Audit quality plays an important role in the public sector, especially in an emerging market. However, there is no specific concept that defines and measures the term audit quality.  There is a gap of conceptual framework in the public sector the public sector that explains the need for audit and the attributes of audit quality. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the need for audit and the attributes of audit quality perceived by middle and senior management staff in public Corporation in Liberia. This study employs a qualitatitive research methodology. We collected primary data through email interviews that consisted of 8 participants from 5 different public Corporations in Liberia. we used Thematic (Template) analysis to summarize the data collected. The findings show that auditing in Public Corporation in Liberia is needed to ensure transparency and  accountability, agency/monitoring improved internal control, and business processes, as well as confidence and assurance for stakeholders. Furthermore, middle and senior management staff perceived that auditor's independence, auditors' competence, and audit partner or manager's attention to the audit, as well as audit personnel salaries, are important attributes that influence audit quality in public corporations in Liberia.Our findings form the basis for a conceptual framework for public sector auditing in a developing country.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(工学) / 乙第12832号 / 論工博第4102号 / 新制||工||1600(附属図書館) / 31370 / (主査)教授 角 哲也, 教授 堀 智晴, 教授 田中 茂信 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(社会健康医学) / 甲第20623号 / 社医博第81号 / 社新制||医||9(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科社会健康医学系専攻 / (主査)教授 木原 正博, 教授 中川 一路, 教授 平家 俊男 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Public Health / Kyoto University / DFAM

Given that the Chinese economy has experienced rapid growth over the last decade, developing Internet banking and transforming traditional lines of products into web sites beyond "brick and mortar" local branches will be the main drivers for both Chinese banks and foreign banks to tap into the available of Chinese savings. The primary objective of this study is to integrate trust and uncertainty theoretically into the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior in investigating determinants that affect Internet banking adoption in a developing country. Thus, this research attempts to evaluate empirically adoption models for Internet banking and employs an integrated model to investigate the factors of Internet banking adoption in Mainland China. Sample date will be collected from Chinese college students in Mainland China. The structural equation modeling technique will be employed to test the proposed hypotheses. This study collected data from two public universities in Shandong Province, China. The results of statistical analysis suggested that beliefs of social norms, behavioral control, and trust have significant influences on an individual's intention to adopt Internet banking service. Within this sample of Chinese students, only perceived image on its attitude belief was not significant. The new knowledge generated in this research study will increase our understanding in financial, accounting, management of information system, business administration, and decision making related to the adoption of Internet banking in Mainland China.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, a discussion has been going on in most western countries about the introduction of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in planning systems. As a result, SEA has been incorporated in national legislation for the assessment of government plans and programs. Additionally, developing nations have started to consider strategic environmental issues and SEA due to the stimulus that has been given by international environmental conventions like the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. However, until now few investigations have been carried out to assess how the current SEA framework suits developing nations. That is why an SEA pre-study that applies the current SEA process together with Ramsar specifications was developed in a case study for the Sonso Lagoon in Colombia. In this study an account of both the positive and negative experiences that resulted from applying the SEA/Ramsar framework is given, the importance of stakeholder participation throughout the SEA process is stressed, stakeholder inequalities created by social differences in developing nations are discussed, the importance of an interdisciplinary working approach is highlighted, and finally a strategic working methodology is proposed for the Sonso Lagoon.

This study will provide a clearer understanding of the construct, Third World, which may not seem to have a consensus meaning. This is because its perceived definition, which is linked, first to feudalism and then to the socio-politico conditions that existed during the period leading up to and immediately after the cold war means that its conceptual metamorphosis should have ceased once these periods were relegated to the annals of history. Whether and how contemporary definitions of Third World have changed since then should be of interest to scholars and is the focus of this study. This is because anecdotally speaking the media have reframed this construct in a manner that recreates, so called, Third World nations into the three categories of very Third World, somewhat Third World, and not at all Third World. What this study reveals, however, is that these distinctions and to some extent the designations of nations as first, second, and third worlds are misleading colloquialisms.

