Biofilms

Favorable conditions with respect to the development of biofilm by Listeria onocytogenes were studied on model system that was represented by microtiter plates as well as certain useful disinfectant agents were found. Listeria monocytogenes Lm-24, an industrial isolate as well as Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 13932 were compared in terms of their biofilms’ forming abilities.
0.5 McFarland was the reproducible result that was lead by the initial concentration of the cells. The testes temperatures were between 8°C to 37°C and the best values to create biofilms in buffered peptone water (BPW) with glucose of 0.05% was between 25°C and 30°C. The constant strain L. monocytogenes Lm-24 was compared with the reference strain and it was concluded that L. monocytogenes Lm-24 had more massive biofilms. A numbe of disinfectants such as Merades Alco, Savo, benzalalkonium chloride were also applied. L. monocytogenes Lm-24 were used as organisms’ model in a persistent industry and were used for such tests. The most effective way to destroy the biofilm was recognized as treatment of benzalalkonium chloride. 500 mg/l treatment and 125 mg/l treatment for planctonic cells was dangerous for the biofilm cells. The viability was suppressed by Savo by 20% on average of biofilms whereas it was dangerous for planctonic cells. Weak impact was showcased by Merades Alco.
In the external environment, Listeria monocytogenes is present everywhere as it is a Gram-positive foodborn pathogenic bacterium. Listeriosis is caused by Listeria monocytogenes and has an global mortality rate of about 20-30% and it can exist for several years in environments of foodprocessing which is a significant food contamination cause.
Biofilms are formed by attaching L. monocytogenes which are defensive polysaccharides and protein layers which cover the bacteria and cling onto various equipments and surfaces. A number of bacteria can to stick to the colonized environmental surfaces by developing a matrix of three dimensions of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) known as biofilms. A group of microorganisms covered by the slime they secrete are known as biofilms which are connected to the living or inert surfaces. In contrast, planctonic cells are free individual liquid living things.
The arrangement of biofilm permits the microorganisms to exist in the environment as well as resist resiccation, antimicrobial treatment, UV light and sanitizing agent. It is hard to control biofilms because they develop wherever there is plenty of water and where there is no proper cleaning. Filling/packaging equipment, walls, conveyors, floor drains, racks for transporting products, freezers, cooling pipes, and hand tools or gloves are the usual isolation sites of L. monocytogenes from processing plants of dairy industry.
A number of indirect and direct procedures of experiment are established to enable studies of reproducible bacteria attachment and colonization. The development of biofilm is a complicated procedure which is controlled by different characteristics of substrate, cell surface and growth medium.
Indirect methods for the purpose of amount of bacteria estimation in situ fits in right by the procedure of microtitier plate and can be change for a number of biofilm formation assays. A process of using the microtitier plates was used in this study. The main purpose of the experiment was to obtain an appropriate medium for forming biofilm by means of a reference strain as compared to the industrial isolate and also to examine the efficiency of the disinfectants generally used against the biofilm.
Material Required and Methods:
Culture preparation. Throughout the process L. monocytogenes which was industrial isolated and labeled as Lm.24 and Listeria monocytogenes ATTC 13932 were used. At -80°C in a brain-heat infusion (BHI) in presence of 15% glycerol, stock culture were kept.
At 4°C for about 30 days, cultures which were working kept on plate count agar (PCA) slants. For about 18 hours at 37°C in 10ml of BHI, cultures were grown well before the experiment.
Media: Following media were used for bio film production assays:
Buffered peptone water (BPW) – Different combination of NaCl and glucose were used. 0.5% NaCl in BPW, BPW with 5.0% NaCl, 0.05% glucose in BPW, 0.5% glucose in BPW, 0.5% glucose and 5.0% NaCl in BPW, 0.05% glucose and 0.5% NaCl in BPW.
Brain heart infusion - BHI and physiological saline – PS, 10 time diluted BHI
Microtiter plate biofilm production assay:
Manufactured in USA , Microtiter plates COSTAR 3796 were selected as standard tool for performing of all the experiments. In BHI, overnight cultures were diluted to the media which is mentioned above and was equaled to 0.5 McGarland values which is approx. 107 CFU/ml. As compared to previous tests this gave improved results.

With the help of 70% ethanol micortiter plates were cleaned and then air dried. For each well of different microtiter plated extectly 100 μl of individual culture dilution which taken form the tested media were transferred. 16 parallels that is 8 wells and 2 rows were diluted for single type of dilution and medium. Both after as well as before 22hr of incubation, with the help of Tecan-Spectra 9440012 spectrophotometer at 20 nm, microtiter plates were calculated. After incubation of 22hr, medium is removed from wells and then wells are washed with sterile distilled water for 5 times to remover any bacteria. Then for 45min plates are air dried and then each well is stained with the help of 150 μl of 1% crystal violet solution mixed in water for another 45mins.
The plates were scrubbed five times by using infertile condense water, this is done after maculation. For quantitative analysis 200 μl of 95% of ethanol is added to distain well so that the analysis can be performed easily and when 45 minutes have passed 100 μl was conveyed to micro titer plate and the level of crystal violet that was already present in the solution was at about 620 nm at Tecan-Spectra 9440012. The test was performed in 8, 25, 30 or 37 °C temperature.
Disinfectant attempts
From many disinfectants three were tested which includes Savo S, a mixture of NaClO and NaOH, Prague, Penta and Czech Republic, used in household and food industry, other is Merades Alco (MA) used in dairy industry, composed of Merak, Czech Republic, Prague Ethanol and Proponal and third one is Benzalalkonium Cloride (BC) comprises of QUAT group, St. Loius, Ammonium Salt, Fluka Analytical and USA, used in food industry. The time incurred in treatments and strength of solutions is mention in table 1. Micro titer plates were checked by using 100 μl of the agent after 22 h and this is done to pretend the real circumstances. While using A-assessment for checking the disinfectant effect on biofilm, the plates were washed and deal in same manner as discussed above after the mention time has passed.
After this process the measurement of desolation of biofilm that occurred due to this agent becomes easy. For testing the B-viability of biofilm cells sterile water was used to wash the micro titer plates after the occurrence of disinfectants procedure and after this 100 μl of BPW which had 0.05% of glucose in it was place into the wells.
The making of biofilm and density produced were compared with those that obtained by disinfectant handling while the micro titer plates needed 30 °C for about 22 h to be hatched.


Many innovative mechanisms have been developed by intracellular pathogens to replicate and compartmentalize in the cells of host. On the other hand, innate immunity of mammals has developed such innate immune system which can identify the infections caused by microorganisms via different cytosolic, vacuolar and surface receptors which can identify protected microbial molecules. Taking this in account, it wasn’t unexpected that to continue with the pathogenesis, pathogens evolved counteracting mechanisms against innate immunity of the host. Although the whole idea of innate immunity of mammals has attracted massive interest of those who are concerned with the study of adaptive immunity, inflammation and infectious diseases, but our main knowledge is still based on interaction between purified components taken out from microorganisms and host cells. Interaction between host and pathogens which is the hot topic of now days is still undefined and striving to answer the question of how the host cells differentiate and react to live and replicate to protect against non virulent microbes and pathogenic microorganisms.
There are two main categories of intracellular pathogens: those who exist in vacuole-like compartment and those who live directly in cytosol of host cell. The reference organism being used for studies various characteristics of acquired and innate immunity is, Listeria monocytogenes which is an example of latter category. Once the organism i.e. Listeria monocytogenes has entered in the cytosol of host cell, strains known as wild-type (w.t.) activate a IRF-3/TBK1-dependent and MyD88/TRIF-independent response of host transcription leading to transcription of many genes which include production of cytokine IFN and robust expression.
Dangerous strains of various other pathogens like, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Francisella tularensis, Legionella pneumophila and Brucellae also initiate this pathway. On the other hand avirulent pathogens do not do this. At present, although flavones associate compounds and nucleic acids can induce a very same response but host receptors and character of bacterial ligand(s) involved in appreciation of bacteria in cytosol of host is unclear. To completely understand the relationship between immunity of host and infection, an unbiased screening of genetic makeup to evaluate surveillance pathways of organism was done and it showed that strains of replicating cytosolic L. monocytogenes that stimulate reduced or elevated response of host, expressed multidrug resistance transporters (MDRs) of super family of MRDs of bacteria and the fact that they control the cytosolic surveillance passageway both in vivo and in vitro.

It has been stated that, Listeria monocytogenes, which is a Gram-positive bacillus, is pathogenic for animals and human beings. It has been found out and confirmed recently in various food-borne listeriosis which are epidemic. L. monocytogenes is extensively distributed in various components of environment, sewage, soil, uncooked and decaying vegetables. The tendency of the bacterium to enter the units of food handling and manufacture is very vast. Main diseases caused by L. monocytogenes include encephalitis, meningitides, septicemia and abortion. Many researches carried out in the past evidently point out towards the fact that the likelihood of L. monocytogenes to cause disease is dangerously vast. Most of the strains of L. monocytogenes express clinical manifestation and most of the strains cause disease only when they enter a human or animal host. Various sporadic cases of L. monocytogenes infecting the vegetables of daily use and farms have been identified in Ado-Ekiti; and this type of contaminated food which has to be distributed is the main source of transmission. Rate of the outbreaks of these diseases happening again and again is still not known because reoccurrence of these infections caused by L. monocytogenes because mostly the infections like these are not conveyed to officials of public health.
The L. monocytogenes have proved to be in bold opposition to the environmental issues including the low pH value, the pasteurization or heating process, the osmotic pressure and the refrigeration degree (4oC). Researchers notice that he susceptibility of the antibiotics have been generally stable and systematic over the years, even though certain antibiotics were found to be becteriostatic. In recent years, some researchers have laid a lot of emphasis and researched on the level of resistance provided by the antibiotics of L. monocytogenes. The waste of animals and their feces are used as a source of organism on the agricultural land so as to apply the manure to make the land more fertile for plantation. These are then tranferred to the healthy animals as well as humans with the vegetables that are extracted from this piece of land.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The cultural and morphological features aided in the classification and identification of the Isolates. The nature and characteristics of these isolates were observed and biochemical tests were carried out to find more about them. It was derived from the studies that there were traces of Pathogen present in the samples. The results also showed the presence of cow dung, agricultural soil and vegetables. The vegetables obtained from the Enu-Odi Market have the highest level of pathogen and Amarathus cruetus. These vegetables showed the highest proportion of L. monocytogenes. It was also shown that the vegetables had differing levels of resistance to the antibiotics. Results showed that chloramphenicol has the least effect on the vegetables and only 52.29% of the isolates showed resistance to it. Augmetin also proved to e quite ineffective. However, cloxacillin proved to have the highest resistance level. Some researchers found that the L. monocytogenes isolates were quite responsive to chloramphenicol and gentamicin. Certain extrinsic factors played a role in influencing the extent of resistance. These factors included the level of exposure, the antibiotic type used to in the local area and the occurrence of plasmids in the isolates. These have been observed in various L.monocytogenes and these plasmids may prove to be either pheromones-responsible or broad-host-range. The differing antibiotic pressures also tend to influence the results to a great extent.
The level of threat to the resistence power from the cow wastes varies between 41.18-70.59%. This variation is a result of the contact supervision of the antiobiotics that are sublethal and are used to cause an increase in the growth rate and cause a fall in the level of feed used to bring the animal to the optimum slaughter size.
It has been observed that vegetables are one of the highest transmission mediums for L.monocytogenes. The sample taken showed traces of the organism. This evidence strengthens the previous findings that the vegetables harbor the antibiotic resistant organisms.
A study was conducted to examine the level of resistance put up by eight different types of antibiotics. The results differed in many ways to the earlier findings and highlighted the reasons for the occurrence of these changes. There are varying reasons for the changes such as genetic modification and the selective patterns of antibiotics. The multiple resistant bacterial strains were capable of being transferred to humans as well by coming in contact with it or directly consuming them. These occurrence were able to further complicate the management by the clinical staff due to the Pathogen and transfer of the resistance levels.

