Business busts and U.S. auditors' interest in fraud detection: Evidence from the 20th century

We find evidence that U.S. auditors increased their attention to fraud detection during or immediately after the economic contractions of the 20th century, based on a content analysis of the 12 volumes of the 20th-century auditing reference series Montgomery’s Auditing. Contractions, however, do not seem to have affected auditors’ attention to the formal goal of fraud detection. The study suggests that auditors’ aversion to the heightened risks of fraud during economic downturns leads them to focus more on fraud detection at those times regardless of the particular guidance in formal audit standards. This study is the first to find some evidence of a recession-influenced difference between fraud detection practices and formal fraud detection goals.

Concise review: Humanized models of tumor immunology in the 21st century: Convergence of cancer research and tissue engineering

Despite positive testing in animal studies, more than 80% of novel drug candidates fail to proof their efficacy when tested in humans. This is primarily due to the use of preclinical models that are not able to recapitulate the physiological or pathological processes in humans. Hence, one of the key challenges in the field of translational medicine is to “make the model organism mouse more human.” To get answers to questions that would be prognostic of outcomes in human medicine, the mouse's genome can be altered in order to create a more permissive host that allows the engraftment of human cell systems. It has been shown in the past that these strategies can improve our understanding of tumor immunology. However, the translational benefits of these platforms have still to be proven. In the 21st century, several research groups and consortia around the world take up the challenge to improve our understanding of how to humanize the animal's genetic code, its cells and, based on tissue engineering principles, its extracellular microenvironment, its tissues, or entire organs with the ultimate goal to foster the translation of new therapeutic strategies from bench to bedside. This article provides an overview of the state of the art of humanized models of tumor immunology and highlights future developments in the field such as the application of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies to further enhance humanized murine model systems.

Attitudes Towards Modern Living: The Mid-century Showrooms of Herman Miller and Knoll Associates

The independent manufacturer’s furniture showroom, as defined by Herman Miller and Knoll in the mid-twentieth century, presented a highly controlled and controllable context in which both companies and their designers familiarized American architects, designers and consumers with new ideas about living with modern furniture and architecture. Embracing consumerism within a modernist idiom, these mid-century furniture showrooms provided a unique interior typology wherein the reconciliation of modernism, mass-produced goods and personal expression was not only possible, but also accessible. Challenging long-held practices and beliefs within the nation’s conservative home furnishings market, Herman Miller and Knoll superseded retail buyers by reaching out directly to customers. The independently-run showrooms allowed both companies to engage their customers in a sophisticated and sustained proposition about the role of modern furniture and architecture in daily life. Examining the showrooms designed for Herman Miller and Knoll Associates during the latter 1940s and early 1950s, this article explores the ways in which these spaces were utilized as both laboratories and showcases, demonstrating the adaptability of modern furniture and interiors to individual lifestyles. Key words Charles and Ray Eames display design furniture Herman Miller Knoll Associates modernism showrooms

The Mid-Century Showroom: Knoll, Herman Miller and the Retail Exhibition of Modern American Design

Although occasionally illustrated and referenced in contemporary histories of modern furniture and design, there is surprisingly little critical discussion or consideration of the role of the showroom in the promotion and dissemination of modern design during the mid-twentieth century. In these years, when the American lifestyle was popularly articulated and forcefully propagandized, the furniture showroom served as a principle site of professional and public indoctrination. Appropriating display techniques from modern exhibition design to showcase the American lifestyle as an abstracted, spatially integrated art form, the showroom provided an unencumbered landscape ideally suited to camera’s lens and the public’s imagination. Leading modern American furniture manufacturers, such as Herman Miller and Knoll Associates collaborated with major cultural institutions as well as department stores and retailers to maximize exposure and consumer demand for their products. Through such integrated marketing and merchandising strategies, showrooms also contributed to the broader social project to educate American consumers about modern design and the advantages of modern living. Related to the many model home programs and “good design” exhibitions of the 1950s, the furniture showroom occupies a unique place within the history and discourse of the postwar era. The peculiarities of the furniture showroom and its position as a point of intersection between the trade and the consumer, the commercial and the cultural, and the aesthetic and the ideological form the focus of this study.

