Measuring non-use value of environmental goods using the contingent valuation method:problems of information and cognition and the application of cognitive questionnaire design methods

Much interest now focuses on the use of the contingent valuation method (CVM) to assess non-use value of environmental goods. The paper reviews recent literature and highlights particular problems of information provision and respondent knowledge, comprehension and cognition. These must be dealt with by economists in designing CVM surveys for eliciting non-use values. Cognitive questionnaire design methods are presented which invoke concepts from psychology and tools from cognitive survey design (focus groups and verbal reports) to reduce a complex environmnetal good into a meaningful commodity that can be valued by respondents in a contingent market. This process is illustrated with examples from the authors' own research valuing alternative afforestation programmes. -Authors

Biosecurity and Emerging Plant Health Problems in Turf Production and Maintenance

Recent research has supported the view that the distributions of many pests and diseases have extended towards higher latitudes over the last 50 years. Probably driven by a combination of climate change and trade, this extension to the ranges of hundreds of plant pathogens may have serious implications not only for agriculture, horticulture and forestry, but also for turf production &maintenance. Here we review our data relating to the current status of three emerging pest and disease problems across North West Europe (rapid blight, Labyrinthula sp. , the root knot nematode, Meloidogyne minor and the pacific stem gall nematode, Anguina pacificae ) and discuss the factors which may be involved in their spread and increasing impact on the turf industry. With turf production and maintenance becoming an increasingly international business, we ask if biosecurity and the promotion of plant health in turf production fields and associated sport facilities should be a greater priority for the industry. We also examine if a lack of effective biosecurity measures in the materials supply chain has led to increased plant health problems.

Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015: elaboration and explanation

Protocols of systematic reviews and meta-analyses allow for planning and documentation of review methods, act as a guard against arbitrary decision making during review conduct, enable readers to assess for the presence of selective reporting against completed reviews, and, when made publicly available, reduce duplication of efforts and potentially prompt collaboration. Evidence documenting the existence of selective reporting and excessive duplication of reviews on the same or similar topics is accumulating and many calls have been made in support of the documentation and public availability of review protocols. Several efforts have emerged in recent years to rectify these problems, including development of an international register for prospective reviews (PROSPERO) and launch of the first open access journal dedicated to the exclusive publication of systematic review products, including protocols (BioMed Central's Systematic Reviews). Furthering these efforts and building on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines, an international group of experts has created a guideline to improve the transparency, accuracy, completeness, and frequency of documented systematic review and meta-analysis protocols--PRISMA-P (for protocols) 2015. The PRISMA-P checklist contains 17 items considered to be essential and minimum components of a systematic review or meta-analysis protocol.This PRISMA-P 2015 Explanation and Elaboration paper provides readers with a full understanding of and evidence about the necessity of each item as well as a model example from an existing published protocol. This paper should be read together with the PRISMA-P 2015 statement. Systematic review authors and assessors are strongly encouraged to make use of PRISMA-P when drafting and appraising review protocols.

A Hybrid Imperialist Approach in Solving University Timetabling Problems. Information Sciences. Vol. 283, 1-21

Generating timetables for an institution is a challenging and time consuming task due to different demands on the overall structure of the timetable. In this paper, a new hybrid method which is a combination of a great deluge and artificial bee colony algorithm (INMGD-ABC) is proposed to address the university timetabling problem. Artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) is a population based method that has been introduced in recent years and has proven successful in solving various optimization problems effectively. However, as with many search based approaches, there exist weaknesses in the exploration and exploitation abilities which tend to induce slow convergence of the overall search process. Therefore, hybridization is proposed to compensate for the identified weaknesses of the ABC. Also, inspired from imperialist competitive algorithms, an assimilation policy is implemented in order to improve the global exploration ability of the ABC algorithm. In addition, Nelder–Mead simplex search method is incorporated within the great deluge algorithm (NMGD) with the aim of enhancing the exploitation ability of the hybrid method in fine-tuning the problem search region. The proposed method is tested on two differing benchmark datasets i.e. examination and course timetabling datasets. A statistical analysis t-test has been conducted and shows the performance of the proposed approach as significantly better than basic ABC algorithm. Finally, the experimental results are compared against state-of-the art methods in the literature, with results obtained that are competitive and in certain cases achieving some of the current best results to those in the literature.

Systematic Review of the Measurement Properties of Tools Used to Measure Behaviour Problems in Young Children with Autism

Background
Behaviour problems are common in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are many different tools used to measure behavior problems but little is known about their validity for the population.

Objectives
To evaluate the measurement properties of behaviour problems tools used in evaluation of intervention or observational research studies with children with ASD up to the age of six years.

Methods
Behaviour measurement tools were identified as part of a larger, two stage, systematic review. First, sixteen major electronic databases, as well as grey literature and research registers were searched, and tools used listed and categorized. Second, using methodological filters, we searched for articles examining the measurement properties of the tools in use with young children with ASD in ERIC, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The quality of these papers was then evaluated using the COSMIN checklist.

Results
We identified twelve tools which had been used to measure behaviour problems in young children with ASD, and fifteen studies which investigated the measurement properties of six of these tools. There was no evidence available for the remaining six tools. Two questionnaires were found to be the most robust in their measurement properties, the Child Behavior Checklist and the Home Situations Questionnaire—Pervasive Developmental Disorders version.

Conclusions
We found patchy evidence on reliability and validity, for only a few of the tools used to measure behaviour problems in young children with ASD. More systematic research is required on measurement properties of tools for use in this population, in particular to establish responsiveness to change which is essential in measurement of outcomes of intervention.

PROSPERO Registration Number

CRD42012002223