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In the quest to improve measured educational outcomes national governments across the OECD and beyond have instituted large-scale assessment (LSA) policies in their public schools. Controversy almost universally follows the implementation of such testing, related to such topics as: a) the uncertain quality of the tests themselves as psychometrics measures; b) the uses to which the data can and should be put; c) the unintended consequences of test-preparation activities and resulting score inflation; and d) the effects of high-stakes tests on students. Debates of this nature naturally involve and impact the attitudes and opinions of teachers related to their collection and use of these data. This paper examines the impact of these attitudes using both the qualitative and quantitative data from a large-scale research study on Canadian provincial assessment. Data were collected from nation-wide teacher surveys as well as interviews with teachers, administrators and district-level staff. Results show that teacher attitudes about these assessments are strongly correlated to classroom-level instructional change. Three attitudinal factors have significant effects on teaching (to) the provincial curricula, yet none significantly affects the use of less constructive instructional strategies also known as 'teaching to the test.' Specifically, the belief that large-scale assessment data have more appropriate uses and the belief that these data could lead to school improvement were significant factors in facilitating change. The implications of these findings are profound in that large-scale assessment policy cannot succeed even by its own standards without more buy in from teaching professionals. ; Para mejorar los resultados educativos Organización de los gobiernos nacionales para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) estableció la evaluación a gran escala de las políticas (LSA) en sus escuelas públicas. La controversia por lo general sigue estas pruebas debido a: a) la calidad incierta de las pruebas psicométricas como medidas; b) los usos previstos y deseados de los datos; c) las consecuencias no deseadas de las actividades de preparación de la prueba y la inflación resultante puntuación; y d) los efectos de las pruebas de gran importancia en los estudiantes. Estos debates afectan las actitudes y opiniones de los profesores sobre la recopilación y uso de estos datos. Este artículo examina el impacto de estas actitudes que utilizan tanto la cualitativa y cuantitativa de datos a partir de un estudio de investigación a gran escala sobre la evaluación de cada provincia del Canadá. Los resultados muestran que las actitudes de los maestros acerca de estas evaluaciones están fuertemente correlacionados con el cambios de instrucción en el aula. En concreto, la creencia de que los datos de evaluación tienen usos más apropiados y la creencia de que estos datos podrían conducir a la mejora de la escuela fueron factores importantes en la facilitación del cambio. Las implicaciones de estos hallazgos son profundas, en que la política de evaluación no puede tener éxito incluso por sus propias normas, sin más apoyo de los profesionales de la enseñanza. ; Para melhorar os resultados educacionais governos nacionais da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Económico (OCDE) instituiu políticas de avaliação em larga escala (LSA) em suas escolas públicas. A controvérsia geralmente segue esses testes, porque: a) a qualidade incerta de testes psicométricos como medidas; b) as utilizações previstas e dados desejados; c) as consequências não intencionais das atividades de preparação para o teste e marcar a inflação resultante; e d) os efeitos de provas de grande importância para os alunos. Estes debates afetam as atitudes e opiniões dos professores sobre a coleta e uso desses dados. Este artigo examina o impacto dessas atitudes usando dados qualitativos e quantitativos de um estudo de investigação em grande escala sobre a avaliação de cada província do Canadá. Os resultados mostram que as atitudes dos professores sobre estas avaliações são fortemente correlacionada com a alteração do nível de instrução em sala de aula. Especificamente, a crença de que os dados de avaliação em larga escala são os usos mais apropriados e a crença de que esses dados poderiam levar a melhoria da escola foram fatores importantes na facilitação da mudança. As implicações destes resultados são profundas em que a política de avaliação não pode ter sucesso até mesmo por seus próprios padrões, sem mais apoio dos profissionais do ensino.

"The debate over how companies are best governed is at least as old as companies themselves"(Economist, 2009). Corporate governance is today one of the management topics most discussed" (Dewji & Miller, 2013). Africa, the most underdeveloped continent, has a long way to go. Indeed its economy is often perceived as highly corrupted, its governments are instable and its population is the poorest in the world. Corporate governance should be considered as part of the solution to improve the African situation. Indeed, corporate governance will inter alia facilitate investment in Africa. Asongu (2012) mentions: "Investment and finance undoubtedly remain key determinants of growth and development in the African continent". Therefore, we chose to develop our thesis on African corporate governance situation. To do so, we followed the next problematic: What is the current state of affairs of 'formal'( ) corporate governance in Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and Kenya in terms of Board of Directors independence, Board Committees and Transparency & Disclosures practices? In fact, to assess formal corporate governance in Africa, we build a corporate governance matrix with twelve indicators. An indicator assesses if a certain aspect of corporate governance is respected. As described by our problematic, it was difficult to assess the whole concept of formal corporate governance in Africa. Therefore, we decided to concentrate our efforts on: o Certain corporate governance indicators, which are focused on Board of Director independence, Board of director committees and transparency & disclosure. o The four biggest stock markets in Africa (ex-South Africa), which are Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and Kenya. o Ten biggest companies per country in terms of free-float market capitalisation. According to our matrix, we assessed forty companies. For each company, we obtained a corporate governance score. The main goal of this thesis was to analyse this score and tried to understand it. Therefore, we analyse the impact of external variables on our corporate governance score. Our external variables were Country, Sector, Ownership Structure and Free-Float. We used a statistical analysis (means comparison, multiple linear regression and cluster analysis) to understand which variables were significant and which were not. It appeared that the variables Country and Free-Float were considered as significant whereas Ownership Structure and Sector were removed. First, these results confirm that formal corporate governance is influenced by the environment where companies are located. For instance, regulation system, cultures, tradition and general corruption will influence formal corporate governance standards. Secondly, these results confirm that "good" corporate governance seems to be associated with a free market where diversified companies are the main actors. Indeed, our companies' scorings increase when companies free-float percentage increases. Our study insists on the fact that the conception of formal corporate governance developed by our given countries is quite different. Indeed, following our scoring matrix, the average score on formal corporate governance varies strongly depending on the country where companies are located. Our study points out similarities in corporate governance scoring between on the one part Kenya (77%) and Nigeria (62%) and on the other part Morocco (16%) and Egypt (36%). In our discussions, we tried to understand how to explain these similarities and differences. It seems that colonial influence, French or British, plays a significant role in the formal corporate governance development. In fact, British Empire had in mind to develop in depth the economic situation and free-trade of its colonies or protectorates whereas French Empire with its "Colbertism" policy enabled the ruling class to take up interests in every economic strategic position and to promote a strong economic protectionism. Kenya and Nigeria were under British influence, Morocco was under French influence whereas Egypt had a dual position being a British protectorate but ruled by "civil law" which is typically coming from French tradition. Moreover, the regulation system which is usually associated to colonial influence( ), affects formal corporate governance. Indeed, Nigeria and Kenya following "Common law" principles have a better scoring than their peers. By contrast, our study shows that it is difficult to draw conclusions about global African corporate situation. Indeed, lack of available information and critical situations in certain countries made the task difficult. Nevertheless, our study allows a better understanding of the main African economies concerning formal corporate governance situations. ; Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion, Université catholique de Louvain, 2016