Russian Foreign Policy

Introduction:
In modern form of international relationship, it is very difficult to understand the foreign policy of Russian Federation. Regardless of the challenges like integration and globalization, Russia is still deeply in the illusion of hegemony that they had in cold war. There have been some problems related to political and economical transformation, beside that Russia is still the worlds biggest country and due to nuclear and other raw material ability it has a significant importance as well as influence in international system. For the purpose of analysis the foreign activities of Russia, theory of realism would be a very interesting tool for explanation regardless of the challenges like integration and globalization.
Why do states want authority?
There is a very simple and realistic justification behind why states contest to gain more power. The justification is based on five simple assumptions related to international system. Looking at these assumptions individually, none of them suggest that states attempt to gain more power at other states’ expense. But indeed, when they are combined together, they illustrate a world of endless security rivalry.
First assumption states that the individual or the actors, which have great powers, directs politics of the world and the system they work in is an anarchic system. This does not mean that there would be a disorder or chaos. Anarchy is a kind of ordering principle. The meaning of anarchy is very simple. Anarchy is a system in which there would be no ultimate arbiter or any centralized authority that would be above the state. The synonym of anarchy is hierarchy. It is also a kind of ordering principle but is related to domestic politics.

Second assumption is related to the military capabilities of a state. As each state has it own potential in this regard and so they can also negatively influence it neighbor. The capability many vary state to state and it many also change as time passes.
Third assumption is related to the uncertainty regarding the intentions of different states. Gaining knowledge related to different states that whether they are willing to use force to change balance of power, or they are pleased with the power they have and are not willing to use any force to change the balance. This states which are will to use force are know as revisionist states and states are satisfied with the power they have are called status quo states. It is indeed very difficult and sometime even impossible to determine with certainty what the real intensions of a state are. Intension can’t be verified empirically as military capabilities.
Intensions are difficult to determine because they are with in the minds of an individual who is making decisions. It is argued that decision makers may disclose its intension during a speech or when writing a policy document and then those could be analyzed. The limitation of this argument is that an individual may lie and hide its true intension. Even if some how it is possible to determine the intensions of a state presently, there could be no way to learn other states’ future intensions. It is not possible to determine who will be the next foreign policy maker and whether they would be having an aggressive intention. So the argument remains that a sate can never say for certain that what kind of state they are in contact with. Status quo state one or a revisionist one.
Fourth assumption is that a states ultimate objective is survival. A state is always keen to maintain territorial integrity and autonomy regarding domestic politics. There are indeed other goals such as human rights and prosperity, but when it comes to survival they all are back seated. This is because if a state can’t survive they can not pursue such goals.
The fifth and the last assumption is that there are times when states acts very rationally and are also sometime capable of making different strategies that increase their chances of survival. But on the other hand, it is also true that they are sometime miscalculated. Miscalculating is mostly due to inadequate information. In this world it is very difficult to obtain correct information and due to such information serious mistakes happens.
As mentioned above, individually none of the assumptions say that states would compete among themselves for power. Indeed third assumption mentions a revisionist state which acts aggressively of power. But it does not tell us why states fight for power. But when these assumptions are put together and combined, such condition arises where a state is not only preoccupied with balance of power but is also trying to acquire different incentives to increase its power even at the expense of other states.
It is true that great powers do fear each other. This is because there is very little trust and they are also worried about intentions of each other. The greatest fear among them is that they have power, capability and even motive to attack each other. This fear leads to anarchic system of operation where there is no one looking after when a state is been threatened by other state. There is no one that receives the emergency call when every a states dials the emergency help line.
The degree of fear may vary form state to state and case to case. But it could not be reduced to a level of insignificance. The cost of letting this happen is very high. International politics is indeed a very deadly business and it has a potential to start a war which could result in mass killings both off and on the battle field and even can lead to destruction of the state.
Powerful states must perceive that they have to operate in a world where they have to help themselves. The only way of survival for them is to relay on them. This is because those other states are possible treats and there is no one they could be contacted in case of an attack. This not excludes the possibility of alliance when are indeed useful while handling a dangerous adversities. Ultimately, it always come to a point where a state have to put its own interests first leaving behind other states and also supposed international community.
In addition to fear of other states, also knowing that they live in a self-help world, a State realizes that the only way to survive is to gain power. The reason behind gaining power is very simple. If a state is more powerful as compared to its competitors there is also a less chance of attack. For example, no one in Western Hemisphere could try to attack USA because it is relatively more powerful then its neighbors.
This is the justification that drives a State, especially great powers find ways that could shift the power in such a way that it is fruitful for them. What a state wants is at least no one could gain power on their expense. This all results in a system that forces every state act and think in a way that is more like revisionist state even those that could be satisfied in status quo.
The Russian foreign policy and the concept of structural realism
Not residing on internal political preferences and on the global system, the distribution of power along with the global system founds to be inside the structure, which is explained by Kenneth Waltz in his theory. It is also said that in one's own help nature of the states foreign policy along with the global relations, the elementary anarchy role has been evaluated by the structural realism. In the global environment, the main ingredient of the behavior of state is that the theory which evaluating the global ties on the height of the structure system is the arranged stream of realism.

During the period of cold war, the international relations played a very helpful role in explaining and analyzing different blocs and the leaders of the countries. The structural attitudes were the main things that lead to high potential for assessing the order of bipolar. The two types of approaches that are offensive and defensive realism, were made a part of the debate, and structural stream further contributed towards it. Both realisms stated different ideas and views regarding the foreign policies and military of state. However, both of them relates to order of bipolar. The defensive realism supports the survival of state and it considers it as its main objective. Moreover, the present states that are the strongest should adopt a moderate policy, for the reason that the powers have not been achieved yet. On the other hand, offensive realism assumes that there are wide incentives and advantages through the international anarchy. The incentives would include expansion. Furthermore, the states that are striving to increase and maximize their military powers. However, this structural realism theory has been widely influenced by the ineffectiveness of bipolar order and the decline of USSR. The main serious problem that was anticipated was fast but peaceful changes in the global order. Practically this contradicted with the predictions of Kenneth Waltz. The possibilities were regarding the disagreement of cataclysmic through which cold war would end. According to Erik Jones, the problems of structural realism that were faced were anticipated and he further pointed out that this realism could not consider internal determinants that broke up Soviet Unions. It was further stated by William C. Wohforth that the decline of USSR was not entirely due to a decline in Soviet power but the decline of perception by Soviet elites was also one of the reason. The ability to explain and respond to the structural realism seemed to be very problematic especially due to the imposed policy by Russia and refusal of Moscow to accept a new place in the system. One could easily notice that there had been a clear objection from Moscow in accepting a new place. By observing their foreign activities one could figure out the role that it has planned to play internationally, especially the global aspirations of Russia and the lost position due to falling of USSR. Russia further acted in opposition to the policy of US after the ineffectiveness of bipolar order. Russia also criticized unipolar order that was that was introduced by Washington and rather a new system of multipolar was demanded that could reflect ‘’legitimate’’ position of the federation of Russia Similarly, the fierce opposition of Moscow towards the operation of NATO in the US and Kosovo had been a good example. It was perceived that the Russian objectives were fully ignored and Moscow was not allowed to take part in the affairs of the world

Above all this, it is observed that the main focus of structural realism is on the internal determinants such as political regimes, ideology or political leaders that do not possibly reflect the foreign Russian policy, along with the entire structure of international system. Russian policies have remained very complex in nature, Russia however enjoys the largest position as a country but its economic capabilities has become very limited and there had been a decline in international position after the cold war ended. The policies of Moscow still include a tradition of central government as well as the dominant relationships with the neighboring countries. All of this demonstrates the centralization process in the political life of Russia when the president was Vladimir Putin along with the Georgian war

STERILIZATION

The process of sterilization, despite being implemented in healthcare functions for several decades is still ambiguous to many individuals. Hence, by developing comprehension regarding the most usual sterilization methodology which is implemented prevalently; healthcare personnel would be able to optimize the gains from present technology along with enhancing their understanding which will enable them to effortlessly comprehend the future innovative advancement in this particular field.

Numerous challenges have been stimulated by the present healthcare environment:
Healthcare industry has been propelled to reduce expenditures due to the fact that there has been a decline in reimbursements regarding health insurance. This predicaments leads to a lesser number of full-time personnel; therefore, every individual is compelled to work rigorously which leaves insufficient time for training. Lack of training will ultimately jeopardize the patient’s safety as the personnel are not adequately trained for the sterilization procedure.
Since the past fifteen years, lesser number of invasive methodologies have been implemented whilst novel and less invasive methodologies have been formulated. Therefore, this tendency has spurred an escalated level of utilizing sophisticated devices which are usually heat sensitive and intricate. Hence, sterilizing these particular devices could be of intricate nature.
Hospital managements are undertaking swift rotation of OR to facilitate the structuring of further methodologies so as to augment the revenues. This particular demand when coalesced with inadequate and expensive inventory of paraphernalia instigates additional sterilization complexities.
These particular complexities accentuate the necessity of comprehending the fundamental theory and methodologies pertaining to apposite sterilization procedure which will be beneficial in saving time, reducing threats, and enhance the efficiency of these procedures. This paper presents a tutorial as well as an initial reference for the healthcare personnel.

Sterilization Basics
With the aim of conducting an adequate sterilization procedure, it is obligatory to satisfy the two essential stipulations, which are as under:
1. It is necessary to decontaminate the paraphernalia scrupulously without which a sterilization procedure could never be successful. Sterilizer manufactures presume that the contamination level or bioburden will be significantly lessened from the paraphernalia’s plane before being placed inside the sterilizer. Therefore, depending on this attribute manufacturers recommend an adequate exposure time which is referred as “kill time”. It the paraphernalia is not sanitized adequately then the mentioned exposure time will certainly be insufficient for sterilizing that particular paraphernalia.
2. Every single plane of the equipment should be contacted by the sterilant. This accentuates that the paraphernalia should be disintegrated as per manufacturers’ guidelines; hence, every single plane will easily be contacted by the sterilant.
Sterilization is also influenced by the following factors:
The dehydrated state of the paraphernalia which will be sterilized
The humidity and temperature level of the surrounding area
Whether the paraphernalia was adequately organized and placed inside the sterilizer or not
Whether the sterilant was effectively conveyed in the system or not
Sterilizer’s maintenance and condition protocol
Whether appropriate and accurate sterilization methodologies and procedures were implemented or not

Methods of Sterilization
Presently, in the healthcare industry four general methodologies are implemented:
1. Steam sterilization
2. Peracetic acid liquid sterilization
3. Ethylene oxide sterilization
4. Hydrogen peroxide sterilization


High-level disinfectants which are capable of sterilizing are presently being implemented. They involve extensive immersion time span (twelve to thirty-six hours). These particular sanitizers are generally implemented for high-level disinfections; therefore, for this particular rationale, these solutions would not be discussed in this paper.


Adequate preparation and sanitizing are the two crucial aspects associated to the above stated sterilizing methodology. The aim is to eradicate every single observable inorganic and organic “soil” automatically or manually from the paraphernalia before positioning it inside the sterilizer. Pre-cleaning measures facilitate the personnel in safely handling and packing paraphernalia along with enabling the sterilant to contact every single plane throughout the sterilizing methodology.

Steam Sterilization

In the year 1880, steam sterilization procedure was initially launched. The procedure utilized moist heat under pressure, similar to pressure cookers. The steam sterilizer which was launched commercially utilized saturated steam under pressure and in the year 1933, it was sold in America. Presently, not a single sterile processing methodology is ideal but steam sterilization has undoubtedly reached a position which is unprecedented as well as unmatched. Furthermore, it is economical, fast, eco-friendly, and non toxic.


The organisms are obliterated by the steam through coagulating cell proteins. An everyday instance of coagulating proteins is boiling an egg. The steam should contact every single plane of the paraphernalia so as to obliterate the microbes entirely.


Only those planes are sterilized which are contacted by the steam. The predicaments which are encountered in this procedure are mainly caused by air pockets, as they avert the steam from contacting the planes. These air pockets are generally instigated by inappropriate loading and packing assembly.


