Open Access Books

This book addresses the recent trends, developments, and future of accounting and auditing of small and medium-sized practices (AASMPs) in the public and private sectors. The book has three main objectives: firstly, to provide an analysis of how different societal trends, including digitalization, impact AASMPs and what role education and training play in proactive adaptation to those trends; secondly, to outline major scenarios for global AASMP development by 2035; and thirdly, to offer a conceptual framework for better understanding of AASMPs' dynamic and transformative capabilities that are necessary to create sustained competitive advantage in a rapidly changing society. Beyond presenting a conceptual framework, this book also offers a discussion of future scenarios for AASMPs' development and their role in the global economic development. This book is unique, as it disseminates the findings of a large research project carried out by both academics and practitioners from the accounting and auditing industry. Readers of this book will be better equipped to understand the development trends in the accounting and auditing industry, the impact those trends create for AASMPs, and the way different actors can work proactively to maximize AASMPs' chances for success amidst rapid technological and regulatory change. This book is aimed primarily at accounting and auditing academics; however, it will also be of benefit to managers of accounting and auditing firms, leaders of professional associations, and professional bodies that regulate accounting and auditing practices, setting the foundations for future research endeavors on this topic.

Das Nachbauen mittelalterlicher Instrumente dank Bildquellen und musiktheoretischer Traktate oder das »Einpflanzen« von Alltagsgegenständen in Landschaften, um so das Begriffspaar Natur-Kultur neu zu verhandeln - diese Beispiele zeigen, wie Kunst als Mittel zur Erkenntnisgewinnung die Wissenschaft bereichert. Die Beiträger*innen experimentieren mit der Verbindung von Kunst und Wissenschaft und richten besonderes Augenmerk auf die noch junge Disziplin der Designforschung sowie deren gesellschaftliches Engagement. Dabei illustrieren sie nicht nur die Bandbreite der Forschung in und mit den Künsten, sondern stellen auch Verbindungen zur Grundlagen-, anwendungsorientierten und aktivistischen Forschung her.

This open access book offers a groundbreaking examination of the profound and lasting impacts of COVID-19 on U.S.-China relations. It covers areas such as public health, trade and supply chain challenges, people-to-people connections, shifts in public opinion, rising nationalism, anti-Asian sentiments, and strategic assessments. Since the pandemic’s outbreak in late 2019, China and the United States have both suffered catastrophically. So too has the U.S.-China relationship, which was already at a historic low point before COVID-19 accelerated its deterioration. With contributions by leading and emerging scholars from both nations, the volume reflects a collaborative effort, emphasizing the importance of bilateral dialogue. As the world steps into the post-COVID era, this work offers timely insights into the potential pathways for rebuilding and redefining U.S.-China relations.

The Fables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke introduces the world of the ancient fable to biblical scholarship and argues that Jesus’s parables in Luke’s gospel belong to the ancient fable tradition. Jesus is regarded as the first figure in history to use the parable genre with any regularity—a remarkable historical curiosity that serves as the foundation for many assumptions in New Testament scholarship. The Fables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke challenges this consensus, situating the parables within a literary context unknown to biblical scholarship: the ancient fable. After introducing the ancient fable, the “parables” of Jesus in Luke’s gospel are used as a testing ground to demon - strate that they are identical to first-century fables. This challenges many conven - tional assumptions about parables, Luke’s gospel, and the relationship of Jesus to the storytelling traditions of the Mediterranean world. This study offers multitudes of new parallels to the otherwise enigmatic parable tradition, opens an exciting new venue for comparative exploration, and lays a new foundation upon which to study the fables of Jesus.

The main objective of this work is to significantly deepen the understanding of the material and the structural behaviour of continuous-discontinuous SMC composites, following a holistic approach to investigate microscopic aspects, macroscopic mechanical behaviour as well as failure evolution at the coupon, structure and component level. In addition, criteria to evaluate the effect of hybridisation are introduced and modelling approaches are presented and discussed.

Mega events are often perceived as an opportunity to foster economic development and are thus regularly present on the policy agenda in Italy as in other countries. However, no convincing analysis has yet been written, at least in Italy, about the real impact of mega events. This book partially fills in this gap. It achieves a critic of existing studies on the mega events in Italy, specifically focusing on Turin 2006 and Milan 2015. This research analyses the methodological issues that hinder the validity of these assessments and generate inflated estimated impacts. This book has been written for experts, researchers, students and more generally whoever is interested in evaluating the impact of projects capable of shifting billions of euro of public expenditures.

