bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The New Learning Environment: Impact on Staff and Students
Authors: Simons Ellen
Published: December 2015

This paper focuses on the changes in education and their implication for the university library. The impact of Avans’s strategic educational vision on the design and lay-out of the buildings. Especially Xplora, the Learning Centre of Avans, will be described. The three locations of the Avans Learning Centre (opened up in 2006 and 2007) comprise a total of 2,000 student workplaces. The traditional library has changed into a multimedia learning centre and now resides under the Avans’s Learning and Innovation Centre. New buildings and a new organisational structure demand new working arrangements with faculty staff. The transformation from library to learning centre and especially the consequences for library staff will be focussed upon. All staff were offered a comprehensive training programme. In addition, information specialists were trained to improve their acquaintance with educational knowledge. The benefits derived from the cooperation between library staff and colleagues from other disciplines (e.g. educational consultants, e-learning consultants, multimedia staff etc.) within the Avans Learning and Innovation Centre will be described. The results of relevant student surveys will also be described. At the end some conclusions will be drawn based on four years of working with new buildings, new educational models, a new organisation, new working arrangements, etc.
Manuscript Transcription by Crowdsourcing: Transcribe Bentham
Authors: Moyle Martin , Tonra Justin , Wallace Valerie
Published: December 2015

Transcribe Bentham is testing the feasibility of outsourcing the work of manuscript transcription to members of the public. UCL Library Services holds 60,000 folios of manuscripts of the philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). Transcribe Bentham will digitise 12,500 Bentham folios, and, through a wiki-based interface, allow volunteer transcribers to take temporary ownership of manuscript images and to create TEI-encoded transcription text for final approval by UCL experts. Approved transcripts will be stored and preserved, with the manuscript images, in UCL’s public Digital Collections repository. The project makes innovative use of traditional library material. It will stimulate public engagement with UCL’s scholarly archive collections and the challenges of palaeography and manuscript transcription; it will raise the profile of the work and thought of Jeremy Bentham; and it will create new digital resources for future use by professional researchers. Towards the end of the project, the transcription tool will be made available to other projects and services. This paper is based on a presentation given by the lead author at LIBER’s 39th Annual General Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, 2010.
Establishing the Library Landscape in Europe: LIBER’s Portfolio of EU projects
Authors: Ayris Paul
Published: December 2015

The purpose of this paper is to examine LIBER’s portfolio of EU projects, to analyse how/if these projects help deliver LIBER’s strategy, and to establish criteria for assessing the success of LIBER projects through the new LIBER project scorecard. The paper is a written version of the talk which the author gave at the 40th LIBER Annual Conference in Barcelona in 2011, a digital recording of which is also available.
UNICUM: a Portal to Dutch Academic Heritage
Authors: Reerink Henriette
Published: December 2015

The UNICUM development project, commissioned by the Academic Heritage Foundation (SAE), is being carried out by the five classic Dutch universities in 2010–11. UNICUM, short for ‘University Collections and University Museums’, has received a national government grant to create a digital portal to Dutch academic heritage. The portal will present both academic archives and museum and library collections. Images, collection metadata and items can be found on one site. The UNICUM idea is inspired by the Online Archive California. The project is important because it crosses the traditional sector boundaries between museums, libraries and archives, it creates awareness of the opportunities this cross-sectoral approach offers, and it retains the context of — and the relation between — objects within collections as a whole. Moreover, the joint effort brings to light the importance of creating metadata according to international standards to stimulate re-use and exchange of content. In addition, UNICUM has to be regarded as a technical project in which multi-level descriptions will be presented and browsed in a structured way (collections linked to objects and archives linked to separate documents). After the project is finished, the focus will shift to generating content. UNICUM aims to create structured and integrated access to academic heritage by: using international standards (CCO, CDWA Lite, Dublin Core) to stimulate exchange of metadata; examining the potential of EAD as an exchange standard for (non-archival) collections and for structuring related items; determining a common method and creating an input module for registration at collection level; formulating ‘Best Practice Guidelines’ for registration of material at collection and item level; choosing available and established thesauri which comprise all aspects of the future content; developing an integrated format for thematic and highlight descriptions; focusing on the interrelation between items on the one hand and collections as a whole on the other, and vice versa, an interrelation which tells the story of and gives meaning to cultural heritage; harvesting of the content of the aggregation by Europeana.
Developing European Library Services in Changing Times
Authors: Ayris Paul
Published: December 2015

