Annual report of the State Health and Human Services Finance Commission ... 1984-1985

This report summarizes the Commission's activities during the fiscal year which ended on June 30, 1985.

Effects of Information and Time of Use Pricing on Irish Electricity Demand and Supply

In this dissertation I quantify residential behavior response to interventions designed to reduce electricity demand at different periods of the day. In the first chapter, I examine the effect of information provision coupled with bimonthly billing, monthly billing, and in-home displays, as well as a time-of-use (TOU) pricing scheme to measure consumption over each month of the Irish Consumer Behavior Trial. I find that time-of-use pricing with real time usage information reduces electricity usage up to 8.7 percent during peak times at the start of the trial but the effect decays over the first three months and after three months the in-home display group is indistinguishable from the monthly treatment group. Monthly and bi-monthly billing treatments are not found to be statistically different from another. These findings suggest that increasing billing reports to the monthly level may be more cost effective for electricity generators who wish to decrease expenses and consumption, rather than providing in-home displays. In the following chapter, I examine the response of residential households after exposure to time of use tariffs at different hours of the day. I find that these treatments reduce electricity consumption during peak hours by almost four percent, significantly lowering demand. Within the model, I find evidence of overall conservation in electricity used. In addition, weekday peak reductions appear to carry over to the weekend when peak pricing is not present, suggesting changes in consumer habit. The final chapter of my dissertation imposes a system wide time of use plan to analyze the potential reduction in carbon emissions from load shifting based on the Ireland and Northern Single Electricity Market. I find that CO2 emissions savings are highest during the winter months when load demand is highest and dirtier power plants are scheduled to meet peak demand. TOU pricing allows for shifting in usage from peak usage to off peak usage and this shift in load can be met with cleaner and cheaper generated electricity from imports, high efficiency gas units, and hydro units.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to Improve Prescription Appropriateness and Therapy Adherence in the Multi-morbid Elderly

Multimorbidity patients pose severe challenges to which information and communication technology (ICT) can help patients and doctors to answer with effective and efficient care.

Information and the evolution of codon bias

The informational properties of biological systems are the subject of much debate and research. I present a general argument in favor of the existence and central importance of information in organisms, followed by a case study of the genetic code (specifically, codon bias) and the translation system from the perspective of information. The codon biases of 831 Bacteria and Archeae are analyzed and modeled as points in a 64-dimensional statistical space. The major results are that (1) codon bias evolution does not follow canonical patterns, and (2) the use of coding space in organsims is a subset of the total possible coding space. These findings imply that codon bias is a unique adaptive mechanism that owes its existence to organisms' use of information in representing genes, and that there is a particularly biological character to the resulting biased coding and information use.

Backflow prevention certification workshop information and materials

The information enclosed in this booklet consists of memos, policy statements and other pertinent information to guide you in the establishment of a backflow prevention program.

SEMINAR ON CENTRAL CONCLUSIONS MANIFESTS IFLA-UNESCO FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY, SCHOOL AND INTERNET

Central America is a region with accumulated experiences of collaborative work in developing the Central Library, among them are: The CSUCA (Council of Central American Universities) globally recognized organization founded in 1948 has strengthened the development of University Libraries, with the creation of the Central American University Libraries. Another significant contribution is made by the Public Libraries and supported by SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency) has substantially expanded the concept of National Public Library. Today is forming the Confederation of Associations and Colleges Central Library, a product of the Workshop held in El Salvador, with the support of IFLA / ALP.

PARTNERSHIP, SOCIOCULTURAL INFORMATION AND STIMULATION IN SMALL BRAZILIAN MUNICIPALITIES: CONCRETE EXAMPLES

The text came from the UNESP-Project in Partnership with the Public Administration: City of Echaporã ‖, a multidisciplinary project, interdepartmental and that results from a term partnership signed between the State University / Campus Marilia, the Regional Office of Articulation Planning and the Municipality of Echaporã.Given the serious social problems diagnosed in this county Administrative Region of Marilia, somaramse forces and, since April 2002, Echaporã account with the performance of a design matrix that involves the community in six (6) subprojects, among which a which emphasizes the dissemination of information (the public library as a center of information and knowledge irradiator for urban and rural areas, seeking to enter the Society daInformação). By their nature, the project-matrix is considered open and can accommodate new subprojects, where they concern the problems identified in the initial diagnosis. For its validity, each subproject has its own methodology, some innovative and will be subject to further systematization and dissemination, however, after a few months of deployment, the results show the correctness of community involvement (being representative) in all discussions and steps of research, and activities developed, widely disseminated to the target audience. The membership of the community, the leaders and the authorities can be considered a good barometer of the actions carried out in Echaporã and evidence of change in information culture that is already noticeable in the city, setting the socio-cultural dynamics of the same, in terms a new public policy to be strengthened with the participation of specialists in this specific area, in direct work with local managers, in this case, specific examples relating to the strength of information in the process of change in small municipalities.

A case study of the English language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finland

This qualitative study was aimed at investigating foreign language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in their instruction. The insight was gained through the reported experience of ICT implementation by teachers, in what way and for which purpose they refer to use of technology, what kind of support and training they are provided with, and what beliefs they express about the influence of ICT implementation. This case study took place in one of the training schools in Finland. Five teachers participated in semi-structured interviews through a face-to-face approach. The findings demonstrated positive attitudes of teachers toward integration of ICT. The teachers shared their opinions about positive influence that ICT implementation has on both teaching and learning processes. However, they also pointed out the negative sides of ICT use: distraction of the students from usage of technology and technical problems causing frustration to the teachers. In addition, the responses revealed that the teachers are provided with adequate training aimed at enhancing their qualification which is provided with well-timed technology support and colleagues’ collaboration facilitating an efficient and smooth pace of the teaching process. According to the teachers’ opinions ICT integration in education appeared to have changed the role of the teacher. Due to different alterations in the field of ICT development teachers are required to upgrade their skills. The paper concludes with the limitations of the study and the recommendations for conducting further research.

