Vocational education in public schools as related to social, economic and technical trends.

Pt. 1.The analysis of trends and concepts.

Medicaid, intergovernmental trends and options.

Mode of access: Internet.

Nondestructive testing: trends and techniques; proceedings.

Includes bibliographies.

Illusions in advanced cancer: The effect of belief systems and attitudes on quality of life

Patients with advanced cancer frequently express positive attitudes and can be unduly optimistic about the potential benefits of treatment. In order to evaluate an illusory domain in the context of advanced cancer, we developed a scale of will to live and characterized the beliefs that patients held about the curability of their cancer, and how committed they were to using alternative treatments. A measure of quality of life was used as the dependent variable in order to assess the association between these attributes. After a preliminary exploration confirmed the presence of an illusory domain, these concepts were prospectively tested in 149 ambulant patients with advanced cancer who attended for palliative systemic treatment, radiation treatment or supportive care. The scale of global quality of life was reliable (Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.72). The distribution of the scores of will to live was skewed, with no respondent scoring poorly, and the scale was reliable (Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.82). The scale of belief in curability showed diverse beliefs. In some cases, there was a discrepancy between respondents' beliefs in curability and what they believed to be the report by their doctors. There was also an association between a committed use of alternative treatments and a belief in the curability of the cancer (p

Estimating trends and seasonality in coronary heart disease

We present two methods of estimating the trend, seasonality and noise in time series of coronary heart disease events. In contrast to previous work we use a non-linear trend, allow multiple seasonal components, and carefully examine the residuals from the fitted model. We show the importance of estimating these three aspects of the observed data to aid insight of the underlying process, although our major focus is on the seasonal components. For one method we allow the seasonal effects to vary over time and show how this helps the understanding of the association between coronary heart disease and varying temperature patterns. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Board gender diversity in UK firms – recent trends and performance eEffects

This paper provides an overview of the position of women directors in UK firms. Based on data for all UK firms with more than three directors, this data provides a comprehensive picture of the position of women in UK business leadership and contributes to our understanding of progress towards achieving greater gender balance in the boardroom. Five key points emerge. •Female directors account for around 1:4 directors in UK firms but only around 1:10 businesses in the UK are female controlled. •Only 1:226 larger firms in this category have a majority of female directors. •The overall proportion of female directors in the UK has grown in recent years but slowly. At the rate of progress achieved over the 2003-2005 period, it will be the year 2225 before gender balance in company directorships is achieved in the UK. •There are a significant and interesting group of 12, 600 sisterhood companies in the UK – those wholly owned and led by women. Although they are predominantly services, these do firms exist in all business sectors with a focus on smaller companies. These firms represent an interesting potential focus for future research. •Our analysis of board gender diversity and business growth suggests that there is a business cost to gender balance in terms of foregone growth.

Understanding the factors affecting e-business adoption and impact on logistics processes

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize e-business adoption and to generate understanding of the range of factors affecting the adoption process. The paper also aims at exploring the perceived impact of e-business adoption on logistics-related processes. Design/methodology/approach: Case study research, by conducting in-depth interviews in eight companies. Findings: E-business adoption is not exclusively a matter of resources. Increased e-business adoption and impact are caused by increased operational compatibility, as well as increased levels of collaboration. In terms of e-business impact this mainly refers to cycle time reductions and quality improvements, rather than direct cost reductions as reported by other authors. Research limitations/implications: The intrinsic weakness of the research method and the way concepts are operationalized limits the ability to generalize findings. Practical implications: Managers should emphasize developing their relationships with theirsuppliers/customers, in an effort to do common e-business investments, and should aim to increase their partners' commitment to the use of these applications. Originality/value: This paper provides empirical evidence from a sector where limited research efforts have taken place. Explanations can be helpful to other researchers involved in the understanding of the adoption of e-business and its impact. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Tanulás és innováció – Elméleti dilemmák és gyakorlati nézőpontok (Learning and innovation – Theoretical dilemmas and practical point of views)