The purpose of this article is to explain what academic and national libraries can do to continue to offer services and facilities at a time of economic difficulties. It identifies a number of methodologies and opportunities that are open to libraries and takes the view that it is never wise to waste a good crisis, because all threats are really opportunities in disguise. The kernel of this paper was delivered at the 10th Anniversary special EISZ Consortium Members’ Meeting on 2 December 2011, in Budapest, Hungary. It builds on an earlier talk delivered in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 14–15 November 2011 at the 20th Pan-Hellenic Academic Libraries Conference, entitled ‘Academic Libraries and Financial Crisis: Strategies for Survival’. Both these presentations are available in UCL Discovery. This article draws on themes used in both presentations, and introduces a new one on the topic of copyright reform. The article looks at the initial economic context for European research libraries and then examines ways in which libraries can tackle the threats which the current financial crisis poses. Joint procurement is one way in which libraries can achieve value for money, and the paper examines the role of JISC Collections in the UK. Innovation through collaboration and shared services are also ways in which libraries can innovate/make savings in a cost-effective way by sharing the burden of costs around the partnership. The paper gives two examples: one which is now well established, the DART-Europe portal for Open Access e-theses; and one which is in the early stages of being discussed — a cloud-based solution for true collaborative cataloguing amongst the UK’s research and national libraries. The European Research Area (ERA) and the contributions that libraries can make to this infrastructure through innovative EU project funding are analysed in some detail by looking at LIBER’s EU project portfolio. Finally, change and growth can come through changes to legal frameworks, and the paper looks at the Hargreaves review of copyright frameworks in the UK and the launch of the new library-based EU lobbying group for copyright reform, Information Sans Frontières (ISF).
Getting to Know Library Users’ Needs — Experimental Ways to User-centred Library Innovation
Authors: Harbo Karen , Vibjerg Hansen Thomas
Published: December 2015

‘Meeting the User’ is a programme committee under the Danish Electronic Research Library. As a development group at a national level we see our role as facilitating an innovative culture within academic libraries, focusing on users’ needs and the way libraries meet them. In collaboration with a consultancy firm, the committee organized a travelling workshop in four cities in 2010. The workshop introduced practical ways for library staff to get to know their users’ needs for services and was based on anthropological methods. The travelling workshop was part of a larger project called ‘A Journey of Discovery in Danish Library User Land’ (translated from Danish Brugerkaravanen), which also included a national thematic day, a blog and the publication of a method guide. There is an ongoing need for academic libraries to improve their services. One strategy is to become more aware of the users’ needs. On the one hand we have libraries which give access to a lot of information, offer courses in information literacy and strive to be a part of the learning environment. On the other hand we are not always certain of the needs of our users. If libraries want to improve the way they serve their users’ needs, they must innovate their services, facilities and courses by building upon what you could call ‘user logic’ and not upon classical ‘library logic’. ‘User logic’ is that which is meaningful for the user instead of what is traditionally meaningful for a library. Finding out what the users’ needs are, requires methods to study the users. In order to discover the shortest route from knowledge via idea to action, we looked for methods that can be employed by librarians or library information specialists. This article describes how 110 librarians and information specialists acquired such methods in four cities and in four days, by means of a workshop structured like a guided tour through the land of library users. The goal of the article is to give other libraries inspiration for ideas, concepts and concrete tools to study user behaviour and become more aware of the user’s needs for service. The article contains a description of the above-mentioned methods, valuable experiences from the workshop, a presentation of the concept and concrete tools, discussion of the concept of user logic and library services, and the seven principles for human-centred innovation in relation to libraries, a short list of studies carried out by librarians and discussion of further perspectives.
How to Fit Teaching of Information Literacy in with Students’ Needs: an on-line Credit Course Model from the University of Tartu Library
Authors: Seiler Vilve , Miil Kärt , Lepik Krista
Published: December 2015

E-learning is widely acknowledged as a possible methodology to teach information literacy. Nevertheless, studies reveal that information literacy courses as separate credit-bearing courses taught entirely in the form of e-learning, and using methods of active learning, are rare. This study analyzes the performance of a model for an e-learning course in information literacy in which learners with various backgrounds can participate, and where assignments can be completed according to personal information needs. Although the course does not provide face-to-face contact, learner-centred personal guidance is applied, as every student has an instructor — a subject librarian familiar with information sources in her field. The course is based on a constructivist learning approach: active learning techniques are used and critical thinking is developed through reflection and analysis of fellow students’ assignments. The preliminary qualitative content analysis of feedback and reflections from graduates indicates that students value knowledge and skills obtained from the course. Moreover, information literacy as a course is considered necessary and guided e-learning is quite suitable for gaining information literacy. We conclude that, in order to be beneficial and valuable for students, information literacy does not necessarily have to be integrated into the teaching process of another subject. However, it should be connected with these studies, enabling students to obtain skills for information searching and learning necessary for successful graduation. At the same time, e-learning as a tool helps to promote information literacy in the academic environment in all segments of the university, integrating it with curricula.
Opening up the cartographic heritage of the Spanish Geographical Institute by means of publishing standardized, Inspire compatible metadata
Authors: Capdevila Subirana Joan , Sánchez Maganto Alejandra , Camacho Arranz Elena , Arístegui Cortijo Andrés
Published: December 2015