The two chief kinds of prevalently utilized steam cycles are: dynamic air removal and gravity displacement and they incorporate steam flush pressure pulse (SFPP) and prevacuum cycles. The initial kind of cycle which was implemented in hospitals was the gravity displacement steam sterilization.

This kind of cycle is utilized in operating rooms for the purpose of “flash” sterilization.
When the air in the form of steam enters inside the chamber then gravity is utilized to displace it. The air is removed more effectually by prevacuum cycle on the basis of mechanical procedure. Mechanical air removal over the atmospheric pressure is implemented by SFPP cycle. Furthermore, these cycles entail three stages:
1. Conditioning phase: air is eradicated, steam penetrates into the chamber; the paraphernalia instigates to heat up according to a fixed temperature.
2. Exposure phase: the time span involved in this particular phase is fixed on scientific basis. It entails actual kill time, heating time, additionally a safety element which is equivalent to 50 percent of kill time.
3. Exhaust phase: when the exposure phase ends, steam is swapped with air which enables the chamber to settle down to a level equal to the atmospheric pressure.
The sole predicament associated to the steam sterilization incapacitates numerous heat sensitive paraphernalia and specially endoscopes to be sterilized due to the fact these equipments are not capable of withstanding the level of heat of this methodology.

Peracetic Acid Liquid Sterilization
Peracetic acid liquid sterilization was developed in response to the increased demand of heatsensitive devices’ quick turnaround time. The heat sensitive devices are being processed by Ethylene oxide gas for a very long time, however, the slowness in this method is attributed to the aeration time, which is required for gas removal at the cycle’s end.

During low concentrations, Peracetic acid was sporicidal. The quality of water solubility was also witnessed, hence, no residue was found when rinsed. There were no negative environmental or health impacts. In reality, for sterilization method, peracetic acid was adopted by the food industry as the nature of this was quite safe and advantageous. The bonds in enzymes and proteins were disrupted due to the method of Peracetic acid. The rupture of cell walls served as a mean for interfering cell membrane transportation. This may also mean that necessary enzymes may be oxidized and significant biochemical pathways may be impaired.

Various steps need to be followed while preparing sterilization under low temperature liquid chemical sterile processing system:
 It is important to conduct devices’ meticulous pre-cleaning as they posses very complicated small connected lumens. Sterliant will not be able to have surface contact if the devices are not properly cleaned.
in order to prevent leaks from entering into scope and damaging the process, leak test should be carried out with a lumen and any flexible endoscope. Specific guidelines concerning leak testing and cleaning have been provided by SGNA (Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates). Furthermore, particular recommendations are also provided by the manufacturers of medical devices.
 Then the selection of suitable container/tray should be undertaken, followed with the identification of lumens and attached connectors in devices. Manufacturers provide manuals, diagrams, and specific instructions regarding each connector.
A sealed single use cup is used for providing sterilant concentrate as no dilution or pre-mixing is required. In the cycle’s end, empty container is discarded in normal trash receptacles.
Steam sterilizer is quite similar to the processors monitor of today’s era in terms of quality assurance. In the cycle’s end, a printout is taken so that one can ascertain what sterilization parameters were present in the process. The cycle is canceled if any parameter is not met. Diagnostic cycle must be carried at least once in every 24 hours. The sterile water filter membrane’s integrity, pneumatic and electrical systems, and machine’s mechanics are checked during this cycle. This cycle is exclusive of sterilant.
Sterilization’s method has certain weaknesses too, like the process has to undergo a temperature of 55-degree Centigrade, fitted in a suitable tray, and immersible devices must be used. Such kind of temperature setting is better regarded as “low-temperature sterilization” as at a particular dilated concentration, the peracetic acid’s sporicidal activity is maintained.

Ethylene Oxide Sterilization
Since 1950s, ethylene oxide (EO) is utilized as sterilant in the healthcare industry. It is chiefly an odorless, flammable, and colorless gas. Amidst the most generally utilized industrial chemical it is ranked at eighteenth number; furthermore, a quantity which exceeds eight billion ton is produced on annual basis for manufacturing detergent, polyester, plastic, and anti-freeze. Only one percent of the produced quantity is utilized in the healthcare industry for sterilizing moisture and heat sensitive paraphernalia.


Discovered in 1859 and originally utilized as a sterilizer for agricultural and industrial purposes, Ethylene oxide was recognized as a gaseous sterilant by the U.S. Army in the 1940s due to its disinfectant features discovered earlier in the 1920s. By the 1950s, EO had started being used as a sterilant for instruments that were heat-sensitive and facilitated the augmented progression of heat-sensitive curative devices.




Due to the combustible nature of 100% EO, in the 1960s other more secure and fire-resistant EO combinations were created, and later adopted by the medical industry by the 1970s to disinfect heat-sensitive elements.




Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set admissible exposure standards and ongoing supervision conditions for work zones as well as employees, when employee health and welfare concerns associated with EO usage came into light in the 1980s. Other issues, particularly those relating to the weakening of the ozone layer due to the existence of CFCs in EO gas combinations and the destruction of the environment, resulted in the Montreal Protocol agreement relating to the discontinuation of the service of EO/CFC mixtures which was successfully finished by 2000.




The process by which the sterilization of ethylene oxide occurs is called alkylation. This chemical process involves the infiltration of the infectious cells by the EO and then the oxidization of the nuclear material, which affects the cell’s capacity to function and process routinely.




The use of EO in the form of a sterilant can be beneficial in a number of ways. The decontamination of elements that can not be otherwise sterilized using heat sterilization takes place using EO. Because of the small size of the EO molecule, the filtration and penetration in every-day items as well as intricate instruments is very prompt. Lately, advancements in technology have made EO decontamination cheaper and more secure. The drawbacks nonetheless, remain substantial.




Due to the detrimental effects of EO on patients as well as employees, an extensive ventilation process is carried out to rid the load of EO. Also, the EO decontamination process is more time consuming than any other. The safety and environmental requirements ensure that the disinfectants meet particular standards in terms of aeration, exhaust and supervision. The combustibility of EO is another limitation, although, the introduction of the one-off 100% EO cartridge has addressed this issue.


Hydrogen Peroxide Sterilization


The health and welfare industry has, in recent times, seen a novel and different sterilization process that uses hydrogen peroxide. In this process, a plasma cloud is created when a hydrogen peroxide mixture is diffused in a vacuum chamber. Important cellular elements are dissolved resulting in the unresponsiveness of microorganisms using this sterilization method. The existence of the energy source leads to the presence of the plasma cloud. The absence of the energy source results in the creation of oxygen and water vapor. This leads to lower need of environmental supervision and zero toxic residues and harmful radiations.


The temperature lies between 40-50°C (104-122 degree Fahrenheit) which makes it compatible with moisture and heat resistant curative instruments. A cassette contains the sterilant chemistry and the sterilization process is around 45-55 minutes long which is reliant on the sterilizer version and make. The sterilizing devices are covered before the initiation of the process and can be stored or utilized instantaneously.


Polypropylene or non-woven wraps, polyethylene foam, Tyvek/Mylar peel bags and synthetic paper are some of the coverings used for a hydrogen peroxide disinfectant. A count sheet is to be sterilized and put outside the set if it is to be used with a devise set.


A hydrogen peroxide process consists of the following five stages:
1) A vacuum is created in the chamber using a vacuum phase and a fall in the pressure as low as one pound/square inch is observed, which continues for 20 minutes.
2) A chemical known as the aqueous hydrogen peroxide is inducted into the vacuum compartment and is turned to gas using vaporization. This leads to an increase in pressure which is caused by the rise in molecules.
3) The dissemination stage diffuses the hydrogen peroxide gas everywhere in the compartment and the sterilant is led to the packs due to the rise in pressure. This exposes the device exteriors to the disinfectant and exterminates the microorganisms.
4) The plasma stage sees the application of the radio frequency energy that divests molecules from the electrons and creates a plasma cloud that is low in temperature. This leads to the loss of high energy by the stimulated composites and they then come together to develop water and oxygen. The vacuum inoculation and dispersion methods are carried out again to ensure that all instruments are completely sterilized.




The aeration stage involves the letting in of air into the compartment and then the exposure to normal environmental pressure in order to access the door. This phase is one minute long.
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A microprocessor is employed to monitor all the key factors to aid this process of low-temperature decontamination and produces a printout when the process ends for documentation purposes. If the key factors do not meet the standards then the process is discontinued and the cause is stated in the printout.


This process also has its drawbacks. Items that are made of paper of cloth like count sheets, peel bags, linen, cotton, etc, can not be employed as device covers or set augmenters. It is a requirement for the item to be entirely dry before the initiation of the process or the result will be termination. Inflexible scopes with lumens have constraints like lumen size less than 400 mm in length and more than 3mm in diameter for acceptance for the hydrogen peroxide decontamination process, while flexible scopes can not be used for this method.
Quality Assurance Monitoring for all Methods
Quality assurance is always in process, and everyone using any cleaning process should work upon the suggested guidelines which are mentioned by Association for advancement of Medical Instrumentation and rule and regulation of their facility. Though the rules of AAMI are not law, yet they are considered and agreed upon rules for sterilization in industry and these may be referred for any law proceedings. It is necessary for all the relevant user for sterilization to be able to read and work upon information presented in quality assurance supervision so that they should match with what it is recommended in AAMI and every other health care related facility’s rules and procedures.

NOTE: their isn’t any rule and standard recommended by AAMI for liquid per acetic acid sterilization or hydrogen peroxide sterilization.

Physical Monitors
The performance of every sterilization method should be supervised. The quality assurance for each step should be judged on the base of physical, chemical and biological checking .physically checking involves gauge ,printouts and bowie dick tests, and the investigative done for SYSTEM1 sterile processing system .these physical observation allows detection of fault of equipment and machinery in early stages, as they observe the cycles while in operation. They assure perfect timing, temperature, pressure and concentration. These measurement are then saved on print out that become a part of proper phase of documentation.

Chemical Monitors
Chemical observation and testing isn’t depending upon sterilization, it is added to confirm the phase’s efficiency. Chemical pointers are used to identify faults in packaging, loading and sterilizer functions. The chosen chemical indicator must inform the method to be use or used for sterilization. Chemical indicator are not to confirm sterilization, they are to make sure that each of the clause is successful during sterilizing process. Their are two types of indicators, internal indicators and external indicators. external monitors are placed out side of the packaging in mist .EO and hydrogen peroxide plasma sterilization and they permits healthcare staff to distinguish between packages which are exposed to sterling and those which don’t

Internal methods for chemical indication are used for every way of sterilization. they are to place in the packages or containers ,in those areas which are hard to access .these measures are then read and observed when the pack is opened ,these are basically for end user, that the steriliant reached the required part inside the pack.

Chemical integrators are multi factor indicators used internally in each pack or packages contrary to chemical indicator. the integrators reaches all the critical process measures. the integrator ink is relevant to a particular biological tests and assures a confidence of level of performance nearby or matching to somewhat biological indicators; however, chemical integrators are not a substitute to be replaces for biological tests.

Biological Monitors
Every process of sterilization should be observed with biological indicator (BI).the BI has a method of dealing with each bound of sterilization process and judging the ability of cycles to destroy microorganism. As per AAMI policies, a biological indication is useful to use for the identification of parameter of new sterilizer mechanism, to confirm the verification of sterilizer cycle parameter after important improvement and routinely in a fully loaded chamber. For vaporization it should be done weekly if can`t be done daily. a biological indicator should be involved in very pack contain implantable devices and in Ethylene load. AAMI polices also suggest to assure the phases of parameters of new system and to re verify cycles of important improvements. .three simultaneously connected BIs should be done through phases in an empty chamber and should show same non positive results after required incubation periods.
The most resistant bacteria in the sterilization process are the bacterial spores which are used in the biological tests. Although they are not harmful to the humans, but, sterilization process requires complete shed off from all kind of bacteria. For ethylene oxide sterilization, Bacillus atrophaeus (which was known as bacillus subtilis) is used. In order to check the validity of the biological tests, a “control” spore test striped is used; it is exposed to the growth medium and nurtured as well so that the control result shows a positive sign about the presence of spores on the biological test strip. In addition to this, for the test of peracetic acid, steam, and gas plasma sterilization, a spore named Geobacillus Stearothermophilus is used.

