Surgical innovation and pioneering are important for improving patient outcome, but can be associated with learning curves. Although learning curves in surgery are a recognized problem, the impact of surgical learning...Surgical innovation and pioneering are important for improving patient outcome, but can be associated with learning curves. Although learning curves in surgery are a recognized problem, the impact of surgical learning curves is increasing, due to increasing complexity of innovative surgical procedures, the rapid rate at which new interventions are implemented and a decrease in relative effectiveness of new interventions compared to old interventions. For minimally invasive esophagectomy(MIE), there is now robust evidence that implementation can lead to significant learning associated morbidity(morbidity during a learning curve, that could have been avoided if patients were operated by surgeons that have completed the learning curve). This article provides an overview of the evidence of the impact of learning curves after implementation of MIE. In addition, caveats for implementation and available evidence regarding factors that are important for safe implementation and safe pioneering of MIE are discussed.展开更多
The Cloud is increasingly being used to store and process big data for its tenants and classical security mechanisms using encryption are neither sufficiently efficient nor suited to the task of protecting big data in...The Cloud is increasingly being used to store and process big data for its tenants and classical security mechanisms using encryption are neither sufficiently efficient nor suited to the task of protecting big data in the Cloud.In this paper,we present an alternative approach which divides big data into sequenced parts and stores them among multiple Cloud storage service providers.Instead of protecting the big data itself,the proposed scheme protects the mapping of the various data elements to each provider using a trapdoor function.Analysis,comparison and simulation prove that the proposed scheme is efficient and secure for the big data of Cloud tenants.展开更多
Tunneling is to describe transfer resource out of the firm for benefit of their controlling shareholders. Better legal protection and stronger social norms improve minority shareholders' protection from expropriation...Tunneling is to describe transfer resource out of the firm for benefit of their controlling shareholders. Better legal protection and stronger social norms improve minority shareholders' protection from expropriation. They consequently reduce the private benefits of controlling shareholders (La Porta, 1999). This study aims to investigate tunneling in the context merger and acquisition (M&A) and to examine whether tunneling occurs only in emerging markets with poor law enforcement or whether it also occurs in developed countries. This study documents that managers are more likely to overpay target in merger and acquisition with high overlapped owner which have stakes in bidder and target firm. That overpayment, a transfer of wealth from owners of bidder's firm to overlapping owners, is a type of tunneling. This study concludes that tunneling occurs in nations not only with low investor protection, but also with high investor protection.展开更多
This study seeks to examine the influence of board skill, multiple directorships (BSHIP), and tenure of independent directors on accounting conservatism, as measured by asymmetric timeliness and accrual-based conser...This study seeks to examine the influence of board skill, multiple directorships (BSHIP), and tenure of independent directors on accounting conservatism, as measured by asymmetric timeliness and accrual-based conservatism (CONACCR). Fixed-effect regression models were constructed on a sample of 2016 firm-year observations for asymmetric timeliness model and 2033 firm-year observations for CONACCR model, which covered from 2001 to 2007. The findings show that the degree of financial expertise on the board is positively associated with the recognition of bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. BSHIP appears to have no effect on conservatism. Independent directors who have longer tenure in the board of the firms are slower in recognizing bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. The study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the board of directors, which will be an interest to the practitioner or regulators in reviewing the corporate governance regulations.展开更多
The introduction of the New Public Management (NPM) has not bridged the differences among the various European accounting traditions. In Italy, in particular, there are still different accounting methods in all publ...The introduction of the New Public Management (NPM) has not bridged the differences among the various European accounting traditions. In Italy, in particular, there are still different accounting methods in all public sectors. In the healthcare system, these differences have emerged more strongly. The recent Italian reform on accounting harmonization seems to be the answer to this accounting disharmony and represents a means of controlling public expenditure. This study aims to analyze the consolidated financial statement and the consolidated cash flow statement of the regional healthcare system as a new tool for the accounting harmonization. This paper is divided into two logical parts: In the first part, the authors analyze how the new accounting model is evolving under the current reform; in the second part, the authors analyze the consolidated financial statement and the consolidated cash flow statement that has been applied experimentally over the last two years in the Umbria Region.展开更多