By making the most of the versatility that the Internet provides, and following the latest guidelines developed by the European Union through the Inspire and PSI Directives, the Spanish Geographical Institute has been undertaking in the last few years the release of geographic information in a free and interoperable way. Essential factors for this task are both creating metadata to describe and better use that information, and applying standards, both in the data model and in the web services. In this piece of work we will explain the application of these principles on the historical information held in the Technical Archive of the Spanish Geographical Institute. We will present the recent publication of 120,000 metadata records described as ISO (NEM model), which can be accessed through an Inspire compliant discovery service. This service is interrogated by an open source software catalogue client developed by the Spanish Geographical Institute.
ArCEs - A digital archive of Italian Colonial Cartography and Scientific Expeditions
Authors: Calloud Irene , Zamperlin Paola
Published: December 2015

ArcCEs is a study for developing a digital archive on Italian scientific expeditions in Northern and Eastern Africa and the former Italian colonies (19th–20th centuries). The aim of the project is to assess, protect and enhance an important corpus of documents (historical cartographies, photographs, scientific papers and archive documents) distributed among public archives and private collections. The database structure is based on the Dublin Core metadata standard. The information system is designed to integrate and make interoperable digital resources, to ensure standardized and complex indexing, and to support advanced retrieval, according to the standards in use. The geolocation of the resources in a GIS environment can display query results in the Google Earth environment.
Licensing Revisited: Open Access Clauses in Practice
Authors: Schmidt Birgit , Shearer Kathleen
Published: December 2015

Open access increases the visibility and use of research outputs and promises to maximize the return on our public investment in research. However, only a minority of researchers will "spontaneously" deposit their articles into an open access repository. Even with the growing number of institutional and funding agency mandates requiring the deposit of papers into the university repository, deposit rates have remained stubbornly low. As a result, the responsibility for populating repositories often falls onto the shoulders of library staff and/or repository managers. Populating repositories in this way – which involves obtaining the articles, checking the rights, and depositing articles into the repository – is time consuming and resource intensive work.The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), a global association of repository initiatives and networks, is promoting a new strategy for addressing some of the barriers to populating repositories, involving the use of open access archiving clauses in publisher licenses. These types of clauses are being considered by consortia and licensing agencies around the world as a way of ensuring that all the papers published by a given publisher are cleared for deposit into the institutional repository. This paper presents some use cases of open access archiving clauses, discusses the major barriers to implementing archiving language into licenses, and describes some strategies that organizations can adopt in order to include such clauses into publisher licenses.
Data Management in Scholarly Journals and Possible Roles for Libraries – Some Insights from EDaWaX
Authors: Vlaeminck Sven
Published: December 2015

In this paper we summarize the findings of an empirical study conducted by the EDaWaX-Project. 141 economics journals were examined regarding the quality and extent of data availability policies that should support replications of published empirical results in economics. This paper suggests criteria for such policies that aim to facilitate replications. These criteria were also used for analysing the data availability policies we found in our sample and to identify best practices for  data policies of scholarly journals in economics. In addition, we also evaluated the journals’ data archives and checked the percentage of articles associated with research data. To conclude, an appraisal as to how scientific libraries might support the linkage of publications to underlying research data in cooperation with researchers, editors, publishers and data centres is presented.
Research group librarian – a cooperating partner in research?
Authors: Olsen Heidi Kristin
Published: December 2015

