Technology plays an increasing role in the accountant’s function. However, continuing advances in technology and the evolving needs of the profession may pose a challenge to future accountants, as the skills desired by the profession and the skills taught in the classroom may not necessarily coordinate. Educators often must adapt their coursework to keep curriculum current and relevant. Experiential or active learning techniques may be useful in the classroom to help bridge the gap between the technology demands of the profession and the skills taught in the classroom. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, this study asks practitioners to indicate the importance they would attach to students having prior exposure to selected technology applications. The practitioners were also asked to indicate the importance they would attach to various Microsoft Excel features. Second, this study asks educators to specify the methods of classroom coverage of various technologies. Results of practitioner and educator responses are discussed.

This decade has seen movements in agricultural commodity futures markets never seen before. There are many factors that have intensified price movements and volatility behavior. Whatever the reasons are for price movements, it is clear that the volatility behavior in commodity markets constantly change, and risk managers need updated understanding to mitigate price risk. This study identified market structural breaks of weekly realized volatility in corn, wheat, soybeans, live cattle, feeder cattle and lean hogs futures markets. Furthermore, this study analyzed the forecasting performance of implied volatility, historical volatility, a composite approach and a naïve approach as pragmatic forecasters of realized volatility. Results indicate there are multiple market structural breaks present in all six commodities. Differences in the forecasting performance of the analyzed methods were examined when individual market regimes were analyzed. Implied volatility encompasses all the information contained in the historical volatility and the naïve measure across each identified market regime in all six commodities. Overall there is evidence that indicates superiority of implied volatility over historical volatility, composite and naïve approaches. Combined this suggest implied volatility is a sound forecast for 1-week ahead volatility in agricultural commodity markets.

Capital Appreciation Bonds are similar to zero coupon bonds and not the more typical current interest bond. They are issued for periods well in excess of the normal 25 year municipal bond. In addition, a normal payback for a municipal bond is 2 to 3 times the amount borrowed at the municipal bond’s issue while it is as much as 1,800 times for Capital Appreciation Bonds. This paper explores Puerto Rico’s debt issues and the compounding and perpetuity effect on those debt issues by the use of Capital Appreciation Bonds. The serious problems of Puerto Rico’s debt structure, past and probable defaults, and underfunded pensions are explored through the intertwining of their debt issues between agencies. This misjudgment and poor fiscal oversight by Puerto Rico effectively insures another more serious crisis, even if they weather their current situation, the next debt crisis will have far reaching consequences on their pensions and economic future.

Transport and logistical systems and their management play an important role in the national economy and international trade. Kazakhstan is the largest of the republics in the Central Asia and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) except the Russian Federation. It is also one of the most sparsely populated countries and has probably the largest reserves of oil, gas, minerals, and natural resources. Companies from Europe, Asia, and Americas started moving to this region and realized the importance of economic development in the Central Asian Republics. This paper describes Kazakhstan’s current transportation system, its infrastructure, and various issues in the logistical management system. We suggest how to improve and utilize multimodal transport systems, resources of Kazakhstan, and to utilize governmental policies to generate prosperity and national wealth, to reduce costs of imported items, and to make more efficient and effective transportation systems in Kazakhstan. Transport and logistics companies as well researchers will benefit significantly from this paper.

This paper investigates the role of economic, instructional and political factors in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam CLV) economies. Using panel unit-root test and Random effects on panel data for 16 years from 1996 to 2012 to examine significant determinants of FDI in Indochina, the paper takes into account economic factors (inflation rate, trade openness, market size), institutional factors (corruption and rule of law), and political factors (political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, voice and accountability) to explores the role of these determinants. The results show that market size, government effectiveness, rule of law and political stability are statistically significant and have positive influence on inward FDI.

This qualitative study was a narrative inquiry of the communication experiences of 7 deaf individuals incarcerated throughout 7 states. The researcher, deaf herself, interviewed 2 deaf inmates and 5 deaf ex-inmates about issues experienced with communication at home, school, and before, during, and after incarceration. The interviews were video recorded and transcribed. A Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) checked the transcripts for accuracy, providing inter-rater reliability. The communication experiences of each participant were narrated. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method to find common themes related to the research questions. The results of this study suggested 3 interventions:1) assigning deaf inmates to specially equipped facilities; 2) utilize a CDI, with legal knowledge and training, to work with deaf inmates, along with a skilled sign language interpreter; 3) utilize deaf legal advocates to clarify each step through the criminal justice system, which will help the deaf inmate more fully understand.

This study looked at the efficient allocation of limited resources (10 hours per week) based on students’ desired statistics lab hours and it found that both rank (relative importance or weight) and frequency based demand for lab hours based on week days was highest on Mondays followed by Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The demand for statistics lab hours was lower on Thursdays relative to that of Fridays even though statistics classes were offered on Mondays through Thursdays. Both frequencies and weight based assignment of lab hours with even distribution of two hours per day indicated that the lab hours should have been allocated between 10-11 am and 3-4 pm, but the weight based assignment of lab hours without even distribution per day should have been 3 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, 2 hours on Wednesdays, and one hour each on Thursdays and Fridays. Overall, the study suggested that for efficient allocation of limited resources (10 hours of stat lab hours per week with one stat lab assistant), the statistics lab should be opened right before and right after lecture classes. The distribution of allocation of hours should be slightly more after lecture classes than before lecture classes.