Previous research noticed a conflict between audit quality and efficiency that has been discussed when applying International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) in the audit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, there is a lack of research that concerns ISAs affect on audit quality and efficiency in the same study. Hence, the following research question was formulated: How has the implementation of International Standards on Auditing in Sweden affected audit quality and efficiency in the audit of small and medium-sized enterprises? Based on the perceptions of the interviewees, the implementation of ISAs has resulted in clearer risk assessment and increased use of analytical procedures, thereby improved audit quality. Further, ISAs have increased the hours spent on internal control, which impair audit efficiency since this activity is not judged as important when gathering audit evidence. This conflict between audit quality and efficiency is mostly explained by the shall requirements of ISAs since many of these are not applicable in the audit of SMEs. Our findings indicate a need to adapt ISAs and to allow deviations from shall requirements. The outcome would be that ISAs are closer to fulfil their aim in the audit of SMEs, which is higher audit quality without the loss of efficiency.

The aim of this two year master thesis is to study the knowledge production within the field of Textile Studies at Uppsala University, with special focus on the use of artifact documentation as a research method. With domain analysis as a theoretical framework, ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as historical and social aspects are studied in relation to the research process. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, observations and text analysis. In the analysis of the knowledge processes in the field, perspectives on tacit knowledge and the concept of documents, are used as a theoretical basis.   In the field of Textile Studies, the artifacts are used as one of the main objects of study, along with archival and pictorial sources. The main epistemological assumptions are that artifact analysis is dependent on a knowledge base, where technical handicraft skills, contextual knowledge and practical experience of object observation are the most important qualifications. The research process reflects these assumptions, where observation and documentation are used as methods of gaining knowledge.

Curling is an important part of the Canadian cultural landscape, and nowhere is this more evident than in Manitoba. However, the documentation of curling records within archival repositories in the province has occurred without a strategic plan. This thesis first explores the modern archival appraisal theories and then proposes an appraisal model that utilizes a combination of the documentation strategy and macroappraisal in order to develop a strategy for the documentation of curling in Manitoba. Using this model, this thesis first examines the historical and contemporary context of Canadian sport in order to determine curling’s place within it, and then identifies five key functions of curling in order to evaluate, using function-based appraisal methodologies, the quality of the records that have been collected in archival repositories. The functions, structures, and records of two urban curling clubs and one rural curling club in Manitoba are then examined as case studies, and an appraisal strategy is suggested in order to better ensure that the records documenting curling in Manitoba are preserved. This strategy can be used as a template not only for appraising the records of curling, but for all sports.

The aim of this study is to explore advertising and in particular advertising reception as a significant part of contemporary social practice. Although advertising in some form has been a feature of a wide range of societies, historically and culturally, its economic and social importance has perhaps never been greater. Advertising, across the industrial period and in particular since the Second World War, has through the entrenchment of market economies and the development of different media technologies increased its reach and density through a variety of means. It has become a significant media form, received by audiences differentiated by social, economic, spatial and other factors. This study enquires into the nature of audience reception of advertising through an exploration and application of the encoding/decoding media model. The study argues that attention to the textual and formal elements of the model need to be given greater emphasis and the decoding aspect of the model broadened to deal with a complexity of contextual factors contributing to the process. Advertising media by their nature are comprised of different formal and presentational means. The study focuses on newsprint, television and billboard and other outdoor advertising. The public and private environments in which these forms appear can be characterised through the social and symbolic difference between the domestic environment in which much television is viewed and the outdoor urban environment in which much billboard advertising appears. These are recognised as contributory elements in the reception of advertising and any significance the advert may have for its audience. Audience decoding of advertisements is then a combination of producer intent and a complexity of contributory factors brought to or found in the decoding process. This includes a recognition of various ways of seeing associated with different media forms and social and spatial circumstances and the presentation and reception of adverts as part of a flow of advertising and of a wider social experience. The relation between adverts and other texts also has important intertextual consequences for reception. In the process of decoding, it will be argued that social groups can be understood to act as interpretive communities and a process of advertising diffusion can be observed. Three empirical case studies form a survey of mainly car or car related advertising, featuring television, billboard and newsprint advertising, and highlight a range of possible decodings. The significance of historical and social factors is confirmed as important in securing particular readings of advertisements, and spatial, environmental and contextual features are emphasised in this survey. The survey acknowledges the significance of advertising form and medium and highlights the circumstances in which negotiated and oppositional readings may occur. This study re-emphasises that advertising texts form their signification within a complex arrangement of synchronic and diachronic circumstances in which immediate social and environmental factors should be accorded further significance in the study of advertising. The study concludes with a reflection on its methods and procedures and a consideration of further work that might be carried out in the area of empirical advertising studies. In the interest of a richer understanding of advertising, further research would acknowledge the complexities of audience reception and might include an enquiry into further advertising contexts and environments.