A tanulmány egy nemrég lezárt TÁMOP-kutatás keretébe illeszkedik.1 A kutatás célja, hogy átfogó képet nyújtson az innovációról, tisztázza az innovációval kapcsolatos fogalmakat, bemutassa az innovációs trendeket és – egy empirikus felmérés nyomán – számot adjon arról, hogy ezek hogyan jelentkeznek Magyarország sajátos viszonyai között. Az innovációs fogalomkör megvilágításához hozzátartozik a tanulás és az innováció kapcsolatának tisztázása. Bár a témáról a menedzsment-szakirodalomban számtalan mű jelenik meg, a szerző saját diszciplináris elkötelezettségének megfelelően közgazdasági nézőpontból igyekszik megközelíteni a problémakört. Végül megkísérli Magyarországot elhelyezni a tanulás nemzetközi térképén. _______ This research aims to provide a comprehensive view on innovation, to clarify innovation concepts, to present innovation trends, and – based on an empirical survey – to give an account about how they appear specific conditions of Hungary. The refining of innovation category includes clarification of the relationship between learning and innovation. While many works have been published in this topic of management literature, the author in accordance his own disciplinary engagement tries to approach the problem area from economic point of view. Finally he attempts to place Hungary on the international map of learning.

Tudáshasználat és sikeresség- tudásteremtés és -használat a magyarországi borvidékeken (Knowledge-use and success – Knowledge-creation and use on the Hungarian wine-districts)

A cikkben a magyarországi borágazatra vonatkozóan vizsgáljuk a tudáshasználat és sikeresség összefüggését. Magyarország az elmúlt évtizedben elmaradt a magasabb tudást megtestesítő prémium- és szuperprémium- borok irányába mutató világpiaci trendtől. Ennek hátterében vizsgálataink szerint a szőlő- és borágazatban elengedhetetlen és állandóan fejlődő tudás nem eléggé intenzív használata is meghúzódhat. Noha a tudás használata és terjedése ugyan jelentős tényező a különféle vállalkozások sokféleségének magyarázatában, de nem egyértelműen szignifikáns a többféle módon mért sikeresség alakításában. Ugyanakkor azt is megállapíthatjuk, hogy a magyar vállalkozások a tudás saját berken belüli gondozásával és adekvát felhasználásával piaci sikereket érhetnek el. _____ The paper examines the relationship between the use of specific knowledge and success among the Hungarian grape growers and wine makers. In the recent decade Hungary has been left behind by the world trends represented increasing share of premium and superpremium wines (which materialise higher knowledge) in export development. According to the authors’ survey there might be in behind the non-appropriate use and management of knowledge and skills which would be ‘condition sine qua non’ for wine making. However the use and spread of skills is a basic component in explaining the differences of variation among the companies, it is not unambiguous in formulating the business success measured in different indicators. At the same time the authors can conclude that the Hungarian wine enterprises – keeping the idea generation as well as its further development, elaboration and adequate use within the frame of the company – can achieve market success.

Trends in research on the possible effects of climate change concerning aquatic ecosystems with special emphasis on the modelling approach

Knowledge on the expected effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems is defined by three ways. On the one hand, long-term observation in the field serves as a basis for the possible changes; on the other hand, the experimental approach may bring valuable pieces of information to the research field. The expected effects of climate change cannot be studied by empirical approach; rather mathematical models are useful tools for this purpose. Within this study, the main findings of field observations and their implications for future were summarized; moreover, the modelling approaches were discussed in a more detailed way. Some models try to describe the variation of physical parameters in a given aquatic habitat, thus our knowledge on their biota is confined to the findings based on our present observations. Others are destined for answering special issues related to the given water body. Complex ecosystem models are the keys of our better understanding of the possible effects of climate change. Basically, these models were not created for testing the influence of global warming, rather focused on the description of a complex system (e. g. a lake) involving environmental variables, nutrients. However, such models are capable of studying climatic changes as well by taking into consideration a large set of environmental variables. Mostly, the outputs are consistent with the assumptions based on the findings in the field. Since synthetized models are rather difficult to handle and require quite large series of data, the authors proposed a more simple modelling approach, which is capable of examining the effects of global warming. This approach includes weather dependent simulation modelling of the seasonal dynamics of aquatic organisms within a simplified framework.

