is to enable scientists to easily discover and access hydrologic data and models, retrieve them to their desktop or perform analyses in a distributed computing environment that may include grid, cloud or high performance computing model instances as necessary. Scientists may also publish outcomes (data, results or models) into HydroShare, using the system as a collaboration platform for sharing data, models and analyses. HydroShare is expanding the data sharing capability of the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System by broadening the classes of data accommodated, creating new capability to share models and model components, and taking advantage of emerging social media functionality to enhance information about and collaboration around hydrologic data and models. One of the fundamental concepts in HydroShare is that of a Resource. All content is represented using a Resource Data Model that separates system and science metadata and has elements common to all resources as well as elements specific to the types of resources HydroShare will support. These will include different data types used in the hydrology community and models and workflows that require metadata on execution functionality. The HydroShare web interface and social media functions are being developed using the Drupal content management system. A geospatial visualization and analysis component enables searching, visualizing, and analyzing geographic datasets. The integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) is being used to manage federated data content and perform rule-based background actions on data and model resources, including parsing to generate metadata catalog information and the execution of models and workflows. This presentation will introduce the HydroShare functionality developed to date, describe key elements of the Resource Data Model and outline the roadmap for future development.

Structuring a startup's operations in an emerging market

The present work analyzes the establishment of a startup’s operations and the structuring all of the processes required to start up the business, launch the platform and keep it working. The thesis’ main focus can therefore be described as designing and structuring a startup’s operations in an emerging market before and during its global launch. Such business project aims to provide a successful case regarding the creation of a business and its launch into an emerging market, by illustrating a practical example on how to structure the business’ operations within a limited time frame. Moreover, this work will also perform a complete economic analysis of Brazil, thorough analyses of the industries the company is related to, as well as a competitive analysis of the market the venture operates in. Furthermore, an assessment of the venture’s business model and of its first six-month performance will also be included. The thesis’ ultimate goal lies in evaluating the company’s potential of success in the next few years, by highlighting its strengths and criticalities. On top of providing the company’s management with brilliant findings and forecasts about its own business, the present work will represent a reference and a practical roadmap for any entrepreneur willing to establish his operations in Brazil.

Atuação de técnicos de enfermagem junto ao recém-nascido com dor em uma unidade de terapia intensiva neonatal

The pain is a sensuous and emotional experience unpleasant associated or related to real injury or potencial of the tissues. It is considered an individual and subjective experience generally has been described in the literature about in the neonatal stage a lot. This study has descriptive and exploratory character with a qualitative approach. The study has with objectives to analyze the performance of the nursing technicians working with newborns admitted in the ITUN, seeking to describe the perception of the nursing technicians about the pain, identify the parameters used for the detection and evaluation of pain in them, trying to describe the ons of this team about the pain in the newborns in ITUN. The subjects are nine nursing technicians of the ITU of the Parenting School Januário Cicco in Natal-RN, engaged in direct assistance to newborns in the ITU, on the turn of the morning, which was prepared to participate in the search. The collection of the data was conducted through a structured interview with tree questions; through a non-participatory observation with a structured roadmap and were used to record and pass on call was also as a way of obtaining data. The start of the collection made after the assent of the Ethics Committee / UFRN in November, 2007. The speakings have been transcribed and data read extensively to obtain categories.The analysis of the content made in terms of Bardin. Emerged three main categories of significance: Perceptioning of pain in newborns; Caring for the newborns with pain; Registering the pain in the newborns. A nursing technicians identifies the pain in the newborns, for the most part, so empirical, using signs of behavioral or physiological changes in isolation, giving little emphasis to the environment and to respect that the newborns is inserted. It was found that the attitudes cited by subjects of the search before the newborns with pain, are for the most part non-pharmacological actions such as sucking nutrient not, a proper positioning and measures of comfort, however pharmacological actions have also been reported.These is also the absence of records of nursing records in the report of pain and actions to minimize them and, in records and for the passage of call. With this study we understand the role of the nursing technicians, and seek to contribute to subsidies for the practice of professionals involved in caring for this age group, and also in the search for a humane assistance to the newborns

Práticas educativas parentais de crianças com deficiência auditiva e de linguagem

Comportamentos de pais e de filhos influenciam-se mutuamente. Crianças com alterações de linguagem relacionadas ou não à perda auditiva, podem apresentar dificuldades de relacionamento com os irmãos e seus pares. Assim, a investigação das práticas educativas parentais e do repertório comportamental infantil é fundamental para a busca de intervenções efetivas para essas crianças. O estudo tem como objetivos: (a) comparar o repertório positivo e negativo de mães e crianças com deficiência auditiva (DA) e distúrbio de linguagem (DL); (b) comparar cada uma das deficiências com grupo não clinico; (c) correlacionar comportamentos para cada uma das deficiências. Participaram deste estudo 72 mães, cujos filhos apresentavam da (n = 27), DL (n = 19) ou compunha uma população não clínica (n = 26). O instrumento utilizado foi o Roteiro de Entrevista de Habilidades Sociais Educativas Parentais, que avalia a ocorrência de habilidades sociais aplicáveis às práticas educativas. Os resultados evidenciaram a associação entre práticas positivas e habilidades sociais, bem como entre práticas negativas e problemas de comportamento. O grupo de DL não apresentou mais problemas que as crianças não clínicas, sugerindo a participação de intervenções de caráter preventivo, facilitando a inclusão social. Por outro lado as crianças com da apresentaram menos habilidades sociais, bem como suas mães, menos habilidades sociais educativas. Este estudo evidencia a importância da metodologia empregada na reabilitação de crianças com distúrbios da comunicação, sobretudo para aquelas com da visando o beneficio de programas educativos de promoção do repertório parental positivo integrados aos objetivos da fonoterapia.

Roads towards gender equity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

TV digital e comércio eletrônico: análise de modelo de negócios para T-Commerce

Pós-graduação em Televisão Digital: Informação e Conhecimento - FAAC

A gestão da produtividade na manufatura como fator indutivo na formação do valor agregado de produtos e serviços: um exemplo de aplicação na indústria aeronáutica

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Atividades investigativas em grupos online: possibilidades para a educação matemática a distância

Pós-graduação em Educação Matemática - IGCE