This paper studies factors influencing rural-urban labor migration in China,particularly the implementation of rural cooperative medical insurance(RCMI) in the year 2003.With the support of data analysis from the year...This paper studies factors influencing rural-urban labor migration in China,particularly the implementation of rural cooperative medical insurance(RCMI) in the year 2003.With the support of data analysis from the year 2000,2004 and 2006,clear linear correlations are found between gender,income,health condition and rural-urban labor flow,whereas the impact of education and employment status are more complicated.More importantly,results from regression show that the establishment of RCMI in countryside of China not only inhibits rural residents from seeking employment outside the village,but also pulls back rural people who have already worked in cities.When regional dimension is concerned,the pure composite effect of RCMI on rural labor flow is less significant in coastal areas with better economic performance and medical service.展开更多
In 2003, China initiated the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) in order to provide basic health care coverage for the rural population. However, the NRCMS has had a marked impact on rural-urban labor mig...In 2003, China initiated the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) in order to provide basic health care coverage for the rural population. However, the NRCMS has had a marked impact on rural-urban labor migration as its current regulations present a barrier for cross-region participation in the NRCMS, and its reimbursement system is biased when the enrollees seek medical services outside their location of hukou, a household registration system in China. This paper performs a variety of empirical tests on a panel data set from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to study how the NRCMS affects rural residents' work location choices. We observed a "locking effect" on potential rural migrant workers and a "pulling effect" on existing ones. According to the results, the NRCMS has discouraged rural residents from working outside their location of hukou, lowering the probability of relocation by 3.52 percent. Meanwhile, the NRCMS system actually encourages existing migrant workers to return home. This paper concludes that the NRCMS has to some extent restrained the free flow of the labor force and exacerbated the migrant worker shortage.展开更多
The starting point for the research was the evidence of a possible contradiction in the provisions of IAS 12 on goodwill and deferred income taxes, i.e., about the need to calculate deferred income taxation on tempora...The starting point for the research was the evidence of a possible contradiction in the provisions of IAS 12 on goodwill and deferred income taxes, i.e., about the need to calculate deferred income taxation on temporary differences relating to all assets except for goodwill. This paper aims at exploring the degree of consistency between the theoretical provisions of International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and their actual application by the management of Italian and Bulgarian listed companies, as regards the accounting treatments of deferred income taxes relating to the item "goodwill". The findings suggest that there are some differences between the accounting methods used by the management of most Italian listed companies and the provisions of IAS/IFRS. It can be argued that the rules given by IAS/IFRS are sometimes contradictory, since they may cause doubts in interpretation. As a consequence, in the end of the paper, an amendment to the provisions, set forth in IAS/IFRS concerning the accounting treatment of deferred income taxes relating to the item "goodwill", is proposed.展开更多
Blacksmiths in Nepal are marginalized and disadvantaged occupational caste, however, very popular for their handicraft works mainly in making iron tools and equipments. With the advancement of technology, there have b...Blacksmiths in Nepal are marginalized and disadvantaged occupational caste, however, very popular for their handicraft works mainly in making iron tools and equipments. With the advancement of technology, there have been many innovative technologies in many other sectors, but blacksmiths in Nepal are still dependent on their indigenous and conventional practices which have direct negative consequences for environment, biodiversity conservation and health. Recently, improved charcoal production technology has been implemented among the 77 blacksmith households in Sindhupalchowk district as a pilot project. However, there is little research about the impact of improved charcoal production on forest resources conservation and people's livelihoods. This study therefore made an effort to explore the impact of improved charcoal production technology and firewood consumption on conserving the environment and promoting sustainable livelihood of marginalized households in rural areas of Nepal. Findings of the study revealed that improved charcoal production technology has positive impacts on forest tree conservation by reducing the fuel wood consumption up to 40% with 60% energy efficiency as compared to the traditional system. The improved charcoal production pilot project has reduced annual CO2, CH4 and CO emissions in the study area by 2.4-3.1, 3.3-4.3 and 2.6-3.5 tons, respectively. Furthermore, improved charcoal production system increases blacksmiths' welfare through generating social, human and economic capital and quality attributes like environmental sustainability. Introducing improved charcoal production and controlling heavy firewood collection at rural villages of Nepal will help to increase carbon sequestration and reduce the sources of carbon emission in context of global climate change.展开更多
