No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of National Board Certified Teachers on student performance on Mississippi’s Subject Area Testing Program (SATP) English II assessment, an end-of-course exam that assesses 10th grade students in Mississippi school districts. The researcher sought to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the SATP English II scores of two groups of students (those taught by National Board Certified Teachers and those who were not). If there was a difference, the researcher sought to determine how the difference could be explained based on selected teacher demographic data (sex, race, highest degree received, years of experience, and National Board Certification status) and selected student demographic data (sex; race; previous scores on the Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition; and free- or reduced-lunch status). The results indicated that students who were taught by National Board Certified Teachers were more likely to have higher SATP English II scores than students who were taught by non-National Board Certified Teachers. Though previous researchers have concluded that teachers’ years of experience and highest degree received play a vital role in the difference in student achievement, this study did not confirm those findings. The results of this study, however, indicated that teacher and student demographic data were potentially important predictors of the language arts standardized test scores. Though these data can be used as predictors, the combined effect of teacher gender, teacher race, and years of experience, along with student race, student gender, student lunch status, and prior Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition Language Arts scores were not found to be statistically significant in this study.

Titel: Oberoende och rådgivning - En kvalitativ studie om rådgivningens påverkan på oberoendet Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Zaneta Olszak och Armelinda Ullini Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2024 – maj Syfte: Syftet är att förstå hur revisorer hanterar och resonerar kring rådgivningens påverkan på oberoendet. Metod: Denna studie består av en kvalitativ metod med en abduktiv ansats där sju semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med auktoriserade revisorer. Resultat & slutsatser: Resultaten tyder på att det är en fördel att tillhandahålla fristående rådgivning till revisionsklienter speciellt till små och ägarledda bolag på grund av begränsade resurser, i den mån det inte påverkar oberoendet. Vid egenintressehot anses det synliga oberoendet påverkas mer än det faktiska oberoendet. Det faktiska oberoendet anses försämras vid självgranskningshot. Gränsen mellan fristående och revisionsrådgivning anses inte alltid vara tydlig. Hantering av självgranskningshot sker genom arbetsfördelning och second opinion. Dessutom vid osäkerhet om gränsen mellan fristående och revisionsrådgivning efterfrågas en second opinion från kollegor.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien har bidragit med förståelsen för hur revisorer hanterar och resonerar kring rådgivningens påverkan på oberoendet, vilket inkluderar förståelsen om oberoendeproblematiken gällande gränsen mellan revisions- och fristående rådgivning. Resultatet kan även vara viktig för reglerare för att förbättra etiska normer och regelverk. Förslag till framtida forskning: Att undersöka skillnader i hur revisorer anser att rådgivningen påverkar oberoendet och hur oberoende problematik hanteras utifrån revisionsbyråns storlek. Ett annat förslag är att vidare fördjupa sig i att undersöka hur revisorer går tillväga gällande gränsen mellan revisions- och fristående rådgivning.  Nyckelord: oberoende, revisionsrådgivning, fristående rådgivning, auktoriserad revisor / Title: Independence and advisory services - A qualitative study on the impact of advisory services on independence Level: Bachelor's Degree thesis in Business Administration Author: Zaneta Olszak and Armelinda Ullini Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2024 - may Aim: The aim is to understand how auditors manage and reason about the impact of advisory services on independence.  Method: This study consists of a qualitative method and abductive approach where seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with Certified Public Accountants.  Results and conclusions: The results suggest that there is an advantage in providing independent advice to audit clients especially to small and owner-managed companies due to limited resources, as long as independence is not affected. In the case of self-interest threats, it is considered to affect more independence in appearance than it affects independence in fact. Independence in fact is considered impaired in the case of self-review threats. The boundary between non-audit services and audit advisory is not always considered clear. Management of self-review threats takes place through division of labor and second opinion. In addition, if there is uncertainty about the boundary between non-audit services and audit advisory, a second opinion is requested from colleagues. Contribution of the thesis: The study has contributed to the understanding of how auditors handle and reason about advisory services influence on independence, which includes the understanding of the independence problem regarding the border between audit advisory and non-audit services. The result may also be important for regulators to improve ethical standards and regulations. Suggestions for future research: To investigate differences in how auditors consider advisory services to affect independence and how independence issues are handled based on the size of the audit firm. Another suggestion is to delve further into examining how auditors approach the boundary between audit advisory and non-audit services. Key words: independence, audit advisory, non-audit services, Certified Public Accountant