Canadian economists, politicians and even environmentalists are lining up enthusiastically behind pricing carbon as the solution to controlling greenhouse gas emissions in this country. Pricing carbon (or, more accurately, pricing carbon dioxide) is not just a fashionable policy approach; it is the most efficient way we have to ration emissions, as it allows emitters — businesses and consumers — to make the most rational decisions about where it makes economic sense to curtail carbon and where it does not. Painfully costly command-and-control reductions make little sense in Canada, given our marginal contribution to global emissions. When practiced globally, a carbon price deals with Canadian emitters as fairly as it does others. However, a beneficial outcome is not guaranteed: certain rules must be observed in order for carbon pricing to have its intended effect of achieving the optimal balance between emission reduction and economic growth. First and foremost, carbon pricing only works in the absence of any other emission regulations. If pricing is layered on top of an emission-regulating regime already in place (such as emission caps or feed-in-tariff programs), it will not only fail to produce the desired effects in terms of emission rationing, it will have distortionary effects that cause disproportionate damage in the economy. Carbon taxes are meant to replace all other climate-related regulation, while the revenue from the taxes should not be funnelled into substitute goods, like renewable power (pricing lets the market decide which of those substitutes are worth funding) but returned directly to taxpayers. The price of carbon is set according to what is known as the "social cost of carbon" — the quantified value of the impact that an emitted tonne of carbon today will have on humans in the future (adjusted to present value). That cost is not limitless; there is a point at which the cost of abating a tonne of carbon outweighs the cost of the impact that same tonne will have in the future (and some of that impact may be positive, not necessarily negative). Therefore, another important rule for creating a proper carbon-pricing system is to be as careful as possible in estimating the social cost of carbon. Estimates are all we have, and they vary wildly, from negative — meaning any carbon price is too high — to hundreds of dollars per tonne. Minor adjustments to the calculation's inputs, such as the discount rate used and fluctuating estimates about climate sensitivity, produce dramatically different estimates. The social cost of carbon must be set with extreme prudence in order to set a reasonable carbon price. Whatever the carbon price, it will necessarily detract some degree from economic growth. But when a carbon tax is added in the presence of other taxes, such as income, sales and corporate taxes, its effect will be even more harmful, due to the compounded burden on economic activity. As a result, whatever the social cost of carbon is determined to be, the carbon price must be discounted below it by the marginal cost of public funds (MCPF) — that is, the economic cost of the government raising an additional dollar of tax, on top of what is already being raised. This varies by province, but estimates suggest that in Canada, the optimal carbon tax should be about half of the estimated social cost of carbon. Finally, it needs to be remembered that carbon pricing works because it is a marketbased policy: it works with market forces, not against them. But that means the policy maker needs to let the market play its role. Choosing the price means the market will set the quantity, and vice-versa. In response to a well-designed carbon price, the market may only reduce emissions a little, especially in the short term. Policy makers need to resist the temptation to reintroduce command-and-control rules and arbitrary quantity targets, which will simply unravel the gains from adopting the policy in the first place. There may be many reasons to recommend carbon pricing as climate policy, but if it is implemented without diligently abiding by the principles that make it work, it will not work as planned, and the harm to the Canadian economy could well outweigh the benefits created by reducing our country's already negligible level of global CO2 emissions.

Edmund Clark: War of Terror, an exhibition of photography, film and documents exploring hidden experiences of state control in the 'Global War on Terror', opens this summer at IWM London. This will be Edmund Clark's first major solo show in the UK and will include content that has never been displayed before in Britain. The exhibition will focus on the measures taken by states to protect their citizens from the threat of international terrorism and their far-reaching effects. It will look at the issues of security, secrecy, legality and ethics presented by such methods of control. Within the international context of Clark's work, the exhibition will centre on the experiences of UK citizens and residents suspected but never convicted of terrorist-related activities, and the involvement of the British government in the 'Global War on Terror'. The show will bring together highlights from five series of Clark's work, including the first UK display of his most recent work 'Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition', created in collaboration with counter-terrorism investigator Crofton Black. Other works will be the film 'Section 4 Part 20: One Day on a Saturday', photographs and images from the series 'Guantanamo: If the Light Goes Out' and 'Letters to Omar', and the first major display of 'Control Order House', featuring previously unseen video footage. More information about each of these bodies of work can be found below. Clark will invoke immersive and sensory engagement with the experiences of observation, detention and disorientation explored through his work. The exhibition combines photographs, videos and documents, displayed in a variety of forms and scales, including framed prints, graphic illustrations, installations and audio-visual projections. The works will be exhibited in the following thematic groups: The first section of the exhibition features work from 'Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition'. Photographs, documents and graphic visualisations explore the processes behind 'extraordinary rendition', in which people suspected of terrorist-related activity were secretly detained and transferred without legal process to US custody for further detention and interrogation. The exhibition goes on to explore the systems of control and interrogation experienced by detainees at the US military detention facility Guantanamo Bay. Photographs from Clark's award winning series 'Guantanamo: If The Light Goes Out' offer an uneasy contrast between living spaces at Guantanamo and the homes of former British detainees who were released without charge. A selection of work from 'Letters to Omar' features reproductions of censored correspondence sent to Omar Deghayes, a British detainee at Guantanamo, and later made available to Clark. Cards and letters sent to him by people from around the world, most of them strangers, were scanned and redacted by military censors. When and in what form Omar received the correspondence was part of the control exercised over him. These fragmentary reproductionscreated by the bureaucratic processes of Guantanamo added to his sense of paranoia. Clark's powerful audio-visual work 'Section 4 Part 20: One Day on a Saturday', produced with multi-media editor Anna Stevens, combines details of images from 'Letters to Omar' with voices overlaid in stereo recounting the minutiae of official daily detainee control and the testimony of a very particular interrogation to explore notions of disorientation and complicity. The final section will feature Clark's series 'Control Order House'. In December 2011 and January 2012, Clark was given exclusive access to a suburban house in England in which a British man suspected of involvement in terrorist-related activity was living under the terms of a Home Office enforced control order. This was a form of detention without trial based on secret evidence. His installation in the exhibition presents nearly 500 photographs of the house in the order in which he took them. Two video sequences, on display for the first time, convey the tension, claustrophobia and monotony of a controlled person's life. Documents, architectural plans and photographs reveal further details of life under a control order. This exhibition marks a continued collaboration between Edmund Clark and IWM, which previously acquired several of his pieces including 14 prints from his award-winning series 'Guantanamo: If the Light Goes Out' and his artist book 'Control Order House'. The exhibition is curated by Kathleen Palmer, Head of Art, IWM and Hilary Roberts, Research Curator of Photography, IWM following their co-curation of the 'Donovan Wylie: Vision as Power' exhibition in 2013.

