This thesis has examined the fluctuations (or lack thereof) of bank deposits within Montgomery County, Virginia, during the years 1956 through 1966. The three major bank accounts chosen for this purpose were: Loans and Discounts; Time and Savings Deposits; and Demand Deposits. Fluctuations of deposits are of concern to bankers because, among other reasons, (1) the size of demand and time deposits determine the bank's primary and secondary reserves, and (2) the content and nature of the bank's investment portfolio will be affected by these variations in bank deposits. The objectives of this thesis were carried out by: (1) examining the daily financial statements of four representative banks of the county for deposit growth and deposit patterns; (2) searching banking literature for causes of deposit fluctuations; (3) overviewing the economy of the county and the Fifth Federal Reserve District for clues to variations in deposits, and; (4) interviewing county bankers in an effort to determine their thoughts concerning the fluctuations of deposits. The results indicated that there is little deposit variation within the county from year-to-year. This is because (1) the agricultural factor has played such a minor role during the time period; (2) the Radford Arsenal's production has played a stabilizing role in the county, especially since the early 1960s, and; (3) the continuing steady growth of the economy of the Fifth District has had an important effect upon the economy of Montgomery County, helping it to grow in a steady manner. / M.S.

Titel: Motivering av goodwillnedskrivningar: En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av motiveringar till nedskrivning av goodwill. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att studera hur bolag noterade på OMX Stockholm motiverar sina nedskrivningar av goodwill, och vilka faktorer som kan förklara vilka argument som används. Metod: En kvalitativ innehållsanalys har genomförts för att studera motiveringarna i noterna angivna i årsredovisningar, slutgiltiga urvalet uppgick till 125 observationer. För att testa hypoteserna har fyra logistiska binära regressionsanalyser utförts.  Resultat och slutsats: Av tre sätt att mäta storleken av nedskrivning av goodwill och motiveringsfaktor var det ett sätt som påvisade ett signifikant samband, vilket var nedskrivning i förhållande till totala tillgångar. Det fanns även ett signifikant samband mellan redovisat nettoresultat och motiveringsfaktor. Studiens slutsatser är att resultaten visar på att det föreligger ett svagt samband mellan storleken på goodwillnedskrivning och angiven motiveringsfaktor. Bolag hänför i högre grad större nedskrivningar till externa faktorer, utifrån en av metoderna för att mäta storleken av goodwillnedskrivningar. Avslutningsvis fann även studien att det finns ett svagt samband mellan redovisat negativt nettoresultat och extern motiveringsfaktor. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till en ökad kunskap om hur bolag noterade på OMX Stockholm motiverar sina nedskrivningar av goodwill.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Genomföra intervjuer med individer som har beslutsrätt gällande nedskrivning av goodwill. Detta för att få en djupare insikt samt för att kunna ställa följdfrågor. / Title: Justification of goodwill impairment: A qualitative content analysis of justifications for goodwill impairment.  Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine how companies listed on OMX Stockholm justify their goodwill impairments, and which factors can explain the arguments used.  Method: A qualitative content analysis has been done to study the justifications in the notes stated in the annual reports, final sample amounted to 125. To test the hypotheses, four logistic binary regression analyzes have been conducted.  Result and conclusions: Out of three methods for measuring the size of goodwill impairment and justification factors, one method showed a significant relationship, which was impairment as a proportion of total assets. It also demonstrated a significant relationship between reported net profit and justification factor. The conclusions of the study indicate that there is a weak correlation between the size of goodwill impairments and the stated motivation factor. Companies tend to attribute larger impairments to external factors, based on one way of measuring the size of goodwill impairments. Lastly, the study also found a weak correlation between reported negative net income and external motivation factor. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to an increased knowledge of how companies listed on the OMX Stockholm justify their goodwill impairments.  Suggestions for future research: Conduct interviews with individuals who have decision-making authority regarding goodwill impairment, to gain deeper insight and to be able to ask follow-up questions.