Asia literate schooling in the Asian century [Book review]

In her introduction to this edited collection, Christine Halse lays out the purpose of the book as being about addressing three questions for education in contemporary times: What does Asia literacy mean?; Why is it important?; and How might or ought schools do Asia literacy? As a literacy educator it was these three questions that led to my interest in first reading and then reviewing the book. On numerous occasions I’ve felt the expectation that an expertise in Asia literacy should be a part of my toolbox. And yet I’ve always considered Asia literacy to be the responsibility of those who profess to know about – or have some expertise in – history, politics, or studies of society. But here was an edited collection with chapters from a variety of scholars who have informed my work over many years, framing schooling as a noun that could be described qualitatively as more or less Asia literate. As such, I took on the challenge to open up to these ideas and to the opportunity to think again about literacy and the use of this term in pairings such as Asia literacy. I had my own question to add to those of the editor. Can, or even should, literacy be used to describe the skills, capacities and understandings required for citizens to “reflect and explore cultural differences in the Asian region” (Asia Literacy Teachers’ Association of Australia, n.d.) in ways that support engagement within and with Asian peoples and their cultures?

Swedish advertising language in Finland mirrored by the newspaper advertisements of the Stockmanns department store during the 20th century

The advertising business is often said to favour a modern, innovative language use. This is a statement not easily verified. Newspaper ads are in fact the genre of written language that linguists have paid the least attention to. People writing texts for newspaper ads are individuals representing contemporary language use. Advertisements representing different periods therefore diverge not only regarding the change of style and form advertising undergoes over time, but changes in the language itself also reflect the continuous process of alteration in a speech community. Advertisements and marketing material on the whole, are also read by many individuals who otherwise are not accustomed to reading at all. The marketing manager, the copywriter and the Art Director, in other words, produce texts that unconsciously function as language models. Changes are not created by, or urged on by linguistic expertise, but by ordinary users confronting other ordinary users. From a sociolinguistic perspective the widely diffused advertising language is therefore a most influential factor.

Reklamsvenska i Finland speglad genom varuhuset Stockmanns tidningsannonser under det 20e seklet - Swedish Advertising Language in Finland Mirrored by the Newspaper Advertisements of the Stockmanns Department Store during the 20th Century

Reklam sägs använda ett modernt, gärna ett nyskapande språk. Detta är ett påstående som inte så lätt kan verifieras. Tidningsannonsen är troligen den skriftspråksgenre som har fått minst uppmärksamhet av språkforskare. De som skriver texten i en tidningsannons är personer som representerar det samtida språkbruket. Annonser som representerar olika tidsepoker skiljer sig därför från varandra inte bara genom att annonsen förändras i fråga om stil och form. Annonsens språk avspeglar också den språkliga förändringsprocess som kontinuerligt pågår i varje språksamhälle. Annonser, och marknadsföringsmaterial över huvud taget, läses också av många människor som i övrigt läser mycket litet eller kanske inte alls. Marknadsföraren, reklamskribenten (copywriter) och AD:n producerar m.a.o. texter som på ett omedvetet sätt kommer att vara språkmodeller för sina läsare. Förändringar i språket kreeras inte och drivs inte på av språkforskare, utan av vanliga språkbrukare i interaktion med andra språkbrukare. Sett ur ett sociolingvistiskt perspektiv har det vitt spridda reklamspråket därför inflytande på språket i samhället. Syftet med det reklamspråksprojekt som presenteras i föreliggande rapport är att analysera hur och när förändringar i svenskan som uppträder i Sverige dyker upp i annonser som skrivs på svenska i Finland. Reklam på svenska Finland under 1900-talet står i fokus, och tidningsannonser för Stockmanns varuhus i Helsingfors utgör primärmaterialet. Tidningsannonser för varuhuset Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) i Stockholm under motsvarande tid tjänar som jämförelsematerial. I denna rapport presenteras projektets syfte, de uppställda forskningsfrågorna, och resonemanget illustreras med exempel ur projektmaterialet. Rapporten innehåller också en beskrivning av projektets reklamdatabas och basfakta om material och metoder. -

World parliament – fact or fiction? On the feasibility of world parliamentary models