Academic libraries encounter many challenges when providing services for researchers and it is evident that use of the library in information searches has reduced significantly over time and continues to decrease.However, a study in Norway in 2007, at Vestfold University College (VUC), demonstrated that there is great potential to increase faculty staff’s use of the library’s digital resources with the right form of engagement. The findings led VUC’s library to focus on its services for this particular user group.In 2009, VUC library initiated a study to investigate the possible effects of a librarian participating as a ‘Research Group Librarian’.The research project, in which this new role was tried out, was called ‘Kindergarten space, materiality, learning and meaning-making’. This was a three year project, funded by the Research Council of Norway. There were eight part time researchers involved in this project, two senior researchers and the research group librarian.The study adopted an ethnographic approach. The research group librarian was a fully participating member of the research team throughout the project.The empirical sources for the study included:semi-structured interviews with the project leader and the participating researchers: short individual interviews at the beginning of the project with each of the research group participants; several group interviews with the majority of the research team midway in the project;observation and field notesThe results are presented under the following categories:implications for the researcher; emphasising behaviour in relation to information search and reference management skills;communication and information within, and evolving from, the project;collaboration in writing a review article;implications for the library – internal, and at VUC in general;the librarian’s role – a ‘boundary worker’?The study demonstrated that as a member of a research group a librarian can have positive impact on the researchers’ work. Appropriate library services become more distinct. Ideas for new library services for the user group evolve and develop naturally during the engagement process.Although this is a minor study and insufficient to make generalisations, the findings are interesting and worth considering in the further development of academic library services for faculty staff and researchers.
Information handling in collaborative research
Authors: Collins Ellen , Jubb Michael
Published: December 2015

UK public policy makers have a growing interest in collaborative research, where academics work with public, private or third sector partners on a joint project which supports the partner’s aims. This paper reports on the findings of five case studies, looking at how information is sourced, managed, used and shared within collaborative research projects. It finds that researchers within collaborative projects have similar information management issues as are known to exist within academia more broadly, but that the specific conditions which govern research collaborations mean that interventions to improve or support information management must be carefully tailored.
Information literacy competency standards for higher education and their correlation with the cycle of knowledge generation
Authors: Uribe Tirado Alejandro , Castaño Muñoz Wilson
Published: December 2015

This article considers the cycle of knowledge generation proposed by Nonaka and Takeuchi and sets out how the different indicators and expected results within the information literacy (IL) standards used in higher education contribute to this cycle. After analyzing each standard and its interrelation with the four options to generate knowledge of Nonaka's cycle, it was identified that these standards are more geared to the generation of explicit knowledge, and therefore, it is necessary to work on other activities, and new proposed standards of IL that promote the generation of tacit knowledge and information processes needed.
Sustainable Free: Lessons Learned from the Launch of a Free Service Supporting Publishing in Art History
Authors: Shulman James
Published: December 2015

Hilary Ballon and Mariet Westermann, writing about the struggles of publishing in art history noted that “It is a paradox of the digital revolution that it has never been easier to produce and circulate a reproductive image, and never harder to publish one.”  If publishing in general is in crisis because of the seismic re-ordering in a digital world, the field of art history is the extreme tail of the spectrum; rights holders are accustomed to licensing image content for limited edition print runs.  Given this particularly challenging corner of the publishing work, a project initiated by the Metropolitan Museum offers some hope of a collaborative way forward.  What sociological re-engineering enabled progress on this problem?  It is possible that there are other lessons here too, that might throw at least streaks of light on other process re-engineering provoked by digital innovation in publishing? This paper reviews how a leading repository of art (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) and a non-profit intermediary (ARTstor) created an alternative pathway to provide primary source content in support of image-intensive publishing.  This venture is framed in the context of a publishing system moving toward greater freedom and an aim to bring about ever lower (or no) fees to readers.In general, providing academic content for free requires a re-structuring of a public release process – either of processed content or less processed content.   To the extent that processing adds value, it might be worth paying for.   This case study argues that there are places where community wide interests align, describes what it takes to keep them aligned, and explores what we did collectively to facilitate re-structuring.  The conclusion explores whether there are lessons for open access publishing more generally in the example of cross-subsidization among mission (and not only marketing) driven organizations.
A study of Computing doctorates in South Africa from 1978 to 2014
Authors: Sanders Ian D , Alexander Patricia M
Published: December 2015

This paper studies the output of South African universities in terms of computing-related doctorates in order to determine trends in numbers of doctorates awarded and to identify strong doctoral study research areas. Data collected from a variety of sources relating to Computing doctorates conferred since the late 1970s was used to compare the situation in Computing with that of all doctorates.

The number of Computing doctorates awarded has increased considerably over the period of study. Nearly three times as many doctorates were awarded in the period 2010–2014 as in 2000–2004. The universities producing the most Computing doctorates were either previously “traditional” universities or comprehensive universities formed by amalgamating a traditional research university with a technikon. Universities of technology have not yet produced many doctorates as they do not have a strong research tradition.

The analysis of topic keywords using ACM Computing classifications is preliminary but shows that professional issues are dominant in Information Systems, models are often built in Computer Science and several topics, including computing in education, are evident in both IS and CS.