The theme of gift has in recent years been subject to considerable commentary in diverse disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, religious studies and literary criticism. The vast majority of these studies focus on how or whether gift can be differentiated from exchange. In this dissertation I maintain that gift is a form of giving and receiving that is distinct from exchange or commerce, and that it need not create an obligation to return or reciprocate. This gift is given unilaterally to the need of the other and results in relatedness rather than indebtedness. This essay considers the characteristics of exchange and of gift, then reviews the thought of five writers on giving/receiving and reciprocation. This is followed by an overview of the gift theme in African Traditional Religion and the Judaic and Christian traditions, and a concluding chapter summarising thoughts on gift and self-interest, sharing, need, and gratitude. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M.A.(Religious Studies)

The term e-Government refers to providing citizens a series of services that can be conveniently conducted over the Internet. However, the potential to redefine and transform e-Government increasingly relies on citizens successfully establishing and managing a user account profile online. E-Government has not adequately addressed user-centric designs for social inclusion of all citizens on e-Government websites. There is a lack of research on the usability of user account management, and a clear lack of innovation in incorporating user-friendly authentication interfaces to accommodate a diverse user population given the wealth of existing research in web authentication techniques within Identity Management. The problem is e-Government has no standardized approach to evaluate and compare the usability of user account interfaces to accommodate a diverse user population and encourage improvements in making user account interfaces more user-friendly and accessible to citizens online. This study proposed extending a well-established usability evaluation methodology called GOMS to evaluate e-Government security interfaces for usability. GOMS, which comprises of Goals, Operations, Methods, and Selection, was used to compare the task time users took to complete similar goals on different websites. GOMS was extended to include Security Cases, which are security related goals users desire to accomplish along with the selected link and trail necessary to satisfy those goals. An observational study was conducted to capture the task time 31 users took to complete similar Security Cases on three popular e-Government websites (DMV.CA.gov, HealthCare.gov, and USPS.com). The study initially defined a catalog of six Security Cases specific to user account management and then established benchmark time predictions for each of the Security Cases using CogTool. The six Security Cases selected were as follows: Registration, Login, Change Settings, Forgot Password, Change Password, and Logout. The task time to complete each of the six Security Case on the three websites, along with statistical analysis and CogTool’s benchmark time predications, were used to quantify and compare the usability of these three websites. In order to capture demographic data and assess participant’s satisfaction using the website, the study conducted a post evaluation survey using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The survey captured age, gender, education, user satisfaction, and computer/security knowledge for each participant to assess design considerations to accommodate a diverse population. Finally, a library of Security Cases was established to compare and highlight the more effective user account interface designs on the three selected e-Government websites. This study found task time data from similar Security Cases could be categorized and used to successfully compare and highlight more effective user account interface designs. The study revealed gender and education had no distinctions in task time when performing user account management related tasks. The study also revealed seniors took significantly longer than any other age group to complete complex user account management interfaces. Additionally, CogTool did not prove to be effective in establishing reliable task time predictions to establish as benchmarks. The study concluded the GOMS method could successfully be used to establish a set of task time metrics in a catalog of Security Cases that can be used to evaluate and compare the usability of user account interfaces to accommodate a diverse user population on e-Government websites. Future usability research should be conducted to evaluate if there is a performance relationship between age and security interface complexity. Future research should also further evaluate GOMS as a viable methodology to evaluate other security interfaces not limited to e-Government and expand upon the library of Security Cases to highlight effective security interfaces designs on other websites to accommodate a diverse user population.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The aim of this study is to explore and encourage the use of accounts in the sense that events occur in our societies that compel those who are victims of those circumstances to give account of their experiences. The theme of this study is based on statements about events such as abuse, cheating, death and being HIV positive and on answers to such events. In respect of the theory of image restoration, Benoit (1995) discusses why people should give account of their wrongdoings and narrate such events. He states that language and communication practitioners as well as the great philosophers in communities have an interest in how image restoration works in our communities. This research focuses on the Benoit theory. People give account in everyday life of their wrongdoings or of accusations of wrongdoing, since this helps to restore their reputations. The focus of this study is on the use of accounts in Xhosa culture as a strategy in the narration of life stories. According to Benoit (1995), accounts are excuses and justifications that are responses to offence or failure events such as requests for an account of the violation of a norm, of the rebuke of another person and of the expression of surprise or disgust at certain behaviours. This study illustrates how to give account of your own experience. In this regard, Gergen (1994) states that the term “self-narrative” refers to an individual’s account of the relationship of self-relevant events across time, while White and Epston (1990) state that people give meaning to their lives and relationships by narrating stories about their experience of life.

