The enforcement of environmental law: civil or criminal penalties?

In the United Kingdom, regulatory bodies have traditionally relied on the use of the criminal law to protect the environment. Although the officials employed by these agencies may have regarded it as the ‘last resort’, prosecution – or at least the threat of prosecution – has always been in the background. ‘Civil’ or ‘administrative’ sanctions have rarely been used. This situation may be about to change

Electronic peer review: a large cohort teaching themselves?

[Abstract]: Electronic peer review can empower lecturers of large courses to produce rapid feedback, promote social interaction and encourage higher order learning for students. But what are the payoffs to educators? Do students recognise the benefits of such a system? Foundation Computing is one of the largest courses at the University of Southern Queensland. A system of electronic submission and peer reviewing with instructor moderation is now being used in this course. This system is innovative and unique and delivers benefits to students, lecturers and the University. This system has been evaluated, proven successful and is being considered for wider use

Direct Marketing of Specialty Crops by Producers: A Price-Comparison between Farmers' Markets and Grocery Stores

Oftentimes, prices at farmers' markets are much cheaper than those at grocery stores. However, little is known about the pricing relationship between farmers' markets and nearby grocery stores. Only by further analyzing this relationship can we gain a better understanding of these pricing trends. Although this trend is seemingly consistent, further research is necessary to test this assumption. Through the collection of prices at both locales, farmers' markets and grocery stores, producers as well as consumers will have access to current prices in both markets. In recent years, consumers are looking for local produce and are willing to pay for them as they are faced with increased grocery store prices, while producers are simultaneously seeking to increase their profit margins. This paper uses data that was collected over the course of one year while recording pricing trends from farmers' markets and nearby grocery stores. The survey also records demographic and operational data from individual producers and or vendors at those farmers' markets within the State of Florida. It is hypothesized that producers selling at farmers' markets are not receiving a price premium for their products and the current prices they charge are, on average, significantly less than those found at a grocery store. Research gives evidence that producers should be receiving a price premium for their products. It is believed that they are being paid only a portion of the true market value for their products. As a result of this research, farmers should have a better understanding of state-wide pricing trends at farmers' markets and grocery stores which in turn will help them make better, more informed decisions when pricing and marketing their specialty crops.farmers markets, pricing, grocery stores, Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management, Marketing,

Parallel Deterministic and Stochastic Global Minimization of Functions with Very Many Minima

The optimization of three problems with high dimensionality and many local minima are investigated under five different optimization algorithms: DIRECT, simulated annealing, Spall’s SPSA algorithm, the KNITRO package, and QNSTOP, a new algorithm developed at Indiana University

Experimental validation of a two-dimensional shear-flow model for determining acoustic impedance

Tests were conducted to validate a two-dimensional shear-flow analytical model for determining the acoustic impedance of a liner test specimen in a grazing-incidence, grazing-flow environment. The tests were limited to a test specimen chosen to exhibit minimal effects of grazing flow so that the results obtained by using the shear-flow analytical model would be expected to match those obtained from normal-incidence impedance measurements. Impedances for both downstream and upstream sound propagation were generally consistent with those from normal-incidence measurements. However, sensitivity of the grazing-incidence impedance to small measurement or systematic errors in propagation constant varied dramatically over the range of test frequencies

Information Theory Applied to Decision Making Structures

Decision making structures, such as control boards, process information on many topics as they select options for the system and project. The decisions are based on the information known to the board members and presenters (subject matter experts) and shared at the board during discussion. This information flow through this process can be modelled using information theory. Information theory provides a mathematical basis to understand the flow of information through the decision making process and the information needed for a particular decision. Information theory also provides the mathematical relationships on which to base the optimal decision making structure for a specific system development and organizational structure. Since decision making bodies provide control for the system or project, control theory can be used to construct a decision making model. This provides a starting point for adding cognitive science models. Information processing by each individual board participant can be represented through cognitive processes which are integrated across the board participants through information theory relationship. The set theory view of information theory provides a structure in which to look at the relationships between the participants in a decision making structure