[Abstract]In recent years there has been a great deal of attention paid in early childhood settings to pedagogical documentation, a practice that has developed in thepreschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Following upon the devastation of World War II, educators, parents and children began working in this small city to reconstructtheir society and to build an exemplary system of education for young children. This system has become known as the Reggio Emilia approach. A hallmark of theReggio Emilia approach, pedagogical documentation, is a way of making visible the learning processes by which children and teachers work in early childhood centres.It may include anecdotal observations, children’s work, photographs, audio and video tape recordings, and children’s voiced ideas. An integral part of thedocumentation is the teacher’s reflective commentary. Pedagogical documentation can also be a focus for linking theory and practice.This qualitative instrumental case study involved looking at the personal qualities that have enabled three particular teachers located at an early childhoodcentre in Seattle, U.S.A., to embrace with enthusiasm the practice of pedagogical documentation. What are the lived experiences of these teachers? Do these teachers demonstrate particular attributes that foster “disposition to document”?Three teachers, along with two of the school’s parents, participated in a series of interviews which were analysed for significant themes. Subsequent conversations with the participants confirmed the initial themes I had drawn fromthe interview data.A relationship of reciprocity emerged - working with pedagogical documentation fostered dispositions that each teacher already had, while at the same time, these teachers were drawn to the Reggio Emilia approach because it resonated with them in an intuitive way. Pedagogical documentation demands a high level of intellectual commitment and a passionate engagement with one’steaching. Parallels were also found between pedagogical documentation and phenomenological research.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Computer Science, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-79).

Thesis (M.T.S.C.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 25).

In the Swedish Curriculum (Lpfö 1998, revised 2010) it is directly stated that childrens learning should be documented, a tool for this is to document by a pedagogical documentation. Therefore it is of great importance for preschool teachers to relate to a pedagogical documentation, in any aspect of it. I have in this study done a research on how preschool teachers use pedagogical documentation as a tool, and what their opinions are of implementing pedagogical documentation in their daily practice. This study is based on a qualitative method and six low-structured interviews executed in three different preschools. I have also used Vygotskijs sociocultural perspective as a theory in this study. The results of the study show that preschool teachers are using pedagogical documentation as a tool in their practice. They have a positive attitude towards it, and one interesting fact is that all of the preschool teachers find pedagogical documentation important for a childs development and learning. The aim is to use pedagogical documentation more often and always put the child in focus, when an educational documentation is in its process. / I läroplanen för förskolan (Lpfö 1998, rev. 2010) står det klart och tydligt att barns lärande och utveckling bör dokumenteras, ett verktyg för att möjliggöra detta är att dokumentera med hjälp av pedagogisk dokumentation. Således är det av stor vikt att som förskollärare relatera till en pedagogisk dokumentation, utifrån varje aspekt av den. Jag har i denna studie gjort en undersökning kring hur förskollärare använder pedagogisk dokumentation som ett verktyg i deras vardagliga pedagogiska arbete, samt vilka åsikter pedagoger har när det gäller att implementera den pedagogiska dokumentationen som ett arbetsverktyg i praktiken. Denna studie är baserad på en kvalitativ metod och sex låg-strukturerade intervjuer utförda på tre olika förskolor. Jag har även som teoretisk utgångspunkt redogjort kring Vygotskijs sociokulturella perspektiv i denna studie. Resultatet i denna studie visar på att förskollärare använder pedagogisk dokumentation som ett verktyg i deras pedagogiska arbete. De har en positiv attityd, och ett intressant faktum är att alla förskollärare i denna studie finner pedagogisk dokumentation av stor vikt, vad gäller ett barns utveckling och lärande. Målet är att använda den pedagogiska dokumentationen oftare och alltid sätta barnet i fokus, när en pedagogisk dokumentation är i sin process.