The relevant data is in the public domain but access is difficult as record keeping was generally inconsistent and incomplete. In addition, electronic databases at universities are not easily searchable and access to HEMIS data is limited. The database built for this paper is more inclusive in terms of discipline-related data than others.
Calidad de vida en mujeres con cáncer cérvico-uterino, Cartagena (Colombia), 2012
Authors: Castillo-Ávila Irma Yolanda , Canencia-Padilla Johanna , Zurbarán-Lamadrid Mayerlis , Pertuz-Cantillo Daniela , Montes-Padilla Marlon , Jiménez-Chacón Elizabeth
Published: December 2015

Objetivo: determinar la calidad de vida en mujeres con diagnóstico de cáncer cérvico-uterino de la ciudad de Cartagena (Colombia).
Materiales y métodos: estudio descriptivo, de corte transversal. Se incluyeron mujeres con diagnóstico de cáncer cérvico-uterino en tratamiento que acudieron a una institución pública de salud de primer nivel de complejidad, de la ciudad de Cartagena; fueron excluidas las mujeres que, además del diagnóstico, tenían otra patología o estaban en condiciones críticas. Tamaño muestral 106 mujeres. Muestreo por conveniencia. Se utilizaron dos cuestionarios de la Organización Europea para la Investigación y el Tratamiento del Cáncer (EORTC): el QLQ-C30 para medir calidad de vida en pacientes con cáncer y el QOL-CX24, que es un cuestionario complementario y específico para medir calidad de vida en mujeres con cáncer cérvico-uterino. Se midieron edad, procedencia, estado civil, número de hijos, ocupación, nivel socioeconómico, escolaridad y la calidad de vida según los dos cuestionarios. Se realiza análisis descriptivo.

Resultados: participaron 106 mujeres con promedio de edad de 41,3 años (DE ± 12,5 años). Todas las mujeres pertenecen a los estratos socioeconómicos 1 a 3; el mayor impacto negativo de la enfermedad, según el QLQ-30, se observa en las mujeres de estrato 1. Los aspectos más afectados de la calidad de vida son los relacionados con sus actividades sociales (51,9 %), los estados funcional y físico, la interferencia del tratamiento en su vida familiar (48,1 %), y los problemas económicos causados por la enfermedad (47,2 %). En la función psicológica, el 87,7 % de las mujeres se han sentido preocupadas por su enfermedad. Para la escala específica QOL-CX-24, se encontró que en la dimensión sexual, el 70,7 % ha tenido molestias o irritación vaginal que interfieren en su desempeño.
Conclusión: el cáncer de cuello uterino afecta de manera importante la calidad de vida de las pacientes que lo padecen. 
Una aproximación desde la física a las consecuencias patológicas de la longitud excesiva del cordón umbilical
Authors: Olaya-Contreras Mercedes , Vargas-Moreno William , Bernal-Villegas Jaime Eduardo
Published: December 2015

Introducción: el cordón umbilical es una estructura incomprendida a pesar de transportar todo lo que un feto necesita para crecer y subsistir. Cada una de sus características es relevante, y la principal es la longitud, la cual, cuando está alterada, se relaciona con pobre pronóstico neurológico y muerte fetal.
Materiales y métodos: con base en la revisión de principios físicos, se proponen fórmulas que podrían explicar la importancia de la longitud del cordón por sus repercusiones hemodinámicas.
Resultados: se analizó la circulación fetal desde el corazón hasta la red capilar vellositaria en el plato placentario y, por medio de fórmulas físicas, se plantea la importancia de la longitud del cordón en la perfusión fetal.
Conclusiones: las complicaciones clínicas conocidas para la excesiva longitud del cordón umbilical fueron analizadas desde el punto de vista de la física, dejando listas las fórmulas para ser alimentadas  con datos reales provenientes de doppler fetales y mediciones del cordón umbilical.

 
Embarazo abdominal avanzado con feto vivo. Reporte de un caso y revisión de la literatura
Authors: Gélvez-Téllez Samuel
Published: December 2015

