Managing and Disclosing Environmental Risks: A Tale of Two Utilities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Youngman ◽  
Megan F. Hess ◽  
Elicia Cowins
Keyword(s):  
Coal Ash ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Environmental Liabilities ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Contingent Liabilities ◽  
Regulatory Scrutiny ◽  
Energy Companies

This case introduces students to the topic of contingent liabilities by examining the actual management decisions of two energy companies facing increased regulatory scrutiny over the environmental risks associated with coal ash.  The case learning objectives include: (1) researching and summarizing the guidance governing the recognition and disclosure of contingent liabilities; (2) critically assessing a company’s decisions regarding the recognition and disclosure of environmental liabilities; (3) accounting for asset retirement obligations; and (4) articulating the ethical implications of a company’s management and disclosure of environmental risks from the perspectives of various stakeholders.  The case is designed for use in an intermediate accounting course at the undergraduate level.  Students reported improvement in their knowledge and comprehension of contingent liabilities and their appreciation for the ethical implications of accounting decisions.  Students also noted that they enjoyed discussing these issues in the context of real companies facing complex environmental challenges.

scholarly journals The Effect on Learning Objectives and Outcomes of Students’ Inability to Develop Language Competencies for Appropriate Communication at the Undergraduate Level

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. p64
Author(s):  
Casimir Adjoe ◽  
Rosemary Kimani
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Linguistic Ethnography ◽  
Language Competencies

The ability to communicate is a skill needed for beneficial learning outcomes. It is likewise needed for functioning in our connected world and spaces. However, undergraduate writing still gives the impression of poor English writing skills and inadequate communication. The paper takes a linguistic ethnography approach to examine the effects of poor English writing skills on the learning objectives and communication of undergraduate students. Using a random sampling of 37 examination scripts of Communication Studies students and their analysis through a revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, the study suggests that poor English writing skills and the inability to communicate are likely among the effects of the inability of undergraduate students to acquire competence at the comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation tasks needed to enable them compose knowledge and meaningful messages as well as to communicate them. The study, therefore, suggests the need for investigating practical steps that can be taken to assist students with poor English writing competencies and skills to access knowledge and be able to produce knowledge in their learning situations, and further still, be able to communicate their knowledge as competently as possible without an overemphasis on grammatical correctness as the goal.

scholarly journals The unbearable lightness of diff�rance: The ethos of deconstruction

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann-Albrecht Meylahn
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Milan Kundera ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Famous Book

The unbearable lightness of diff�rance is in reference to Milan Kundera�s famous book, The unbearable lightness of being. Being is unbearably light, if interpreted as Heidegger did as either the meaning of Being or the truth of Being, yet in Derrida�s response to Heidegger he argues that diff�rance is �older� than the meaning of Being, even older than the truth of Being, and thus one could argue that diff�rance is even lighter than Being and thus even more unbearable. What possibilities does such an unbearable lightness of diff�rance offer to human being-with (Mitsein) in a global village faced with so many socio-economic and environmental challenges? The unbearable lightness could be absolute relativism and particularism as Rawls has interpreted it or it could be the unbearable lightness of auto-deconstruction. The unbearable lightness of diff�rance opens a socio-political space with an ethos of deconstruction and thereby response or ibility towards the other. This lightness of diff�rance can be interpreted as a difficult liberty (difficult liberty as Levinas interprets it) or even an unbearable liberty of infinite broken chains of signifiers and yet a freedom that is held to account (that responds) to the other. This liberty is an infinite responsibility towards the other and therefore infinite responsibility towards justice (dik�). Diff�rance is liberty as all there is, is text, but this liberty is not licentiousness of absolute disconnection, but the difficult liberty of being only responsible towards the other. The question this article will grapple with is: what ethical implications can be gathered from this state of being-with, this unbearable lightness of diff�rance in the global village?Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Philosophy and philosophy of religion. The article focusses on the conversation between Heidegger and Derrida, with regards to diff�rance and Austrag.

