The Railway in the News Media takes the railway topic as a specialized one of those the media deal with as a part of its general news.. The rail-news usually does not possess its own section - in contrast with some other specialized news topics, the railway news usually does not possess its own section. The railway topics occur in the economic, domestic or even the regional sections. Nevertheless, there are people specializing themselves in this topic in editorial staffs. Therefore, it is questionable whether the reservations about the quality of the rail-news are justified. This work attempts to research these processes. It deals with the professionalism of the rail-news processing. The work monitors impartiality of the news on the one hand and using of language and semiotics on the other hand. The basis of the work is a quantitative analysis of media contents dedicated to railway in selected printed media. The output is a summary of accuracy of reporting on operational, technical and historical facts about railway and of terminological correctness. It also examines the balance of railway subjects coverage in media. The research results in Czech news media making mistakes in specialized topic news. However. the mistakes are not too serious. Approximately one quarter of analyzed news contents were...

The present thesis is an empirical analysis of lobbying in the United States. First, it analyses an added value of lobbyists' specialisation and connections to congressmen using a method of matching. Second, it extends the analysis by studying the impact of competition for access to congressmen on the added value of lobbyists. Third, it analyses lobbying from the point of view of congressmen by studying the impact of their specialisation on committee assignments on the amount of campaign financing they obtain from lobbyists. The analysis is done using data about lobbying reports as well as committee assignments of congressmen and campaign contributions they obtain from lobbyists in the 106th to 110th congress, corresponding to years 1999-2008. The present thesis also provides a brief summary of related literature analysing different aspects of lobbying.

Cette recherche s’intéresse aux représentations mentales d’adultes ayant des expertises différentes en biologie végétale.Comme l’indiquent les nombreuses études faites dans ce domaine, l’expertise a des conséquences sur le système cognitif : augmentation et profondeur des connaissances et organisation différente de ces connaissances. Nous nous intéressons à différents types d’expertise en considérant des tout-venant, des viticulteurs et des biologistes. Le premier test consiste à mesurer les connaissances des participants sur la biologie végétale. Puis, à l’aide de deux outils, le modèle de codage SFC de Goel et al. (1996) et l’analyse du discours, nous avons recueilli les connaissances contextuelles (test 2) et des productions d’inférences (test 3) des participants afin d’observer les différentes représentations mentales selon le modèle de la triangulation systémique (Le Moigne, 2006) et les caractéristiques des connaissances. Le nombre de connaissances et leurs caractéristiques observées sont compatibles avec nos hypothèses, toutefois, nous ne constatons pas de différence entre les représentations des tout-venant et des viticulteurs en termes de pôles systémiques (structure, fonction, comportement).L’ensemble des résultats confirme l’intérêt porté aux types d’expertise dans un même domaine. Nous proposons dans une recherche future d’explorer l’effet de la transmission culturelle chez le jeune enfant en fonction de l’expertise des parents. / This research looks into the mental representations of adults who have different levels of expertise in vegetal biology.As many studies in this field indicate, expertise has consequences on the cognitive system: increase and depth of knowledge, and different organization of this knowledge. We focus on different types of expertise by considering all-comers, wine-growers and biologists. The first test is meant to measure participants’ knowledge in vegetal biology. Then using the SBF coding model of Goel et al. (1996) and analysis of discourse, we gathered participants’ contextual knowledge (test 2) and productions of inferences (test 3) in order to observe the different mental representations according to the systemic triangulation model (Le Moigne, 2006) and the characteristics of knowledge. The amount and characteristics of knowledge we observed are in accordance with our hypothesis; however, we do not observe any difference between all-comers’ and wine-growers’ representations in terms of systemic poles (structure, function, behavior). The results as a whole confirm the interest in types of expertise within one field. In a future research, we suggest the study of the effect of cultural transmission on young children according to their parents’ level of expertise.

Power and influence in the democratic process is a controversial area. In an effort to contribute to this is the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence that public officials have in the political process and if theories connected to influence can be observed in officials’ statements. We also examined if it differs between two political areas (environment and school). The choice of these two areas is based on the fact that these differ in nature when it comes to technical complexity. The study examines four public administrative officials, two administrators that work in the environmental area and two from the school area. We used semi-structured interviews in which the public officials subjective experience of influence were discussed. The study showed that the public officials in general have the opportunity to influence the political process through key factors such as their expertise, participating in networks and trough certain personal characteristics. We also saw that the public officials differ between the two areas concerning some of these key factors.