Performance, performance, performance. Education is suffering from performance pain that is becoming increasingly severe. Can students, teachers and schools meet the increasing performance obligations? If we can hardly get any further with even more effort for better performance, what can we do? “Onderwijs voorbij de meritocratie” looks at the underlying meritocratic ideal of one's own merits for the issue of performance and questions it. The meritocratic ideal is indeed attractive, but in today's society and in today's education that ideal has become tyrannical. Meritocracy undermines solidarity and undermines human dignity. Questions addressed include: how did the meritocratic ideal find its way into education? What is its significance for working on equal opportunities and why does it miss its target? How can schools realise education and equal opportunities beyond meritocracy? What are useful and relevant alternatives to the one-sided pursuit of one's own merits? What do education administrators, school leaders, teachers and other stakeholders have to do to achieve this? “Onderwijs voorbij de meritocratie”contains eleven academic contributions and six practical contributions that challenge and enrich the imagination about good education. The authors are nourished by sources from philosophy, pedagogy and theology. The collection is for courageous people in education, society and politics.

Microfluidics-based devices play an important role in creating realistic microenvironments in which cell cultures can thrive. They can, for example, be used to monitor drug toxicity and perform medical diagnostics, and be in a static-, perfusion- or droplet-based device. They can also be used to study cell-cell, cell-matrix or cell-surface interactions. Cells can be either single cells, 3D cell cultures or co-cultures. Other organisms could include bacteria, zebra fish embryo, C. elegans, to name a few.

In this paper on the distribution of carabids at high altitudes, the effect of Nature 2000 habitat and landform types in driving ground beetle (Carabidae) distribution at high altitudes in the Western Dolomites (Brenta group, Italy) was studied. Papers studying carabid beetles in forested habitats investigated the effect of different stand composition (pure oak stands, oak–pine mixed stands, single tree admixtures of oak in pine stands, and pure pine stands) on the abundance and spatial distribution of large-sized Carabus species, as well as the effect of forest type (broad-leaved deciduous forests vs. coniferous plantations) on the diversity and community composition of ground beetles; furthermore, the effect of various forest edges (natural vs. anthropogenic edges) on the abundance of ground beetles of different habitat affinity and dispersal power was examined. The paper on predation pressure aimed to explore the predation pressure on carabids using 3D-printed decoys installed in two types of forestry treatments, preparation cuts and clear cuts, and control plots in an oak–hornbeam forest.

In the twenty-first century, leaders are having to speak a new language, create fluid organic structures, and recognise organisations as systems with self-renewing capacity. Rethinking leadership explores what real leadership means, encouraging the reader to look within – examine assumptions and make explicit the trusted mental models, seek out reflective space and embark on the journey of authentic self-expression. The reader is encouraged to ask such questions as; “What do these issues, these challenges, mean for me and the organisation?” “What action should we take to turn these challenges into limitless possibilities?” Topics covered in Rethinking leadership include: * Awareness – The Metaskills of the Leader * Openness – The Times are a Changing * Simplicity – New Science and Leadership * Complexity – Uncertainty and Change * Connectivity – Communication, Conversation and Dialogue * Ambiguity – Leadership Incongruities, Tensions and Paradoxes

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

This book contains explanatory readings of texts by the greatest legends from the golden age of Norwegian rock: KJØTT, THE ALLER VÆRSTE, DE PRESS, RAGA ROCKERS, DUMDUM BOYS, DE LILLOS, JOKKE & VALENTINERNE. In addition, there is a chapter that ties the threads together into a clarifying picture of the Norwegian golden-age rock lyric as a literary phenomenon. The book is aimed at everyone who takes rock and rock lyrics seriously.

The investigation of the mind has been one of the major concerns of our philosophical tradition and it still is a dominant subject in modern philosophy as well as in science. Many philosophers in the scientific tradition want to solve the "puzzles of the mind". But many philosophers in the very same tradition do regard these puzzles as puzzles of the brain. So, whilst the former think of the mental as something of its own kind, the latter deny that philosophy of mind has to do with anything else but the brain. And then there are those who think that reduction is the way to go: maybe the mental is brain-dependent and hence reducible to the physical, in some way. This volume collects contributions comprising all those points of view, including articles by William Bechtel, Jerry Fodor, Jaegwon Kim, Joëlle Proust and Patrick Suppes.

Fiber-reinforced composites have been widely applied in different industrial areas. This book focuses on the recent advances, new perspectives, and applications of different fiber-reinforced composites, such, as ceramic-matrix composites, fiber-reinforced concrete, wood–plastic composites, and so on. The design, fabrication, and application of fiber-reinforced composites are related to the high mechanical properties and nondestructive damage monitoring techniques. The experimental and damage monitoring method can reveal the internal damage evolution process inside of the fiber-reinforced composites and improve the operation reliability and safety of the composites and components. The book can help composite researchers better understand the engineering application, mechanical behavior, and damage detection of fiber-reinforced composites.

Examines how the death of service members affects the subsequent labor market earnings of surviving spouses and the extent to which survivor benefits provided by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Social Security Administration compensate for lost household earnings. Also assesses the extent to which payments surviving spouses and children receive compensate for earnings losses attributable to combat death.