Search results

This chapter reviews the ability of the emerging human performance modeling technologies to support the design and operation of complex systems. The ability of existing technologies to meet current application needs is analyzed, and the results are then used to assess the areas where additional research and development is most needed. Following a brief history of human performance modeling, a taxonomy of models and modeling techniques is established, as a framework for remaining discussion. The human performance modeling technology base is separately analyzed for its ability to support system design processing and to support system operation. The system design process analysis considers the various roles that human performance models may play during that process, ranging from generating design concepts to affording simulation-based range of roles, from training to performance support to automation. These analyses demonstrate that human modeling technology has reached a sufficient state of maturity and has become a proven contributor of the complex systems engineering process. Challenges for further high-payoff research are also presented in five categories: cognition, knowledge management, team and organizational structure and processes, predictive models of training, and human-centered systems engineering.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of six determinants on taxpayers' intention to adopt e‐file systems. The proposed model integrates technology adoption factors from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model with personal perceptions on trust, efficacy, and security into one parsimonious yet explanatory model of e‐file adoption.

A survey was administered to 304 US taxpayers to capture their perceptions of e‐filing. The survey was developed using existing scales in the literature. Responses were measured on a seven‐point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The results were tested using multiple linear regression analysis.

The findings of this research show that theoretical constructs from the UTAUT model are well suited in explaining intentions to use multiple e‐government services. Specifically, the results indicate that three factors from the UTAUT model (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence) play a significant role in predicting taxpayers' e‐filing intentions. More importantly, the research findings indicate that personal factors (web‐specific self‐efficacy (WSSE) and perceived security control), along with UTAUT factors, have a significant impact on taxpayers' e‐file intentions. The proposed model explains 63.5 percent of the variance in taxpayers' e‐file intentions.

This study contributes to the literature by integrating determinants from the UTAUT model with personal perception factors to explain e‐file adoption. This merging of UTAUT with theories, such as social cognition, that emphasize human perception, is the direction that must be taken by researchers in an effort to understand taxpayers' intentions to adopt e‐file systems. While the proposed model explained 63.5 percent of the variation in e‐file use intention, there are limitations to this research. The participants in this research are not sufficiently diverse in culture, socio‐economic level, etc. and 89 percent of the research participants are Caucasian. In addition, the participants were recruited from limited geographical locations. The strength of the model should be validated using more diverse research participants that will increase the variation in the data collected.

The paper presents a parsimonious, yet integrated, model of e‐file diffusion. The integration of adoption factors with personal perceptions of trust, efficacy, and security represents a significant step forward in explaining e‐file adoption.

Approaches to the sociology of culture have largely been constituted around the long tradition of functionalism in sociology. This has hampered the field greatly. Among other shortcomings, this intellectual foundation has led to a limited understanding of ideology and civil society, a conservative political orientation and an overdeterministic view of social action and the actor. In this paper, I explore and then apply a new approach to the sociology of culture, one that attempts to conceptualize more robustly the dynamics of ideology, ideological conflict and civil society. As part of this project, I endeavor to map out a critical cultural perspective that establishes a multidimensional understanding of the contingency of social action.

WHAT is P.E.N.? The answer to that question may be of interest to the readers of a literary magazine of world‐wide circulation. For P.E.N.—the initials stand for Poets, Playwrights; Editors, Essayists; Novelists; or, alternatively, for “Paix Entre Nous”—is a world‐wide literary organisation. And not much information about it is to be gleaned from the press, at least the English press, which for the most part has consistently ignored even the not un‐important international congress of P.E.N. Perhaps the reason is the healthy English distaste for internationalism, or for the idea of organisation in connection with so individual a thing as literature. But Britain was the godmother of the League of Nations, and remains its staunchest supporter. And it was in London that the parent P.E.N. club was formed.

The relationship between the size of state audit budgets, audit responsibilities, professional characteristics of staff, risk, and tax and expenditure limitations is explored. Bivariate relationships are examined and then a model is estimated which controls for size, complexity, financial risk factors, and political risk factors. This provides a framework for considering the incremental influence of specialized audit inputs. Both "brand names" and size have been used in past research to proxy for quality dimensions intended to differentiate the audit product provided by different suppliers. This research extends such work by considering characteristics of the auditing services as reflected by specific inputs and by using cost data rather than audit fee data. The states are observed to differ in their responses to financial and political factors by spending resources on peer review, continuing professional education, certifications of professional staff, and expertise in both the computer science area and in law. A positive association of cost and auditor differentiation, implicit in past audit fee literature is corroborated.

THE Ninth Annual Report of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust has just come to hand and it provides a most interesting survey of the Trustees' activities. Notwithstanding what has been said in previous reports, it must be clear to everyone that the library work of the Trustees, rather than decreasing, is assuming an importance which is very much greater than has hitherto been contemplated. The statistics given in appendix 1 of the Report are particularly illuminative, covering the work of twenty‐three counties and giving figures for maintenance cost in pounds, and the equivalent rate in pence, total issues, total stock, number of centres, number of readers, with total population of the area served. We hope to review this interesting publication fully in our May issue.

Introduction The connection between wealth and virtue or between economics and ethics has been severed. Pure or positive economics is believed to be objective and scientific, based on facts alone, while normative or ethical reasoning is believed to be less reliable and non scientific because it is subjective, value‐laden and prone to prejudice and personal preferences.

Most of the literature on the topic of alcohol consumption and externalities related to it identify adverse effects. The effects of these possible externalities on government financial condition remain relatively unexplored in the literature. In economics, the theory of social costs related to unrestricted economic behavior such as alcohol consumption has been explored since the early twentieth century which spread into the field of public administration through welfare economics. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper is a study of the possible effects of alcohol consumption on state financial condition across state governments in the USA, based on a mediation analysis with PROCESS.

This paper finds that there is a significant mediated effect of alcohol consumption on state financial condition through some economic and demographic variables. The paper explores these findings as well as future research.

This is the first paper that takes an interdisciplinary approach to the social cost and public finance literature with a specific focus on alcohol consumption.