Thesis advisor: Natalia Sarkisian / The recent proliferation of technologies to collect and analyze “Big Data” has changed the research landscape, making it easier for some to use unprecedented amounts of real-time data to guide decisions and build ‘knowledge.’ In the three articles of this dissertation, I examine what these changes reveal about the nature of expertise and the position of the researcher. In the first article, “Monopoly or Generosity? ‘Rock Stars’ of Big Data, Data Democrats, and the Role of Technologies in Systems of Expertise,” I challenge the claims of recent scholarship, which frames the monopoly of experts and the spread of systems of expertise as opposing forces. I analyze video recordings (N= 30) of the proceedings of two professional conferences about Big Data Analytics (BDA), and I identify distinct orientations towards BDA practice among presenters: (1) those who argue that BDA should be conducted by highly specialized “Rock Star” data experts, and (2) those who argue that access to BDA should be “democratized” to non-experts through the use of automated technology. While the “data democrats” ague that automating technology enhances the spread of the system of BDA expertise, they ignore the ways that it also enhances, and hides, the monopoly of the experts who designed the technology. In addition to its implications for practitioners of BDA, this work contributes to the sociology of expertise by demonstrating the importance of focusing on both monopoly and generosity in order to study power in systems of expertise, particularly those relying extensively on technology. Scholars have discussed several ways that the position of the researcher affects the production of knowledge. In “Distance Makes the Scholar Grow Fonder? The Relationship Between Analytical Distance and Critical Reflection on Methods in Big Data Analytics,” I pinpoint two types of researcher “distance” that have already been explored in the literature (experiential and interactional), and I identify a third type of distance—analytical distance—that has not been examined so far. Based on an empirical analysis of 113 articles that utilize Twitter data, I find that the analytical distance that authors maintain from the coding process is related to whether the authors include explicit critical reflections about their research in the article. Namely, articles in which the authors automate the coding process are significantly less likely to reflect on the reliability or validity of the study, even after controlling for factors such as article length and author’s discipline. These findings have implications for numerous research settings, from studies conducted by a team of scholars who delegate analytic tasks, to “big data” or “e-science” research that automates parts of the analytic process. Individuals who engage in self-tracking—collecting data about themselves or aspects of their lives for their own purposes—occupy a unique position as both researcher and subject. In the sociology of knowledge, previous research suggests that low experiential distance between researcher and subject can lead to more nuanced interpretations but also blind the researcher to his or her underlying assumptions. However, these prior studies of distance fail to explore what happens when the boundary between researcher and subject collapses in “N of one” studies. In “The Collapse of Experiential Distance and the Inescapable Ambiguity of Quantifying Selves,” I borrow from art and literary theories of grotesquerie—another instance of the collapse of boundaries—to examine the collapse of boundaries in self-tracking. Based on empirical analyses of video testimonies (N=102) and interviews (N=7) with members of the Quantified Self community of self-trackers, I find that ambiguity and multiplicity are integral facets of these data practices. I discuss the implications of these findings for the sociological study of researcher distance, and also the practical implications for the neoliberal turn that assigns responsibility to individuals to collect, analyze, and make the best use of personal data. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Devido aos diversos crimes financeiros cometidos por políticos e não políticos, que por consequência acentuam a crise econômica e política no Brasil, se faz necessária a presença de um órgão fiscalizador. Nessa linha, o Ministério Público Federal (MPF) atua de forma a defender a ordem jurídica e os interesses pessoais por meio dos Procuradores da República. Como seus auxiliares, os analistas da área pericial contábil buscam, entre outras atribuições, realizar perícias, exames, vistorias e avaliações, sob a forma de pareceres, laudos e relatórios, a fim de assessorar os membros quando a matéria em litígio versar sobre a ciência contábil. Diante de sua posição ante os Procuradores, a Justiça Federal e a sociedade, este estudo teve como objetivo analisar as percepções de analistas da área de perícia e especialidade em contabilidade sobre suas práticas profissionais. Essa pesquisa é descritiva, com abordagem qualitativa, sendo, quanto aos procedimentos, uma pesquisa etnográfica e survey. No que se refere à amostra e as técnicas de coleta de dados, foram realizadas entrevistas presenciais com 12 analistas da área pericial contábil no Distrito Federal, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná e São Paulo, pelo uso de um roteiro semiestruturado de oito questões, cujas respostas foram analisadas pela técnica de análise de conteúdo; e aplicados questionários online, com 37 questões, para 13 analistas dessas mesmas regiões, analisados por estatística descritiva. Os resultados permitem