Objetivos: describir el caso de una paciente con embarazo abdominal a término y feto vivo, y realizar una revisión de la literatura sobre el diagnóstico y tratamiento, con énfasis en la extracción de la placenta y el uso de metotrexate para el manejo de la placenta residual.
Materiales y métodos: se presenta el caso de una paciente con un embarazo abdominal avanzado de 38 semanas y 5 días de gestación, atendida en un hospital público de referencia de mediana complejidad, ubicado en el departamento del Chocó, en la costa pacífica colombiana, quien fue llevada a cirugía por sufrimiento fetal agudo, feto en podálica y miomatosis uterina. Durante el procedimiento y como hallazgo incidental se encontró un embarazo abdominal, se obtuvo un feto vivo en buenas condiciones y se realizó extracción manual de la placenta, con buena evolución de la madre y el recién nacido. No se utilizó metotrexate como parte del manejo del tejido placentario residual. Se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica en las bases de datos de Medline  vía PubMed, Embase y la Biblioteca Cochrane, utilizando las siguientes palabras clave: embarazo abdominal, feto vivo, metotrexate, placenta.
Resultados: en total se encontraron 31 artículos relacionados con el tema, de los cuales se seleccionaron 23 para la revisión: 18 eran reportes de casos, 4 artículos de revisión de la literatura y una carta al editor.
Conclusión: el embarazo abdominal avanzado es una rara entidad con alta tasa de morbi-mortalidad materna y perinatal. A pesar de los adelantos en la ultrasonografía, continúa siendo subdiagnosticado. Su manejo debe ser en un tercer nivel, con un equipo multidisciplinario y con disponibilidad de productos sanguíneos. Faltan estudios que permitan incluir y valoren la seguridad del metotrexate y de la extracción de la placenta en los protocolos de manejo en el embarazo abdominal avanzado.
Mutualism with aphids affects the trophic position, abundance of ants and herbivory along an elevational gradient
Authors: Zhang Shuang , Zhang Yuxin , Ma Keming
Published: December 2015

Varied interspecific interactions have a tremendous impact on the population dynamics of related species. However, the context dependency of interspecific interactions and their ecological effects have not been well‐characterized. To understand the context dependency of ant‐aphid mutualism and the corresponding ecological effects, we explored the association of ant abundance, trophic position, and plant herbivory along an elevational gradient. We hypothesized that a higher abundance of ants would be associated with a lower trophic position and lower plant herbivory level along the gradient. We detected a large variation in ant abundance and herbivory along the elevational gradient. Consistent with our prediction, a higher ant abundance was associated with a lower trophic position, and herbivory decreased linearly with ant abundance. A tight positive relationship between the abundance of ants and aphids was observed. These findings suggest that the context dependency of ant‐aphid mutualism can be an important factor affecting the pattern of ant abundance and plant herbivory across the elevational gradient. This study highlights the significance of mutualistic interactions in shaping the pattern of certain key ecological processes, such as herbivory, at a relatively larger spatial scale.
Evaluating short‐ and long‐term impacts of fuels treatments and simulated wildfire on an old‐forest species
Authors: Tempel Douglas J. , Gutiérrez R. J. , Battles John J. , Fry Danny L. , Su Yanjun , Guo Qinghua , Reetz Matthew J. , Whitmore Sheila A. , Jones Gavin M. , Collins Brandon M. , Stephens Scott L. , Kelly Maggi , Berigan William J. , Peery M. Zachariah
Published: December 2015

Fuels‐reduction treatments are commonly implemented in the western U.S. to reduce the risk of high‐severity fire, but they may have negative short‐term impacts on species associated with older forests. Therefore, we modeled the effects of a completed fuels‐reduction project on fire behavior and California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) habitat and demography in the Sierra Nevada to assess the potential short‐ and long‐term trade‐offs. We combined field‐collected vegetation data and LiDAR data to develop detailed maps of forest structure needed to parameterize our fire and forest‐growth models. We simulated wildfires under extreme weather conditions (both with and without fuels treatments), then simulated forest growth 30 years into the future under four combinations of treatment and fire: treated with fire, untreated with fire, treated without fire, and untreated without fire. We compared spotted owl habitat and population parameters under the four scenarios using a habitat suitability index developed from canopy cover and large‐tree measurements at nest sites and from previously derived statistical relationships between forest structure and fitness (λ) and equilibrium occupancy at the territory scale. Treatments had a positive effect on owl nesting habitat and demographic rates up to 30 years after simulated fire, but they had a persistently negative effect throughout the 30‐year period in the absence of fire. We conclude that fuels‐reduction treatments in the Sierra Nevada may provide long‐term benefits to spotted owls if fire occurs under extreme weather conditions, but can have long‐term negative effects on owls if fire does not occur. However, we only simulated one fire under the treated and untreated scenarios and therefore had no measures of variation and uncertainty. In addition, the net benefits of fuels treatments on spotted owl habitat and demography depends on the future probability that fire will occur under similar weather and ignition conditions, and such probabilities remain difficult to quantify. Therefore, we recommend a landscape approach that restricts timber harvest within territory core areas of use (~125 ha in size) that contain critical owl nesting and roosting habitat and locates fuels treatments in the surrounding areas to reduce the potential for high‐severity fire in territory core areas.
Nesting behavior of the paper waspPolistes dominulain Central Europe—a flexible system for expanding into new areas
Authors: Höcherl Nicole , Tautz Jürgen
Published: December 2015