Reviste verdadera importancia en el proceso penal el material que puede utilizar el juez a la hora de dictar sentencia, ya que sólo puede hacerlo con la prueba de cargo, que como regla general se practica en el juicio oral (con las excepciones que la ley prevea). Siendo ello relevante en el procedimiento común, lo es más cuando se trata del juicio con Jurado, formado por jueces legos, por lo que es importante que sólo atiendan a la prueba practicada delante de ellos, sin verse contaminados con diligencias de investigación que son sólo eso, diligencias de investigación y no prueba de cargo para condenar al acusado. Este material con el que va a contar el órgano sentenciador se formará a través de los testimonios que el juez de oficio remitirá al órgano sentenciador o será pedido y aportado por las partes, por lo tanto, este estudio se centra en delimitar los testimonios que se tienen que formar para el expediente del juicio oral. Se parte de la regulación ofrecida por el Anteproyecto de Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal de 2011, que por primera vez se reguló lo que en la Disposición final cuarta de la Ley Orgánica del Tribunal Jurado se establecía, -concederle al Gobierno el plazo de un año para enviar a las Cortes Generales un proyecto de ley de modificación de la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal, "generalizando los criterios procesales instaurados en la Ley del Jurado y, en el que se establezca un procedimiento fundamentado en los principios acusatorio y de contradicción de las partes". Posteriormente, el Código Procesal Penal presentado el 25 de febrero de 2013 al Ministro de Justicia, también contempló y reguló los testimonios que se pueden pedir e incorporar al juicio oral, aunque con algunas diferencias al Anteproyecto. Los criterios procesales contemplados en los preceptos de la Ley del Jurado los reguló el legislador con la intención de que fuesen generalizados en el resto de procedimientos penales. Sin embargo, todavía no ha habido una reforma total de la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal, sí intentos legislativos como los comentados en este artículo. Dada la falta de consenso se ha optado por una reforma parcial de la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal sin incluir la materia comentada. ; The material that can be used by the judge for sentencing in criminal proceedings is of real importance, as sentencing can be done only with the incriminating evidence that, as a rule, is practiced in the oral proceedings (with some exceptions foreseen by the law). Being so significant in the common proceedings, it becomes even more in the jury trial, formed by lay judges. It is important that they should only attend to the evidence produced before them, without being affected by investigative proceedings that stay just investigative ones and not incriminating evidence for the conviction of the accused. The material for trial body will consist of the testimonies officially forwarded to it by the judge or requested and provided by the parties. Therefore, this study focuses on the determination of the testimonies that are necessary for the dossier of the oral proceedings. It is based on the regulation offered by the Draft Law on Criminal Procedure of 2011that for the first time regulates what has been established by the 4th Final Provision of the Organic Law on the Jury, i.e. giving the Government one year to submit to the Parliament a draft law amending the Law on Criminal Procedure that "generalises the procedural criteria of the Law on the Jury and establishes a procedure based on accusatory and adversarial principles". Subsequently, the Draft Criminal Procedure Code, submitted to the Minister of Justice on 25th February 2013, also considered and regulated testimonies that can be requested ordered and incorporated into the oral proceeding, albeit with some differences to the first Draft. The legislator regulated the procedural criteria laid down in the provisions of the Law of the Jury with the intention make them widespread in other criminal proceedings. However, an overall reform of the Law on Criminal Procedure has not taken place yet, only other legislative attempts as discussed in this article. Given the lack of consensus it has been opted for a partial reform of the Law on Criminal Procedure excluding the issue discussed.

ObjectiveTo generate a global reference for caesarean section (CS) rates at health facilities. DesignCross-sectional study. SettingHealth facilities from 43 countries. Population/SampleThirty eight thousand three hundred and twenty-four women giving birth from 22 countries for model building and 10045875 women giving birth from 43 countries for model testing. MethodsWe hypothesised that mathematical models could determine the relationship between clinical-obstetric characteristics and CS. These models generated probabilities of CS that could be compared with the observed CS rates. We devised a three-step approach to generate the global benchmark of CS rates at health facilities: creation of a multi-country reference population, building mathematical models, and testing these models. Main outcome measuresArea under the ROC curves, diagnostic odds ratio, expected CS rate, observed CS rate. ResultsAccording to the different versions of the model, areas under the ROC curves suggested a good discriminatory capacity of C-Model, with summary estimates ranging from 0.832 to 0.844. The C-Model was able to generate expected CS rates adjusted for the case-mix of the obstetric population. We have also prepared an e-calculator to facilitate use of C-Model (). ConclusionsThis article describes the development of a global reference for CS rates. Based on maternal characteristics, this tool was able to generate an individualised expected CS rate for health facilities or groups of health facilities. With C-Model, obstetric teams, health system managers, health facilities, health insurance companies, and governments can produce a customised reference CS rate for assessing use (and overuse) of CS. Tweetable abstractThe C-Model provides a customized benchmark for caesarean section rates in health facilities and systems. Tweetable abstract The C-Model provides a customized benchmark for caesarean section rates in health facilities and systems. ; NICHD NIH HHS ; World Health Organization ; Univ Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto Med Sch, Dept Social Med, Av Bandeirantes, BR-3900 Ribeirao Preto, Brazil ; WHO, World Bank Special Programme Res Dev & Res Traini, UNDP UNFPA UNICEF WHO, Dept Reprod Hlth & Res, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland ; Univ Paris 05, Sorbonne Paris Cite, UMR 216, Inst Dev Res, Paris, France ; WHO Reg Off Amer, Women & Reprod Hlth CLAP WR, Latin Amer Ctr Perinatol, Montevideo, Uruguay ; Emory Univ, Rollins Sch Publ Hlth, Dept Epidemiol, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA ; Paris Descartes Univ, Ctr Epidemiol & Biostat, Obstetr Perinatal & Pediat Epidemiol Res Team, Inserm U1153, Paris, France ; Natl Inst Publ Hlth, Ctr Populat Hlth Res, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico ; Univ Technol, Fac Hlth, Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Natl Ctr Child Hlth & Dev, Dept Hlth Policy, Tokyo, Japan ; Ctr Rosarino Estudios Perinat, Rosario, Argentina ; Lindsay Stewart R&D Ctr, Off Res & Clin Audit, Royal Coll Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, London, England ; London Sch Hyg & Trop Med, Dept Hlth Serv Res & Policy, London WC1, England ; Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ, Sch Med, Xinhua Hosp, Shanghai Key Lab Childrens Environ Hlth,Minist Ed, Shanghai 200030, Peoples R China ; Univ Estadual Campinas, Sch Med Sci, Dept Obstet & Gynaecol, Campinas, SP, Brazil ; Family Hlth Bur, Minist Hlth, Colombo, Sri Lanka ; Fiocruz MS, ENSP, BR-21045900 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil ; Natl Inst Hlth & Welf, Helsinki, Finland ; Univ Tokyo, Grad Sch Med, Dept Paediat, Tokyo, Japan ; Bayer Krankenhausgesellschaft, Bayer Arbeitsgemeinschaft Qualitatssicherun Stati, Munich, Germany ; Khon Kaen Univ, Fac