Environmental risks of farmed and barren alkaline coal ash landfills in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2008 ◽  
Vol 153 (3) ◽  
pp. 677-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Dellantonio ◽  
Walter J. Fitz ◽  
Hamid Custovic ◽  
Frank Repmann ◽  
Bernd U. Schneider ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Coal Ash ◽  
Environmental Risks

An Audit Quality Inspection Scandal: Ethical Lapses in a Misguided Attempt to Alleviate Regulatory Scrutiny

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D Keyser ◽  
Jason L. Smith ◽  
Nathaniel M Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Quality Inspection ◽  
Fraud Triangle ◽  
Program Understanding ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Regulatory Scrutiny

In 2017, KPMG discovered that several high-ranking partners in its Department of Professional Practice (DPP) had surreptitiously obtained highly confidential information on upcoming PCAOB inspections. In obtaining this information, these KPMG partners were able to anticipate and prepare for PCAOB inspections, causing the firm’s inspection deficiency rate to plummet and its executives to tout the success of their efforts to improve audit quality. Once the firm discovered the scandal, the individuals involved were terminated, and six of them were ultimately convicted of felonies. This case study introduces students to relevant auditing standards, audit quality concepts, and facilitates discussion of a number of ethical issues. Learning objectives for this case include obtaining an understanding of the PCAOB and its inspection program, understanding audit documentation standards, demonstrating the ability to evaluate ethical issues, applying the fraud triangle in a unique setting, and assessing responsibility for the various parties involved.

From Environmental Liability to Community Asset

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Allan Comp
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Real World ◽  
Public History ◽  
Environmental Liabilities ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Community Assets ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
Environmental Liability

This chapter explores linking economic redevelopment with a recognition of regional legacy. It provided an opportunity to apply public history to real-world needs and to do something with history on a larger scale and led to the work discussed here. “AMD&ART” is now both the name of a park in Vintondale, Pennsylvania, and the name of an idea, a commitment to interdisciplinary work in the service of community aspirations to address environmental challenges. As an idea, AMD&ART is a lasting antidote to the complex problems of coal country that is, and in fact must be, cultural and environmental; only a place-based multidisciplinary solution that starts with good history has the power to transform environmental liabilities into community assets that engage a broad spectrum of support.

scholarly journals Implementing Assessment literacy in ESL/EFL at Undergraduate Level in Bangladeshi Universities: Imperativeness and Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-367
Author(s):  
Protiva Rani Karmaker
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Assessment Literacy ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Effective Assessment ◽  
The University

The paper concentrates on investigating the implementation of assessment literacy at the tertiary level of Bangladesh. It also tries to explore the existing challenges which the teachers face in ELT classroom while implementing effective assessment techniques in evaluating academic examination scripts. In this regard, a survey method involving a questionnaire survey was used to obtain a quantitative insight of the study. After studying the responses from 10 respondents of two public universities of Bangladesh, the researcher attained the findings that demonstrated respondents’ experience and suggestions regarding assessment literacy in English language teaching at undergraduate level in the respective university, which include a number of barriers, like lack of training in achieving assessment literacy, insufficient support from the university, and disparity between learning objectives and assessment techniques. To ensure bonafide assessment literacy, the findings also provided some feasible suggestions, like offering students an opportunity to convert test into learning experiences, ensuring appropriate math between assessment and learner ability and regulating self-assessment on regular basis.

Behavior in the Brain

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M. Monti ◽  
Adrian M. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Motor Output ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Minimally Conscious ◽  
Brain Insults ◽  
Brain Behavior

Recent evidence has suggested that functional neuroimaging may play a crucial role in assessing residual cognition and awareness in brain injury survivors. In particular, brain insults that compromise the patient’s ability to produce motor output may render standard clinical testing ineffective. Indeed, if patients were aware but unable to signal so via motor behavior, they would be impossible to distinguish, at the bedside, from vegetative patients. Considering the alarming rate with which minimally conscious patients are misdiagnosed as vegetative, and the severe medical, legal, and ethical implications of such decisions, novel tools are urgently required to complement current clinical-assessment protocols. Functional neuroimaging may be particularly suited to this aim by providing a window on brain function without requiring patients to produce any motor output. Specifically, the possibility of detecting signs of willful behavior by directly observing brain activity (i.e., “brain behavior”), rather than motoric output, allows this approach to reach beyond what is observable at the bedside with standard clinical assessments. In addition, several neuroimaging studies have already highlighted neuroimaging protocols that can distinguish automatic brain responses from willful brain activity, making it possible to employ willful brain activations as an index of awareness. Certainly, neuroimaging in patient populations faces some theoretical and experimental difficulties, but willful, task-dependent, brain activation may be the only way to discriminate the conscious, but immobile, patient from the unconscious one.

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