In North America,Polistes dominulacauses a stir because it spreads very fast in this region upon its recent introduction. Many different explanations are presented in the literature whyP. dominulais such a good invader. In Europe, the invasion of this species into northern regions is also on the rise. Since little is known about the nesting behavior ofP. dominulain Central Europe, we investigated basic principles about nesting in Germany (latitude 49°). We found out that foundress groups (one to four foundresses) and nests are smaller and that the nesting season is shorter than in other regions. The mean size of newly founded nests was 83 cells and we recorded an average length of nesting season of 4.6 months. The queens neither preferred single (54%) nor multiple founding (46%). The major benefit of multiple founding is an increased rate of survival. Only 47% of single‐foundress colonies survived, whereas 100% of colonies that were built by more than two queens, survived. However, there was no impact of the number of foundresses on the productivity of colonies in terms of number of cells and pupae per nest. Furthermore, we observed that the length of the nesting season as well as the nest sizes varied greatly in three consecutive years depending on the climatic conditions of the preceding winter. These results imply thatP. dominulais remarkably flexible and reacts very quickly to outside conditions. This adaptation could be one explanation for the rapid spread of this species into colder areas.
The effect of four environmental parameters on the structure of estuarine shoreline communities in Texas, USA
Authors: McFarlane R. , Leskovskaya A. , Lester J. , Gonzalez L.
Published: December 2015

We modeled 25 years of overdispersed coastal fishery monitoring data with zero‐inflated negative binomial regression to determine the effect size of four environmental parameters—temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity—for 64 species of shoreline fishes, shrimps and crabs. Each parameter exhibited positive, negligible or negative effects on the abundance of various species. Surprisingly, there were a substantial number of species with negligible effects. It is these unaffected species that dominate the estuarine macroconsumer shoreline community of the Texas coast.
Analysis of the leisure sport activities in University of Debrecen
Authors: Pfau Christa
Published: December 2015

The sports program of the professional higher education focusing on the leisure sports opportunities. New needs, change in taste and new leisure habits of the young generation should be taken into account to design the University’s leisure sports program. In my study I was dealing with a questionnaire survey investigating the attitude of the students of the University of Debrecen to leisure sports, and the students’ opinions about their own physical status. Data collection was completed on a paper based questionnaire, 42 closed-type questions were included and a total of 213 students completed it. In conclusion I found that the students are satisfied with their physical states although not many of them do sport on a regular basis. I revealed the primary excuses for neglecting sports: lack of time, laziness and timetable discrepancies. These findings make it imperative that by avoiding the existing discrepancies the students be provided the widest range of time in their time tables available for physical activities.

JEL code: Z20
Sports financing in Croatia
Authors: Borbély Tamás
Published: December 2015

Sport is a complex social activity that encompasses various areas. Some of these activities come within the category of public needs, which implies that sport is an activity of wider social interest and requires public intervention in its financing. These needs are determined by law and are an integral part of state and local budgets. It is also indisputable that the sport is an activity of exceptional significance for the society and it is equally clear that the investment into sport in Croatia is not proportional to that significance and top scores, which are achieved by the Croatian athletes. Sport can be in a partner relationship with the economy and the promoter of social changes and habits, but in order to become and remain that, general public has to be truthfully interested into sports.
Communication of trainers as one of the means for customer retention in fitness clubs
Authors: Bartha Éva , Perényi Szilvia
Published: December 2015

Acquiring the adequate communication style is a vital element in trainers’ profession. This research aims to reveal the effects generated via the communicative style by trainers of fitness club customers. It also intends to explore whether communication style has any relation to the regularity of class attendance as well as to the length of training periods which is conceptualised in this paper as trainers’ economic efficiency. Data collection was carried out by structured interviews in a country-side large sport centre. Trainers with at least three training sessions per week (N=20) and their groups (N=160) were interviewed using Rudas (1994) communication style survey and additional selfdeveloped interview protocols. The results revealed that the examined trainers were distributed in all four communications styles, but showing dominance in aggressive and passive styles. The classes of trainers with aggressive and assertive communication style were those that showed the highest and maintained attendance rates. It seems, that classes held by trainers who communicate in a deliberate way and convey positive messages are attended more and in a sustained way. Accordingly, their precisely set targets and explanation of training sessions content correlated with repeated attendance and customer retention. It seems that groups with extended scope of communication are characterised by stronger group cohesion where social relationships could develop easier, which have relations to perseverance and commitment. Therefore development of trainers’ communication skills may be considered as an effective tool for fitness clubs for customer retention.