Med, Dept Obstet & Gynecol, Khon, Kaen, Thailand ; Univ Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto Med Sch, Dept Obstet & Gynaecol, BR-14049 Ribeirao Preto, Brazil ; Minist Sante, Direct Sante Famille, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso ; Univ Washington, Inst Hlth Metr & Evaluat, Seattle, WA 98195 USA ; Univ Mongolia, Hlth Sci, Sch Publ Hlth, Ulaanbaatar, Mongol Peo Rep ; GLIDE Tech Cooperat & Res, Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil ; Univ Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto Med Sch, Dept Paediat, BR-14049 Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil ; Univ Calif San Francisco, Dept Obstet & Gynaecol & Global Hlth Sci, San Francisco, CA 94143 USA ; Khon Kaen Univ, Fac Publ Hlth, Dept Biostat & Demog, Khon Kaen, Thailand ; Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Sch Med Sao Paulo, Dept Obstet, Sao Paulo, Brazil ; Inter Amer Dev Bank, Social Protect & Hlth Div, Mexico City, DF, Mexico ; Fortis Mem Res Inst, Gurgaon, Haryana, India ; Hosp Nacl Itaugua, Itaugua, Paraguay ; Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Sch Med Sao Paulo, Dept Obstet, Sao Paulo, Brazil ; NICHD NIH HHS: T32 HD052460 ; World Health Organization: 001 ; Web of Science

ObjectiveTo generate a global reference for caesarean section (CS) rates at health facilities. DesignCross-sectional study. SettingHealth facilities from 43 countries. Population/SampleThirty eight thousand three hundred and twenty-four women giving birth from 22 countries for model building and 10045875 women giving birth from 43 countries for model testing. MethodsWe hypothesised that mathematical models could determine the relationship between clinical-obstetric characteristics and CS. These models generated probabilities of CS that could be compared with the observed CS rates. We devised a three-step approach to generate the global benchmark of CS rates at health facilities: creation of a multi-country reference population, building mathematical models, and testing these models. Main outcome measuresArea under the ROC curves, diagnostic odds ratio, expected CS rate, observed CS rate. ResultsAccording to the different versions of the model, areas under the ROC curves suggested a good discriminatory capacity of C-Model, with summary estimates ranging from 0.832 to 0.844. The C-Model was able to generate expected CS rates adjusted for the case-mix of the obstetric population. We have also prepared an e-calculator to facilitate use of C-Model (). ConclusionsThis article describes the development of a global reference for CS rates. Based on maternal characteristics, this tool was able to generate an individualised expected CS rate for health facilities or groups of health facilities. With C-Model, obstetric teams, health system managers, health facilities, health insurance companies, and governments can produce a customised reference CS rate for assessing use (and overuse) of CS. Tweetable abstractThe C-Model provides a customized benchmark for caesarean section rates in health facilities and systems. Tweetable abstract The C-Model provides a customized benchmark for caesarean section rates in health facilities and systems. ; NICHD NIH HHS ; World Health Organization ; Univ Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto Med Sch, Dept Social Med, Av Bandeirantes, BR-3900 Ribeirao Preto, Brazil ; WHO, World Bank Special Programme Res Dev & Res Traini, UNDP UNFPA UNICEF WHO, Dept Reprod Hlth & Res, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland ; Univ Paris 05, Sorbonne Paris Cite, UMR 216, Inst Dev Res, Paris, France ; WHO Reg Off Amer, Women & Reprod Hlth CLAP WR, Latin Amer Ctr Perinatol, Montevideo, Uruguay ; Emory Univ, Rollins Sch Publ Hlth, Dept Epidemiol, Atlanta, GA 30322 USA ; Paris Descartes Univ, Ctr Epidemiol & Biostat, Obstetr Perinatal & Pediat Epidemiol Res Team, Inserm U1153, Paris, France ; Natl Inst Publ Hlth, Ctr Populat Hlth Res, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico ; Univ Technol, Fac Hlth, Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Natl Ctr Child Hlth & Dev, Dept Hlth Policy, Tokyo, Japan ; Ctr Rosarino Estudios Perinat, Rosario, Argentina ; Lindsay Stewart R&D Ctr, Off Res & Clin Audit, Royal Coll Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, London, England ; London Sch Hyg & Trop Med, Dept Hlth Serv Res & Policy, London WC1, England ; Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ, Sch Med, Xinhua Hosp, Shanghai Key Lab Childrens Environ Hlth,Minist Ed, Shanghai 200030, Peoples R China ; Univ Estadual Campinas, Sch Med Sci, Dept Obstet & Gynaecol, Campinas, SP, Brazil ; Family Hlth Bur, Minist Hlth, Colombo, Sri Lanka ; Fiocruz MS, ENSP, BR-21045900 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil ; Natl Inst Hlth & Welf, Helsinki, Finland ; Univ Tokyo, Grad Sch Med, Dept Paediat, Tokyo, Japan ; Bayer Krankenhausgesellschaft, Bayer Arbeitsgemeinschaft Qualitatssicherun Stati, Munich, Germany ; Khon Kaen Univ, Fac Med, Dept Obstet & Gynecol, Khon, Kaen, Thailand ; Univ Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto Med Sch, Dept Obstet & Gynaecol, BR-14049 Ribeirao Preto, Brazil ; Minist Sante, Direct Sante Famille, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso ; Univ Washington, Inst Hlth Metr & Evaluat, Seattle, WA 98195 USA ; Univ Mongolia, Hlth Sci, Sch Publ Hlth, Ulaanbaatar, Mongol Peo Rep ; GLIDE Tech Cooperat & Res, Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil ; Univ Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto Med Sch, Dept Paediat, BR-14049 Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil ; Univ Calif San Francisco, Dept Obstet & Gynaecol & Global Hlth Sci, San Francisco, CA 94143 USA ; Khon Kaen Univ, Fac Publ Hlth, Dept Biostat & Demog, Khon Kaen, Thailand ; Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Sch Med Sao Paulo, Dept Obstet, Sao Paulo, Brazil ; Inter Amer Dev Bank, Social Protect & Hlth Div, Mexico City, DF, Mexico ; Fortis Mem Res Inst, Gurgaon, Haryana, India ; Hosp Nacl Itaugua, Itaugua, Paraguay ; Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Sch Med Sao Paulo, Dept Obstet, Sao Paulo, Brazil ; NICHD NIH HHS: T32 HD052460 ; World Health Organization: 001 ; Web of Science

ABSTRACTEfforts to developed the young entrepreneurs was part of the national policy of youth development. This study aimed to analyzed the development strategy of entrepreneurial youth in realizing the independent entrepreneur in Sanggrahan Village Pathuk District of Ngampilan Yogyakarta, then to analyzed aspects of the constraints that occured during the running of entrepreneurship, the latter to analyzed the economic resilience of family entrepreneurs, in Sanggrahan Village Pathuk District of Ngampilan Yogyakarta.The method used was merging the descriptive method of qualitative and quantitative methods deskrftif, using structured interviews, questionnaires and literature. Youth development strategy to measured efforts in realizing the independent entrepreneur used seven indicators, in addition to measuring the economic resilience of the families of the young entrepreneurs in Sanggrahan Village Pathuk District of Ngampilan Yogyakarta where two indicators, was used namely income entrepreneurs with minimum wage standards and the family needs of Yogyakarta.Results of this study showed from 7 indicators of entrepreneurial development strategy in realizing the independent entrepreneur there were three (3) indicators which had not been effectively implemented by the youth, namely leadership, marketing and business legality. These were caused by a lack of resources and capital owned in an effort to developed product marketing and business legality, Indicator development strategy in realizing the independent entrepreneur in the form of motivation and creativity had been done well by the youth, but in terms of competition and market changes still encountered obstacles in the form product pricing efforts that did not refer to the policies set prices government in the form of changes in market prices the increase in fuel prices and electricity tariffs that would be a