In this paper, we argue that shadow activities and different levels of marketization of household production systematically distort international comparisons of aggregate gross household saving rates (HSRs): Higher shares of hidden income increase observed HSRs. Panel data for 18 (24) OECD-countries covering a period of a decade show that gross HSRs are positively related to the degree of corruption(used as a proxy for the propensity to shift economic activities into the shadow) and to the share of income from property and self employment. At the same time, gross HSRs are negatively related to the female employment rate, the ratio of indirect taxes to direct taxes, and to the tax wedge. One plausible story behind these phenomena might be that unobserved consumption and wages in the shadow labor market induce an upward bias in observed HSRs and profit shares, while the price level effects of a higher share of indirect taxes and a 'welfare state' effect lower observed HSRs. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

本論文旨在探討當前我國會計人員角色壓力的情形，並想瞭解角色壓力與各個變項的 關係，以便管理當局能據此採取因應措施，以減輕或消除角色壓力所帶來的不利影響 而增進管理目的的達成。 本論文計一冊五萬餘言，共分為五章二十節。 第一章為前言，說明研究動機、目的、研究假設及論文架構。 第二章為文獻探討，說明角色、角色壓力的意義、角色模型的介紹、角色壓力與各前 因變項後果變項的關係等。 第三章為研究方法，說明樣本的選擇、量表的類型及各量表的構面、信度、效度的測 試等。 第四章為研究結果，應用變異數分析、t 考驗、迴歸、相關、典型相關等統計方法以 求得各變項間的關係。 第五章為結論及建議，彙總前面各章節的結果做成結論，並提出建議以供外界參考。

Die Prozesse der stetigen, interaktiven und lokalen Herstellung der Alltagswirklichkeit zu untersuchen, ist das Anliegen der Ethnomethodologie, die dem interpretativen Paradigma der Soziologie zugerechnet wird. Ihre leitende Frage lautet: Welcher Praktiken bedienen sich Gesellschaftsmitglieder, um die geordnete Struktur ihrer Alltagswelt interaktiv hervorzubringen? Geschlecht wird entsprechend als ein interaktiv hergestelltes Merkmal sozialer Ordnung begriffen.

The thesis deals with the Proposal of a Directive of the European Parliament amending Council Directive 78/660/EEC on the annual accounts of certain types of companies (the Fourth Directive), as regards micro-entities, which proposes to exempt micro-entities on a voluntary basis from the scope of the Fourth Directive and thus to relieve them of the obligation to draw up annual accounts. The aim of the proposal is to reduce the administrative burden of European micro-entities. The proposal is examined in particular in terms of its potential impact on administrative costs of micro-entities in the Czech Republic, taking into account a specific implementation into the Czech legislation that would offer to the micro-entities the possibility to voluntarily choose among double entry bookkeeping and two alternatives: keeping tax records and keeping records of revenues with lump expenditures. The thesis then first examines the reasons for the creation of the proposal in the EU and on their basis finds its creation well-founded. Subsequently it analyzes whether the general reasons for the creation of the proposal in the EU can be applied to the specific case of the Czech Republic and also identifies several specific reasons for or against the adoption of considered legislative changes. The greatest emphasis...

This thesis deals with the risk management of savings accounts. Savings accounts are non- maturing liabilities bearing two embedded options. The first option is the client's right to withdraw deposits on notice. The second option is a bank's right to change the deposit rate on savings accounts whenever it wishes. This in practice means that a fierce competition may arise as banks can quickly react to competitor's change in the deposit rate. The embedded characteristics make the risk management of savings accounts challenging. We identify five key risks of savings accounts: liquidity risk, market risk (interest rate risk), systemic risk, reputational risk, and model risk. The thesis focuses on the interest rate risk and the method of replicating portfolios, which is a standard technique of the estimation of non-maturing liabilities' interest rate risk employed by banks. Using replicating portfolio approach, we derive that savings accounts are risky liabilities. We provide evidence that high deposit rates offered on numerous savings accounts in the Czech Republic have not been consistent with low market rates since January 2012, at least. We show that unsustainable deposit rates combined with competition among banks will lead to capital losses in some banks when market rates increase. JEL...