Climate change and plankton phenology in freshwater: current trends and future commitments

A solid body of empirical, experimental and theoretical evidence accumulated over recent years indicated that freshwater plankton experienced advance in phenology in response to climate change. Despite rapidly growing evidence for phenological changes, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how climate change alters plankton phenology in freshwater. To overcome current limitations, we need to shed some light on trends and constraints in current research. The goal of this study is to identify current trends and gaps based on analysis of selected papers, by the help of which we can facilitate further advance in the field. We searched the literature for plankton phenology and confined our search to studies where climate change has been proposed to alter plankton phenology and rates of changes were quantified. We did not restrict our search for empirical ontributions; experimental and theoretical studies were considered as well. In the following we discuss the spatio-temporal setting of selected studies, contributions of different taxonomic groups, emerging methodological constraints, measures of phenological trends; and finally give a list of recommendations on how to improve our understanding in the field. The majority of studies were confined to deep lakes with a skewed geographical distribution toward Central Europe, where scientists have long been engaged in limnology. Despite these findings, recent studies suggest that plankton in running waters may experience change in phenology with similar magnitude. Average rate of advancement in phenology of freshwater plankton exceeded those of the marine plankton and the global average. Increasing study duration was not coupled either with increasing contribution of discontinuous data or with increasing rates of phenological changes. Future studies may benefit from i) delivering longterm data across scientific and political boundaries; ii) extending study sites to broader geographical areas with a more explicit consideration of running waters; iii) applying plankton functional groups; iv) increasing the application of satellite data to quantify phytoplankton bloom phenology; v) extending analyses of time series beyond the spring period; vi) using various metrics to quantify variation in phenology; vii) combining empirical, experimental and theoretical approaches; and last but not least viii) paying more attention to emergence dynamics, nonresponding species and trophic mismatch.

Analyzing interrelated stochastic trend and seasonality on the example of energy trading data

The correct modelling of long- and short-term seasonality is a very interesting issue. The choice between the deterministic and stochastic modelling of trend and seasonality and their implications are as relevant as the case of deterministic and stochastic trends itself. The study considers the special case when the stochastic trend and seasonality do not evolve independently and the usual differencing filters do not apply. The results are applied to the day-ahead (spot) trading data of some main European energy exchanges (power and natural gas).

Analyzing interrelated stochastic trend and seasonality on the example of energy trading data

The correct modelling of long- and short-term seasonality is a very interesting issue. The choice between the deterministic and stochastic modelling of trend and seasonality and their implications are as relevant as the case of deterministic and stochastic trends itself. The study considers the special case when the stochastic trend and seasonality do not evolve independently and the usual differencing filters do not apply. The results are applied to the day-ahead (spot) trading data of some main European energy exchanges (power and natural gas).

Mapping Transnational Crime in El Salvador: New Trends and Lessons from Colombia

Since El Salvador’s civil war formally ended in 1992 the small Central American nation has undergone profound social changes and significant reforms. However, few changes have been as important or as devastating as the nation’s emergence as a central hub in the transnational criminal “pipeline” or series of recombinant, overlapping chains of routes and actors that illicit organizations use to traffic in drugs, money weapons, human being, endangered animals and other products. The erasing of the once-clear ideological lines that drove the civil war and the ability of erstwhile enemies to join forces in criminal enterprises in the post-war period is an enduring and dangerous characteristic of El Salvador’s transnational criminal evolution. Trained, elite cadres from both sides, with few legitimate job opportunities, found their skills were marketable in the growing criminal structures. The groups moved from kidnapping and extortion to providing protection services to transnational criminal organizations to becoming integral parts of the organizations themselves. The demand for specialized military and transportation services in El Salvador have exploded as the Mexican DTOs consolidate their hold on the cocaine market and their relationships with the transportista networks, which is still in flux. The value of their services has risen dramatically also because of the fact that multiple Mexican DTOs, at war with each other in Mexico and seeking to physically control the geographic space of the lucrative pipeline routes in from Guatemala to Panama, are eager to increase their military capabilities and intelligence gathering capacities. The emergence of multiple non-state armed groups, often with significant ties to the formal political structure (state) through webs of judicial, legislative and administrative corruption, has some striking parallels to Colombia in the 1980s, where multiple types of violence ultimately challenged the sovereignty of state and left a lasting legacy of embedded corruption within the nation’s political structure. Organized crime in El Salvador is now transnational in nature and more integrated into stronger, more versatile global networks such as the Mexican DTOs. It is a hybrid of both local crime – with gangs vying for control off specific geographic space so they can extract payment for the safe passage of illicit products – and transnational groups that need to use that space to successfully move their products. These symbiotic relationships are both complex and generally transient in nature but growing more consolidated and dangerous.