Chemistry curricular knowledge of secondary school teachers

In the course of this research, the extent of chemistry teachers' professional knowledge related to the structure, contents and application of chemistry curricula and their components was investigated. The research comprised 119 teachers from 69 secondary schools (25 grammar schools and 44 vocational secondary schools). The questions in the questionnaire referred to general curriculum knowledge, knowledge of chemistry curriculum and the views/assessments of the teachers concerning the necessary changes in the curricula currently in effect. The teachers' answers showed that the most important components of the curriculum for their work are the goals and operative tasks/outcomes. The results indicated that information in the curriculum components exits that remains unused although it is relevant for a certain level of planning. Among the teachers in the sample, higher percentages of those with an appropriate teachers' training programme applied information from the curriculum within the teaching process through demonstration methods and problem solving. The research that was conducted provides a basis for defining the indicators for monitoring the level of teachers' capability to apply curricular knowledge in their practice. Such indicators are important for creating teaching situations and teachers' activities within the framework of initial education and continuing professional development of teachers

The strategic use of patents and its implications for enterprise and competition policies

This report was commissioned as a study into the strategic use of patents. In the course of its case investigations and legislative reviews the European Commission became aware of changes in the use of intellectual property, in particular the use of patents. It was noted that firms’ uses of intellectual property are becoming increasingly strategic. This raised concerns about the implications of firms’ patenting behaviour for enterprise and competition policy. The following report contains a comprehensive review of patenting behaviour, the extent to which patenting is becoming more strategic and the implications this has for competition and enterprise policies

Assessing architectural evolution: A case study

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 SpringerThis paper proposes to use a historical perspective on generic laws, principles, and guidelines, like Lehman’s software evolution laws and Martin’s design principles, in order to achieve a multi-faceted process and structural assessment of a system’s architectural evolution. We present a simple structural model with associated historical metrics and visualizations that could form part of an architect’s dashboard. We perform such an assessment for the Eclipse SDK, as a case study of a large, complex, and long-lived system for which sustained effective architectural evolution is paramount. The twofold aim of checking generic principles on a well-know system is, on the one hand, to see whether there are certain lessons that could be learned for best practice of architectural evolution, and on the other hand to get more insights about the applicability of such principles. We find that while the Eclipse SDK does follow several of the laws and principles, there are some deviations, and we discuss areas of architectural improvement and limitations of the assessment approach

The Role of Heterogeneous Parameters for the Detection of Selection in Insurance Contracts

This study re-examines standard econometric approaches for detecting adverse and advantageous selection in insurance contracts based on variables that are not used for calculating the insurance premium. We formally demonstrate that existing strategies for detecting selection based on such ‘unused characteristics’ can lead to incorrect conclusions if the estimated coefficients of interest are driven by different parts of the population. We show that this issue can empirically be accounted for by allowing for heterogeneous parameters. We compare existing approaches by using simulated data with different selection regimes and test for parameter heterogeneity within the data. We further provide empirical evidence about selection into the market for private health insurance in England. Both our simulations, and the findings using real data, suggest that parameter heterogeneity is a relevant issue that can confound the interpretation of standard ‘unused characteristics’ approaches. Our findings are important for analysing the efficiency of insurance markets. They are of interest to both the insurance industry and policymakers, and should be accounted for when selection based on specific characteristics needs to be detected or the effects of structural changes of insurance policies/markets are to be predicted

Considerations about Continuous Experimentation for Resource-Constrained Platforms in Self-Driving Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are slowly becoming reality thanks to the efforts of many academic and industrial organizations. Due to the complexity of the software powering these systems and the dynamicity of the development processes, an architectural solution capable of supporting long-term evolution and maintenance is required. Continuous Experimentation (CE) is an already increasingly adopted practice in software-intensive web-based software systems to steadily improve them over time. CE allows organizations to steer the development efforts by basing decisions on data collected about the system in its field of application. Despite the advantages of Continuous Experimentation, this practice is only rarely adopted in cyber-physical systems and in the automotive domain. Reasons for this include the strict safety constraints and the computational capabilities needed from the target systems. In this work, a concept for using Continuous Experimentation for resource-constrained platforms like a self-driving vehicle is outlined.Comment: Copyright 2017 Springer. Paper submitted and accepted at the 11th European Conference on Software Architecture. 8 pages, 1 figure. Published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science vol 10475 (Springer), https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-65831-5_

Institutional Impediments to Groundwater Trading: the case of the Gnangara groundwater system of Western Australia

The development of a market in groundwater usage rights can be inhibited by constraints arising from the institutional context. Such impediments may reduce the potential gains from trade and may generate high transaction costs for prospective traders. We analyse the regulations and policies influencing groundwater transfers in a case-study area -- the Gnangara groundwater system around Perth, Western Australia -- and identify significant impediments to a groundwater market. Property rights are found to be conditional, temporary, and vulnerable to amendment. Regulatory approval is required for all transfers. Facilitating infrastructure is lacking, and price information is unavailable. Management area boundaries reflect land ownership and use rather than hydrogeological realities; the limitation of transfers to within these boundaries eliminates much of the potential for gains from trade. Over-allocation and weak monitoring also impede the development of a market. The current management system is likely to obscure unmet demand for water-rights transfers between users and usage-types.Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q15, Q25, Q28, Q38, Q56, Q57, Q58, D02, R52, H41, H23, H11, D23, D47, D78, H44,