JEL code: Z20
The role of sport infrastructure: use, preferences and needs
Authors: Nagy Adrián , Tobak Júlia
Published: December 2015

Leisure and mass sports are very significant both socially and economically. Physical activities contribute to forming a healthier society. Skills and abilities developed by sport promote people’s well-being and directly improve their physical, mental and psychological performance this way producing better quality of life. The state of health of the workforce is a more and more frequent question in developed and developing economies but mostly in the western civilizations. Researches prove that those who are more active phisicly can perform better at their work and are more efficient in their jobs. They claim less sick leave benefit and their health insurance costs are lower, this way preserving the health of the workforce can be an investment in the future. If we want the population to live in a healthier way and do more sports only education and motivation are not enough, it is very important to provide the appropriate infrastructural background as well. People can have a wide range of choice provided by the local sports establishments and companies and the possibilities resulting from sport infrastructure investments. The effects of sport infrastructure investments and developements are many folded and long-therm, but it is worth approaching their benefits from different points of view. Researching this topic can contribute to better understanding of the society from the points of view of health care, economy and sociology. The aim of our work was to examine the sporting habits and sports consumption. In order to get to know the consumers we carried out a survey with 350 particiant with the help of an online questionnaire. When analyzing it I focused on the answers given by those who were active in sports, which was the 75% of total sample. In the analysis of the answers and relations between the questions and the different factors we used the SPSS Statistics program. Providing sport establishments and facilities and initiating such investments are highly important for each region. From the answers of the quesstionned we can learn what facilities are available for the consumers and what they miss most in the living area.

JEL code: L83
Cross-sector analysis of the Hungarian sectors covered by the Effort Sharing Decision – Climate policy perspectives for the Hungarian agriculture within the 2021-2030 EU programming period
Authors: Fogarassy Csaba , Horváth Bálint , Kovács Attila
Published: December 2015

Ever since 2012, the EU ETS (European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme), which is the EU’s climate policy was extended to include the ESD (Effort Sharing Decision) sectors’ (agriculture, transport, building) regulations. As its name implies, this mechanism is based off of shared interests and efforts, all in order to reach the climate goals. Therefore, analysing the agriculture sector from an environmental viewpoint requires the analysis of related sectors as well, since their performances will have an impact on determining the requirements to be met by the agriculture. Seeing that those primarily present in said sectors are not various firms, but people and public utility management institutions instead, the level of regulations draws from the economic state of the various countries in question (GDP per capita). Therefore, member states like ours did not receive difficult goals until 2020, due to our performance being lower than the average of the EU. However, during the program phase between 2021 and 2030, all nations are to lower their GHG (greenhouse gases) emission, and have to make developments to restrict GHG emission level growth within the ESD, which means we already have to estimate our future possibilities. During the analyses, we will see that analysing agriculture from an environmental viewpoint, without doing the same to their related sectors and their various related influences is impossible. The GHG emission goals determined by the EU have to be cleared by the agriculture sector, but the inputs from transport, waste management and building are required nonetheless.

JEL classification: Q58
Competitive strategies- how these are vital for volatile makets’ sub-parts
Authors: Morgan Alicia
Published: December 2015

Well said by Will Durant - "The future never simply happened. It was made". A business association needs to characterize its aggressive technique to guide and center its future choices, and to increase maintainable upper hand over its adversaries to make the association effective in long run. Authoritative results are the outcomes of the choices made by its pioneers. The system that aides and centers aggressive situating choices is called focused methodology. The reason for focused procedure is to increase practical upper hand over the adversaries. In this article, we will go through the nomenclature and the contextual efficacy of the competitive marketing strategies.
Impact Of Union Budget On Indian Stock Market
Authors: Gakhar Divya Verma , Kushwaha Neha , Ashok Vinita
Published: December 2015

This paper analyzes the impact of Union budget on NSE’s CNX NIFTY Index. The impact is measured in terms of daily average returns and volatility over the short term, medium term and long term period in pre and post budget period. The data has been collected for five budget periods from 2011 to 2015. The statistical tools used are paired T-test and F-test. Paired T-test is conducted on average returns and F-test is conducted on variances over the period i.e., 3, 10 and 30 days in pre and post budget period. The maximum impact of budget is seen in short term then it gradually decreases in medium term and finally diminishes in the long term. The implication of this paper is that the investor should fear from investing in the stock market around the budget period.