This qualitative study examined the differences among the experiences of 7 American undergraduate students; 4 who studied for a semester in Ghana, a developing country, and 3 who studied for a semester in England, a developed country. Using phenomenology as its guiding framework, transcribed interviews were analyzed and the focal phenomenon of the experience was sought. In addition, examination of the literature suggested that study abroad in less developed countries had the potential to impact the experience of students at a deeper level because of the potential for what Jean Piaget termed constructive disequilibrium (Blake & Pope, 2008, p. 61). The data indicated that both student groups had significant experiences abroad but that each group's significant experiences were linked to the nature of their host country. In Ghana, 3 students discussed their sometimes shocking experience as a minority while 1 participant, a 1st generation African-American, discussed the confusing experience of identifying with the racial majority there, but only until she was identified as an American when she spoke. In England, students were appalled to find the English people so openly expressing racism. They encountered people who were considered liberal by American standards and found they were identified in England as conservatives by English standards; a shock of sorts. The phenomenon encompassing all these experiences was of the students discovering they were part of a particular culture and starting to understand why they had certain values and attitudes. Findings of this research merely scratch the surface of the issue at hand and other researchers are encouraged to replicate the study with a larger number of participants, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and making sure that the shortcomings of this study in regards to validity are avoided.

This paper details collaboration in elective global health Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) between six schools of pharmacy, four in the United States (U.S.) and two in Uganda. This collaboration was initiated to build capacity within Uganda to advance pharmacy practice by strengthening pharmaceutical care education and research, and to provide benefits in the global and public health education and research for U.S. students and each partner University. Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda sought out collaborations to improve pharmacy education in Uganda and alleviate shortages in faculty they have experienced in expanding pharmacy training. In response to this need, Wilkes University, Binghamton University, the University of Minnesota, and East Tennessee State University developed faculty-led APPEs to help model and teach the principles of clinical pharmaceutical care. These faculty-led APPEs occur in various Ugandan locations throughout the year and incorporate Ugandan and U.S. students as co-learners. Ugandan and U.S. faculty act as co-facilitators of didactic, experiential, and research learning experiences. APPE activities include modeling the provision of pharmaceutical care, interprofessional patient care on inpatient wards, joint didactic lectures and case presentations, skills laboratory sessions, and research components. Developed to serve the needs of both the U.S. and Ugandan partners, the elective global health APPEs to Uganda have grown to be sustainable, mutually beneficial collaborations between the six schools of pharmacy and the Ugandan partners. Formal and informal communications between all of the entities involved have helped support continuity of these programs. We recommend such initiatives to other countries and institutions desiring to improve training for pharmaceutical care to advance pharmacy practice.

The scope of pharmacy practice in global health has expanded over the past decade creating additional education and training opportunities for students, residents and pharmacists. There has also been a shift from short-term educational and clinical experiences to more sustainable bidirectional partnerships between high-income countries (HICs) and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). As more institutional and individual partnerships between HICs and LMICs begin to form, it is clear that there is a lack of guidance for pharmacists on how to build meaningful, sustainable, and mutually beneficial programs. The aim of this paper is to provide guidance for pharmacists in HICs to make informed decisions on global health partnerships and identify opportunities for engagement in LMICs that yield mutually beneficial collaborations. This paper uses the foundations of global health principles to identify five pillars of global health engagement when developing partnerships: (a) sustainability, (b) shared leadership, (c) mutually beneficial partnerships, (d) local needs-based care and (e) host-driven experiential and didactic education. Finally, this paper highlights ways pharmacists can use the pillars as a framework to engage and support health care systems, collaborate with academic institutions, conduct research, and interface with governments to improve health policy.

While recovering from decades of conflict and trying to adjust to an incipient free market economy, public higher education in Afghanistan is currently confronted with rapidly increasing enrollment and inadequate government financing. The imbalance between high demand for and insufficient supply of higher education has led to a decrease in the quality of education and an urgent need to develop non-state sources of funding. Using Johnstone’s (1986) diversified funding model as the conceptual framework, this exploratory case study reports actors’ attitudes and perceptions of the financing policy options for Afghan public higher education and the impediments to introduce this model in Afghanistan. Data were collected from documents and semistructured interviews with Afghan administrators, politicians, instructors and students during four months in Kabul in 2008. The findings show that: a) the state has most likely reached the maximum financial contribution to public higher education and that little more can be expected; b) that the existing funding for this sub-sector is not managed well; c) that the current legal framework does not support expansion of the entrepreneurial activities that are developing at the higher education institutions; c) that the legal system does not provide incentives to develop Afghan national donor support; d) that the introduction of user fees, though currently under consideration, is confronted with significant technical impediments, and e) that the introduction of tuition is not on the agenda because the higher education institutions have found the introduction of “night school” as an alternative means that allows the charging of tuition under the guise of “extra” services. In light of the aggregated actors’ attitudes towards these funding options, this study identifies considerable legal, technical and political blockages that hinder the creation of a functioning diversified funding model. The findings indicate that one significant pre-requisite for any development of these new funding sources will be increased institutional autonomy. Without devolution in power from the centralized ministry to the institutions, the necessary incentives and mechanisms will probably be missing for the development of these alternative sources of funding.