hindrance youth in becoming independent entrepreneur. From the total number of 36 (thirty six), young entrepreneurs family economic security aspects of revenue was earned by 67 percent and from the aspect of needs was obtained by 66.7 percent. The percentage thus showed that the economic resilience of the families their of the young entrepreneurs in Sanggrahan Village could not considered poor because earn above UMK average to met their primary, secondary, and tertiary needs. It was clearly a portrait of that strategy for achieving self employment had little impact on the economic resilience of the family but it had implications for the business development of the youth because they had not fully implement the strategy in realizing the independent entrepreneur. ABSTRAKUpaya mewujudkan wirausahawan muda merupakan bagian dari kebijakan nasional pembangunan kepemudaan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis strategi pengembangan wirausaha pemuda dalam mewujudkan wirausahawan mandiri di Kampung Sanggrahan Pathuk Kecamatan Ngampilan Yogyakarta, kemudian untuk menganalisis aspek kendala-kendala yang terjadi selama menjalankan wirausaha, yang terakhir untuk menganalisis ketahanan ekonomi keluarga para wirausaha, di Kampung Sanggrahan Pathuk Kecamatan Ngampilan Yogyakarta.Metode yang digunakan yakni metode penggabungan antara metode deskriptif kualitatif dan metode deskiptif kuantitatif, dengan menggunakan wawancara terstruktur, kuesioner, studi pustaka observasi dan dokumentasi. Untuk mengukur strategi pemuda mengembangkan usaha dalam mewujudkan wirausahawan mandiri digunakan 7 indikator, selain itu guna mengukur ketahanan ekonomi keluarga para wirausahawan muda di Kampung Sanggrahan Pathuk Kecamatan Ngampilan Yogyakarta digunakan 2 indikator yakni, 1) pendapatan para wirausaha dengan standar upah minimum Kota Yogyakarta, dan 2) kebutuhan-kebutuhan keluarga.Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan dari 7 indikator strategi pengembangan wirausaha dalam mewujudkan wirausahawan mandiri terdapat 3 (tiga) indikator yang belum dilaksanakan secara efektif oleh para pemuda yaitu kepemimpinan, pemasaran dan legalitas usaha. Hal ini disebabkan oleh kurangnya sumberdaya serta modal yang dimiliki dalam usaha mengembangkan pemasaran produk serta legalitas usaha, indikator strategi pengembangan dalam mewujudkan wirausahawan mandiri berupa motivasi dan kreativitas telah mampu dilakukan baik oleh para pemuda, namun dari segi persaingan usaha dan perubahan pasar masih menemui hambatan berupa penetapan harga produk usaha yang mengacu pada kebijakan harga yang telah ditetapkan pemerintah berupa perubahan harga pasar kenaikan harga bahan bakar minyak dan tarif dasar listrik yang justru menjadi hambatan pemuda dalam mewujudkan wirausahawan mandiri. Dari total wirausahawan muda sejumlah 36 (tiga puluh enam) orang, ketahanan ekonomi keluarga dari aspek pendapatan didapatkan sebesar 67 persen dan dari aspek kebutuhan didapatkan sebesar 66,7 persen. Persentase demikian menunjukkan bahwa ketahanan ekonomi keluarga para pemuda wirausaha di Kampung Sanggrahan dikategorikan tidak miskin karena memperoleh pendapatan di atas UMK rata-rata dan mampu memenuhi kebutuhan primer, sekunder, tersier. Hal ini jelas mengambarkan bahwa strategi dalam mewujudkan wirausaha tidak terlalu berimplikasi terhadap ketahanan ekonomi keluarga namun justru berimplikasi terhadap pengembangan usaha para pemuda karena belum menerapkan strategi penuh dalam mewujudkan wirausahawan mandiri.

Forecasts of economic variables is very important for planning and policy making purposes. Forecasts is an important input in decision making processes because obtaining reliable forecasts of some relevant macroeconomic variables is necessary for efficient management of funds, time and resources.Business has always recognised the need for a view of the future and has used explicit forecasts in the design and execution of their economic andJor business policies. For example, a firm trying to decide upon its investment programme will have to take into account not only the current known set of circumstances but also the unknown economic and business conditions in the future. The firm has to form a view about the future, such as the likely sales, costs, prices, competitors' reactions, labour requirements, government regulations and so on. These views about the future values of economic variables are frequently referred to as 'expectations', that is, what the firm expects to happen in the future.In recent years the performances of many microeconomics and macroeconomics series have been erratic. For example, rate of inflation, price of crude oil, prices of primary commodities, rate of interest and other pertinent economic variables have been fluctuating widely and have caused concern among the public, politicians, economists and also the businessmen. According to Mayes (l 981), with such non-uniformity of economic variables observed in the last two decades, the role of expectations has become more relevant in the economic agents' decision making process. Mayes (1981) further states that under the present conditions it has become more important to consider what expectations actually are and how they are formed.The value of economic forecasts of certain macroeconomic variables can be derived from several methods. The three main methods for deriving economic forecasts are (i) time series, (ii) econometric models, and (iii) survey of intentions of concerned agents and organizations. Time seriesanalysis and econometric modeling are the two most widely used methods in economic forecasting, but Holden and Peel (1983) had noted their drawbacks. Recently, economists have turned their direction of interest in evaluating the rationality of economic forecasts from surveys of market participants. The empirical literature on the direct tests of the rational expectations hypothesis is vast and growing. Holden et al. (1985), Lovell (1986), Wallis (1989), Maddala (1991) and Pesaran (1991) had reviewed some of these studies. The aim was to determine whether survey data on economic forecasts are accurate in the Muth's (1961) sense, that is, whether participating economic agents used all available information at the time forecasts are made. in other words, the rational expectations hypothesis of the economic forecast was put to test. In general, the empirical studies do not support the rational expectations hypothesis.Most of the studies carried out to evaluate the rationality of business firms' forecasts of economic variables were conducted on developed nations. Madsen (1993) studies the formation of output expectations in manufacturing industry in Japan, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. He found that the rational expectations hypothesis was weakly rejected. Williams (1988) and Chazelas (1988) found investment forecasts biased predictors of the actual investment value for firms in the United Kingdom and France. Meganck et a!. (1988) have concluded that investment forecasts of the manufacturing firm in Belgium were unbiased predictors of the actual values. However. Daub (1982) failed to find any rationality of the Canadian capital investment intention survey data. On the other hand. a study by Leonard (1982) on employment forecasts by the United States services sectors found that the forecasts were biased and the rationality of these employment forecasts rejected.The purpose of this paper is to present some empirical evidence on the rationality of agricultural firm managers' expectations using survey data. This study is important because it adds to the current literature on the testing of rationality of survey data, in particular, it provides empirical evidence from the perspective of a developing country. As for the country under study, the finding of the study could establish whether the forecasts documented by such survey are accurate or not; and if not, ways to produce more accurate forecasts must be found. 'Rationality' in this paper means that managers in agricultural firms have unbiased expectations and efficiently utilised available information at the time the forecasts are made.

