Rural architecture : being a complete description of farm houses, cottages, and out buildings, comprising wood houses, workshops, tool houses, carriage and wagon houses, stables, smoke and ash houses, ice houses, apiary or bee house, poultry houses, rabbitry, dovecote, piggery, barns and sheds for cattle, &c, &c., &c. : Together with lawns, pleasure grounds and parks; the flower, fruit, and vegetable garden. Also, useful and ornamental domestic animals for the country resident &c.,&c., &c. Also, the best method of conducting water into cattle yards and houses /

Mode of access: Internet.

Sense of place: A tool to assist the meaningful engagement of communities in protected area management

This study used ‘sense of place’ as a research tool to help understand the relationship between a community and their local protected area, Brisbane Forest Park. To establish an indication of the community’s relative degree of sense of place, we considered and measured both the strength (intensity) and orientation (focus) of sense of place. We developed a new method to measure sense of place that considers and measures the elements constituting sense of place, independent of one another, utilising qualitative data collected in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Exploring both the strength and orientation of an individual's sense of place provides a way of exploring the desired nature of community involvement in the management of the Park. It was found that the stronger an individuals’ sense of place, the greater their place dependence and commitment, and the greater their desire to be involved in management. Analysing the strength and orientation of sense of place illustrated that there is a high degree of diversity in how individuals perceive and feel about area, and their desire to be involved in management. The type of information obtained in this study is important and useful to the management agencies if they are to successfully engage the community in meaningful ways.

One-dimensional and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis: a tool for protein characterisation in aquatic samples

Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) represents the least understood part of the nitrogen cycle. Due to recent methodological developments, proteins now represent a potentially characterisable fraction of DON at the macromolecular level. We have applied polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to characterise proteins in samples from a range of aquatic environments in the Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that each sample has a complex and characteristic protein distribution. Some proteins appeared to be common to more than one site, and these might derive from dominant higher plant vegetation. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) provided better resolution; however, strong background hindered interpretation. Our results suggest that the two techniques can be used in parallel as a tool for protein characterisation: SDS-PAGE to provide a sample-specific fingerprint and 2D-PAGE to focus on the characterisation of individual protein molecules.

Evaluating Hotel Marketing Effectiveness: The Audit

Hotel management is increasingly looking for ways to evaluate marketing effectiveness. A system is needed to assess objectives, strategies, and performance. The Marketing Audit provides a workable, worthwhile tool for managers to assess current performances and long-range goals.

Training National Park Service Concession Specialists

In recent years, the Internet has become the medium of choice in distance education, and a prominent delivery tool in many hospitality management programs. When students cannot be educated on site, web-based education has proven to be the next best thing to in-person instruction. The authors describe a project in which the Internet is used to educate National Park Service concession specialists, exploring the reasons the project was instigated, its development and funding, and educational challenges and solutions. Such web-based instruction can be used as a means to attract outside grants and revenues for hospitality management programs.

An interactive environmental site assessment audit for Wagner Creek river basin clean up project

The primary purpose of this thesis was to design and create an Interactive Audit to conduct Environmental Site Assessments according to American Society of Testing Material's (ASTM) Phase I Standards at the Wagner Creek study area. ArcPad and ArcIMS are the major software that were used to create the model and ArcGIS Desktop was used for data analysis and to export shapefile symbology to ArcPad. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an effective tool to deploy these purposes. This technology was utilized to carry out data collection, data analysis and to display data interactively on the Internet. Electronic forms, customized for mobile devices were used to survey sites. This is an easy and fast way to collect and modify field data. New data such as land use, recognized environmental conditions, and underground storage tanks can be added into existing datasets. An updated map is then generated and uploaded to the Internet using ArcIMS technology. The field investigator has the option to generate and view the Inspection Form at the end of his survey on site, or print a hardcopy at base. The mobile device also automatically generates preliminary editable Executive Reports for any inspected site.

Addressing the theory practice gap in nurse education: evaluating teaching through audit against NMC standards and final management placement

Introduction
This paper outlines an innovative approach to auditing and evaluating the content of a management and leadership module for undergraduate nursing students after their final management clinical placement. Normally evaluations of teaching in a module take place at the end of a teaching module and therefore do not properly reflect the value of the teaching in relation to practical clinical experience.
Aim
This audit and evaluation sought to explore both the practical value of the teaching and learning, and also the degree to which it the teaching reflected against the NMC Standards of Education and Learning (2010 domain 3).
Methods
Having piloted the evaluative tool with an earlier cohort of nursing students, this evaluation explored both a quantitative assessment employing a Personal Response System (n =172), together with a qualitative dimension (n=116), thus delivering paper-based comments and reflections from students on the value and practicality of the module teaching theory to their final clinical management experience. The quantitative audit data were analysed for frequencies and cross tabulation and the qualitative audit data were thematically analysed.
Results
Results suggest a significant proportion of the students, appreciated the quality of the standard of teaching, but more importantly, ‘valued or highly valued’ the teaching and learning in relation to how it helped to significantly inform their management placement experience. A smaller proportion of the students underlined limitations and areas in which further improvement can be made in teaching and learning to the module.
Conclusion
Significantly positive evaluation by the students of the practical value of teaching and learning, to the theoretical management module. This has proved a useful auditing approach in assessing the theoretical teaching to student’s Level 3 clinical experience, and facilitated significant recommendations as far as developing the teaching and learning to better reflect the practice needs of nursing students