Environmental Monitoring

While going through the Ethylene Oxide sterilization process, environmental factors should not be overlooked. Employees’ health factor should be the most important aspect. There are proper guidelines provided by the OSHA which help in protecting the workers from the possible exposure to Ethylene Oxide. As per OSHA, an employee’s passive and direct exposure should be closely monitored with the help of respective monitoring devices which should be installed in the vicinity of Ethylene Oxide sterilizer and on each and every employee.


The Importance of Record Keeping

In order to have epidemiological tracking and continuous monitoring of sterilization cycle to have an insight about its effectiveness, it is very important to keep a valid record of each and every step. Record keeping helps in many ways, such as value addition in the process, benchmarking, and for any troubleshooting at any stage.

There is no such hard and fast guideline about the duration of keeping a sterilization record; therefore, in addition to the procedure’s policy and guidelines, one should follow the prevailing requirements of the respective state and the law as well. The reason being, that, up-to-date records includes precise information about the performance cycle, its documentation and maintenance records.


Conclusion

The gist of the above discussion is that no matter whatever technological advancements take place in future in terms of healthcare facilities, the basic sterilization processes will remain there as most of them share common methods and traits. Advancement of medical devices and instruments would not bring in totally new sterilization concepts, rather, existing behavior will be applied to the new ones as well.
The best practices and professional guidelines available currently can help the personnel of healthcare who are engaged in medical devices’ sterilization and reprocessing as they can study them. In order to learn more about best practices, going through materials and organization mentioned here is highly encouraged.

Rugby Union

Introduction
Rugby union is a sport which makes use of the aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems to a vast extent. 1-3
While playing an 80 min match, studies of time-motion analysis 1-3 show that around 120-125 brief and intense actions (∼5 s) are performed by the trained and professional rugby forwards, whereas backs only perform 50-70 work periods in comparison. These analysis indicate that it is essential for rugby players to repeat the high intensity efforts with a very short recovery span.
However, Rugby is not an easy sport and tends to demand a lot from the players with the variety of body movements and positions that it involves. Duthie et al. 6 highlighted the differences in the forward and back body masses which were seen as 107.3±8.3 kg for the forwards and 84.5±7.9 kg for the backs. Quarie et al. 7 took into account the contrasts in the update of oxygen which turned out to be ˙VO2max (54.9±3.9mLkg−1 min−1 vs. 59.9±2.5mLkg−1 min−1) between the two segments. The metabolic demands in the game of rugby are very distinct and the forwards involving actions like rucking, mauling, scrimmaging, end up spending more time and intensity, which is about 13% of the total time, as compared to the backs which involve only up to 4.5% of the total time. 2, 3.
The ratio of work-rest in the forwards (mean work ∼5 s, mean rest ∼30–40 s)2 shows that the forwards have the ability to complete work segments that last for over 20s, and about 20% of the work bouts are continued by periods of rest which are of an equal or shorter time period. The forwards however, have chances of experiencing fatigue due to hydrogen accumulation(H+) mainly because the level of energy in this segment is supplied by the anaerobic glycolysis and the aerobic metabolism. 2 On the other hand, the work rest ratio for the backs (meanwork∼5 s, mean rest∼80–110 s)2 shows that the creatine phosphate (PCr) system plays a vital role. The fatigue resistance does not have much of an effect to limit the backs because the back players tend to work for a shorter span of time which is about 10seconds long and thus get a rest period of almost 90% of the work. Hence shorter work is followed by an equal or greater time period of rest.
Methods
A study was conducted wherby seven fully trained rugby players were asked to participate. Amongst these were four forwards and three backwards and then average age was around 20.6±0.5 yrs, the average height being around 181.9±10.0 cm and the mean mass of the body of around 94.5±12.8 kg.Each player had am experience of playing for at least 5 years therefore they were used to the procedures taking place. The study was carried out in the regular season where test sessions were conducted at least 2 days after the preceding match. During this time period, the players received physical training sessions and were focused on their skills and tactics. About 8 training session wee held every week which was followed by a championship game on the weekend. Players were made to sign written agreements after being briefed about the risks and benefits involved in the experiment. The study was also approved by the local Ethics Committee.
Three test sessions were carried out over 3 a week’s time. All the participants were made to perform a maximum incremental exhaustion test so as to derive the maximum aerobic speed of the players. The velocity at the initial stage was kept to 8hmh-1 and this gradually increased by about 0.5kmh-1 per minute. The running velocity of the players was adjusted according to the normal auditory pacing signals and the visual indicators which were marked on the running tracks at an interval of 20 minutes. Billat and Koralsztein stated that MAS was calculated and the velocity of the last stage was completed .
There were two experimental sessions which were different only in terms of the recovery mode (AR and PR). Each players participated in both the sessions conducted and took part in a 30 min match, abiding by all the rules outlines by the International Board Rugby, without any clear instructions on the recovery mode.A pre test was held before each match and was followed by a post test by a specific repeated sprint rugby test which was also known as the Narbonne test , after every 10 minutes of the match.
Statistical analysis
The mean and the standard deviation was then calculated for each variable. Apart from the HR during the match, all other statistics were non parametric and after the normal and equal variance tests were conducted and rechecked for the data. The changes found in the performance of the two recovery conditions, AR and PR, during the Narbonne test measuring the scrum forces, agility and sprint times were analyzed by Friedman Repeated Measures test on Ranks. HR during the match was calculated by One-way Repeated Measures Analysis of Varaince. A post hoc Student–Neumann–Keuls test was carried out when the effects were measured. This test aimed to measure the differences between the means of pairs. (SigmaStat 1.0, Jandel Corporation, San Rafael, CA, USA). Statistical significance was derived at a α level of p < 0.05.

Discussion
The Narbonne test basically shows the active recovery impairs performance as more important than passive recovery. Figure 3 indicated the evolution of the heart rate values while the Narbonne test in A which shows the pretest and B which shows post test. The clear difference between A and B is evident before the scrum and after the sprint, the higher sprint fatigue index and the slow sprint times. Even though the heart rates while the Narbonne test was taking place were higher in active rather than passive recovery in the pre test, these results were weakened in the post test.


The reduction in PCr resynthesis throughout the recovery process is the result of restricted oxygen supplies between lactate oxidation, Pcr resynthesis and the cost of increasing O2
for the additional exercise as the PCr resynthesis depends on oxidative processes. Dupont et al.10 reported that during the passive recovery, the increase in the reoxygenation of Myoglobin, PCr resynthesis and improved exercise performance may be the result of decline in muscle oxygenation. Further he (Dupont et al.9,10) proved that passive recovery during high intensity bout takes more time to exhaust if carried out at 120% of ‘V O2max [cycling and running protocols (set of rules to be followed)]. It was indicated in active recovery by Spencer et al.11 (25 s at 32% ‘VO2max) that there is a strong attraction towards lower post exercise (PCr). In accordance to the result given by Dupont et al.9,10 and Spencer et al.11 it was known that a slower PCr depeletion and higher PCr resynthesis throughout passive recovery are the controlling mechanism that maintain performance during the Narbonne test.













Similarly, Rossiter et al.17 showed a close relation between muscles (PCr) pulmonary and kinetics vo2 and the relation between both moderate and heavy intensity exercise. Jones et al.18 demonstrated that when the heavy exercise was initiated from moderate intensity exercise as compared to when it was started from rest, the fall in PCr was found to be longer. Today’s study seems like active recovery is almost same or equal to the moderate intensity exercise while the rest position can be compared to the passive recovery. Acc to dup these results proved that a faster VO2 adjustment throughout the recurring exercise may lessen the decrement in PCr, as it is in passive recovery. The resulted proves with the passive recovery introduce a much better recovery between the maximum recurring efforts and because of the rugby match the development of fatigue is decreased. This result was confirmed by the passive recovery in which fatigue was measured and found to be low both during the pretest and post test (less total sprint time and fatigue index). After the game, regardless of verbal communications and encouragement, the greater fatigue index seem to be a out of box conclusion and could represent some sort of quick.


In pre test the heart rate is found to be higher in active recovery instead of in passive recovery. The higher rate in active recovery may result in increasing the competition for blood supply between the hearts and exercising muscles. During active recovery the skeletal muscle pump more utilized because of its greater use as compare to the passive recovery.


The heart rate values that were recorded in passive recovery were found to be higher in post test. The dissimilarity between active a passive recovery in post test can be emphases by lesser heart rates values in active recovery as compare to the pre test. In answer to the moderate intensity through out recovery. 20 the peripheral resistances is extremely less and blood flow is increased. Another explanation is that during the active recover the average work load on the player is greater then in normal condition, because of less amont of time and the work load is found to be zero.

In active recovery, the pump rate of heart is heavily dependent on the average workload as it is as their relation is directly proportional to each other. As we play a game or a match the cardiac response is decreased because of cardiac reserve is decreased, our stamina gets lower and we start feeling tired.

Sprint performance is not damaged when it is followed by serious resistance exercise such as scrimmaging, it was indicated by Deutsch and Lloyd21. Also the dissimilarity in quick printing followed by scrimmaging (vigorous straggle) is in agreement with the results.
To conclude, when Narbonne test was conducted for before the game-play was initiated and after it was ended, lower performance was evident due to active recovery. This was not the case with passive recovery. During repeated sprints, the active recovery showed greater fatigue index, which is opposite to passive recovery, i.e 7.3% vs. 4.3%.in post-test and 11.5% vs. 6.7% in pre-test.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING LITERATURE

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING LITERATURE

Strategic management is explained as wide variety, outward and futuristic approach which will also try to cope with latest internal issues in the organization and might also comprise of non-financial measures. It is a possibility that strategic management accounting ideas has been developed as a way to answer the popular discussion, ‘crisis’, of management accounting. Strategic management accounting has been defined as the preparation and evaluation of the financial information and its affect on the company’s product markets and the cost structures and competitors’ cost and examining the company’s and its competitors’ strategies in the market over a time period.


This sort of strategic cost analysis i.e. profit or/and revenue, has been suggested by a number of experts. Porter, despite having a non-accounting scientific background, should be considered as one of the major contribution in this field. Some of the main development issues include, life cycle costing, target costing, activity based cost and balanced business scorecard and these issues can carry potential of strategic kind, strategic investment appraisals, different product and competitor and customer evaluation.


Normative ideas are not the only similarity between management account and strategic accounting. In management accounting, promoting different perspectives in reporting as well as synchronizing complexity are equally important in the global competition. A main characteristic of management accounting of the international companies is the global value chain. Strategic management and management accounting are a part of similar control and management processes (for example, short and long term planning of profit in the preparation of budget). Strategic managements is fit for strategic level and management accounting is best handled at the tactical level however the relationship is not as simple as is implied by the classical planning model. Apart from controlling current strategies, management control systems, if used interactively, can also be used to establish new strategies. Additionally the process of budgeting is strategic by calculating and assessing strategic plans; accounting has a huge influence of the firm’s utilization capacity as it is an instrument for implementing and motivating or promoting values in the organization.



Traditionally, management accounting and strategic planning have been thought of as different parts of the management process as strategy is external and management accounting is internal for a firm. Management accounting is historic, calculable and short term whereas strategy is futuristic, qualitative and long term oriented. Management accounting splits company into different department whereas strategy looks into the whole firm and value chain and creates synergy therefore the disciplines for developing strategic management accounting can largely be found here: it should have these characteristics, should be futuristic, focus external issues as well as total value chain and should be long term oriented and include non-financial measures. Next, the outline of strategic management accounting will be examined issue by issue in a manner of theoretical literature review.
THE AGENDA OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

The activity based costing (ABC) endorsed by Cooper and Kaplan has collected most of the exposure of the strategic oriented management accounting advancements. Given that ABC has developed into general management process that is called activity based cost management (ABCM or ABM). The spirit of ABM cannot be found in just the costing but the whole process of cost management. ABC has also encouraged porter’s value chain thinking regardless of their conceptual differences.