Team Stormwater Solutions has been tasked with developing a sustainable, effective, and budget-friendly storm water mitigation plan for Liberty County, Texas, acting on behalf of Texas Target Communities and AgriLife Extension. Throughout the length of this semester, the team modeled the hydrological response of the county, decided what mitigations practices to use in which areas, developed a cost estimate for these practices, and developed a maintenance plan with specific roles within the various county governments for its ongoing upkeep. ; Liberty County is located northeast of Houston, TX. Three major communities lie within Liberty County, and they are: Liberty, Dayton, and Cleveland. The Trinity River also passes through the heart of the county. The majority of the land in Liberty County is wetlands, especially near the banks of the Trinity River, and so due to the land being below sea level, flooding is a big issue for the county and its residents. In recent years, Liberty County has had some serious issues with flooding due to intense and periodic storm events. With the expansion of the Houston area, and with the construction of the 99 Corridor, Liberty County is predicting a lot of growth in terms of population in the near future. With an increase in population comes an increase in more urbanized areas. These new urbanized areas will increase the peak flow of a precipitation event as well as the peak time. With this information and predicted growth, Liberty County is faced with the problem of creating a master drainage plan in order to prevent future precipitation events from creating worse flooding issues. For the purposes of our project, we were asked to design the master drainage plan for Liberty County. We are to create a design that utilizes Low Impact Development (LID) practices, and we are to account for the predicted growth of Liberty County by getting the projected runoff of a precipitation event back down to predevelopment levels. Our plan of action to address this problem is to create a drainage plan by utilizing the SCS Curve Number Method. By using the curve number method, we have created a hydrograph for a 10-yr, 12-hr storm, which is the storm that the county officials specifically preferred. We used GIS (geographic information systems) and SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) in order to delineate a watershed with multiple sub basin watersheds within the county. We focused on the smaller watersheds that the cities are primarily in, and the areas where the expected growth is to occur. We utilized GIS in order to calculate the area (acres), the length of the stream (ft), the slope (ft/ft), the soil, and the land use for each watershed that we are interested in. By knowing all of this pertinent information for each watershed, we were able to calculate the peak flow and peak time for each watershed for predevelopment. After calculating the peak flows and times, we then created different scenarios based on the predicted growth of Liberty County. With information provided by the Texas A&M Architecture group, we accounted for predicted growth by changing the land use curve number to values for higher development for each watershed. By changing the land use in each watershed, we achieved higher flow rates and earlier peak times as predicted. After achieving the new peak flows and peak times for future development, we began implementing the curve numbers for our recommended LID practices into our design. Three LID practices that we chose within our design are rain gardens, rainwater harvesting, and permeable pavement. By implementing these LID practices, we were able to reduce the new peak flows and peak times back down to acceptable levels, or in this case predevelopment levels. Overall, our design solution was a success in reducing the peak flow, peak time, and the total flow of future conditions back down to predevelopment conditions. By creating hydrographs, we were able to visually see the difference in peak flow, peak time, and total flow that new urbanization would bring as compared to predevelopment levels. Our results prove that with urbanization, runoff will increase at alarming rates, and that with the implementation of the recommended LID practices, these runoff conditions would be reduced to acceptable levels.

The widespread exposure of humans to Bisphenol A (BPA) and its potential clinical consequences have recently attracted considerable attention from scientists, government advisors, and the popular press. BPA is an ubiquitous xenoestrogen used in the production of plastic and metal containers for food and beverages that can leach into the contents during processing and storage. The tolerably daily intake (TDI) of BPA has been set to 50 μg/kg bw/day in Europe and the United States. This guidance value was derived from a lowestobservable- adverse-effect-level (LOAEL) for BPA of 50 mg/kg/day identified in the 1980s. Since then, data from numerous studies have reported significant adverse effects of exposure to doses of BPA below the calculated safe levels, leading scientists and other experts to question the adequacy of the TDI-value. BPA has been shown to exert endocrine-disrupting effects on reproduction, development, metabolism, and cancer in humans and other species. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. This dissertation presents a set of experiments conducted to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying BPA action on prostate and prefrontal cortex (PFC) of rats. This thesis starts with the evaluation of short-term adult exposure to BPA on 5α-Reductase (5α-R) isozymes and aromatase expression in the prostate gland of rats, key enzymes in the biosynthesis of 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and estradiol (E2) (important hormones for prostate physiopathology). Quantitative RT-PCR, western blot and immunohistochemical analyses showed lower mRNA and protein levels of 5α-R1 and 5α-R2 in BPA-treated groups versus controls but higher mRNA levels of 5α-R3, recently proposed as a biomarker of malignancy. BPA-treated rats also evidenced an increase in aromatase expression as well as in plasma E2/testosterone (T) ratio, both associated with prostate diseases (Study 1) . The decrease of 5α-R1 and 5α-R2 transcription in the prostate gland by BPA was demonstrated to be independent of circulating T levels (Study 2). This hypothesis was tested because: (i) within the prostate T exerts a positive regulatory action on 5α-R expression, and (ii) BPA has shown to decrease circulating T through different mechanisms. The thesis continues with the evaluation of the molecular mechanisms of the BPA action on the PFC of male and female rats exposed during adulthood or the perinatal period. We hypothesize that some of the brain and behavior abnormalities described in experimental animals and humans exposed to BPA might be mediated, at least in part, by alterations in the PFC, since it is an important brain area for cognitive control and complex behaviors, and appears to be altered in many psychopathologies. PFC functions are modulated by different neurotransmitters systems, such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) systems, therefore, alterations in the expression of genes related with these neurotransmitters might interfere with PFC physiopathology. These effects were investigated using qRT-PCR, western blot and PCR-array technologies. Study 3 details the effects of short-term exposure of adult rats to BPA (50 μg/kg/day, 4 days) on 5α-R and aromatase, enzymes that synthesize GABAA receptor modulators, and tryptophan hydroxylase (Tph), the rate-limiting enzyme in 5-HT biosynthesis. To gain better understanding of BPA action in the adult PFC, 84 genes involved in different mechanisms of neurotoxicity were also analyzed. Study 4 describes the effects of perinatal exposure (from gestational day 12, GD12, to postnatal day 21, PND21) to BPA (10 μg/kg/day) on DA and 5-HT systems-related genes in juvenile and adult male rats. Finally, this thesis also extends and improves scientific knowledge about toxic effects of Bisphenol F (BPF) and Bisphenol S (BPS), current BPA alternatives in many consumer products. Thus, in our last study we aimed to determine whether BPA, BPF or BPS affect precortical 5α-R expression, as well as DA and 5-HT systems-related genes in juvenile female rats perinatally (GD12-PND21) exposed to them (Study 5) . ; Tesis Univ. Granada. Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular III e Inmunología ; Los trabajos integrantes de la presente Tesis doctoral han sido realizados gracias a la financiación recibida por los siguientes organismos: · Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (BFU 2008-05340);· Junta de Andalucía (CTS202- Endocronología y Metabolismo). El periodo de formación predoctoral ha sido financiado por el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, gracias al programa de Formación del Profesorado Universitario (FPU).

