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The use of choice-based, matched, and other stratified sample designs is common in auditing research. However, it is not widely appreciated that the data analysis for these studies has to take into account the non-random nature of sample selection in these designs. A choice-based, matched or otherwise stratified sample is a nonrandom sample that must be analyzed using conditional analysis techniques. We review five research streams in the auditing area. These streams include work on determinants of audit litigation, audit fees, auditor reporting in financially distressed firms, audit quality and auditor switches. Cram, Karan, and Stuart (CKS) (2009) demonstrated the accuracy of conditional analysis, compared to unconditional analysis, of nonrandom samples through the use of simulations, replications, and mathematical proofs. Papers since published have continued to rely upon questionable research, however, and it is hard for researchers to identify what is the reliability of a given work. We complement and extend CKS (2009) by identifying audit papers in selected research streams whose results will likely differ if the data gathered are analyzed using conditional analysis techniques. Thus research can be advanced either by replication and reanalysis, or by refocus of new research upon issues that should no longer be viewed as settled.

Shortest distance query between a pair of nodes in a graph is a classical problem with a wide variety of applications. Exact methods for this problem are infeasible for large-scale graphs such as social networks with hundreds of millions of users and links due to their high complexity of time and space. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel landmark selection strategy which can estimate the shortest distances in large-scale graphs and clarify the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed strategy in comparison with currently used strategies.

Different from existing strategies, the landmark selection problem is regarded as a binary combinational optimization problem consisting of two optimization objectives and one constraint. Further, the original binary combinational optimization problem with constraints is transformed to a proper form of optimization objectives without any additional constraints and the equivalence of solutions is proved. Finally the solution of the optimization problem is performed with a modified multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) integrating the mutation operator and crossover operator of genetic algorithm.

Four real networks of large scale are used as data sets to carry out the experiments and the experiment results show that the proposed strategy improves both of the accuracy and time efficiency to perform shortest distance estimation in large scale graph compared to other currently used strategies.

This paper proposes a novel landmark selection strategy which regards the landmark selection problem as a binary combinational optimization problem. The original binary combinational optimization problem with constraints is transformed to a proper form of optimization objectives without constraints and the equivalence of these two optimization problems is proved. This novel strategy also utilizes a modified MOPSO integrating the mutation operator and crossover operator of genetic algorithm.

Drawing on human capital and sustainable career theory, this paper aims to explore university students' views regarding their self-perceived employability following participation in a mandatory module titled “The Global Marketing Professional”.

Overall, 80 students studying a full-time postgraduate master's degree in international marketing management at a northern Russell Group university participated in a two-wave study by completing a questionnaire during Weeks 1 and 9 of the module in the 2021/2022 academic year. Descriptive statistics, paired samples t-tests and quantitative content analysis were subsequently applied to the data set.

Students' confidence in their self-perceived employability rose from 37.5% to 92.5%. This was supported by the paired samples t-tests’ findings of increases at the item and composite scale levels. The quantitative content analysis found benefits of the module to include increased confidence, interactive classes, skills development, knowledge of the recruitment process, CV development, proactive career ownership, interview guidance and networking. Suggestions for improvement included increasing the amount of lecture time provided, increased accessibility via subtitles and opportunities for real-world experience.

The contribution comes via the advancement of human capital and sustainable career theory by identifying empirically informed strategies for enhancing students' self-perceived employability within the university curriculum. Implications subsequently extend to universities, organisations and national economies.

The selling of wines is usually performed by a sommelier in the context of an upmarket restaurant. However, many restaurants cannot afford to employ a sommelier and must rely on the food and beverage service personnel to assist customers with the selection of wine. The food and beverage service personnel are generally not qualified to do this. Restaurants usually do not provide training with regard to wine knowledge, wine service skills and wine selling skills. The purpose of this paper was to establish whether wine service training had an influence on the wine sales of a restaurant.

A quasi-experimental research design used two restaurants from the same franchise. One restaurant was the control group while the other was the experimental group. Wine sales were monitored and recorded for a period of three months, the second month being used for the training intervention of the experimental group.

Although the results were not statistically significant, the results indicated that wine service training increased the wine sales in the restaurant of the experimental group.

This study contributes to the literature in the South African hospitality sector and establishes that wine service training is a necessity for wine sales to explore further in the restaurant industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent at which electricity consumption (EC) has contributed to real sector performance, to identify energy-dependent sectors of the economy for appropriate sector-specific policy interventions and to avoid energy conservation policies that may retard the growth of the real sector and economic growth in general.

This paper used time series data, covering the period between 1981 and 2015. Various time series econometric analyses such as unit root test for stationarity and vector autoregressive and vector error correction models were used to establish the long-run and short-run co-integration relationship among the variables.

This study finds that EC displays a little and insignificant impact on manufacturing sector output, as well as agriculture and service outputs. The empirical result from causality test suggests a unidirectional causality running from agriculture to EC, as well as service sector to EC, whereas bidirectional causality runs between EC and manufacturing sector. This study therefore recommends adequate power supply to the manufacturing sector, while energy efficiency policy and regulatory reform should address agriculture and service sectors.

Few studies have examined the impact of EC on disaggregated gross domestic product. This research gap has strong policy implications on Nigerian economy as the output of real sector plays vital role in driving the economy. Given the pressing needs for Nigeria to boost real sector output and be among the world’s 20 largest economies by 2030, it becomes imperative for this sector-specific research to be conducted to ensure that sectoral purpose-driven energy interventions are formulated to address power supply challenges in the real sector.

In this paper we give a synoptic view of the growth of the text processing technology of information extraction (IE) whose function is to extract information about a pre‐specified set of entities, relations or events from natural language texts and to record this information in structured representations called templates. Here we describe the nature of the IE task, review the history of the area from its origins in AI work in the 1960s and 70s till the present, discuss the techniques being used to carry out the task, describe application areas where IE systems are or are about to be at work, and conclude with a discussion of the challenges facing the area. What emerges is a picture of an exciting new text processing technology with a host of new applications, both on its own and in conjunction with other technologies, such as information retrieval, machine translation and data mining.

July 6, 1973 Factories — Eyes — Protective equipment — Whether “suitable” goggles “provided” — Whether compliance with statutory duty excludes employers' common law duty of care — Duty of employers at common law — Non‐Ferrous Metals (Melting and Founding) Regulations, 1962 (S.I. 1962 No. 1667) reg. 13(1) (c),(4).

Many algorithms have been proposed to form manufacturing cells from component routeings. Most of these methods require specialized algorithms for implementation. Some others use well known procedures such as integer programming. However, these may be difficult for practising managers to comprehend. Proposes a simple method that can be implemented using spreadsheet software. The method is based on similarity coefficients and a pair‐wise interchange procedure. Describes the method and the spreadsheet implementation. Compares our procedure with many existing procedures using eight well‐known problems from the literature. Using three evaluation measures shows that the proposed procedure is effective. Given its simplicity and effectiveness, it may be useful to practitioners and researchers.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.