Students who have problems with learning face a myriad of difficulties in accessing the curriculum in today's classrooms. These students often need intensive support to bring them 'up to speed' in basic skills such as reading fluency and the recall of number facts. Catering to the educational needs of these students poses a considerable challenge to classroom teachers. The research described here focuses on the role of automaticity in developing students' fluency and facility with basic academic facts. The program is described as a fourth-phase intervention. This follows the initial teaching of the content by the classroom teacher and subsequent attempts to address students' difficulties. The third phase occurs when the teacher receives collaborative support from a specialist within the classroom. The fourth phase refers to intensive focused instruction associated with the student being withdrawn from class for a number of periods a week over an extended time frame. The main aim of the QuickSmart research program is to investigate the effect of improved automaticity of basic skills on higher-order processes, such as problem solving and comprehension. One significant feature of the QuickSmart intervention is that it is directed towards students in their middle years of schooling where there has traditionally been a dearth of focused and intensive support available. The research program, conducted by University of New England's Dr Lorraine Graham and Professor John Pegg, and special education teachers, Ms Anne Bellert and Ms Jenny Thomas, has focused on students with learning difficulties in their middle years of schooling. Dubbed QuickSmart because quick in response speed and smart in strategy use is NN, hat the program encourages students to become, the initiative was funded during 2001 by federal Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under its Innovative Programs in Literacy and Numeracy scheme and is currently supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grant (2003-2005).

A mail survey is used to assemble a unique data set comprised of 109 firms' statements concerning policy in the Danish food industry. The survey response rate is 16% and features firms from all major sectors of the Danish food industry and from all regions of Denmark. The report presents the raw data and relates the development and implementation of the survey. Lessons learned in the survey process are presented, as well as estimates of the cost of the whole procedure. Danish firms do not define problems in food chain co-ordination in the way anticipated by researchers, and express a negative view of the effectiveness of policy targeted at solving such problems. A large number of Danish firms claim not to know the financial impacts of specific legislative and regulatory policies. The largest number of firms claimed that food safety, animal welfare and policies requiring information provision had negative financial impacts. Firms' strategic and long term views focused on dissatisfaction with "regulation". Firms' views of future success focused on subject matter that is not generally addressed by current policies.

This study lists the major laws and regulations affecting firms in the Danish food industry. A combination of desk research, interviews and survey data is used to draw inference about policies' impacts, both short term and with regard to industrial adjustment in the long term. Information on costs and benefits associated with specific regulations or legislative areas was difficult to find, and survey results indicate that many firms are unaware of the financial implications of policies. The most significant short-term impacts on firms are from the Food Act, the Planning Act, the Environmental Protection Act and the Animal Protection Act. For longer-term industrial development, the same Acts are implicated, as well as Competition and Product Liability laws.

When I was a high school student, my history teacher showed documentaries on the school's film projector. When I participated in a teacher-training program, we learned the importance of the VHS video player as a tool for learning. Now, as an educator, I incorporate multimedia elements, including textbook publishers' DVDs, teacher-created materials, and student films, into every lesson. More recent technological advances have made it possible for teachers to access authentic audiovisual resources directly from the Internet via Web sites such as friction.tv, where users post videos with an eye toward sparking debate; lonelyplanet.tv, where people can post and view videos about travel experiences; or beeline.tv, which allows users to access televised programs from across the world. These resources benefit the modern classroom, but they are often used in ways that leave ultimate control over content with the instructor, thus diminishing student agency in the process of learning. The project described here takes a different approach. In this article, I describe my experiences designing and teaching my Multimedia English course, in which I ask my Japanese university students to use authentic audiovisual resources to become producers of knowledge in the foreign-language classroom. Windows Movie Maker has played a crucial role in the success of this course.

Growth in the demand for organic foods has been phenomenal in the past decade both in Australia and overseas because organic production is seen to be beneficial to both human health and the environment. In general, organic products commend a price premium over conventional products. Since organic attributes cannot be verified easily and there is no control over the use of the word 'organic' in the Australian market, the organic label has been subject to abuse. Over ten years, the Australian organic industry has called for a domestic regulation, claiming that any incidence of consumer deception and product misrepresentation can result in the loss of consumer confidence and sales, and more importantly, hinder future industry growth. However, the Government has rejected the calls. On the other hand, despite its recent history, the labelling of GM foods has become mandatory since 2001. This paper examines the arguments for and against the mandatory labelling of organic foods in Australia, compares the political and marketing environments in which organic and GMO foods operate, and assesses the appropriateness of the differing regulatory responses.