The ABC can be also be used in analyzing and reconfiguration of the company’s value chain and the famous business process management also theoretically suits well the ABC. The potential for more precise product information is the first place where strategic significance of the activity based cost management can be found which may facilitate in leading towards better pricing, product mix decisions and profitability secondly it may also be functional in customer and profitability analysis with respect to its segments. Thirdly central strategic essentials of the ABCM are a close association among the reengineering of the value chain, activity chain or the process of the firm. This idea can be put forward that this kind of strategic benefits and momentum of change from activity based approach can be increased well through the preliminary activity analysis phase and for this utilization of any scheduled activity based costing is not required.

The supporters of the practice of strategic cost analysis or management were Shank and Govindrajan that put down the porter’s suggestion. With their accordance SCM involves three major steps that are identification of value chain, the diagnosis if its cost drivers and development of sustainable competitive advantage. These three steps are connected to the broader strategic cost management that is fretful with the value chain. The relationship of group of activities that create value and extended from raw materials to the finished products and their availability to consumers is called the value chain.

In SCM there are so many strategic issues for instance, the management accountant’s bad education and also the managements’ lack of knowledge make them reluctant to use management accounting information and people, impractical informational requirements, load of the schedule reporting needs and finally the overhead nature of the management accounting function has proved to be the barrier in the advancement of strategic management accounting.


It has also asked to the accounting managers whether they should have involvement in generating the strategic information at all or it should only be tackled by the other functions in an appropriate way enough? The company is required to recognize the place of their supporters in the total value chain and bring development in the management accounting information with respect to their advocates. The importance is given to the interaction with supplier and customer association. The most wide ranging single framework for strategic management information has been perhaps created by shank and Govindrajan. Although the confirmed experimental significance has been so far quite narrow and very little accounting data has been evaluated by the value chain.
Japan has also come up with the major contribution to SMA in the form of target costing(TC) and this need to be look as a brad idea not just a method to set target costs. This could be seen as a method to put together and organize the corporate activities which flows the information in a flexible manner among the market and market research, product research and design, production and accounting. With this they are intensely linked into the strategic planning and management progressions. The target costing process divide into three main activities that are future pricing protuberance, profit forecast and developing experience.


The TC process is divided into price driven costing, product level target costing and component level target costing. Target costs in practical world are practiced in product planning phase during value engineering and when the product is in the production phase it is achieved through continuous improvement. T cost management is one of the disciplines of strategic management accounting and its uniqueness is defined through culture bounded ness. The attributes which are to be mentioned are its customer oriented background, cross functional orientation and importance of organizational learning and the Japanese method of carrying it out systematically. Motivation and achievements are emphasized and cannot be just control activities.



A tool of strategic analysis is life cycle thinking and its application is being done in management accounting in the form of life cycle cost analysis. Product life cycle has not got a time frame defined and its activities are carried from the starting point which is initial research and development to the ending point where sales and support to costumers are provided, on the other hand in accounting a fixed time frame is used which is usually calendar based. The Product life cycle costing (PLCC) monitors all the costs which are associated to the product from the initial development and research to the customer services which are provided to the consumer and this is also used for life cycle budgeting which estimates those costs. Pricing decision can be made on the basis of information and data provided by Life cycle accounting budgeting, furthermore it helps in knowing all the costs which are estimated or accounted in different facets of life cycle. Without question it points out all the early, usual costs commitments and makes easier to find out the connections between value chain and the product life cycle.
Also, competitive advantage and strategic positioning are related ideas and utilizing these has necessitated management accounting information of strategic level for the companies themselves and also for their competitors. This type of information is also required to find out about the share in the market and competitors’ pricing, volume, and cost issues. It has also been suggested that this information should be incorporated in the reports on management accounting. Over the years various researchers have suggested different forms of competitor accounting. The information on competitors is obtained through openly available sources like press, annual reports, statistics and official institutions, in addition to informal sources such as sales persons and other customers, business functions, other suppliers and competitors, analyzing products of competitors or other shared financial sources, physical observation, consultants, industry specialists, trade centers, old employees belonging to competitors, etc. However, some have questioned the reliability of competitor accounting.
A much broader theory of benchmarking is very similar to competitor accounting, however, it usually relies on cooperation between organizations. Competitor accounting may also be defined as a particular form of strategic level benchmarking based on accounting, in which the cooperation with the entity of this comparison activity is not included.
A very important consideration for the companies in successful launch of new products in the markets is the right time with the right price and rational profit margin. The decisions dealing with new products are a crucial part of long term strategies and plans. Accounting has generally supported product mix and pricing decisions in the perspective of product strategies and it is considered as a relevant approach in full costing. Therefore, analysis of product life cycle, costing based on activity and target costing are very helpful approaches in this situation. Additionally, some researchers have suggested another product called attribute costing. All of the activities by a company and all of the utilized resources should provide advantage to the customers for which they are prepared to pay in this approach. Therefore, the company should try to find the costs related to enterprise resources and activities to these advantages and not simply to products as followed by traditional approach, with the purpose of comparing the profits generated by these advantages with their costs. As a result, each product may be seen as a package of features being offered to the consumer for which the customer is ready to pay. Derived demands are demands of goods for their fundamental features. The importance used in this type of analysis is based on the strategic approach by the company. The costs were categorised into activity, product-volume, capacity and costs related to decision, whereas the benefits were divided into outlet, product and other benefits in the research.
The concept of pricing based on value also employs very similar thinking as it is also based on the benefits obtained by the consumer in utilising the product in a special way. This technique is primarily used in business-to-business marketing and watchful analysis of the benefits to the consumer is required in this approach. This is because of the reason that different consumers or segments could assess the benefits in a various ways. Also, different compositions of the product can produce varying benefits. Some researchers have segregated the value based pricing into four different phases which are: understanding the total use condition of the customer, define and analyze the factors that decide the benefits to the customer in this use, define and analyze the factors that decide the costs of the customer in use of this product and lastly determine the tradeoffs in cost/benefit in use by the customer.
Inside strategic positioning, one of the crucial issues is the selection of targeted customers. The customers can be classified into various segments for instance by their geographical locations, by the services supplied or the by the channel of distribution carried. Activity-based costing can be utilized successfully for analyzing sales and other overheads including administration as compared to traditional cost accounting methods. Traditional methodology advocates the allocation of all the cost are into customers and the total cost of a firm equates the aggregated sum of customer costs. Hierarchical activity-based costing is another approach to divide the activities into different dimensions such as market, customer, channel, enterprises, parts and orders. Whereas, profitability and costs related to direct-material could be classified into market and aggregate profitability, channel, contribution of segment or customer profitability and gross margin.
Customer focus, quality, learning, innovation, time and education are the crucial success variables on which success and competitiveness of the company depends because management accounting and financial aspect is just one part of management control and management control system respectively.
Activities of a business show results usually due to financial measures rather than activities. The employment regarding nonfinancial measures in performance management and control has been the part of discussion in recent time and it is expected to draw sound measurement results of processes and business activities which could be developed and controlled in a better way. Customer satisfaction, manufacturing excellence, quality, on time deliveries, technology, marketplace leadership etc are important success factors for implementing such actions. Applied strategies and performances are linked together by concrete measures and they are defined accordingly and their connection has been beneficial for non financial measures. Financial measures and non-financial measures posses contradictions in results and on comparison basis, their implications are considered as negative.
The performance measures of financial and non-financial measures are brought together by a special balanced scorecard .similar thoughts have brought earlier under the title of “tableu de board” in France suggesting the idea regarding control panel .Later Performance Pyramid System was introduced and developed which utilizes ideas similar to the former system. Balanced scorecard uses operative and physical measures out of four areas such as customer, internal, innovation and financial which are now removed from corporate strategies and vision.
However, balanced score card is viewed as organized approach for performance measurement of firm and provides rationale for the satisfaction of its financial need. In the long run, customer’s need should be satisfied along with such organization with the help of sound value chain. Also, the non-financial measures indicate strategic and operational changes and appraised benefits and costs include the linkage between management, strategy, non-financial measures and accounting.
Evident links could be found between strategies, management accounting and capital budgeting decisions which have quite an impact on the company’s long term performance. Net present value which is derived from the discounted cash flows, are a reliable measure to determine and evaluate the method of capital investments. According to this, a company should invest in any venture that gives a positive return and net present value. However the link between the applied strategy and capital budget is very important. It also has a limited impact in the traditional budgeting literature. Certain issues may come up where investment is justified by the DCF method and measured by accounting methods later. Investment areas such as manufacturing technology needs very careful management and conceiving because the drawbacks of such an investment can be hard to predict and calculate later on. Thus, strategic management accounting agenda can be linked to show an insight of the customers, markets, future products and capital investment decisions.


The Western firms are blamed for causing a fall in the global competition because they are late in adopting modern manufacturing technologies. One reason why this is so is because of the lack of usage of investment appraisal methods as described above. It is suggested to carefully analyze the results of the possible advantages of the investments before actually carrying them out. The technological decisions have been connected to the strategic analysis of investments and it is preferable to carry out extra cautious appraisal methods, along with the monetary and non monetary evaluation of the judgment. The benefits that cannot easily be analyzed statistically were also analyzed by some managers. Strategic positioning and cost driver analysis are also two types of appraisal methods to help in the process of investment appraisal. A systematic formal analysis has been deviced for investment decisions which links the different aspects of strategic management accounting. Under this analysis are three other aspects as well. Those being market & competitor analysis, value chain analysis and cost driver analysis. Time still remains one of the key factors affecting investment decisions and this has been analyzed by the break even time analysis (BET). This analysis covers some of the ideas from that of DCF, payback period and life cycle analysis. Studies have also been conducted on how to achieve alignment between individual unit strategies and the corporate strategies by the management control systems.

CONTINGENCY AND SUBJESTIVIST APPROACHES TO STRATEGY
AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING


Contingency and subjectivist approaches have also been taken up to study strategic management from a different perspective, along with the other analytical and usual approaches which have been used before. The contingency theory can also be classifies as a normal approach but it cans still be considered as different from SMA, which focuses more on the strategic decision making, Studies that are associated with the contingency approach focus on evaluating and describing the process of the accounting systems, how they should be built so as to be aligned with the decision making process. While studying the meaning of management accounting in the process of decision making, for instance, it is said that the management uses more of a qualitative, general, oral and an extrinsic approach to derive the issues that come up as well as the quantitative and in depth information in the process of implementation.


The control mechanisms are greatly affected by the intense competition that is there. The rapid and steady changes that occur in the environment encourage frequent future reporting. The growing complexity of the organization also leads to expanding the accounting system though the addition of new components, while the environment any discontinuities in the environment would call for a changed and new method of accounting. There has also been research conducted on the links between various strategies and measures to determine the incentive plans. Long run subjective measures were considered to be appropriate to devise strategies and the short term statistical measures were used to harvest the strategies. To build the strategy, budgeting is useful to plan for the short run but not for purposes of surveillance control. The managers of the unit play a vital role to prepare and review the budgets. The strategic planning is also an important aspect due to the conditions that depend on the growth conditions of uncertainty. Lastly, the decisions of capital budgeting are dependent on the qualitative and subjective issues. The harvest mission and management control attributes were compared to get a result which showed contrast between them.


Link between the factors such as differentiation and cost leadership of Porters generic strategies and the OST management were highlighted. In this, the methods of cost accounting such as standard costing and costing of the product was linked to the cost leadership and marketing cost analysis and other issues that can be related to this differentiation. There were certain connections and relationships highlighted between the various archetypes and these were linked to their respective control of management. The estimated information, the determination of strategic planning, scheduled and usual budget revisions were all normal for prosecutors and other archetypes and the control of the cost and the oriented planning techniques for the opposite archetype. Different styles of strategic management of huge firms were devised along with strategic planning, control of the finances, strategic control style, which was also responsible for a huge impact of the management control system present in the archetypes.