The paper is devoted to the corporate governance intelligence system investigation as the part of the complex stakeholder-related approach to the corporate strategic intelligence system (CSIS). The special attention...The paper is devoted to the corporate governance intelligence system investigation as the part of the complex stakeholder-related approach to the corporate strategic intelligence system (CSIS). The special attention is given to the minority shareholders activism in the system of corporate governance. Some existing methods of abusing minority shareholders rights, made by joint-stock companies executives, are generalized. The recommendations for minority shareholder's rights protection are given. The necessity for the implementation of the stakeholders-oriented approach for the CSIS creation on the base of companies' security principles is substantiated.展开更多
Valuation of ecosystem services has been sought as effective tools that enable the decision makers in designing the cost effective response policies for management of ecosystems towards alleviating the poverty especia...Valuation of ecosystem services has been sought as effective tools that enable the decision makers in designing the cost effective response policies for management of ecosystems towards alleviating the poverty especially in economically poor regions like South Asia. Various directions and linkages between poverty and degradation of ecosystem and reduced flow of ecosystem services can better be understood if the regulating services like hydrological flow and carbon sequestration by forest, and nutrient cycling and bioremediation: by wetlandv can be captured in monetary unit. South Asian Countries including India. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the hotspots of poverty where poor depend upon various ecosystem services for their livelihoods and allocation of resource for conservation of ecosystems would have additional merit if regulating services are captured and internalized into the pubtic policy.The paperfirst raises problematic issues in valuation of regulatig ecosystem services, and attempts to link it withthe dependence of poor. Second, complexities of poverty-ecosystem dynamics are discussed. Thirdly, the possible in-tervention to achieve poverty alleviation goal is analyzed with the help of some examples from accounting and valua-tion of regulating services of lndian forest. Finally, the paper suggests that greater attention is needed to do credibleand better valuation of regulating Services so that insight from these ean be used in understanding the impact of degradation of ecosysterns On poor people.展开更多
文摘Surgical innovation and pioneering are important for improving patient outcome, but can be associated with learning curves. Although learning curves in surgery are a recognized problem, the impact of surgical learning curves is increasing, due to increasing complexity of innovative surgical procedures, the rapid rate at which new interventions are implemented and a decrease in relative effectiveness of new interventions compared to old interventions. For minimally invasive esophagectomy(MIE), there is now robust evidence that implementation can lead to significant learning associated morbidity(morbidity during a learning curve, that could have been avoided if patients were operated by surgeons that have completed the learning curve). This article provides an overview of the evidence of the impact of learning curves after implementation of MIE. In addition, caveats for implementation and available evidence regarding factors that are important for safe implementation and safe pioneering of MIE are discussed.
基金supported in part by the National Nature Science Foundation of China under Grant No.61402413 and 61340058 the "Six Kinds Peak Talents Plan" project of Jiangsu Province under Grant No.ll-JY-009+2 种基金the Nature Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province under Grant No.LY14F020019, Z14F020006 and Y1101183the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project under Grant No.2012M511732Jiangsu Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project Grant No.1102014C
文摘The Cloud is increasingly being used to store and process big data for its tenants and classical security mechanisms using encryption are neither sufficiently efficient nor suited to the task of protecting big data in the Cloud.In this paper,we present an alternative approach which divides big data into sequenced parts and stores them among multiple Cloud storage service providers.Instead of protecting the big data itself,the proposed scheme protects the mapping of the various data elements to each provider using a trapdoor function.Analysis,comparison and simulation prove that the proposed scheme is efficient and secure for the big data of Cloud tenants.