Ownership changes in state owned enterprises (SOEs) alter the ownership structure and in turn impact upon the corporate governance of the enterprises. Combined, these have been important considerations within the SOE reform process, particularly since the 1997 zhuada fangxiao commitment. The successful reform of SOEs is a significant factor in China's future economic prosperity and ability to contend with unemployment and social justice issues. Thus, the focus of this paper is firstly, the structure of ownership of publicly listed firms and secondly, the impact of ownership changes on SOEs in China immediately after the 1997 announcement. The study found that there were no dramatic ownership changes or state divestment of listed SOE firms immediately after the 1997 announcement, in the years 1997 to 2000. The ownership structures of publicly listed companies slowly changed as state holdings reduced and private ownership increased. The finding is that the state continues to hold a supermajority and is not relinquishing control of the publicly listed enterprises with any haste or priority, despite the announcement. The trend appears to be in the direction of decreasing state holdings, though at a relatively slow rate. There were very few fully privately owned publicly listed firms in China. The study identified 211 significant changes in the ownership structure of listed firms in the years 1997 to 2000. All of these changes involved the reduction of state holdings. The event study conducted in this analysis found that the market response to these changes is significant and positive. The results suggest that the market deems ownership change which reduces state holdings favorably and expects these changes to improve firm performance. Given that changes in ownership structure are found to be a decrease in state ownership, it is further posited that the market regards any ownership change that reduces state influence to be positive.

In this paper, the performances of panel data unit root tests are considered and various estimation methods under different properties of data are compared. It is shown that weighted symmetric estimation increases the power of the tests without adversely affecting the size, for most data properties and most panels of dimensions N and T. The presence of serial correlation and cross-sectional correlation does not reduce the power of the tests significantly.

In this paper, the performances of panel data unit root tests are considered and various estimation methods under different properties of data are compared. It is shown that weighted symmetric estimation increases the power of the tests without adversely affecting the size, for most data properties and most panels of dimensions N and T. The presence of serial correlation and cross-sectional correlation does not reduce the power of the tests significantly.

This study investigates whether ownership structure has a significant effect on the performance of listed firms in China. It also investigates what level of Chinese institutional ownership may be the most advantageous. The results of the empirical analysis of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges are reported in this paper. The most significant findings are that institutional ownership, through Legal Person holding companies, is found to have a positive bearing on listed firm performance. Similar results are found for individual investors, offshore ownership and foreign institutions, but to a lesser extent. Also of significance is that Legal Person holdings are found to have a non-linear relationship to performance in that the levels of Legal Person ownership are found to be a significant factor. Significantly, the findings suggest that Medium levels of Legal Person ownership are the most effective in improving firm performance. Other issues that are identified in the empirical analysis are that size is relevant, in that large firms are found not to perform as well as smaller firms. Leverage carries some weight also, as highly leveraged firms are found not to perform as well.

From the analytical viewpoint a norm can formally be regarded as a right-duty (or claim-obligation) relation (1) that regulates behaviour (action/inaction) (2) among subjects (3) in definite space (4) and time (5). In normative terms, general principles (the 'basis') of (international) law can be conceived of as general obligations, i.e. obligations erga omnes (towards everyone). Obligations erga omnes, indivisible or divisible because of their content, link a subject to every other subject of international law, endowed with a correlative claim, so that the whole obligations erga omnes are matched by the whole claims erga omnes of all the subjects of international law. Indivisible obligations erga omnes are unavailable from the viewpoint of the power, so cogentes, breaches violate necessarily all the correlative claims, possibly enabling every subject to invoke the responsibility and impose sanctions. Correspondingly, sanctions should be regarded as indivisible obligations erga omnes, the violation of which allows universal enforcement. Nevertheless, specifically by reason of the gravity of the breach, it is possible to split primary and secondary norms, conceiving of the sanction as a bilateral relation allowing solely reciprocal enforcement in the case of an infringement. Divisible obligations erga omnes are available from the viewpoint of the power, so dispositivae, breaches must be seen as relative, enabling only the subject(s) injured to invoke the responsibility and impose sanctions. Correspondingly, sanctions should be regarded as bilateral obligations, the infringement of which gives rise to reciprocal enforcement. Nevertheless, it is possible to figure out that specifically the gravity of the breach 'unifies' the primary divisible obligation, allowing universal invocation of the responsibility, so that the secondary obligation could be either bilateral or a general indivisible one, respectively permitting relative or absolute enforcement in the case of a breach.