This dissertation explores the nature, purpose, function and role of language documentation in order to further our understanding of mechanisms of language transmission and maintenance in the face of language endangerment and the repression of indigenous identity. Beyond its traditional use for generating linguistic data, I argue that the act and the process of language documentation can be understood as a comprehensive means to evaluate the interactions between speakers and researchers and as the stage where various beliefs and emotions are displayed. Extending the notion of “sites” developed by Silverstein (1998) and Kroskrity (2009), I argue that the act of language documentation can create “sites” of linguistic transaction, of self recognition, and of ideological and emotional stance shift. To attain this goal, this project linguistically and ethnographically documents and describes Belizean Mopan, an endangered Mayan language spoken in the southern Petén region of Guatemala and in the Maya Mountain region (Toledo District) of Southern Belize as a case study. Ethnographic and linguistic observation suggest that characteristics of Belizean Mopan do not simply stem from its linguistic features but rather are derived from ethnic complexity, language ideologies, identity politics, the history of Belize and speakers’ awareness of the self. Linguistic biographies, interviews, participant observation, and ethnographic accounts indicate that the individual’s emotional attachments to the language and the sense of belonging to one’s linguistic community are crucial keys for effective language documentation and revitalization. Discourse and grammatical analysis of sound symbolic words in narratives suggest that speakers’ linguistic affects can be evoked through sound itself. The devices used during language documentation, such as voice and video recorders can be understood as “signifying instruments” (J. D. Hill 2014), which amplify or evoke speakers’ and researchers’ linguistic ideologies and/or affects. Tzik ‘respect’ plays a pivotal role in distinguishing Mopans from other Maya groups and many stories and personal narratives either explicitly or subtly demonstrate the concept and importance of tzik for regulating and maintaining the traditional community and for having a successful life, which resembles the secretos ‘secrets’ described in Hofling’s (1996: 109) account of Itzaj Maya lives. Focusing on tzik gained through being a ch’ija’an kristiyanojo ‘the grown-up people’, I argue that storytelling is a primary device to transmit and circulate traditional knowledge, worldview, ideologies and memories of Maya people from the present, the immediate past, and the mythological past and that in a sense, the role and meaning of dream divination and my language consultant, Orlando Sho’s musical performances can be equated with the practice of storytelling. The act of language documentation is a portal to the site of linguistic and cultural transaction and of world learning, in which I see a key to successful language renewal and revitalization.

xxxix, 729 p. : ill. (some col.) / Kurtop is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by approximately 15,000 people in Northeastern Bhutan. This dissertation is the first descriptive grammar of the language, based on extensive fieldwork and community-driven language documentation in Bhutan. When possible, analyses are presented in typological and historical/comparative perspectives and illustrated with ample data, drawn mainly from texts but also elicitation as need be. Within Tibeto-Burman, Kurtop has been placed within the East Bodish sub-branch. Data presented in this study support this placement and confirm previous observations that the East Bodish languages are close relatives, but not direct descendants of Classical Tibetan. The link between the current East Bodish languages and Bhutanese prehistory remains unclear but the Kurtop grammar is a first step at understanding the historical relations. The most remarkable aspect of Kurtop phonology is the tonal system, which is contrastive following the sonorants, but incipient following the obstruents, except the palatal fricative, for which tone has completely replaced a previous contrast in voicing. Tone is present only on the first syllable of stems, where vowels are also slightly longer. Kurtop is agglutinating and polysynthetic. Words generally consist of two or three syllables, but may be as long as five or six, depending mainly on suffixing morphology. Like most languages of South Asia, Kurtop exhibits verb-final syntax and the typological correlations that follow, including postposition (or relator noun constructions), auxiliaries after the verb, and sentence-final particles. The case marking system is 'pragmatic' ergative, where an ergative marker is required in some transitive contexts, but not in others. In other contexts, including for some intransitive verbs, the ergative signals a variety of pragmatic or semantic factors. This ergative system, though typologically unusual, is characteristic of many Tibeto-Burman languages, including neighboring Dzongkha and Tshangla. Nominalization and clause-chaining are two essential components of Kurtop syntax, constituting a majority of clauses and a diachronic source for much of the main clause grammar. The evidential/mirative system in Kurtop is also of typological interest, encoding a wide range of values pertaining to speaker expectation as well as mirativity and source of knowledge. / Committee in charge: Scott DeLancey, Chairperson and Advisor; Spike Gildea, Member; Doris Payne, Member; Gyoung-Ah Lee, Member; William Ayres, Outside Member