文摘Tunneling is to describe transfer resource out of the firm for benefit of their controlling shareholders. Better legal protection and stronger social norms improve minority shareholders' protection from expropriation. They consequently reduce the private benefits of controlling shareholders (La Porta, 1999). This study aims to investigate tunneling in the context merger and acquisition (M&A) and to examine whether tunneling occurs only in emerging markets with poor law enforcement or whether it also occurs in developed countries. This study documents that managers are more likely to overpay target in merger and acquisition with high overlapped owner which have stakes in bidder and target firm. That overpayment, a transfer of wealth from owners of bidder's firm to overlapping owners, is a type of tunneling. This study concludes that tunneling occurs in nations not only with low investor protection, but also with high investor protection.
文摘This study seeks to examine the influence of board skill, multiple directorships (BSHIP), and tenure of independent directors on accounting conservatism, as measured by asymmetric timeliness and accrual-based conservatism (CONACCR). Fixed-effect regression models were constructed on a sample of 2016 firm-year observations for asymmetric timeliness model and 2033 firm-year observations for CONACCR model, which covered from 2001 to 2007. The findings show that the degree of financial expertise on the board is positively associated with the recognition of bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. BSHIP appears to have no effect on conservatism. Independent directors who have longer tenure in the board of the firms are slower in recognizing bad news which is relative to good news into earnings. The study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the board of directors, which will be an interest to the practitioner or regulators in reviewing the corporate governance regulations.
文摘The introduction of the New Public Management (NPM) has not bridged the differences among the various European accounting traditions. In Italy, in particular, there are still different accounting methods in all public sectors. In the healthcare system, these differences have emerged more strongly. The recent Italian reform on accounting harmonization seems to be the answer to this accounting disharmony and represents a means of controlling public expenditure. This study aims to analyze the consolidated financial statement and the consolidated cash flow statement of the regional healthcare system as a new tool for the accounting harmonization. This paper is divided into two logical parts: In the first part, the authors analyze how the new accounting model is evolving under the current reform; in the second part, the authors analyze the consolidated financial statement and the consolidated cash flow statement that has been applied experimentally over the last two years in the Umbria Region.
文摘This paper studies factors influencing rural-urban labor migration in China,particularly the implementation of rural cooperative medical insurance(RCMI) in the year 2003.With the support of data analysis from the year 2000,2004 and 2006,clear linear correlations are found between gender,income,health condition and rural-urban labor flow,whereas the impact of education and employment status are more complicated.More importantly,results from regression show that the establishment of RCMI in countryside of China not only inhibits rural residents from seeking employment outside the village,but also pulls back rural people who have already worked in cities.When regional dimension is concerned,the pure composite effect of RCMI on rural labor flow is less significant in coastal areas with better economic performance and medical service.
基金This paper is sponsored by the MOE Young Scholars Fund Project of Humanities and Social Sciences, New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme and its Implication for Work Location Choices of Migrant Workers: A Comparison Study between the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) and the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (grant 20Y.1C790206), and Distinguished Young Scholars Fund Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China,Intergenerational Transfer Mechanism of Human Capital and its Impact on Social Mobility in China: A Theoretical and Empirical Study" (grant 71103009).
文摘In 2003, China initiated the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) in order to provide basic health care coverage for the rural population. However, the NRCMS has had a marked impact on rural-urban labor migration as its current regulations present a barrier for cross-region participation in the NRCMS, and its reimbursement system is biased when the enrollees seek medical services outside their location of hukou, a household registration system in China. This paper performs a variety of empirical tests on a panel data set from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to study how the NRCMS affects rural residents' work location choices. We observed a "locking effect" on potential rural migrant workers and a "pulling effect" on existing ones. According to the results, the NRCMS has discouraged rural residents from working outside their location of hukou, lowering the probability of relocation by 3.52 percent. Meanwhile, the NRCMS system actually encourages existing migrant workers to return home. This paper concludes that the NRCMS has to some extent restrained the free flow of the labor force and exacerbated the migrant worker shortage.