Cosmopolitan ideals have been on the philosophical agenda for several millennia but the end of the Cold War started a new discussion on state sovereignty, global democracy, the role of international law and global institutions. The Westphalian state system in practice since the 17th century is transforming and the democracy deficit needs new solutions. An impetus has been the fact that in the present world, an international body representing global citizens does not exist. In this Master’s thesis, the possibility of establishing a world parliament is examined. In a case analysis, 17 models on world parliament from two journals, a volume of essays and two other publications are discussed. Based on general observations, the models are divided into four thematic groups. The models are analyzed with an emphasis on feasible and probable elements. Further, a new scenario with a time frame of thirty years is proposed based on the methodology of normative futures studies, taking special interest in causal relationships and actions leading to change. The scenario presents three gradual steps that each need to be realized before a sustainable world parliament is established. The theoretical framework is based on social constructivism, and changes in international and multi-level governance are examined with the concepts of globalization, democracy and sovereignty. A feasible, desirable and credible world parliament is constituted gradually by implying electoral, democratic and legal measures for members initially from exclusively democratic states, parliamentarians, non-governmental organizations and other groups. The parliament should be located outside the United Nations context, since a new body avoids the problem of inefficiency currently prevailing in the UN. The main objectives of the world parliament are to safeguard peace and international law and to offer legal advice in cases when international law has been violated. A feasible world parliament is advisory in the beginning but it is granted legislative powers in the future. The number of members in the world parliament could also be extended following the example of the EU enlargement process.

Poetics of the Nameless Middle : Japan and the West in Philosophy and Music of the Twentieth Century

This study investigates the affinities between philosophy, aesthetics, and music of Japan and the West. The research is based on the structuralist notion (specifically, on that found in the narratology of Algirdas Julius Greimas), that the universal grammar functions as an abstract principle, underlying all kinds of discourse. The study thus aims to demonstrate how this grammar is manifested in philosophical, aesthetic, and musical texts and how the semiotic homogeneity of these texts can be explained on this basis. Totality and belongingness are the key philosophical concepts presented herein. As distinct from logocentrism manifested as substantializations of the world of ideas , god or mind, which was characteristic of previous Western paradigms, totality was defined as the coexistence of opposites. Thus Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Dōgen, and Nishida often illustrated it by identifying fundamental polarities, such as being and nothing, seer and seen, truth and illusion, etc. Accordingly, totality was schematically presented as an all-encompassing middle of the semiotic square. Similar values can be found in aesthetics and arts. Instead of dialectic syntagms, differentiated unity is considered as paradigmatic and the study demonstrates how this is manifested in traditional Japanese and Heideggerian aesthetics, as well as in the aspects of music of Claude Debussy and Tōru Takemitsu.

Challenges in Earth sciences: the 21st century

The 21st century poses many challenges for global sustainability. Among them, most importantly, the human race will encounter scarcity of raw materials and conventional energy resources. And, India may have to take the brunt of these problems as it is going to be the most populated region of the world with concomitant increase in energy demand and requirement of other resources. India will be the testing ground for introducing newer ways of green technology and innovative principles of resource management and utilization. With the vagaries of potential climate change gathering clouds in the background, Earth sciences will have a special and predominant role in guiding the society in prioritizing our resource discovery, utilization and their consumption and the upkeep of environment. On the fundamental level, Earth sciences are going through a most exciting phase of development as a born-again science. Technological breakthroughs including the satellite-based observations augur well for gaining new insights into Earth processes. A set of exciting fundamental problems that are globally identified will set the stage for an exhilarating period of new discoveries. Improvements in numerical and computer-based techniques will assist in modelling of Earth processes to unprecedented levels. India will have to take special effort in improving the existing experimentation facilities in the Earth science departments of the country, and also the general level of Earth science education to meet the global standards. This article presents an Earth science vision for the 21st century in an Indian context.

Biblical evidence from Obadiah and Psalm 137 for an Edomite treaty betrayal of Judah in the sixth century B.C.E.

Abstract: Focusing on Obadiah and Psalm 137, this article provides biblical evidence for an Edomite treaty betrayal of Judah during the Babylonian crisis ca. 588–586 B.C.E. After setting a context that includes the use of treaties in the ancient Near East to establish expectations for political relationships and the likelihood that Edom could operate as a political entity in the Judahite Negev during the Babylonian assault, this article demonstrates that Obadiah’s poetics include a density of inverted form and content (a reversal motif) pointing to treaty betrayal. Obadiah’s modifications of Jeremiah 49, a text with close thematic and terminological parallels, evidence an Edomite treaty betrayal of Judah. Moreover, the study shows that Obadiah is replete with treaty allusions. A study of Psalm 137 in comparison with Aramaic treaty texts from Sefire reveals that this difficult psalm also evidences a treaty betrayal by Edom and includes elements appropriate for treaty curses. The article closes with a discussion of piecemeal data from a few other biblical texts, a criticism of the view that Edom was innocent during the Babylonian crisis, and a suggestion that this treaty betrayal may have contributed to the production of some anti-Edom biblical material.