A Survey of Church Libraries

This article reports the results of a survey of congregational libraries, documents the current state of congregational libraries, and updates previous statistical studies. A survey was conducted to collect demographic statistics, information on collection size and composition, budgets and acquisitions methods, staffing characteristics, automation, and circulation

ATLAS Detector Status and Physics Startup Plans

The status of the ATLAS detector shortly before the start-up of the LHC is presented. The progress in the commissioning of the detector, as well as plans for early physics analysis are outlined.Comment: Plenary talk at ICHEP08, Philadelphia, USA, July 2008. 10 pages PDF fil

Control of the house mouse (Mus musculus L.) in the Netherlands

Rodent control in the Netherlands is carried out by local authorities, extermination companies or the owners of infested premises. The control of the house mouse, especially in food-handling establishments, is a problem that has existed for some years. Testing in the laboratory indicates a warfarin resistance although the application of new rodenticides like bromadiolone, calciferol and difenacoum has given good results. A "manual" for the control of suspected warfarin resistant house mice is given

Catalytic polymeric nanoreactors : more than a solid supported catalyst

Polymeric nanostructures can be synthesized where the catalytic motif is covalently attached within the core domain and protected from the environment by a polymeric shell. Such nanoreactors can be easily recycled, and have shown unique properties when catalyzing reactions under pseudohomogeneous conditions. Many examples of how these catalytic nanostructures can act as nanosized reaction vessels have been reported in the literature. This prospective will focus on the exclusive features observed for these catalytic systems and highlight their potential as enzyme mimics, as well as the importance of further studies to unveil their full potential

Job costing: An analysis of the construction industry

The construction industry in New Zealand is very large and shows no signs of slowing down in the near future. It is one of the largest contributors for employment growth. However, some of the largest construction companies are seeing huge losses and debts. This report sets out to find out why this is happening and will do so by analysing job costing methods and investigating variances of quoted and actual costs in the construction/painting industry. Many Potential Job Costing methods have been identified, but the best-suited options were the profit point analysis and micro costing methods. Another potential method to improve quoting would be to use a structured project learning approach. However, the answer may not lie within job costing but with the fact that material and labour prices are increasing yearly and will be different when jobs are quoted from when they are carried out. A survey was sent via email to 85 construction businesses. 10 viable responses were gathered back. A financial analysis was also carried out on 45 jobs gathered from a painting business known to the researcher. The financial analysis found there was an average variance of 5 %, with labour contributing 69% of this. When looking at jobs under $5000 it was found the average variance was 19$5000 averaged 1% variance. The survey results found that average estimated variance for labour was 6% and materials were 1%. The researcher recommends using a structured learning approach. It is essential that construction businesses are aware of increasing material and labour costs. It is also evident that smaller jobs saw larger variances, therefore smaller jobs should be quoted as accurately as larger jobs

The impact of cloud accounting

The accounting industry has experienced a substantial transformation from manual bookkeeping of ledgers and trial balances to advanced accounting software. Many accounting firms, though, use accounting software with standalone packages which do not support the web. As a result, accounting firms demanded integrated software which could manage overall business management system. Accounting firms rely on software advancements in technology and specialised accounting software that can help financial activities like accounts, administrative tasks, payroll, tax and sales systems with fewer complexities. Real time information gave rise to the demand for accounting services which have higher accessibility of cloud-based software applications. The adoption of cloud accounting applications for accounting firms at accelerating speed leads to the question of considering the impact of cloud accounting software which has effects on the operational expenses of accounting firms. This research examines what encourages small accounting firms to grasp cloud accounting. The qualitative method of collecting data of small accounting firms was done through the distribution of questionnaires that use cloud accounting software. Findings from this research were used to understand the impact of employee training and IT costs which firms face by implementing cloud based accounting. The firms in this research have majorly agreed that they experienced overall increase in their operational costs. As a result, organisational efficiency was also increased. The recommendations provided by the researchers point to a similar study to find out the impact of profitability on firms from implementing cloud software and suggest to firms how to use cloud software to expand their client base