The literature of strategic management literature is composed of the normative and technical strategy analysis data. Hence it is quite mechanical and objectivist by nature. In this way, the interpretative and incremental strategy perspective can be seen with a more detailed insight and can actually add to the understanding of strategic management accounting. Certain studies have been conducted to evaluate the extent of usefulness of this system. In the theories that take a subjective approach, accounting is used for the purpose of strategy implementation, in instances such as coal mining or where the attention is to be directed towards the strategically related issues or to offer language and help for permission when negotiations take place in firms. Considering this view, it can be argue that strategic management account could help stabilize the learning in organization and the change procedures that promote the value through the various languages offered.







THEORETICAL CONCLUSIONS
There are certain avenues and fields which have a significant position in the strategic management accounting literature. Some of these are value chain, cost driver and product attribute analysis, target cost management, balanced scorecard, competitor accounting and strategic investment appraisal. Studies have shown that there is proof about the increasing company adoptions of strategies such as activity-based cost management, target cost management and customer profitability analysis. Methods such as implementation of competitor accounting, strategic investment appraisal, value chain, cost driver and product attribute analysis and life cycle accounting are said to come across a lot of problems because they are generally different from the practices and systems already present.

The profitability of consumer analysis and ABC appear to be closely linked to the practices of management of traditional accounting and these practices could be easily applied in both technical and psychological way. On the other hand if balanced score is compared with the profitability analysis, this might need more changes to respond to the modern traditional customs related to management, thinking, accounting etc. the reason behind this are certain aspects other than finance. Some of the organizations might have previously involved in collecting the information that is required for balanced score card. Therefore from the accountant’s perspective this might be an obvious question of collecting the data and then reporting it



In respect to the literature review that was conducted, we could say that the strategy of management accounting is entirely different from nature. It rather includes various different avenues. Sometimes these avenues are very close leading to overlapping. In 70’s and 80’s the strategic decisions that were taken mainly relied on the literature of the strategies of management accounting. From a particular perspective this was strongly criticized. Another reason behind this was variations in competitive environment.



The nature of decision making and management is very complex, thus, management accounting which supports accounting of strategic management could be framed to have a more realistic view not to mention that the complexity of the nature has to be taken into consideration. Strategic management actually includes planning and it involves uncertainty as well as act as hindrance in achieving objectives, in this case the rational factor would be the actions that are taken by the organization or the individuals all the relevant and appropriate information is not provided to the people who are responsible for decision making. The information is either abrupt or not presented in a suitable manner. Other concepts have been gradually given importance such as values, objectives, commitment of individuals etc. all of these are given consideration and relative importance in literature of strategic management. As mentioned earlier the force of this strategy is indirectly related to the nature. The effects of strategic management can be noticed such as shared values, promotion or stopping of strategies, in creation and other intended as well as unintended issues. A change in the factor of contingency could guide the practitioners of accounting management and academics to the importance of seeking as well as attractive developments. It is noticed that to change the systems that are institutionalized are very difficult. Such as change in the accounting systems of particular organization. Reasons might be economical of how to change system in a different way. The external factors also influence the organization through anticipated or unanticipated processes

CASE FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS
ENVIRONMENT, STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT, CULTURE, MANAGEMENT
PHILOSOPHIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
After the late 90’s the industries expanded widely leading to many challenges as well as opportunities. The industry got a chance to get restricted. With the help of deregulation, a new environment was created and advance technologies and services entered the industry. The need for Target Company then emerged and its competitors would not only be involved in supplying products for current customers but for the potential customers. The suppliers are to supply the entire systems along with the services. This successful strategy has led to higher growth, increasing profitability but at the same time uncertainty. Growth would not only mean increase in the sales but globalization world wide and international marketing along with high productivity, investment in research and development etc. this type of growth will lead to further strong challenges for practices as well as control systems. This site would be thus operating under high uncertainty which would lead to great institutional isomorphism.
Nonetheless, engineers were differentiate as precise people and number oriented, a subject thought to be a fine thing meant for accounting, which makes desired precise calculations with the intention of generating order in doubtful world of target company. Innovative traditions of responding were usually permissible and promoted in accounting and as well in the customs of target company. With respect to planning issues the firm was thought to be exemplary and imaginative. A very main attribute of target company was cross functional teamwork. It is endorsed by management, matrix organization structure and character of the business also makes it a necessity.
The company under discussion stressed a lot on both cost strategies and differentiation, although there is a much governing role of differentiation. Thus the study showed that case site was based on differentiation strategy, however it was trying to increase its operational competence concurrently. By concentrating, the company was reformed into its core competitors and was using these core competencies as a base to build the infra structure of a global organization and hence it could be perceive as containing a global organization. Although new developments and leadership based on modern technology are the bases of accomplishment but customer's voice is a very importance and vital factor. In this regard the strategy resembles so as to the plan of prospector. The target firm can easily be classified into build strategy. Thinking of Global core competence makes one realize the increasing significance of interconnected business rather than that of solitary units. This stress can be appreciated in various sections of this paper. There is a vast and clear system of annual planning which includes budgeting, and strategic planning in target company. The managing practice can be global organization epitomes and strategic planning. Planning is done with extensive participation and obligation to the plan is sturdily accentuated, which rings a bell to strongly ethnicity or crescive reproduction, differentiation and prospector prototypes.

Target company was distinguish as a corporation with engineer’s culture. The latest bunch in the cooperation consists of Engineers. Thus, production, products and the technology have conventionally been measured as very significant in target company, on the other hand the financial and commercial factors have played negligible parts. Nonetheless, engineers were differentiate as precise people and number oriented, a subject thought to be a fine thing meant for accounting, which makes desired precise calculations with the intention of generating order in doubtful world of target company. Innovative traditions of responding were usually permissible and promoted in accounting and as well in the customs of target company. With respect to planning issues the firm was thought to be exemplary and imaginative. A very main attribute of target company was cross functional teamwork. It is endorsed by management, matrix organization structure and character of the business also makes it a necessity.


In target company, suggestions of process management, continuous improvement and complete quality management, customer focus and value management were applied. As a result, the business culture of target company has the back of an innovative type of acting and thinking process, which works for the management accounting too, but the engineer’s culture was governing and problems related to finance were not judged as they should have been while decision making. The corporate thinking process appeared to emphasize on the general necessity for the management accounting towards product processes and customers. In recent years, the philosophy of orientation towards customers has been profoundly encouraged by leading management. This design is an integral piece of an attempt made extensively corporate wide, to generate a tradition for constant improvement. The corporate values were four in number: continuous learning, customer satisfaction, achievement and respect for individual. It was anticipated from the organization to get re-engineered so as to generate more value, furthermore, the strategies and corporate values should be maintained by the performance management. One part of this plan is also the business process based management philosophy. Finance & control function has also got an implication in the process of development of general business. Besides the traditional process of support it was affirmed that finance & control function must contribute in the processes of customers and products. People have cynic feelings about innovative managerial technologies, like activity based costing and management process. Nevertheless, the corporate values which were endorsed were generally well appreciated and understood. Diffusion of the philosophy of customer orientation had hitherto arrived at the higher level of corporation. The former thought processes which were based on technology were still sturdy in the subordinate levels of organization. Customer orientation also, was a rational result of innovative business stage in which liberalization of market had made numerous new clients challenging against each other via discriminating themselves in the course of their services.

The institutional theory suggested that new response outlines could be used because of style, competitors or generally to manage uncertainty. Without inquiring about the sagacity of execution in target company, it can be concluded that innovative managerial technologies are only observed as empty trends and mottos in target company particularly, in finance & control function. The real organizational reaction models changed gradually which was never in a fashion. From the dissimilarity between cultures of real and promoted organizations convincing proof can be found.
The aimed organization was prearranged as a matrix arrangement and in addition, it was evidently taken to global association sort. Problems started to appear and being reported as the management accounting system was not supporting the quickly varying matrix structure and also due to the huge regular actions of reporting. As it was growing harder to sustain them all with a single system and clean stress in between dimensions exist, for e.g. in the form of separate local reporting systems, all because of the variations in the requirements of the associations. In line to promote these various viewpoints in world wide aim firm exists, the need was getting bigger. With the help of general administration accounting methods, it was getting harder to support complicated and varying associational structure. On the other hand, the crosses functional joint effort is lead to be activated by association, and a perception of being psychologically as little and supple was developed about the associational structure.
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AND STRATEGY
The one that was proposed in the document is very dissimilar to the aimed organization’s tactically oriented growth and performance of management accounting. It was noticed that the formal tactical arrangement procedure was not of a dynamic type as contributed by the management accounting, it was on an unimportant stage instead. When the bigger strategies were converted to bigger yielding plans, it happened particularly in that duration. Symbols of tactical management accounting may have been apparent, in wider terms, at the time when management accounting was utilized in quantifying the tactical strategies and alternatives, as well as the upcoming clients and business. It was accounted to be very hard and tiring to create extended range computations due to the enormous amount of doubtfulness, environmental variation and commercial expansion, although upcoming orientation was considered as very significant. In strategic decision making, the major indispensable matter were the leading logic of the top administration (individual and interpersonal familiarity, untainted determination, strong hallucinations of the upcoming age, technology and business circumstances), consequently, it was difficult for the accounting calculations to support it.
Most of the important strategic challenges faced by management accounting of the case site could at last be listed down, basically there is need of one of the such well structured strategic management system, for example sharing and defining products according to strategies about sales and related issues.
A strategy is required which should support business which at a time does several analyzing issues and multiple possibilities which involve financial as well as non financial matters. The strategy which enhances purposes and assurance, as well as considers the profit of the organization, with possible accomplishment of goals and targets .which has the powers and characteristics of dealing with reservations related to strategies. These deals in manipulative and organize their global value chain, able to completely and accurately distribute the resources for better implementing supporting strategies, which focused on products and customer related issue’s organization. .
Strategy planning is something should be done formal and long process as the results are to be seen in long run, which are important according to group views as well as for core management. The above mention statement is agreed upon by different writers. Basically budgeting was considered as planning and cooperating tool, but it isn’t for managing performance and operations. Strategic planning is a tool for controlling mechanism and systems, build-mission, and global organization type. Future forecasting is better managed when you study latest periodical research in way you study monthly and quarterly reports and statement gathered from management accounting. This focuses on importance and benefits of judging the available data, updating the budget during a year. This was previously said to be traditional for strategic management and implementation of expectation and estimations



In addition to implementing and controlling existing strategies, the formal management control system can be used by the management to develop new strategies by driving the organizational attention towards strategic uncertainties. Therefore managements who have a clear vision of their business effectively utilize control systems as they use only a single control system to interact and other systems are used for diagnostic purposes and the interactive control systems can also develop new strategies.

Strategic planning processes have been made by certain value chain analyses however they are not in management accounting’s perspective. Creating visible dependencies between different functions was one of the reasons why value chain thinking was assessed as something possibly useful. Value chain involved in a business is so complicated and the network of interdependencies is so huge that the possible usefulness of the value chain was believed as very limited. The value chain was much easier and simpler in sister businesses and such concepts also proved to be useful. The interview method did not prove to be useful in finding any evidence for activities such as strategic cost management. Strategic cost management was practiced and used in an unintentional way in the general management decisions. The thinking related to value chain thinking was left alone and distant from the finance world and people’s control when the accounting thinking was dominated by the institutionalized business unite reporting structure which included huge integrations. People who were interviewed followed value chain thinking as furor just as ABC.

The philosophy of target cost was initially instigated in this particular industry through the means of definition; cost management’s significance is increasing with the passage of time and price erosion is comprehended entirely by this industry. Target costs and prices are incorporated in corporate budgeting and planning theoretically and a few unique programs associated to cost management have been instigated. The findings of research project illuminates queries related to the prevalent cost management practice conducted by western entities as well as accentuates on the necessity of streamlining it with the practices conducted by Japanese entities. In a few instances, cost analysis associated to product life cycle has been conducted beforehand or on extemporized manner not guided by recognized reporting system in the midst of the product development phase. Nevertheless, it has been observed that profitability has escalated because the demanded volume of a product has surpassed the forecasted volume based on which production is carried out; this condition of gain is the sole reason due to which no post investigation has been conducted to explicate this unusual occurrence. Moreover, it was deemed that R&D expenditure on life cycle costing was very challenging because with the passage of time a single product becomes the basis for a product family with diverse and various products; the R&D expenditure on the initial product has to be intensified and the following products would be articulate based on that initial product’s developments which will reduce expenditures.