Syftet med studien var att undersöka distriktssköterskors och undersköterskors upplevelser av medarbetarsamtal och dess motiverande funktion på en vårdenhet. Utifrån en kvalitativ metod undersöktes detta genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med distriktssköterskor och undersköterskor som arbetade på samma vårdenhet. Genom en tematisk analys identifierades fyra teman: struktur och process, feedback, chefens engagemang och trivsel. Resultatet av studien visade att deltagarna uppskattade strukturerade medarbetarsamtal, samtidigt som de önskade mer flexibilitet för att göra samtalen mer personliga och öppna för diskussion. De efterfrågade också mer konstruktiv feedback för att kunna identifiera utvecklingsområden och därigenom främja arbetsmotivationen. Chefens engagemang framstod som avgörande för att medarbetarsamtalen skulle vara effektiva och motiverande. Diskussion om trivsel under medarbetarsamtalen sågs som ett sätt att öka engagemanget och arbetsmotivationen på arbetsplatsen. Studiens slutsats underströk vikten av att individanpassa medarbetarsamtalen för att främja arbetsmotivationen hos medarbetarna. / The purpose of the study was to investigate district nurses and certified nurse assistants experiences of performance appraisal interviews and its motivating function in a healthcare unit. Using a qualitative method, this was examined through eight semi-structured interviews with district nurses and certified nurse assistants working in the same healthcare unit. Through thematic analysis, four themes were identified: structure and process, feedback, manager engagement, and well-being. The results of the study showed that participants appreciated structured performance appraisal interviews while also desiring more flexibility to make the conversations more personal and open for discussion. They also requested more constructive feedback to identify areas for development and thereby promote work motivation. Manager engagements were perceived as crucial for the effectiveness and motivation of performance appraisal interviews. Discussion about well-being during performance appraisal interviews was seen as a way to increase engagement and work motivation in the workplace. The study's conclusion emphasized the importance of individualizing performance appraisal interviews to promote employees' work motivation.

Conducting internal investigations in the corporate environment in South Africa has become an everyday occurrence where companies need to take action after an incident took place. Each company has a different view regarding their processes followed when investigating internal matters, and the different objectives that drive the process. Some companies would prefer the suspects be disciplined and removed from their employment, and no further action taken after the dismissal and some companies would have a different approach and would follow the process through the disciplinary, the criminal prosecution and institute civil litigation to recover losses. Investigation differs, and the approach would be different as well with various reasons for the approach of the company. To establish what the methodology is that is followed when initiating an internal investigation and the drive behind the methodology followed was done. The methodology and process followed determines how the internal investigation process is done and concluded to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again, and thus protect the corporate environment in South Africa. / Police Practice / M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)

Tyrimo objektas – ekologiniai ūkiai Darbo tikslas – nustatyti ekologinio ūkininkavimo plėtros kryptis ir suformuoti skatinimo priemones Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Atskleisti ekologinio ūkininkavimo sampratos esmę ir svarbą darniam žemės ūkio vystimuisi. 2. Identifikuoti ekologinio ūkininkavimo plėtrą lemiančius veiksnius. 3. Išanalizuoti ekologinio ūkininkavimo būklę Lietuvoje ir nustatyti plėtros tendencijas. 4. Nustatyti ekologinio ūkininkavimo plėtros skatinimo galimybes. Tyrimo metodai: Lietuvos ir užsienio autorių mokslinės literatūros analizė, sisteminimas ir apibendrinimas taikant specialiosios literatūros bendruosius mokslinius tyrimo metodus: mokslinės literatūros loginę analizę ir sintezę, grafinį vaizdavimo metodą. / Research object: – the ecofarms Research aim: - to set the direction for the development of organic farming and create incentives. Research objectives: 1. To reveal the essence of the concept of organic farming and the importance of sustainable agricultural development 2. To identify the development of organic farming factors 3. To analyze the organic farming state of Lithuania and identify trends 4. Set the promotion of organic farming development opportunities Research methods: the Lithuanian and foreign authors of scientific literature analysis, organization and summary of the literature with the general research methods: scientific literature, logical analysis and synthesis, visualization method.