inferir que há singularidades na atuação desses analistas, especialmente pela dificuldade em classificá-los como como peritos contábeis ou contadores forenses. Outro resultado encontrado foi o fato de nenhum entrevistado ter atuado com essas áreas antes de ingressar no MPF, o que corrobora com certas dificuldades suscitadas em adquirir a experiência necessária para uma boa atuação no órgão. Pelo questionário aplicado pôde-se verificar que as competências de maior importância, para a amostra, são as comportamentais, e não as técnicas. Os domínios obtidos sobre as competências relacionadas nesse estudo se apresentaram, no geral, com índices inferiores às importâncias atribuídas a elas. Ou seja, no geral, o domínio está aquém da importância da competência, indicando uma necessidade de melhoria na capacitação da amostra. No que tange aos pontos de melhoria em suas práticas profissionais, as faltas de feedback e o baixo número de analistas são os principais aspectos, além, da valorização profissional. A pesquisa permite inferir que a atuação desses profissionais não segue inteiramente a Norma Brasileira de Contabilidade Técnica sobre Perícia Contábil (NBC TP 01), nem possui todos os aspectos de uma contabilidade forense, apresentando, tanto particularidades de cada uma dessas áreas, quanto pontos em comum, mas não atendendo todos os requisitos necessários para enquadrar sua atuação como a de um perito contábil ou de um contador forense. Outra inferência é a de que, comparando-se a atuação dos contadores forenses norte-americanos com os analistas da área pericial contábil do MPF, há semelhanças, como os casos envolvendo declarações de demonstrações financeiras, detecção e resposta à fraude, cálculos de danos econômicos e falência e insolvência; e distinções, pois os analistas não atuam em casos de lei de família e prevenção à fraude. No que se refere às importâncias mais importantes, destaca-se a capacidade de entrevista e testemunho e comunicação oral eficaz, que no contexto do MPF não são tão relevantes, o que difere dos contadores forenses norte-americanos e do Reino Unido. / Due to the various financial crimes committed by politicians and non-politicians, which consequently accentuate the economic and political crisis in Brazil, it is necessary to have a monitoring body. In this line, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) acts in a way to defend the legal order and personal interests through the Attorneys of the Republic. As their assistants, analysts in the accounting expert area seek, among other duties, to carry out surveys, examinations, surveys and evaluations, in the form of opinions, reports and reports, in order to advise members when the matter in dispute is related to science accounting In view of its position before Prosecutors, Federal Courts and society, this study aimed to analyze the perceptions of analysts in the area of expertise and specialty in accounting over their professional practices. This research is descriptive, with a qualitative approach, being, regarding the procedures, an ethnographic research and survey. With regard to the sample and data collection techniques, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 12 analysts from the accounting expert area in the Distrito Federal, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and São Paulo, for the use of a semi-structured script of eight questions, responses were analyzed by the content analysis technique; and 37 online questionnaires were applied to 13 analysts from the same regions, analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results allow us to infer that there are singularities in the performance of these analysts, especially because of the difficulty in classifying them as accounting experts or forensic accountants. Another result was the fact that no interviewee had acted with these areas before joining the MPF, which corroborates with certain difficulties involved in acquiring the necessary experience for a good performance in the body. Through the questionnaire applied it was possible to verify that the most important competences, for the sample, are the behavioral ones, not the technical ones. The domains obtained on the competences related to this study were generally lower than the amounts attributed to them. That is, in general, the domain falls short of the importance of competence, indicating a need for improvement in the training of the sample. Regarding the points of improvement in their professional practices, the lack of feedback and the low number of analysts are the main aspects, besides, the professional valorization. The research allows to infer that the performance of these professionals does not follow fully the Norma Brasileira de Contabilidade Técnica sobre Perícia Contábil (NBC TP 01), nor does it have all the aspects of a forensic accounting, presenting both particularities of each one of these areas, as points in common, but not answering all the necessary requirements to fit their performance as that of an accounting expert or a forensic accountant. Another inference is that, comparing the performance of US forensic accountants with MPF accountant analysts, there are similarities, such as cases involving financial statement disclosures, fraud detection and response, calculations of economic damages and bankruptcy and insolvency; and distinctions, as analysts do not act in cases of family law and fraud prevention. With regard to the most important issues, the interview and testimony and effective oral communication skills, which in the context of the MPF are not so relevant, stand out from the US forensic accountants and the United Kingdom.