The relationship between leverage, profitability and a firm's ownership structure in China is investigated in this paper. It is an exploratory study based on all firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 1999 to 2005. The results of the empirical analysis are reported in this paper. The most significant result is that foreign holdings are found to have a significant relationship with the leverage of listed firms in China. Whereas, somewhat unexpectedly, institutional ownership, through legal person holding companies, state ownership and private holdings are not found to have a significant relationship with the capital structure choices of firms in China. The results also suggest that some firm-specific factors that are relevant for explaining firm leverage generally referred to in studies in developed economies, such as profitability, growth opportunities, size and tax shields, are also relevant in China. The age of the firms and the industry to which they principally belong also has significant bearing. Yet direct government grants and the use of an internationally renowned auditing firm do not show a significant relationship.

As teachers, we want to motivate our students to learn during a unit and to continue learning about the topic after the unit ends. This article describes about a hundred methods we use to help motivate students to learn. The methods form 12 categories: (1) making content relevant to student values and goals, (2) helping students achieve their goals through learning, (3) providing potent models of learning, (4) prompting and persuading students to learn, (5) establishing a positive relationship with students. (6) rewarding student achievement and learning efforts, (7) not de-motivating students, (8) enhancing student learning self-efficacy, (9) using engaging teaching methods, (10) using an appealing teaching style, (11) giving motivational feedback, and (12) monitoring student motivation levels and adjusting motivation methods as needed. Teachers at any level of the educational system may be able to increase their motivational impact by using the methods that suit their personality, their topic, their students, and their setting.

This study investigates the relationship between firm ownership structure and performance for a comprehensive sample of Chinese listed firms for the period from 2000 to 2004. We find a convex relationship between state ownership and firm value, i.e. ownership by the state is beneficial at levels above approximately 35% but negative effects on value are observed at lower levels. The main theme of the paper relates to analysis of effects of private block shareholders on value. We examine this issue both in an OLS and 2SLS equation framework which takes account of potential endogeneities in ownership-performance relationship. We find evidence that the presence of large private shareholders at firms with no significant state holdings is detrimental to the performance of these firms.

We describe the operation of the 'Marxan with Zones' software (Watts et al. 2008 in prep, Klein et al. 2008) on a Marine planning problem for the north central coast of California, USA (Klein et al. 2008 in prep). 'Marxan with Zones' is an adaptation of the 'Marxan'software (Ball & Possingham 2000, Possingham et al. 2000). Operating the software involved a series of steps, including; framing the problem definition, calibrating the input parameters, validating the correct operation of the software, and generating robust results. These steps were performed for each of our planning scenarios, illustrating best practices for 'Marxan with Zones'. The software used for running 'Marxan with Zones' and performing calibration, validation, results analysis and explorative data analysis was 'Zonae Cogito' (Watts et al. 2008 in prep).

'Marxan with Zones' (called 'Marxan Z' for short) is a decision support tool developed by The Ecology Centre, University of Queensland. A number of institutions have played a key role in supporting the development of 'Marxan Z' software. We wish to acknowledge the funding received from Ecotrust, whose interest in this software development arose from the need to support the design of marine protected areas along California's coast as part of California's 'Marine Life Protection Act'. We also acknowledge funding received from the National Heritage Trust and the Applied Environment Decision Analysis centre.

Collaboration is the catch-cry of the modern research effort. Researchers are encouraged to collaborate to build research teams of critical mass that successfully leverage knowledge expertise and resources and improve the chances of funding success. As facilitators of the research and innovation chain, research administrators encourage collaborative that increasingly transcends disciplinary and national boundaries. The 'publish or perish' mantra has a new parallel: 'collaborate or perish'. The challenge for research administrators is to consider how the principles of collaboration equally apply to our community. We operate in an environment where resources are scarce, compliance and reporting demands are increasing, measures of quality and international ranking are paramount and managing the true cost of research is a key business driver. Working across boundaries is becoming an everyday reality for the research services professional. The question now, is collaboration the answer for the research administrator and, if so, how will the collaborative process be supported?