DEVELOPMENT OF A DECISION/DEPLOYMENT SUPPORT TOOL FOR VARIABLE SPEED LIMITS IN RECURRENT CONGESTION

Traffic demand increases are pushing aging ground transportation infrastructures to their theoretical capacity. The result of this demand is traffic bottlenecks that are a major cause of delay on urban freeways. In addition, the queues associated with those bottlenecks increase the probability of a crash while adversely affecting environmental measures such as emissions and fuel consumption. With limited resources available for network expansion, traffic professionals have developed active traffic management systems (ATMS) in an attempt to mitigate the negative consequences of traffic bottlenecks. Among these ATMS strategies, variable speed limits (VSL) and ramp metering (RM) have been gaining international interests for their potential to improve safety, mobility, and environmental measures at freeway bottlenecks. Though previous studies have shown the tremendous potential of variable speed limit (VSL) and VSL paired with ramp metering (VSLRM) control, little guidance has been developed to assist decision makers in the planning phase of a congestion mitigation project that is considering VSL or VSLRM control. To address this need, this study has developed a comprehensive decision/deployment support tool for the application of VSL and VSLRM control in recurrently congested environments. The decision tool will assist practitioners in deciding the most appropriate control strategy at a candidate site, which candidate sites have the most potential to benefit from the suggested control strategy, and how to most effectively design the field deployment of the suggested control strategy at each implementation site. To do so, the tool is comprised of three key modules, (1) Decision Module, (2) Benefits Module, and (3) Deployment Guidelines Module. Each module uses commonly known traffic flow and geometric parameters as inputs to statistical models and empirically based procedures to provide guidance on the application of VSL and VSLRM at each candidate site. These models and procedures were developed from the outputs of simulated experiments, calibrated with field data. To demonstrate the application of the tool, a list of real-world candidate sites were selected from the Maryland State Highway Administration Mobility Report. Here, field data from each candidate site was input into the tool to illustrate the step-by-step process required for efficient planning of VSL or VSLRM control. The output of the tool includes the suggested control system at each site, a ranking of the sites based on the expected benefit-to-cost ratio, and guidelines on how to deploy the VSL signs, ramp meters, and detectors at the deployment site(s). This research has the potential to assist traffic engineers in the planning of VSL and VSLRM control, thus enhancing the procedure for allocating limited resources for mobility and safety improvements on highways plagued by recurrent congestion.

Spatial multicriteria decision analysis to potential beekeeping assessment. Case study: Montesinho Natural Park (Portugal)

The Multicriteria decision analysis is a tool to support decision-making in the identification of areas with the utmost beekeeping potential. This paper design a GIS multicriteria approach to assess the beekeeping potential. The development of a conceptual model structure requires the participation of stakeholders and experts in that process. The spatial Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) allowed defining the potential beekeeping map. The resulting maps can be used by the beekeepers associations to easily select the more suitable areas for the apiaries location or relocation and avoid prohibited areas by legal requirements.

Application of GIS in potential beekeeping assessment: Case study of Montesinho Natural Park (Portugal)

Planners require solutions that address routine work needs and seems essential to improving efficiency and productivity. There are a great number of different factors related to beekeeper activity as well the quality and productivity of different bee products. The spatial analysis is a powerful tool for overlap and relates various levels of information on a map, and consequently a very useful for beekeeping activity planning. This work proposes and applies a methodology to potential beekeeping assessment in Montesinho Natural Park, a region in the northwest of Portugal. The beekeeping potential maps were developed with the following data sources: legal standards, vegetation, land use, topography, water resources, roads, electromagnetic fields, and some honey physico-chemical analysis. The design and implementation of spatial analysis model based on Geographic Information System (GIS) to beekeeping planning activities has already been described by Anjos et al (2014). Spatial analysis techniques allows to define the potential beekeeper map supporting the beekeeper management in this region. Anjos O, Silva G, Roque N, Fernandez P, 2014. GIS based analysis to support the beekeeping planning. Book of abstracts of the International Symposium on Bee Products 3rd edition – Annual meeting of the International Honey Commission (IHC), Faculty of medicine, University of Rijeka, p:61

Industry Linkages and Audit Firms' Industry Portfolio Choice: Evidence from Product Language

Audit firms are organized along industry lines and industry specialization is a prominent feature of the audit market. Yet, we know little about how audit firms make their industry portfolio decisions, i.e., how audit firms decide which set of industries to specialize in. In this study, I examine how the linkages between industries in the product space affect audit firms’ industry portfolio choice. Using text-based product space measures to capture these industry linkages, I find that both Big 4 and small audit firms tend to specialize in industry-pairs that 1) are close to each other in the product space (i.e., have more similar product language) and 2) have a greater number of “between-industries” in the product space (i.e., have a greater number of industries with product language that is similar to both industries in the pair). Consistent with the basic tradeoff between specialization and coordination, these results suggest that specializing in industries that have more similar product language and more linkages to other industries in the product space allow audit firms greater flexibility to transfer industry-specific expertise across industries as well as greater mobility in the product space, hence enhancing its competitive advantage. Additional analysis using the collapse of Arthur Andersen as an exogenous supply shock in the audit market finds consistent results. Taken together, the findings suggest that industry linkages in the product space play an important role in shaping the audit market structure.

Role of tourism in local communities’ attitudes toward biodiversity conservation: case study of Golestan National Park, Iran

Dissertação de Mestrado, Economia do Turismo e Desenvolvimento Regional, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve, 2016