One significant facet associated to the life cycle philosophy is the necessity of measuring the life time profitability pertaining to the consumers. Nevertheless, this measurement is very intricate in nature because of the lengthy business association with consumers as well as the performance of an industry. Companies conducted competitor analysis due to its estimated effectiveness; it was however performed by the marketing personnel and not the accounting staff, and for this purpose information was assembled from all available resources. One of these resources was the annual reports published by competing firms from which financial data was extracted. These functions were buttressed by the presence of trade finance department of a company which acted as an essential link amidst controlling and financing necessities along with the competitor’s analysis. Seminar sessions based on competing firms along with games based on simulation were deemed as unique type of competitor’s analysis. One of the widely implemented means of analyzing competing firms was benchmarking.


Instances regarding implementation of coherent theory associated to product attribute costing were not identified in any particular case study; however, the necessity and prospect of management accountants for the evaluation of novel products and business lines was considered effective. The requirement was to assess the involved timing, threats, and economic outcomes spurred by diverse actions; therefore, management accounting acts as a buttressing information channel amidst R&D tasks and consumers so as to tackle this predicament. The decisions regarding product attributes and processes which would be taken in imminent times can be bolstered through the means of life cycle accounting of target costing. The novel product decisions were recommended to being present in the market in which this target company functioned. It was also recommended that a support of management accounting should also be necessary when undertaking to enter in novel markets and in this matter the predicaments were the ambiguity along with developing the comprehension of management accountants. Novel pricing techniques were presently under discussion in this target company, and more vigorously in software businesses. A few development based projects had been conducted on the basis of which value-based pricing technique was formulated; hence, according to which product’s usage by consumer along with the usage circumstances will dictate the prices as complementary or supplementary in contrast to the conventional cost-based prices.


The prospective development of management accounting was considered to be majorly dependent on customer analysis. The core matters in this regard were the customers, analysis regarding long term feasibility of a customer’s business, and the segmental profitability analysis. It was deemed very essential to formulate apposite global customer standing along with segmental profitability analysis in this particular target company, whilst business units being the chief element of official monthly reporting. On the basis of business units, the prevailing reporting methodology on monthly basis presented reports on transfer price-based customer (or account) profitability. On extempore basis customer profitability analysis was generated for an array of customers presented in other regions of the globe. This particular target company encountered a predicament in customer profitability analysis due to its cost structure which incorporated a major portion of R&D expenditure.


The customer analysis prominently integrates the exertions targeted towards global value chain along with underlining the business group profitability; therefore, because of this particular tendency it is an effective measure so as to accentuate on global structure and supplant the centrifugal tendencies possessed by single units.


When the markets associated to the industry encountered liberalization, then the necessity of assessing the customer’s long term feasibility aroused. Public or state owned entities were included in the old customers as many of them were highly rated. The customers after the occurrence of liberalization are not as much loyal as they were previously and a vast concentration of them is not feasible in the long run; hence, augmenting the threat. Furthermore, for this target company’s prosperous future it was crucial to comprehend the present as well as future demands of the customers’ which will certainly facilitate in taking appropriate action patterns leading to formulation of products aligned to these requirements. This notion was the prime factor due to which management accounting functions were propelled to take prominent part in analyzing and planning customers’ future business. Albeit the financial records pertaining to the customers were feasible for their analysis, but they were only helpful in case of old customers and not the new ones because there was not past record available of their business activity. A number of completely hypothetical business plans were formulated for the customers, the function of a management accountant in this case is to actively participate in the discussion on the basis of his financial expertise; moreover, the management accountant is deemed to participate in the discussion by formulating theoretical financial and cash flow statements which should be appropriately aligned to the pertinent presumptions of the customer regarding investment plans and cost structure. Another effective means for gaining favorable results from the financial and commercial bids for a customer is to formulate a business plan. Although this type of advancement for the management accounting was in initial phases but the indications were deemed as favorable.


In this instance the prime motive of the management accounting alongside value chain was to extend the functioning area outside this target company; furthermore, integrating with other similar but slightly distinctive functions which will ultimately enhance the elucidation level of the management accounting. Nevertheless, a major predicament which had the tendency of thwarting this task was the absence of an appropriate tool which could be implemented to discern the unprecedented and demanding level of job description.


In estimating operative efficiency, people involvement, and customer satisfaction of this target company non-financial performance tools were extensively implemented. These tools were implemented on group basis; furthermore, they were coalesced with the conventional financial tools. Amidst all these tools unit specific non-financial tools were also implemented.


The aim of implementing this particular scorecard was to assess the level of practices after splitting the objectives into tangible measures as well as integrating them with the present functions of this target company. The non-financial tools were deemed to be effective due to the fact that processes and functions become unambiguous and observable with the tendency of contradicting the conventional belies.


The tasks and functions of the management accountant were quite insignificant with the involvement of these particular measures. Accounting personnel stated their expertise and abilities along with mentioning their presumptions regarding the consistency of non-financial measurements.


In this target company, no adequate and standardized strategic investment evaluations were observed. The global corporate strategy and arrangement of unit investments along with it, market elements; furthermore, the dogmatic beliefs of the executives controlled the practice of strategic capital budgeting decisions which should ideally be aligned to quantitative aspects and adequate investment analysis. These particular presumptions were inspired by the literatures regarding global strategy, building strategic mission and related uncertainty, core competence, subjectivist view, and group-unit tensions.

CONCLUSIONS
The reason for electing this particular case site as a representation of the generally implemented conditions was to explicate novel strategic management accounting practice. Nevertheless, an insignificant level of confirmation regarding strategic management accounting was extracted. A few literature-based ideas were contemplated which were quite similar to the actual strategic level; however, they were dubious to be implemented in this target company in the form of management accounting (TC and product attribute analysis, SCM, strategic investment appraisal). As the tactical level of the ideas escalated, the involvement of management accounting in them was quite sure to be insubstantial (for instance BSC, competitor analysis, and SCM). Furthermore, the likelihood of implementing the proposed novel practice was bleak if it was deemed complex analogous to conventional practice by the concerned authority. Apart of few omissions, case site required minor level of strategic management accounting and unusual means were observed in presenting the pertinent accounting practices like customer interface and budgeting. It can easily be comprehended that budgeting was implemented as a tool for directing the expansion of novel strategic proposals as it possesses the strategic pertinence. The concern towards customers provided two vital elements; customer analysis and customer profitability accounting.
Relative accounting methods which can be use in inventive way comprises of strategic kind of accounting topics. Some of the uses of these methods are that profits are being forecasted interactively, the effectiveness of a whole business group was being highlighted through global customer profitability analysis and customer businesses can be scrutinized with the help of cash flow and breakeven analysis. The management accounting function has relatively weak participation in the strategy process of the target company and with very few interference of accounting management accounting impetus took place.

The companies required business and performance management-oriented management accounting rather than strategic management accounting because performance management-oriented management accounting can be used very often and it is very functioning and uncomplicated by nature. Regardless of these planned research settings, the presented normative strategic management accounting does not get as such support.
Finally some imperative strategic and prepared challenges were pointed out for the management accounting of the case site these include
1) The requirement for clear strategic control and procedures
2) Multiple perspectives all together analyzed to support the business
3) Supporting strategic target and obligation
4) Interactive scanning of strategic uncertainties
5) Resource allocation is controlled and synchronized by the global value chain
6) Strategy process linked with product and customer processes of the target company that makes them capable to give some real considerable content.

Management accounting is developed in a multifaceted way which is reflected by the environmental and strategic modifications and contemporary administrative philosophies and the organizational structure and culture and constant modifications in a target company are also influenced heavily by it. The normative agenda of strategic management accounting comprises of both likeness and differences which can be used as a structure for classifying the case findings among the practices of Target Company. Nevertheless a target company is a very successful firm and according to the literature the strategic management accounting tools recommended not to use and even not needed in the case site.


With this intelligence it can be sated that normative strategic management accounting literature is not highly supported. There were quite a few obstacle and challenges related to the submission and execution of strategic management accounting. According to the speechifying appropriate generalization, there is a significance of some of the recommended business unit or plant level SMA-tools in deliberate framework and they can inquiry about high street industry, global, core capability and separable strategy. Within this frame work improvement, managerial learning, artistic quality, employee commitment, technology and skill blending and revolution, encouragement of strategic objective, synchronization of global corporate value chain and societal lobbying all are linked to managerial concern.Same kind of thoughts regarding global challenges for management accounting was previously presented by e.g. Dent in 1996 and quite a few restrictions were set to the development of normative strategic management accounting by the one-sided nature of the strategic management.
The target company’s management accounting performance and systems were chiefly in linkage with the recommended strategic distinctiveness of the contingency theory but the instrument through which a system is controlled could be very diverse than which could be predicted from rational-based suppositions. Other thing that put pressure on management accounting that cause target market to change are environmental evolution and uncertainty.
There are also some problems and restrictions faced by management accounting system due to the organizational complications and organizational evolution but there is a high possibility through which we can enlarge the innovative ways of management accounting practices and these are the culture of the entrepreneur it self and feeling of freedom however the leading engineer culture also set and nevertheless provide a key structure to the managerial roles of accounting. Latest adapted managerial attitudes also increase the performance measurement demand. The management circumstances which are undeceive and unclear which are often faced by the companies might direct toward mimetic behavior and institutional practice in order to over these circumstances. Also the new exposure of environment with global synchronization and issues for managing, new guidelines and also new opponents-related reporting pressures are all cause because of transformation in environment and strategic choices.
The mimetic behavior or legitimization hard work can be influenced the alteration of customer direction and other executives’ viewpoints and strategy formulation can also affect it. Sometimes new trends and supported and encouraged and than implemented even though they are not accepted deeply by all workers. The institutionalized practices which are rooted deep inside can be change gradually with conflicts.
Research design and data collection

In order to collect the experiential data postal questionnaires were used through which ample information was gathered for the statistical analysis because through questionnaires the large numbers of respondents were accessed easily. There were also one on one interviews were taken to process the questionnaires to check previous mistakes and consistency of the analysis outcome of the previous post and also search for the details from some respondents. In order to erase the interruption which are raising because of the differences among industry sectors these questionnaires were studied by seven intellectuals and later decided to focus on just one sector which is the food and drinks manufacturing companies because they were appropriate for this rationale


“FAME” Financial Analysis Made Easy”) was used as a model structure to make available the widespread knowledge of public and private companies. The criterion used in selecting companies and adding in the sample was a SIC UK industry code of “15” which is for the production of food products and drinks. Being active and a free company the can employ at least 30 people.
In May 2001 secretaries of 658 companies received a letter and that letter fulfill all the criterion required to acquire names of those people who are perfect and suitable to fill these questionnaires. Out of 658 companies two letters were returned to them trough post stating that receivers have change their address and six companies asked to be detached from the survey and it remained with the potential response of 650 companies. 148 names were received in the end of June of those people who are accountable for the direction of management accounting function. Questionnaires were sent with the caption of “For the attention of The Management Accountant” to all 650 companies and were concentrated on the names found or in case not have been found.

Respondents were required to use [5] (MAPs) by a five point Liker-type scale (1 signifying “never” and 5 signifying “very frequently to point out the regularity and occurrence of the 38 management accounting practices they use. Respondents were also require to rate the significance of all these techniques by using a scale “not important”, “moderately important” or “important”. The 38 MAPs were classified into five groups: costing method, budgeting, performance assessment, information for decision making, and strategic examination. There were also separate questions asked to individuals regarding the messaging of management accounting information
The reason for a covering letter is to give details of the study and make sure that the information given is very confidential.