The present paper aims to assess the state of self-regulatory initiatives, often identified under the heading of "corporate social responsibility", in the Private Military and Security industry. It takes into account substantive regulation and its implementation. The analysis focuses on Codes of Conduct (CoC), including best practices and ethics declarations initiated by firms, designed to apply to the provision of coercive services in contexts of armed conflict.

From the analytical viewpoint a norm can formally be regarded as a right-duty (or claim-obligation) relation (1) that regulates behaviour (action/inaction) (2) among subjects (3) in definite space (4) and time (5). Consequently, a legal order can be defined as a system of right-duty (or claim-obligation) relations that regulate behaviour (action/inaction) among subjects in definite space and are procedurally organised in the vertical and horizontal sense according to time. An iconic representation of these minimum necessary concepts allows switching from natural language to a purely formal representation of the legal system(s) (deontic network). Within this 'geometrical' frame, general principles (the 'basis') of (international) law can be conceived of as general obligations, i.e. obligations erga omnes (towards everyone). Obligations erga omnes (ties), indivisible or divisible because of their content, link a subject (node) to every other subject of international law, endowed with a correlative claim (s - s), so that the whole obligations erga omnes are matched by the whole claims erga omnes of all the subjects of international law. Indivisible obligations erga omnes are unavailable from the viewpoint of the power, so cogentes, breaches violate necessarily all the correlative claims, possibly enabling every subject to invoke the responsibility and impose sanctions. Correspondingly, sanctions should be regarded as indivisible obligations erga omnes, the violation of which allows universal enforcement. Nevertheless, specifically by reason of the gravity of the breach, it is possible to split primary and secondary norms, conceiving of the sanction as a bilateral relation allowing solely reciprocal enforcement in the case of an infringement. Divisible obligations erga omnes are available from the viewpoint of the power, so dispositivae, breaches must be seen as relative, enabling only the subject(s) injured to invoke the responsibility and impose sanctions. Correspondingly, sanctions should be regarded as bilateral obligations, the infringement of which gives rise to reciprocal enforcement. Nevertheless, it is possible to figure out that specifically the gravity of the breach 'unifies' the primary divisible obligation, allowing universal invocation of the responsibility, so that the secondary obligation could be either bilateral or a general indivisible one, respectively permitting relative or absolute enforcement in the case of a breach.

The article entitled 'Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation and Conflicts: Three African Case Studies' which appeared in the Nigerian Journal of international Affairs, vol. 31, no. 2, 2005, was my first major study on the issue of Small Arms and Light Weapons [hereinafter refer to as SALW] proliferation and African convicts. Ever since, I have closely been following the West African politico-military landscape with reference to SALW proliferation - an interest that was further sharpened by my invitation to the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS] Executive Secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria for an interview into its newly initiated Regional Small Arms Control Programme [ECOSAP]. I intend not to detail my discussions on the meaning of SALW. Instead, a comprehensive analysis of the roles of ECOWAS as a sub-regionai organisation in maintaining regional peace and security become imperative, and the paper is also interested in looking, albeit briefly, at the processes leading to the formation, and dynamics of ECOWAS. This is very fundamental because the insights from such retrospective exercise will help us immensely to really fathom the transcendence of ECOWAS beyond its original mandate, i.e., economic development. 'In addendum', relying on Article 52 of the United Nations [UN] Charter, regional organisations are empowered to maintain regional peace and security. Thus, ECOWAS that was initially established as an institution for economic integration or West Africa ventured into regional security issues as a result of the rebellion that started in December 1989 in Liberia by Charles Taylor against Samuel Doe’s government. With the establishment of the ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group [ECOMOG] that is now the military force of ECOWAS, the stage was set for ECOWAS intervention in the West African civil conflicts. It is true that the Nigeria-dominated ECOMOG brought peace to Liberia. While Sierra Leone would have been a ghost of itself by now and Ivorians are now experiencing peace [albeit fragile] courtesy of the combined roles of ECOMOG and French forces. The question is why has SALW continued to attract very high premium in the hands of non-State actors and national armies alike? How has ECOWAS been managing arms especially during post-conflict peace building?. This is fundamental considering the fact that for a state that just came out of civil conflict in order not to roll back into anarchy or Hobbesian state or nature; SALW has to be properly managed in the interest of sustainable peace and development. The above arguments will be fully developed in the subsequent sections.