The nature of the auditor-client relationship is a complex aggregate involving a number of groups and individuals between both parties. Although auditor-client relationship is an important subject in the accounting and auditing literature, what has not been extensively studied is the complex relationship between the clients accounting staff and the external audit group at subordinate organization level. Thus, the purpose of this study is to dig deeper into the relationship between clients accounting staff and external audit team consisting of junior and senior auditors and to find out what characterizes this relationship. We also aim to look it from knowledge management and trust perspectives since these are special characteristics of both professions. In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research with a case study by interviewing three accountants and one controller in the same mother company who do financial work for four subsidiaries. They all work together with several auditor groups and therefore could provide us a good comparison to our results. Our study reveals that the relationship is maintained on the subordinate level by the senior auditor who works not only as an auditor but also as a relationship manager. Furthermore, we identify the fact that lower competence of junior auditors creates problems in relationship with client’s accountants. Therefore, our accountant respondents are more likely to allocate low trust to inexperienced junior auditors, specially due to the fact that accountants are the ones teaching the junior auditors in specific accounting issues which is time consuming and often leads to irritation on the accountants side. However, accountants’ trust towards the senior auditors turns out to be high due to recognized expertise knowledge of senior auditors based on our interviews.

This thesis evaluates how municipal transit ridership in mid-sized cities is influenced by external factors. External factors are forces outside a municipality’s direct control but potentially affect the municipality in some way, in particular its transit ridership. The thesis also determines the appropriateness of municipal levels of response to each factor. Two mid-sized municipalities in Ontario, Canada – the City of Kingston and Region of Waterloo – were studied. The evaluation, first, identifies the trends or “current conditions” between the municipalities and five sets of external factors to determine influence on ridership. The factors are 1. Population Growth and Density; 2. Demographics (Seniors, Students and Immigrants); 3. Regional Location; 4. Federal/Provincial Impacts; and 5. Fuel Prices. Second, the municipality’s level of response was measured in three ways. Staff awareness of the factor and its influence was gauged using key informant interviews and municipal councillor surveys conducted by the researcher. Internal policy and guidance documents measured whether policies relating to each factor are appropriate. Finally, observations of implemented initiatives determined whether they appropriately deal with each factor. The study finds that more external factors act on Waterloo than Kingston. Therefore, Waterloo has strong incentives to prioritize – among many municipal responsibilities – its transit system and to focus on increasing ridership. The strongest incentives for Waterloo are population growth, the student demographic and federal/provincial impacts. Kingston has only one strong incentive: the senior demographic. The study also finds that Waterloo has appropriate levels of response to more of the external factors than does Kingston. Recommendations for Kingston and Waterloo are provided for improving their levels of response to each set of factors. The paper concludes that municipal size is an important driver, but internal levels of response are critical success factors. The data analysis matrix developed for this study can be used by other municipalities to help identify appropriateness of internal responses as they relate to the influence of external factors within their municipality.

Tables have been used for working and studying for years, and people continue using tables to work with digital artifacts. Collaborative tabletop activities such as planning, designing, and scheduling are common on traditional tables, but digital tables still face a variety of design issues to facilitate doing the same tasks. For example, due to the high cost of digital tables, it is unclear how large a digital table must be to support collaborative problem solving. This thesis examines the impact of physical features, in particular the table size, on collaborative tasks. This research leverages findings of previous studies of traditional and digital tables, and focuses on exploring the interaction of table size and users’ seating arrangement in collaborative problem solving. An experimental study is used to observe the behaviors of two-member groups while doing problem-solving tasks. Two tasks, storytelling and travel planning, were selected for this study, and the experiments were performed on two traditional tables, one small and one large. Although working on digital and traditional tables differs, investigating the impact of physical features in traditional tables can help us better understand how these features interact with workspace awareness and external cognition factors during taskwork. In the empirical study, external cognitive behaviors of participants were deeply analyzed to understand how physical settings of the table and seating arrangement affect the way people manipulate artifacts in the table workspace. Collaborators passed through different stages of problem solving using varied strategies, and the data analysis revealed that they manipulated material on the tabletop for understanding, organizing and solution making through visual separation, cognitive tracing and piling. Table size, task type and user seating arrangement showed strong effects on the external cognition of collaborators. In particular, the accessibility of sufficient space on the table influenced how much users could distribute their materials to improve workspace awareness and cognitive tracing. On the other hand, lack of space or inaccessible space forced people to use the space above the table—by holding materials in their hands—or to pile materials to compensate for space limitations. The insights gained from this research inform design decisions regarding size and seating arrangement for tabletop workspaces. For cases in which there is insufficient space, design alternatives are recommended to improve accessibility to artifacts to compensate for space limitations. These solutions aim to enhance the external cognition of users when space is insufficient to work with artifacts in problem-solving tasks.

No description available.

This study aims to analyzing the role of Islam, regionalism, and external factors (the involvement of the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran) in the Tajik Civil War (1992-97). It analyzes all these three factors one by one. In the thesis, it is argued that all of the three factors played an active and equal role in the emergence of the war and that in the case of the absence of any of these factors, the Tajik Civil War would not erupt. As such, none of the factors is considered to be the only player on its own and none of the factors is considered to be the basic result of other two factors.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1982 / Pacific Islands Studies

This study attempted to examine the nature of the relationship between high levels of external debt and capital accumulation with the case study of Rwanda.