The role of social capital in forming organizational commitment is the focus of this research. Organizational social capital is the idea that social relationships have value in the organization. The theoretical framework is based on Kanter's (1993) structure of organizational commitment. This research views the structure within organizations based on global empowerment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and social capital. In addition, the role that race, income, and education affect the organizational structure is also taken into account. The organizational configuration was assembled using a structural equation model with latent variables employing a sample of 235 certified nurse aides. The sample was collected from 10 nursing homes in the Dallas-Ft.Worth metropolitan area. It was expected that Kanter's general format is reestablished within the sample. In fact, the study found that empowerment significantly influences job satisfaction. In turn, job satisfaction does foster organizational commitment. Although Kanter's original thesis was supported in this analysis, it was also determined that social capital plays a significant mediating role in creating organizational commitment. Furthermore, this research indicates that social capital alone can create organizational commitment. Thus, in conclusion, this research builds on Kanter's original idea and argues that organizational commitment is based on job satisfaction, global empowerment, and social capital.

L'utilisation des méthodes formelles est de plus en plus courante dans le développement logiciel, et les systèmes de types sont la méthode formelle qui a le plus de succès. L'avancement des méthodes formelles présente de nouveaux défis, ainsi que de nouvelles opportunités. L'un des défis est d'assurer qu'un compilateur préserve la sémantique des programmes, de sorte que les propriétés que l'on garantit à propos de son code source s'appliquent également au code exécutable. Cette thèse présente un compilateur qui traduit un langage fonctionnel d'ordre supérieur avec polymorphisme vers un langage assembleur typé, dont la propriété principale est que la préservation des types est vérifiée de manière automatisée, à l'aide d'annotations de types sur le code du compilateur. Notre compilateur implante les transformations de code essentielles pour un langage fonctionnel d'ordre supérieur, nommément une conversion CPS, une conversion des fermetures et une génération de code. Nous présentons les détails des représentation fortement typées des langages intermédiaires, et les contraintes qu'elles imposent sur l'implantation des transformations de code. Notre objectif est de garantir la préservation des types avec un minimum d'annotations, et sans compromettre les qualités générales de modularité et de lisibilité du code du compilateur. Cet objectif est atteint en grande partie dans le traitement des fonctionnalités de base du langage (les «types simples»), contrairement au traitement du polymorphisme qui demande encore un travail substantiel pour satisfaire la vérification de type. / Formal methods are rapidly improving and gaining ground in software. Type systems are the most successful and popular formal method used to develop software. As the technology of type systems progresses, new needs and new opportunities appear. One of those needs is to ensure the faithfulness of the translation from source code to machine code, so that the properties you prove about the code you write also apply to the code you run. This thesis presents a compiler from a polymorphic higher-order functional language to typed assembly language, whose main property is that type preservation is verified statically, through type annotations on the compiler's code. Our compiler implements the essential code transformations for a higher-order functional language, namely a CPS conversion and closure conversion as well as a code generation. The thesis presents the details of the strongly typed intermediate representations and the constraints they set on the implementation of code transformations. Our goal is to guarantee type preservation with a minimum of type annotations, and without compromising readability and modularity of the code. This goal is already a reality for simple types, and we discuss the problems remaining for polymorphism, which still requires substantial extra work to satisfy the type checker.