Young people with learning disabilities who sexually abuse: understanding, identifying and responding from within generic education and welfare services

This chapter will start by providing an overview of current knowledge about young people with learning disabilities who sexually abuse. Research cited will, unless otherwise indicated, be limited to UK studies since international variations in the definitions of both learning disability and sexual abuse make the use of a wider literature base problematic – particularly that relating to prevalence and incidence. It will then go on to report key findings from a recent study (Fyson et al, 2003; Fyson, 2005) which examined how special schools and statutory child protection and youth offending services in four English local authorities responded to sexually inappropriate or abusive behaviours exhibited by young people with learning disabilities. It will conclude by highlighting areas of current practice which give cause for concern, and suggest some pointers for future best practice.

A case study of the English language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finland

This qualitative study was aimed at investigating foreign language teachers’ attitudes toward use of information and communication technology (ICT) in their instruction. The insight was gained through the reported experience of ICT implementation by teachers, in what way and for which purpose they refer to use of technology, what kind of support and training they are provided with, and what beliefs they express about the influence of ICT implementation. This case study took place in one of the training schools in Finland. Five teachers participated in semi-structured interviews through a face-to-face approach. The findings demonstrated positive attitudes of teachers toward integration of ICT. The teachers shared their opinions about positive influence that ICT implementation has on both teaching and learning processes. However, they also pointed out the negative sides of ICT use: distraction of the students from usage of technology and technical problems causing frustration to the teachers. In addition, the responses revealed that the teachers are provided with adequate training aimed at enhancing their qualification which is provided with well-timed technology support and colleagues’ collaboration facilitating an efficient and smooth pace of the teaching process. According to the teachers’ opinions ICT integration in education appeared to have changed the role of the teacher. Due to different alterations in the field of ICT development teachers are required to upgrade their skills. The paper concludes with the limitations of the study and the recommendations for conducting further research.

Information and communication technologies in tourism: challenges and trends

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the tourism industry is an essential element for the success of any tourism enterprise. ICTs provide access to information of tourism products from anywhere and at any time. Tour companies may also reach out to target customers around the world through a series of emerging technologies. This paper aims to make a review of the main key factors of ICT in Tourism. Aspects such as the quality of the website, Digital Marketing, Social Networking, Multimedia, Mobile Technologies and Intelligent Environments are discussed.

Information and Development

According to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States was Modern electronics has given rise to a second Industrial Revolution ... its impact on society could be higher even than the original industrial revolution.The information is granted a number of attributes that have made valued as an asset as necessary as the energy source.Repeat with more conviction to as we move into the twenty-first century, that of scientific and technological development depends nations.

Essays on Uncertainty, Imperfect Information, and Investment Dynamics

Understanding how imperfect information affects firms' investment decision helps answer important questions in economics, such as how we may better measure economic uncertainty; how firms' forecasts would affect their decision-making when their beliefs are not backed by economic fundamentals; and how important are the business cycle impacts of changes in firms' productivity uncertainty in an environment of incomplete information. This dissertation provides a synthetic answer to all these questions, both empirically and theoretically. The first chapter, provides empirical evidence to demonstrate that survey-based forecast dispersion identifies a distinctive type of second moment shocks different from the canonical volatility shocks to productivity, i.e. uncertainty shocks. Such forecast disagreement disturbances can affect the distribution of firm-level beliefs regardless of whether or not belief changes are backed by changes in economic fundamentals. At the aggregate level, innovations that increase the dispersion of firms' forecasts lead to persistent declines in aggregate investment and output, which are followed by a slow recovery. On the contrary, the larger dispersion of future firm-specific productivity innovations, the standard way to measure economic uncertainty, delivers the ``wait and see" effect, such that aggregate investment experiences a sharp decline, followed by a quick rebound, and then overshoots. At the firm level, data uncovers that more productive firms increase investments given rises in productivity dispersion for the future, whereas investments drop when firms disagree more about the well-being of their future business conditions. These findings challenge the view that the dispersion of the firms' heterogeneous beliefs captures the concept of economic uncertainty, defined by a model of uncertainty shocks. The second chapter presents a general equilibrium model of heterogeneous firms subject to the real productivity uncertainty shocks and informational disagreement shocks. As firms cannot perfectly disentangle aggregate from idiosyncratic productivity because of imperfect information, information quality thus drives the wedge of difference between the unobserved productivity fundamentals, and the firms' beliefs about how productive they are. Distribution of the firms' beliefs is no longer perfectly aligned with the distribution of firm-level productivity across firms. This model not only explains why, at the macro and micro level, disagreement shocks are different from uncertainty shocks, as documented in Chapter 1, but helps reconcile a key challenge faced by the standard framework to study economic uncertainty: a trade-off between sizable business cycle effects due to changes in uncertainty, and the right amount of pro-cyclicality of firm-level investment rate dispersion, as measured by its correlation with the output cycles.

The information and research in the UNA

Linked to the investigation is, without being able to do without it, the information. In fact it is a factor without which the research is done by halves, or does not occur at all.Research in any field or discipline, needs the support of those who previously investigated in the work of interest. Researchers need to give more authoritative backing, more scientific, his creation of what others wrote, reported or are inquiring about a hypothesis. Thus, the information defined as "a means of communication" without being an end in itself, is an indispensable means to strengthen, guide and accelerate any research process, and in many cases up to edit to change completely.The information was therefore an unusual importance in developing nations, as the link that binds makes available to the researcher or student, all I thought of Man produces and has produced over time and world geography.