C’est à partir du XIXème siècle, qui signe l’avènement de la conception romantique de l'artiste, que l'authenticité devient la qualité première de l’oeuvre d’art. Conditionnant la valeur de l’oeuvre sur les plans économique et artistique, l’authenticité apparaît toutefois comme difficile à définir dans la mesure où elle repose sur une réalité complexe. Elle est en outre mal aisée à prouver, l’incertitude étant le propre de l’histoire de l’art. Amené à composer avec ces contraintes, c’est principalement via l'erreur sur les qualités essentielles et le droit de la responsabilité civile que le droit des obligations appréhende la question de l’authenticité. Les solutions qu’il apporte, satisfaisantes en terme de protection des contractants, manquent toutefois de pertinence face aux nouvelles formes de création et à la réalité du travail de l’expert. / As a consequence of the romantic conception of artists, the intense interest in authenticity of works of art is relatively recent. Being the key to the determination of both their economic and artistic values, authenticity is hard to define as it is based on a complex reality. It is also uneasy to prove, as art history remains uncertain in many aspects. As it is currently defined in french contract and tort law, authenticity is meant to ensure parties’ consent. However, this conception might not be relevant in the light of contemporary forms of art and art authentication.

This dissertation investigates how economic expertise influences development governance by examining how state economists establish methods for decision-making in global development finance. It contributes to debates over expert power by taking a science studies approach to address two problems in existing theories and accounts of experts. First, social reformers, heterodox planning theorists, and development critics from both the left and the right treat rationality and politics asymmetrically. When experts fail, politics has triumphed. When experts succeed, the credit goes to rationality, not politics. Second, within this asymmetrical approach, investigations and explanations of expert power neglect a principal conduit of expert influence: their methods. This dissertation turns the focus to economists’ efforts to establish their methods as governing rationales and the effects these methods engender. Doing so allows us to approach particular forms of state rationality such as neoliberalism or managerialism not as processes of depoliticization, of intellectual rationality prevailing over political interests and values, but as explicit political accomplishments with both the power to bring about political effects and the susceptibility to being challenged. State economists’ efforts to establish three paradigmatic development economic methods in particular—governance indicators, growth diagnostics, and randomized controlled trials—and these methods’ effects on power relations, decision-making, and the distribution of resources were assessed using an embedded case study design of their use for decision-making in administering a new development finance fund, the United States Millennium Challenge Account. A mixed methods approach using interviews, documents, and various datasets found that economists could not realize the power of their intellectual rationality without exercising power thought to be the reserve of politicos. Economists had to employ various strategies of power both to gain autonomy from bureaucratic authorities and overcome opposition from expert groups holding alternative rationalities. This involved enrolling bystanders and opponents in their entrepreneurial efforts to establish methods. The more opposition economists faced, the more power they had to exercise and allies they had to enroll. Once enrollment was successful, economists’ status was elevated and their methods became indispensable to particular decision-making processes. These new ways of making decisions introduced different biases that elevated economists’ concerns, objectives, and ways of knowing. They also impacted the distribution of development finance in ways that exacerbated inequality in at least the short to medium term. This dissertation’s focus on economists’ political work and methods has implications for planning practice because it opens up new political possibilities. Rather than treating state expertise and public participation as antagonistic, zero-sum confrontations, planners can pursue democratic values by both “opening up the state” and “getting inside” methods. If orthodox economists had to overcome opposition from groups of opposing experts with competing rationalities then other experts can likewise use political strategies to establish their methods as governing rationales. Even in situations where this is not possible or desirable, understanding methods’ political effects can instigate reflective practice and possible change.

This study focuses on the factors which explain Abu Dhabi Education Council’s (Adec) English curriculum choice in grade ten and eleven public high schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It investigates the challenges its implementation poses for teachers personally and professionally. The study is exploratory and interpretive and is based on the perceptions of 12 male teachers; 6 Arab teachers of English and 6 “native” English speaking teachers at 3 boys’ public high schools in the Abu Dhabi emirate. Data were gathered through lengthy semi-structured interviews with teachers, analysis of Adec curriculum and assessment documentation as well as open, non-participant classroom observations. The findings show the current curriculum, modelled on that used in NSW mainstream schools in Australia up until the end of 2014 is an inappropriate choice for students learning English as a foreign/second language in a school environment where all other subjects are taught in Arabic. This in turn provides a range of challenges for teachers who are unable to implement the course content as it was intended or the learner / learning-centred pedagogical approaches promoted by the curriculum and assessment documentation. The study recommends a realistic assessment of students’ language needs be undertaken as a top priority and, based on these findings, English classes streamed according to students’ language proficiency; with curriculum and assessment designed to reflect the various stages of learning. Ability grouping would enable specialist teachers to target areas of strength and weakness, thus countering the boredom and frustration currently experienced by many students. The study also recommends future stakeholder consultation, an in-depth orientation for newly hired teachers and professional development for incumbent teachers in scaffolded language instruction.

Evidence that firms adjust accruals to just meet or beat analyst forecasts is pervasive. However, the implications for earnings quality are not clear. Managers can use this practice either to mislead investors, resulting in lower quality earnings, or to signal future earnings growth and thereby improve the decision usefulness of earnings. Assuming that boards are concerned about providing higher quality financial information and that they can discern the proper earnings signal, they should discourage managers from adjusting earnings to beat the analyst forecast target if such adjustment diminishes earnings quality. Consistent with this prediction, I find a significantly negative relation between the probability that a firm beats the target by adjusting accruals and the presence of at least one independent audit committee financial expert for firms with poor future performance. I also find that the negative impact of an independent financial expert on the odds of beating the target by adjusting accruals is significantly stronger for firms with poor future performance than for firms with strong future performance. These findings are consistent with financial expertise on the audit committees improving corporate governance by protecting shareholders from accruals management that reduces the decision usefulness of earnings.