Partial melting (anatexis) plays a fundamental role in the generation, differentiation and the rheology of Earth's continental crust. "Migmatitic" terranes constitute the main geological record of crustal anatexis throughout Earth's history. Unravelling the mechanisms of crustal anatexis from these terranes has proven to be challenging particularly when it comes to unveiling the primary chemical composition of anatectic melts. The main aim of this thesis is to better understand lower crustal anatexis through the study of "nanogranite inclusions" —microscopic droplets of melt that formed via incongruent melting reactions— in metamorphic minerals, and its relationship with lithospheric scale tectonomagmatic processes. The originality of my Thesis resides in the combination of a petrological, thermodynamical and experimental study of anatexis on the basis of the study of nanogranite inclusions in garnets from high-pressure granulitic migmatites. The case study is migmatitic gneisses from the Jubrique unit, a complete —though strongly thinned— crustal section in the westernmost Alpujárrides (Betic Cordillera, S. Spain). These gneisses overlie the Ronda peridotites —the largest exposure of subcontinental lithospheric mantle on Earth— and provide a unique opportunity to investigate the nature and age of crustal melting events and their timing with mantle processes in the westernmost Mediterranean. Melt inclusions (≈ 30-40 μm) —now recrystallized to nanogranites— in Jubrique gneisses are present in garnet cores and rims throughout the entire sequence. Thermodynamic modeling and conventional thermobarometry provide peak conditions of ≈ 850 ºC and 1.2-1.4 GPa, corresponding to garnet cores with kyanite and rutile inclusions. Post-peak conditions of ≈ 800-850 ºC and c. 0.5 GPa are recorded in rims of garnet porphyroblast/clasts. The study of nanogranite inclusions shows that most garnet grew in the presence of melt. To constrain the primary composition and the P-T conditions of formation of nanogranitoids, we have carried out an experimental study of nanogranitoids in garnets, which were melted at 1.5 GPa and 850, 825 and 800 ºC in a piston cylinder apparatus. Experiments show that anatexis and entrapment of nanogranites occurred at c. 800 ºC. Electron microprobe and NanoSIMS analyses indicate that experimental glasses are leucogranitic and peraluminous and define two compositional groups: Type I corresponds to K-rich, Ca- and H2O-poor leucogranitic melts, whereas type II represents K-poor, Ca- and H2O-rich granodioritic to tonalitic melts. They are found, respectively, at cores and rims of garnet porphyroblasts/clasts, and show that Jubrique migmatites underwent two anatectic events under contrasting fluid regimes. To determine the age of crustal melting events and their timing with lithospheric mantle processes, we have analyzed Lu-Hf in whole rocks and garnets of Jubrique gneisses and garnet pyroxenites from the Ronda peridotite. The Lu-Hf isochrons confirm that the growth of garnet in Jubrique gneisses occurred in the Early Permian (c. 289 Ma) during the latest stages of the Variscan orogeny, most likely in a context of continental collision and overthickened continental crust. We found no Alpine Lu-Hf ages, indicating either that this event is not resolvable with our sampling and dating techniques, or that the Lu-Hf of garnet was not equilibrated in the Alpine orogeny. The Lu-Hf whole rock-garnet isochrons of mantle garnet pyroxenites provide Jurassic- Cretaceous (144 Ma), Paleogene (53 Ma) and Miocene (21 Ma) ages. We interpret early Miocene ages as recording the waning stages of an Alpine extensional-related thermal event before emplacement of peridotites. Mantle garnet pyroxenites do not record Lu-Hf Variscan ages that may suggest that this system was reset by later mantle events or that garnet in mantle rocks grew in geodynamic events later than the Variscan orogeny. ; Tesis Univ. Granada. Programa Oficial de Doctorado en: Ciencias de la Tierra ; My Ph.D. Thesis is supported by a "Formación del Personal Investigador-FPI" Fellowship (BES-2011-045283) funded by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad). I also acknowledge an earlier MAE-AECID fellowship funded by the "Agencia Española de Cooperación Universitaria y Científica para el Desarrollo". The research of my Ph.D. Thesis has been funded by research grants from the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" (Grants CGL2010-14848 and CGL2013-42349-P), Junta de Andalucía (research groups RNM-131 and Proyecto de Excelencia P09-RNM-4495), and has benefited from EU Cohesion Policy funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) in support of human resources, innovation and research capacities, and research infrastructures.

The article presents the different approaches to the definition of «quality of higher education». Particular attention is paid to the analysis of quality guarantee system of higher education in the Bologna process. We consider the agreed at the European level, in accordance with the requirements of the Bologna Declaration standards and procedures for assessing the quality of higher education.The term «quality» is multidimensional in nature depending on the object and the industry in question. As for higher education, it has different meanings depending on:– The requirements of parties interested in the activities of institutions: government, employers, students, faculty members;– The quality of the academic sector, which should be evaluated;– From the historical period in the development of higher education. That is why the concept of «quality of higher education» has various interpretations. The project UNESCO­CEPES «Strategic indicators of higher education in the XXI century» are the following basic approaches to the determination of the quality of higher education:Quality of higher education as supremacy (high complexity of the program, students testing procedures, image universities not only at national but also at international level);Quality as compliance with stated objectives (compliance with generally accepted standards specified akredetatsiynym body, with a focus on results achieved educational process or curriculum);1. Quality as customer satisfaction (excuse expectations – students, parents, society and other stakeholders);Quality as a synonym for improvement (process aimed at continuous improvement, development institutions liable for better use of its institutional autonomy and freedom). It should be noted that each of the approaches has its advantages and limitations, depending on the particular stage of development of higher education, national identity perception, requirements imposed labor market. At the same time, elements integrating different approaches to the definition of quality in higher education is guaranteed by the requirements of educational standards and implementation process of benchmarking; ability to set clear objectives in accordance with requirements of time and achieve them; ability to meet the requirements of customers and other stakeholders; constant movement to improve.The European Commission has proposed a «five steps to ensure the quality». They include: 1) establishment of all institutions of higher education internal quality assurance systems; 2) the emergence of independent accreditation agencies for quality assurance; 3) inclusion of national agencies in the European Register of accreditation agencies to ensure quality and to determine the conditions of registration; 4) the opportunity for higher education institutions to choose an agency from the register which meets their profile and needs; 5) adoption of evaluation agency official register as the basis for decisions on licensing and funding, including the right to grants for students.At the anniversary meeting of ministers responsible for higher education in the European countries participating in the Bologna Process, March 11, 2010 in Budapest (Hungary) have been declared the main principles of quality assurance systems of higher education:– Higher education institutions have the primary responsibility for quality in higher education;– All forms and quality assurance procedures must be focused on further improving the quality of education;– The diversity of approaches is welcome, if applicable principles common to all evaluation and quality assurance;– All participants in the educational process and especially the students take part in work of procedures and quality assurance;– Quality assurance agency independent.Thus, in terms of integration of national educational systems into Europe member countries of the Bologna process created a unified system of quality assurance and developed the only criteria for its evaluation. Thus they laid the basis for the formation and strengthening of the single European Higher Education, to enhance credibility. It is essential for enhancing academic mobility and increase employment of graduates of European universities ; В статье представлены различные подходы к определению понятия «качество высшего образования». Особое внимание уделяется анализу системы гарантий качества высшего образования в условиях реализации Болонского процесса. Рассматриваются согласованные на европейском уровне в соответствии с требованиями Болонской декларации стандарты и процедуры оценки качества высшего образования ; У статті представлені різні підходи до визначення поняття «якість вищої освіти». Особлива увага приділяється аналізу системи гарантій якості вищої освіти в умовах реалізації Болонського процесу. Розглядаються узгоджені на європейському рівні відповідно до вимог Болонської декларації стандарти і процедури оцінки якості вищої освіти

