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Introduction to modelling, core themes and best practices -- Models of models -- Using models in decision support -- Core competencies and best practices : meta-themes -- Model design and planning -- Defining sensitivity and flexibility requirements -- Database versus formulae-driven approaches -- Designing the workbook structure -- Model building, testing and auditing -- Creating transparency: formula structure, flow and format -- Building robust and transparent formulae -- Choosing Excel functions for transparency, flexibility and efficiency -- Dealing with circularity -- Model review, auditing and validation -- Sensitivity and scenario analysis, simulation and optimisation -- Sensitivity and scenario analysis : core techniques -- Using goalseek and solver -- Using VBA macros to conduct sensitivity and scenario analyses -- Introduction to simulation and optimisation -- The modelling of risk and uncertainty, and using simulation -- Excel functions and functionality -- Core arithmetic and logical functions -- Array functions and formulae -- Mathematical functions -- Financial functions -- Statistical functions -- Information functions -- Date and time functions -- Text functions and functionality -- Lookup and reference functions -- Filters, database functions and pivottables -- Selected short-cuts and other features -- Foundations of VBA and macros -- Getting started -- Working with objects and ranges -- Controlling execution -- Writing robust code -- Manipulation and analysis of data sets with VBA -- User-defined functions

Financial Modelling in Practice: A Concise Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Level is a practical, comprehensive and in-depth guide to financial modelling designed to cover the modelling issues that are relevant to facilitate the construction of robust and readily understandable models. --From publisher's description.

Tattooing is a practice long associated with social outsiders – sailors, criminals, bikers and women of disrepute. In recent years, however, the practice has become increasingly popular, and acceptable, in mainstream culture as these marks of distinction appear on an ever greater number of bodies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, academic literature, and content analysis of popular media, I propose that four inter-related developments have contributed to the redefinition of tattooing: the increasing importance of the body as a site for constructing identity; processes of cultural diversity and globalization; the increased visibility of the practice in popular culture; and attempts to legitimise the practice as an acceptable art form both within academia and popular culture. By drawing together these inter-related developments this paper demonstrates how Elias' theories of established-outsider relations provides an understanding of the processes that lead to changing statuses for certain cultural practices.

The southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) occurs
across the periphery of southern and eastern Australia as a series of isolated
regional populations. Historical records and recent surveys conducted for
I. obesulus indicate that it has disappeared or
decreased significantly from many parts of its former range. Vegetation
clearance, habitat fragmentation, feral predators and fire have all been
implicated in the decline of the species.
This paper examines the distribution of I. obesulus in
the Portland region of south-western Victoria. Historical records of
I. obesulus were compiled from the specimen collection
of Museum Victoria, the Atlas of Victorian Wildlife, Portland Field
Naturalists' Club records and anecdotal sources. Field surveys were
conducted to determine the current distribution of
I. obesulus in the study area based on evidence of its
foraging activity.
The historical records reveal limited information: most are clustered around
centres of human activity, indicating observational bias. The field surveys
demonstrate that I. obesulus occurs in the Portland
region as a series of local populations. Each local population is associated
with a patch of remnant native vegetation separated from neighbouring patches
by dispersal barriers. Within these habitat remnants the occurrence of the
species is sporadic. Approximately 69% of the potential habitat is
managed by the Forests Service, 31% is managed by Parks Victoria, and
less than 0.5% is held under other tenures. Spatial isolation of
habitat remnants, fires and feral predators are the main threats to
I. obesulus in the Portland region.

In this study we examine broad-scale factors affecting the distribution of the yellow-bellied glider (Petaurus australis australis) in the southern Australian state of Victoria. Using the bioclimatic analysis and prediction system, BIOCLIM, and vegetation-suitability mapping, we assessed the potential distribution of the species at the time of European settlement and compared it to the current distribution. BIOCLIM revealed that P. a. australis is most likely to occur in areas with mean annual rainfall >600 mm and mean annual temperature between 6°C and 14.5°C. Much of its current distribution is skewed to the eastern half of the State, and our results emphasise a disjunction between western and eastern Victorian populations that is attributed to unsuitable climate and vegetation for the species. This indicates that P. australis in the west was most likely separated from eastern Victorian P. australis long before European settlement. Our results also indicate that isolated P. australis populations in south-western Victoria represent fragments of what was probably a much more widely distributed population when European settlement took place. Owing to the highly restricted distribution of suitable remnant native vegetation, these westernmost P. australis populations should be a high priority for future research and conservation work.