In the last twenty years, regional trade agreements have proliferated. These have usually taken the form of customs unions (CUs) or free trade areas (FTAs). This thesis concentrates mostly on the formation and behaviour of CUs. Union members levy a common external tariff (CET) on non-members. Existing theoretical models, however, do not agree on how the CET rate is chosen. Every model imposes a different choice rule exogenously. In this thesis, for the first time, plausible choice rules, based on the CU's social welfare function, are derived endogenously. The strategic behaviour of members and non-members, reveals that responsibility for CET choice tends to be assumed by the member that can induce the rest of the world to levy those tariffs members prefer to face. Relatively few general results exist describing the relationship between country characteristics and trade bloc formation. Here, new light is shed on this issue, by systematically analysing bloc formation in an asymmetric world, and investigating the role of preferences in coalition formation. It is found that global free trade is most likely to arise when all countries are similar. Customs unions tend to form between relatively well-endowed countries or those with similar preferences. It is also demonstrated that CUs will usually Pareto dominate FTAs, except where preferences differ significantly. The role of transfers in CU formation has received relatively little attention in the regionalism literature. In this thesis, optimal intra-union transfers are introduced and their impact on CET choice is investigated. The impact of transfers on CU behaviour depends on the direction of the transfer. When the relatively inelastic member is the recipient, the CU responds less aggressively to non-member tariff choices than it does when transfers are not permitted. However, if the relatively elastic member is the transfer recipient, the union's aggression increases. Moreover, when one union member exercises a similar degree of control over both CET and transfer choice, then the equilibrium CET tends to be lower than in the corresponding no-transfers situation.

[Truncated abstract] There is overwhelming evidence that PD leads to impairments in executing voluntary movements. However, it is less clear whether it also leads to impairment in the preparation of movement. The current investigation first aims to further our understanding of motor preparation in people with PD. Two techniques are commonly used to assess motor preparation. These are the manipulation of response complexity and cueing response-related information in advance of the imperative signal. They were both incorporated into a motor task in which participants performed two-movement sequences on a response board. In Experiment 1, people with PD (comprising two groups one on their anti-Parkinsonian medication, and the other following a delay in its normal administration) showed patterns in their motor performance that was similar to healthy age-matched adults. They showed lengthening in their reaction time (RT) with increased response complexity, indicating that the sequences were prepared before their initiation. In addition, both of the PD groups, as well as the healthy adult group, showed shorter RTs with valid cueing and longer RTs with invalid cueing relative to the neutral cue condition. In response to a part-invalid cue (with both valid and invalid information) all three groups had very similar RTs to that in the neutral cue condition. ... in the third experiment, participants were first presented with a sequence to perform, and then, while initiating and executing that sequence, they were presented with a second sequence, providing either valid or invalid visual information about the twomovement sequence. It was expected that if invalid visual information evokes a stronger obligatory response in people with PD, then these participants would experience greater difficulties ignoring such information. This was not found to be the case. Rather the PD group showed a similar pattern of performance to the healthy adults. This indicates that they were able to ignore visual information when it was invalid and unhelpful, and so suggests that people with PD use external information strategically. The results presented in this thesis suggest that motor preparation is largely intact in people with PD. Motor preparation may, however, be incomplete under reduced visual information. Furthermore, while visual information may be particularly important to people with PD, it does not seem to evoke a stronger obligatory response than in healthy adults. Rather, people with PD seem to use external information strategically.

This research examines the reading and information needs of undergraduate distance education students at Curtin University of Technology and the academic library's role in meeting those needs. Twelve undergraduate units offered at Curtin in second semester were selected as the prime units of this research. The research was conducted in three phases in 1996. First, the documents supplied to the distance education students were examined to determine what reading was specified and/or suggested to the students. Next, the unit co-ordinators responsible for the units were interviewed to find out what reading and information literacy expectations they held for their distance education students. Finally, the non-metropolitan area students enrolled in the units were interviewed to find out if they felt they could complete the units using only supplied readings and prescribed texts. They were also asked about obtaining resources through Curtin University Library and Information Service or other sources. Their use of telecommunications and computers was also examined.This research found there were as many models of the practice of distance education as there were units surveyed. There was a high degree of agreement between the unit co-ordinators and students on the possibility of completing their associated units using only the supplied reading plus the textbooks. The students could not complete their units using only the supplied reading but many could successfully complete units using the supplied reading and set texts.Although all students were using computers there was a significant difference in the number of students that had access to a computer linked to telecommunications and the number of students that were using this access. Only a small proportion of the students used this facility to access the Curtin Off Campus Library Services.There was a lack of knowledge by ++ / students of the services and resources that were available to them. Responses from students indicated they were not effectively informed about the services and resources available to them. This lack of knowledge of existing services pointed to a need for improved marketing of the services to this group of students. An improved level of co-operation between the library, the unit co-ordinators and the University Distance Education Service is recommended to address some of the issues raised in this research. This co-operation should include working with academic staff in unit and course design and a review of the promotion of all services to distance education students