Освещаются результаты комплексного социологического исследования представлений и ожиданий граждан России на 2050 г. В 2015 г. под руководством Е.В. Желниной, доцента кафедры «Социология» Тольяттинского государственного университета было проведено социологическое исследование «Россия-2050». Был разработан социологический инструментарий, позволяющий исследовать заявленную проблематику. В анкетировании приняли участие 783 респондента. Полученный образ может быть положен в основу формирования долгосрочной стратегии государственного управления. Актуальность темы детерминирована противоречием внешних и внутренних факторов инновационного развития. На сегодняшний день четкого, конкретного образа России, даже на ближайшую перспективу, не существует. Среди наиболее важных сфер жизнедеятельности российского общества в 2050 г. респонденты выделили экономику (18 %) и семью (17 %). Больше половины респондентов указали, что численность населения Российской Федерации в 2050 г. будет расти (за счет повышения рождаемости и усиления миграции). В результате анализа мнений респондентов относительности значимости социальной группы для индивида, была выявлена достаточно явная тенденция к индивидуализации. Подавляющее число респондентов отметили непреходящую важность института семьи и в 2050 г. (95,81 %). Обычной семьей в 2050 г. будет считаться союз мужчины и женщины, в котором родилось двое детей; семья живет отдельно от родственников в достаточном материальном благополучии; в семье принято традиционное разделение ролей: добытчик и защитник муж, женщина хранительница домашнего очага; но в семье работают оба супруга. Результаты исследования и рекомендации могут быть использованы как на уровне государственного, так и на уровне муниципального управления в качестве основы для формирования долгосрочной стратегии последующего развития, для разработки конкретных программ и мероприятий инновационного развития. Кроме того, полученные в ходе реализации проекта данные можно использовать для расширения теории социологического анализа проблемы стратегического государственного и муниципального управления, а также в качестве статистического материала, существенно обогащающего теорию государственного и муниципального управления, социологию управления; для совершенствования образовательных программ в области социологии инноватики, экономической социологии, теории социальных процессов, социологии города и городского развития, социологии управления. Работа выполнена в рамках НИР темплана Проект № 383: «Работники промышленной и научно-технической сферы в условиях моногорода (на примере социологического анализа Тольятти)». ; The results of complex sociological research of notions and expectations of citizens of Russia for 2050 are clarified. In 2015 under the guidance of E.V. Zhelnina, associate professor of "Sociology" department, Tolyatti State University the sociology research "Russia-2050" was carried out. The sociologic instrumentarium which let study the problem was developed. 783 respondents participated in the questionnaire. The image received may become the basis for formation of long-lasting strategy of government control. The relevance of the topic was determined by a contradiction of external and internal factors of innovation development. At the moment there is no clear, certain image of Russia and for the prospect it does not exist. Among the most important spheres of Russian society life the respondents marked for 2050 economics (18 %) and family (17 %). More than a half of respondents got to know that the population of Russian Federation in 2050 will be increasing (at the expense of birth rate and migration increase). At the results of respondents' opinions about the significance of social group for the individual the tendency to individualization was revealed. The most of respondents marked the importance of family institute and in 2050 (95.81 %). The normal family in 2050 will be the match between a man and a woman where two children will be born, the family lives separately in material welfare; the family has tradition role division: the earner and protector is the men, woman is a preserver of a family welfare, but both a man and a woman work. The results of research and recommendations may be used at the level of state and municipal control as a basis for formation of long-lasting strategy of further development, for development of clear programs and events of innovative development. Besides, the received data may be used for the enrichment of sociology analysis theory and the problem of strategy state and municipal control and also as static material enriching the theory of state municipal control, sociology of control for improvement of educational programs in the sphere of innovations sociology, economic sociology, theory of social processes, city sociology and urban development, control sociology. The work is fulfilled within the framework of Research Activity of thematic plan Project no. 383: "The workers of industrial and scientific-technical sphere in the conditions of monocity (basing on the example of Tolyatti's social analysis)".

The problems surrounding wildlife trafficking and their implications in departments of Ecosystemic importance such as Caquetá, requires a revision of the legal guidelines and the dimension of their impact as an input for the establishment of effective strategies for control, exploitation and conservation. The research Study of the normative framework of the fauna in Colombia, used analytical and comparative methods, started from a revision of the national legal framework on the use of wild animals from their perception as natural resource and as sentient beings, together with the descriptive analysis of the figures of seizures, voluntary deliveries and rescues registered by the environmental authority of the zone –Corpoamazonía –, years 2014, 2015 and quarters I and II of 2016. The conclusions refer to the strengthening of environmental educational strategies and, in parallel, to reinforcing punitive processes in actions that are considered to be a crime involving wild fauna, considering in each case both the natural resource crime and the welfare of the specimens together with the corresponding sanctions and reparation processes; likewise, the necessary increase of government support to regional administrative entities, through strategies to strengthen the Environmental Police and Environmental Military Service, as well as administrative for the department's environmental entity and the establishment of effective mechanisms for stimulating and the creation of breeding centers of species on which a greater level of anthropic pressure is developed. ; La problemática en torno al tráfico de fauna silvestre y sus implicaciones en departamentos de importancia ecosistémica como el Caquetá obliga una revisión de los lineamientos legales y de la dimensión de su impacto como insumo para el establecimiento de estrategias efectivas de control, aprovechamiento y conservación. La investigación Estudio del marco normativo de la fauna silvestre en Colombia empleó métodos analíticos y comparativos, partió de la revisión del marco legal nacional en materia de uso de animales silvestres desde su percepción como recurso natural y como seres sintientes, acompañado del análisis descriptivo de las cifras de decomisos, entregas voluntarias y rescates registradas por la autoridad ambiental de la zona –Corpoamazonía –, años 2014, 2015 y trimestres I y II de 2016. Las conclusiones aluden a fortalecer las estrategias de educación ambiental y paralelamente, reforzar los procesos punitivos en materia de acciones tipificadas como delito que involucren fauna silvestre, contemplando para cada caso tanto el delito sobre el recurso natural como el bienestar de los especímenes, junto con los correspondientes procesos de sanción y reparación; asimismo, el necesario incremento del apoyo gubernamental a los entes administrativos regionales mediante estrategias de fortalecimiento de la Policía Ambiental y el Servicio Militar Ambiental, además de la independencia administrativa para la entidad ambiental del departamento y el establecimiento de mecanismos efectivos para el estímulo y la creación de zoocriaderos de las especies sobre las que se desarrolla un mayor nivel de presión antrópica. ; A problemática em torno do tráfico de fauna selvagem e as suas implicações em regiões de importância ecossistêmica como o estado de Caquetá, obriga a uma revisão das diretrizes legais e da dimensão do seu impacto como insumo para o estabelecimento de estratégias efetivas de controle, aproveitamento e conservação. A pesquisa Estudo do quadro normativo da fauna selvagem na Colômbia, utilizou métodos analíticos e comparativos, partiu da revisão do quadro legal nacional em matéria de uso de animais selvagens desde a sua percepção como recurso natural e como seres sencientes, acompanhado da análise descritiva das cifras de confiscação, entregas voluntárias e resgates registradas pela autoridade ambiental da zona -Corpoamazonía-, anos 2014, 2015 e trimestres I e II de 2016. As conclusões apontam a fortalecer as estratégias de educação ambiental e paralelamente, reforçar os procedimentos punitivos em matéria de ações contempladas como delitos que envolvam fauna selvagem, contemplando para cada caso tanto o delito sobre o recurso natural quanto o bem-estar dos especímens, junto com os correspondentes procedimentos de sanção e reparação; do mesmo modo, o necessário aumento do apoio governamental aos órgãos administrativos regionais, por meio de estratégias de fortalecimento da Polícia Ambiental e do Serviço Militar Ambiental, além da independência administrativa para o órgão ambiental do estado e a implementação de mecanismos efetivos para o estímulo e a criação de zoocriadouros das espécies sobre as quais se exerce um maior nível de pressão antrópica.