O impacto da certificação foi o tema central desse projeto de pesquisa que consistiu em identificar o seu efeito sobre variáveis de interesse, isolado de outras fontes de variação. Para isso, uma metodologia de avaliação de impacto foi adaptada e testada para analisar a Certificação Socioambiental Rainforest Alliance da Rede de Agricultura Sustentável RAS na cafeicultura em Minas Gerais. A Certificação Socioambiental cresceu significativamente em fazendas produtoras de café no Brasil e no mundo desde sua criação em 1998 até o ano 2007. Os produtos vendidos com essa certificação carregam consigo a mensagem que vêm de sistemas de produção que promovem mais desenvolvimento humano e mais conservação da biodiversidade quando comparados aos sistemas convencionais. Contudo, o processo de Certificação Socioambiental não mede diretamente essas diferenças. Na rotina da certificação, o auditor avalia a conformidade dos sistemas de produção a padrões pré-estabelecidos. A ausência de avaliações de impactos pode acarretar questionamentos referentes às reais transformações decorrentes da certificação. Outro questionamento refere-se à elaboração das normas, as quais foram formuladas em processos de consulta pública com as partes interessadas, as quais estabelecem uma referência do que é desejável segundo a percepção de cada participante. Esses atores, num determinado momento ou contexto, podem ter dado maior ênfase a alguns aspectos que outros e não explicitam quais os problemas dos sistemas de produção conve ncional que pretendiam superar. Além disso, podem ocorrer mudanças de conduta e paradigmas nos sistemas convencionais que podem afetar no tempo as decisões das consultas públicas. Como parte do objetivo desse projeto pretendeu-se obter uma referência de sistemas de produção com e sem certificação como subsídio para elaboração das normas de certificação e para orientação dos trabalhos dos auditores. O método de avaliação de impacto utilizado foi comparar os empreendimentos agrícolas certificadas com os nãocertificados de forma a obter o cenário contrafactual, isto é, qual seria a situação dos empreendimentos certificados se, hipoteticamente, não tivessem passado pelo processo de certificação. A amostra foi de seis empreendimentos agrícolas do Sul de Minas e dez do Cerrado Mineiro, um total de 444 trabalhadores entrevistados. Os resultados foram gerados por meio da análise quantitativa dos dados primários obtidos por meio de entrevistas com os trabalhadores e com a administração da fazenda, análise de imagens de satélite e observações de campo. Os três temas selecionados para testar a metodologia foram bem estar dos trabalhadores, preservação da biodiversidade e conservação dos recursos hídricos e redução da poluição. Os resultados afirmaram a importância da Certificação Socioambiental para promoção da conservação da biodiversidade e do desenvolvimento humano no curto e longo prazo. Porém, não foram identificados impactos em alguns aspectos analisados, bem como uma manifestação distinta dos impactos nas regiões. A metodologia mostrou-se apropriada para identificar os impactos da certificação e para definir uma referência que contribua substancialmente para construção das normas e para orientar o trabalho de auditoria de forma a acentuar a contribuição da Certificação Socioambiental para promover a conservação da biodiversidade e o desenvolvimento humano. / The impact of certification was this research project´s major focus, which consisted of the identification of the effect of certification over interest variables, isolated from other sources of variation. Specifically in this dissertation, an impact assessment methodology was adapted and tested to analyze the impact of Rainforest Alliance socioenvironmental certification scheme, utilized by the Sustainable Agriculture Network - SAN (in Portuguese, RAS), in coffee plantations located in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Socio-environmental certification has increased significantly in coffee-producing farms in Brazil, as well as worldwide, since its creation in 1998 up to 2007. Commercialized products with this type of certification carry a message that they are rooted in production systems which promote greater human development and biodiversity conservation values when compared to conventional systems. However, the socio-environmental certification process does not currently measure these differences in a direct way. During certification procedures, an auditor assesses whether production systems are accomplishing pre-established standards. The absence of impact assessments might raise doubts regarding real transformations provoked by certification. Another doubt relates to the establishment of such standards, which were elaborated in public meetings among interested parties that established a reference about what is desirable according to each participants perception. These stakeholders, in a given moment or context, may have emphasized some particular aspects without clarifying which of the problems of the conventional systems they intended to solve. Moreover, changes might occur in the conduct or paradigms of conventional systems which can affect decisions made in public meetings. As part of this projects objective, it was intended to obtain a reference for production systems with and without certification, to subsidize the establishment of standards and to guide auditing procedures. The impact assessment method utilized was based on comparing certified and non-certified agricultural enterprises in such a way as to obtain a non-factual scenario, in other words, what would occur in the certified enterprises if, hypothetically, they had not been targeted by certification. The sample consisted of sixteen agricultural enterprises in Brazil. Results were generated through quantitative analyses of primary data gathered through interviews with farm workers and managers, satellite image analyses, and field observations. There technical issues selected to test the methodology were worker welfare, biodiversity preservation and water resource conservation, and pollution impact. Results indicate an important role of Socio-environmental Certification in promoting conservation of biodiversity and human development in the short and long run. Some analyzed aspects did not present impacts, however, and some impacts presented a differentiated response in different regions. The methodology used was concluded to be suitable for identifying certification impacts and for defining a reference to substantially contribute to building standards, as well as guide auditors´ work in such a way as to increase the contribution of socio-environmental certification to biodiversity conservation and human development.