文摘The starting point for the research was the evidence of a possible contradiction in the provisions of IAS 12 on goodwill and deferred income taxes, i.e., about the need to calculate deferred income taxation on temporary differences relating to all assets except for goodwill. This paper aims at exploring the degree of consistency between the theoretical provisions of International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and their actual application by the management of Italian and Bulgarian listed companies, as regards the accounting treatments of deferred income taxes relating to the item "goodwill". The findings suggest that there are some differences between the accounting methods used by the management of most Italian listed companies and the provisions of IAS/IFRS. It can be argued that the rules given by IAS/IFRS are sometimes contradictory, since they may cause doubts in interpretation. As a consequence, in the end of the paper, an amendment to the provisions, set forth in IAS/IFRS concerning the accounting treatment of deferred income taxes relating to the item "goodwill", is proposed.
文摘Blacksmiths in Nepal are marginalized and disadvantaged occupational caste, however, very popular for their handicraft works mainly in making iron tools and equipments. With the advancement of technology, there have been many innovative technologies in many other sectors, but blacksmiths in Nepal are still dependent on their indigenous and conventional practices which have direct negative consequences for environment, biodiversity conservation and health. Recently, improved charcoal production technology has been implemented among the 77 blacksmith households in Sindhupalchowk district as a pilot project. However, there is little research about the impact of improved charcoal production on forest resources conservation and people's livelihoods. This study therefore made an effort to explore the impact of improved charcoal production technology and firewood consumption on conserving the environment and promoting sustainable livelihood of marginalized households in rural areas of Nepal. Findings of the study revealed that improved charcoal production technology has positive impacts on forest tree conservation by reducing the fuel wood consumption up to 40% with 60% energy efficiency as compared to the traditional system. The improved charcoal production pilot project has reduced annual CO2, CH4 and CO emissions in the study area by 2.4-3.1, 3.3-4.3 and 2.6-3.5 tons, respectively. Furthermore, improved charcoal production system increases blacksmiths' welfare through generating social, human and economic capital and quality attributes like environmental sustainability. Introducing improved charcoal production and controlling heavy firewood collection at rural villages of Nepal will help to increase carbon sequestration and reduce the sources of carbon emission in context of global climate change.
文摘The paper is devoted to the corporate governance intelligence system investigation as the part of the complex stakeholder-related approach to the corporate strategic intelligence system (CSIS). The special attention is given to the minority shareholders activism in the system of corporate governance. Some existing methods of abusing minority shareholders rights, made by joint-stock companies executives, are generalized. The recommendations for minority shareholder's rights protection are given. The necessity for the implementation of the stakeholders-oriented approach for the CSIS creation on the base of companies' security principles is substantiated.
文摘Valuation of ecosystem services has been sought as effective tools that enable the decision makers in designing the cost effective response policies for management of ecosystems towards alleviating the poverty especially in economically poor regions like South Asia. Various directions and linkages between poverty and degradation of ecosystem and reduced flow of ecosystem services can better be understood if the regulating services like hydrological flow and carbon sequestration by forest, and nutrient cycling and bioremediation: by wetlandv can be captured in monetary unit. South Asian Countries including India. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the hotspots of poverty where poor depend upon various ecosystem services for their livelihoods and allocation of resource for conservation of ecosystems would have additional merit if regulating services are captured and internalized into the pubtic policy.The paperfirst raises problematic issues in valuation of regulatig ecosystem services, and attempts to link it withthe dependence of poor. Second, complexities of poverty-ecosystem dynamics are discussed. Thirdly, the possible in-tervention to achieve poverty alleviation goal is analyzed with the help of some examples from accounting and valua-tion of regulating services of lndian forest. Finally, the paper suggests that greater attention is needed to do credibleand better valuation of regulating Services so that insight from these ean be used in understanding the impact of degradation of ecosysterns On poor people.