After three weeks the second copy of those questionnaires were sent to all the people who did not responded previously and by the end of September 98 responses were received from the management accountants. Further telephone calls were made to all non respondents and third copy was sent and in end of October, 122 completed functional questionnaires were received from management accountants who gave the utilizable answers that make up the rate of 18.8 % which was substantial.

Non-response bias is a possible hazard to the conclusions of a postal study. t-tests were conducted on corporation dimension calculated by revenue, fixed assets, and the number of workers for the year 2001 finishing, just for the evaluation of the probability of bias. In between the two models for each dimension calculation, no major difference was noted. Moreover, the replies to the main questions in the survey from the repliers who gave the answers just when the follow-up telephone calls were made, and the ones who gave out their opinion without the follow-up calls, were contrasted. Amid the two groups of replies, there was no major variation. The two models are originated from the same population and there is no hazard to the result from the presence of non- rejoinder bias, which is the conclusion by us.
4. Survey findings
4.1 Costing systems
From a long time, there has been criticism on the customary absorption estimation systems. The selection of suitable overhead recovery rates i.e. plant wide or further specific, and then, the argument regarding the requirement to ecover/allocate (soak up) overheads wholly, these two have been long-present matters to be solved. When SSAP 9 was taken into practice, the trivial costing against the absorption costing argument “ran out of stream” in the UK, the differentiation in between non-variable and variable costs is “very much alive” in performance, which is, however, what we look for our hope. The troubles of customary absorption were again taken into prime focus in the previous two decades.
The main critic this time is the fact that these systems cannot be relied on to measure the exact cost for decision making and activity based costing (ABC) has been made and promoted. Target costing and the “costing of quality” were promoted as tools to fight against the increasing levels of competition.

Respondents were asked to indicate how significant the seven methods of costing are to determine the level to which costing systems are used by practitioners to attain more exact information on costing for the purpose of making a decision. Their findings are shown in Panel A of Table I. It can be observed that 48 percent of the firms (29 per cent þ 19 per cent) have a high level of contrasting between variable/incremental costs and fixed/non-incremental costs for the purpose of making any decision. This contrast and difference has been pointed out by about 83 percent of the respondents who classified these as either being very important to the firm or moderately important. In contrast to this, just a few emphasized the high use of plant-wide, multiple-rate or ABC methods so as to allocate the overhead and variable costs to the objects. It was also observed that these variable overheads were not so frequent. It was derived from these two surveys that variable costing is more widely used than the numerous absorption cost techniques. Even though the ABC costing techniques have a low level of usage, being around 76% of rare usage, it is still seen as very important and about 44%, 51% and 46% of those who answered considered these three techniques very significant or moderately important.

It was surveyed that activity based costing (ABC) was executed in about 18percent in the US food sector firms and 12 percent in Holland food sector firms. Although the respondents recognize the importance of overhead variable costs, they don’t consider it so important to implement them very often. This may demonstrate that overheads are considered a part of the non routine costing and pricing strategies which are carried out less frequently. However, in the food industry, managers often classify direct and variable costs separately for ad hoc decision making. Similarly, the quality costing is seen to have a lot of significance but is not allocated very often. Lastly, it can be concluded that the mathematical ways to measure cost relationships is not seen as very important and is therefore not carried out very often.
4.2 Budgeting
A lot of emphasis has been given to the use of management accounting in the literature of management accounting. It has been considered as a key technique for the controlling and planning of the activities of an organization. The execution of the ABC techniques was followed by another technique called the activity based budgeting (ABB). Panel B of Table I shows how the people responded to the survey in which questionnaires asked people their opinion on the significance of planning and budgeting to control costs, the “what if” analysis in regard to budgeting, flexible budgeting, zero based budgeting and the budget planning for long run strategic plans.

The survey indicates that around 84 percent and 73 percent firms use budgeting either frequently or very frequently for the purpose of planning and controlling respectively. By combing the results, it can be observed that more than 90 percent of the respondents It can be stated that almost all the firms consider budgeting as an integral part of planning and control. Around 32 percent consider the use of flexible budget as often or very often and it is considered a significant part. However, on the other hand, 29 percent of the firms do not adjust their budgets. Similarly, the concept of “what if” analysis is very significant but it is not used very often.

The ABB technique was either given a lot of significance or was considered moderately important by a vast majority of the interviewees. These added up to about 63 percent. However, just 19 percent said that the use of the strategy was often or very frequent. When the usage of both, ABB and ABC techniques was compared, it was derived that the companies who had a frequent usage level of ABC also had high levels of usage for ABB. It is possible that firms initially start using ABC and then go on to use the activity analysis during the execution of ABC to prepare their budgets. It is observed that ABB is more significant and often used as compared to ABC. This gives support to the point mentioned earlier than budgeting is more important rather than costing. It is not often observed that zero based budgeting is being executed but about 58 percent of the respondents consider it insignificant. Lastly, around 83 percent considered budgeting as an integral part of long run strategic planning.




4.3 Performance evaluation
Perhaps the most critical challenge faced by the companies is the selection of the measures to guide and evaluate the business units running. Management accounting is responsible for reporting all the needed information so as to determine the performance of the business unit. However a lot of criticisms have been raised against the units that use monetary measures such as profits, return on investments, standard costing and variance analysis. The basic reason for the criticism is that they measure short run costs and accounting manipulations and they do not take account of the capital costs and non monetary measures such as efficiency of the labor, innovation of the company or the satisfaction levels of the customer.
A number of “economic value” means have been employed to include the capital cost in the financial measures. The concept of Residual income was given in 1950s, however, the idea of “Economic Value Added” (EVAw) has been promoted more recently as its proprietary adaptation. EVAw is described as the difference of adjusted operating income and capital charge, and suggests that the action of the manager will add economic value when the final profits surpass the increased capital cost. This was described as key “organisational glue” in the merger of Grand Met and Guinness to form Diageo.
A group of researchers launched the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a technique for integrating non-financial and financial performance actions. In this model, it was suggested that the performance of a business unit may be gauged from four angles: customer-related, financial, learning and growth, and internal business processes. Financial actions are traditionally compared between successive performance periods to recognize if there has been an improvement or decline. The fundamental assumption that the preceding period is a suitable comparator can guide to the determination of issues and inefficiencies. The Xerox company introduced the idea of benchmarking to overcome this problem and it was made a popular tool for organisational improvement. The concept of benchmarking requires identification of a “best practice” either externally or internally and subsequently analyzing as to how it can be utilized for improving the future and present performance.
The respondents were asked to grade the importance and usage of the five measures: EVAw; financial measures; benchmarks; and non-financial measures pertaining to operations and innovation, to customers, and to employees respectively. The result is shown in Panel C of Table III.
As very much expected, majority of the respondents (78 %) have rated the financial measures as “important” and almost the same number reported that these measures were used regularly. The survey revealed that non-financial measures associated to operations and innovation and to customers are unmistakably very dominant with 87 % (42 % þ 45 % respectively) and 77% rated them as “moderately important”. The domination of non-financial performance measures related customer validates the findings of researchers. It also confirms the importance of this performance in supply chain management for companies in the food sector. The differentiation / innovation in product validates the results of several other researchers. On the other hand, a considerable minority of companies (38 % for both measures categories) show such measures as “rarely” or “never”.
The possible explanation to this exciting difference in results is that non-financial performance evaluation is regular and significant for some respondents while it is simply irregular “tokenism” for others. The absence of measures related to the employee is even further noticeable, with 41 % of the respondents responding with “never”. It was reported that 72 % of food companies in UK did not measure satisfaction of its employees. This result is not contradictory to the casualisation of the workforce in the food industry as highlighted by some researchers. The results obtained by us also indicate that neither benchmarking nor EVAw have yet become popular even though the Self-Assessment and Benchmarking Initiative have been taken as explained in Section 2 above.
4.4 Information for decision making
Out of the declared management accounting objectives in the 1970s, one was to make available related information for decision making internally. For routine or interim decisions, the management accountants can utilize various well known techniques like product analysis of profitability, analysis of cost-volume-profit (CVP), analysis of customer profitability, and models for stock control. For long term capital investment decisions, the management accountants can provide accounting rates for the payback and return periods in addition to more complex reports based on discounted cash flow. Moreover, information related to non-financial aspects, like output quality, lead-times and flexibility of processes could influence projects of capital investment. Lastly, various risk analysis methods like computer simulation, probability analyses and “what if” analysis may also be used.

Panel D shows the summary of the answers to questions regarding decision making. A huge number of companies conduct a ‘often’ or ‘very often’ customer profitability or a product profitability analysis i.e. 69% and 51% respectively. Answerers rated this analsysi as ‘important’ i.e. 72% and 59% respectively. A CVP analysis proposed for the food industry was seen as ‘moderately important’ or ‘important’ by 86% of the responders and astonishingly 44% chose ‘often’ to show that these analyses are frequently used. Stock control models are widely ‘sometime used’ or ‘moderately important’.

Decisions relating to capital investments include conventional accounting practices which are used by 44% of the responders. These accounting practices such as payback period and accounting rate of return are used to assess some of the main capital projects whereas the figure for discounted cash flow models including net present value and internal rate of return is 19%. The obvious disbelief of advanced investment appraisal is supported by the fact that 42% of the respondents said that calculating the cost of capital was ‘not important’. The low importance associated with the financial performance of a company as compared to companies in different industries was found in accordance to what many experts had said. Moreover, only 82% of the responders find non-financial factors associated to capital projects as ‘important’ or ‘moderately important’ and such factors are reported and documented ‘often’ or ‘very often’ by only 33% of the companies. The most famous technique for assessing the risky projects is the ‘what if’ analysis however it is ‘often’ or ‘very often’ used by only 22% of the responders.

4.5 Strategic analysis

Typical management accounting systems have faced criticism because their reporting focus is the internal process and they do not give very little or no attention to the external factors and also does not consider the impact of the decisions of the competitors’ on their cost structures and current and future processes of the company. Strategic management accounting is now synonymously used with the external oriented approach but there is no theoretical framework that comprises strategic management accounting. Here, in this study, we will look at the characteristics of strategic management accounting. They are: a relation between the customers and external environment; focus on the competitors; and a forward-looking, long term orientation. Respondents were given eight strategic management practices and were required to answer with respect to its importance and their usage. Results are shown in Panel E of Table III.


43% of the companies ‘often’ or ‘very often’ do long term forecasting. This followed in frequency by the strengths and weaknesses’ analysis of the competitors i.e. 21% and competitive position’s analysis i.e. 33%. It can be said that lateral competitive analysis and traditional long term planning is undertaken by the food companies than in related stakeholder, life cycle, industry or analysis of the value chain. Scoring high of Importance, usage frequency, competitive position analysis of the value chain and assessment the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses point out that the application of this practice is extensive and may become more frequent. These results are not astonishing keeping in mind the improved chain cooperation particularly in the food industry.

4.6 Communication of management accounting information

The major challenges that confront the reporting timing of management accounting are: providing timely and perfect online information to the shop floor; increasing aptness of data reporting and altering the system of information gathering to make it instantaneous and in line with the other systems. It was found out in a number of food industry interviews that even though the accountants were responding quickly to the informational marketing requests, this was not the case in the non-routine information condition.


The management accountants in order to investigate these issues were required to evaluate their business’ importance at 4 levels of ease of use of internal reports. Table II results show how ‘important’ it is to provide thorough information of management accounting on a usual, systematic and short term basis as answered by 91% of the respondents. 86% of the responders said that the capability to provide ‘detailed information immediately on request’ was ‘important’ or ‘moderately important’, however the ‘I rating’ has decreased to 37% from 91%. Only 11% rated instant updating and the stipulation of real-time information as ‘important’. Even though the real-time reporting is quite uncommon, it is well known that the organizations have made changes to modify their information dispersion channels; 48% of the responders answered that is ‘important’ that the detailed management accounting information should be reported to the line manager directly. This response verifies the unreliable evidence of management accounting’s widespread ownership which by accounting experts is becoming increasingly less subject to ‘analysis and fltering.’