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In modern times, increasing divorce ratio should be addressed properly by the agencies concerned. There are numerous studies that found that dyadic coping plays a vital role in marital satisfaction as a significant predictor of marital quality. However, previous research overlooked the function of dyadic coping from both dimensions of marital quality: positive and negative marital quality. Factors that hinder marital satisfaction do not simply mean that they cause marital dissatisfaction. Thus, this conceptual paper aims to discuss the function of dyadic coping to marital quality from both domains.

This paper presents a critical review on studies that compared the effects of word processing-assisted writing and pen-and-paper writing on the quality of writing and higher level revisions. I argue that, the mixed results can be attributed to flaws in the research design, including forcing students who were skilled in writing with computers to compose with pen and paper during the data collection, using thinking-aloud protocols for evaluation, and failing to state the time limit for and the venue of conducting the writing task. I conclude by suggesting directions for future research.

This study explored how undergraduate students and their tutors in an English Language Teaching Department of a Turkish university conceptualised a good research paper and whether there was a match between the conceptions of both parties. In line with this purpose, the study specifically sought answers to what the students’ concerns and what their tutors’ views were on students’ potential problems during the process of writing a research paper. The findings revealed a match between the students’ and tutors’ perceptions of a good research paper. However, the parties conceived the constructs valued and problems faced differently.

This study was conducted to identify and analyze some significant features that influence students and teachers about computer-based tests (CBT) and paper-and-pencil tests (P&P) at the context of the PAULEX Project. In order to do that, a large experiment has been developed at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Polytechnic University of Valencia), Spain, in which several students and professors have answered a validated questionnaire about their usage of technology, feelings and experiences. They also compared their preferences after doing two similar basic tests, CBT and P&P.

Although errors are accepted inevitable in the foreign language learning, they give information about teaching- learning process of the students. The fact that even ELT students’ exam papers contain lots of serious errors has led to this research to find the reasons for them. With this aim, the exam papers of ELT students were examined in terms of their overall quality and the errors the students have made and they were listed according to their types. This study is a qualitative study which reflects the errors of students in their exam papers. To get the data, document analysis was conducted. The documents are the exam papers of sophomore and junior students of ELT department of Akdeniz University. It was found out that ELT students have problems in expressing their own ideas on any topic by analysing the situation. Besides, most of them are not careful with their writing, in terms of grammar, syntax and spelling. Some errors can be regarded as careless errors when the exam situation is considered. However, some of them result from overgeneralization of rules. Some errors occur because of the effect of the native language or students’ inefficiency to use correct structures in writing although they know everything by heart. It is important for ELT students to use the language accurately as they are English teacher candidates. To overcome the problem, foreign language teaching and testing processes should be taken into consideration.

The present moral crisis of humanity will be closely considered in Ackroyd's Plato's Papers via Riemann's Theorem of Earth Mapping, Kelly's Personal Construct theory and Plato's Idea of the Third Man with a view to showing that only the generally assumed relationship between logos and ethos could rescue the mentality of the entire world and retrieve temporality and morality. For this approach to be successfully turned to good account the Aristotelian concepts of Logos (the thinking part of the intellect) mediating with Pathos (the feeling self) through the actions of his acting self, the personal Ethos, will be employed in relation to Ackroyd's character, Plato, the philosopher-orator. Within Ackroyd's novel, Plato appears as a credible detector of the dark mysterious evolution of mankind, being at the same time, an important narrative device in the author's aesthetic attempt at retrieving the far-off history of London. This is accomplished through the technique of fast rewind, Ackroyd moving backwards from the year 3700 up to 3500 B.C. For the objective of the paper to be properly covered (the present moral crisis and the philosophical solution offered to it, which is also the main argument of the paper), logos will be dealt with in relation to Kelly's alternative perspectives where two concepts are equally significant: determinism and free will. The results and conclusions are related to Ethos based on choice, the choice of reconstructing humanity by recuperating light which equates with rescuing spiritual and cultural values.

Online games approach is recommended as a tool that can enhance students’ ability to master the Arabic language. Appropriate models need to be produced as effective learning materials especially in the design and development of online Arabic language games. This concept paper explores elements of development and digital game-based learning model in the process of building Arabic language online games at school. This study describes the design elements as the results of the Arabic language online games development. The implications of this study can serve as a guideline for the development and effectiveness of future learning of Arabic language through online games at school.

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in carbon information disclosure. This research aims to examine carbon reporting practices of Malaysian companies. Further analysis will be conducted to examine the influence of internal organizational factors on the carbon reporting practices. The relationship between carbon performance, carbon reporting and firm performance will be investigated. This paper also explores the moderating effect of the corporate governance quality on the relationship between carbon reporting practices and firm performance. The findings from this study have a significant contribution to carbon reporting literature, Malaysian companies, government and accounting regulation body.

d Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Abstract The recognition of training as an important development of human resource in implementing the quality of its human capital needs is no longer a new issue. However, despite several attempts trying to improve the success of training transfer onto the job, majority of the employees attending training had indicated that they had less successfully transferred the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have learnt and even further minimal change in behavior in their job-related performance. In this paper, the qualitative and quantitative investigation was conducted to examine the extent of training transfer knowledge activities (in compiling, gathering, collating and synthesising the employees experience, knowledge, skills and abilities) among executives at selected agribusiness and agro-technology based organizations. Final knowledge on training transfer performance and program were further formulated with feedback from training transfer expert. This paper contributes to the alternate model in favour of innovative and sustainable governance of a holistic agribusiness policy framework.

This conceptual research paper is about Malaysians’ perceptions toward products made in Malaysia versus products made in China. Local products are generally perceived as being of lesser quality compared to others. It is now common for most products to have the label “Made in China”; unfortunately, products made in China are also not renowned for their quality. With this in mind, what would Malaysians’ choices be? Products made in China are often cheaper compared to locally made products, mainly due to China's massive production industry. Apart from price, other factors that will be tested in this study are ethnocentrism and product quality (including aesthetics, performance and durability) that might affect consumers’ purchase decisions toward products made in China or Malaysia.

The aim of this study was to determine the interference errors on the composition papers of Turkish university students. While Turkish university students learning English are writing compositions, they sometimes confront difficulties related to proper word choices, grammatical structures and other aspects of the language due to the differences of these two languages. The aim of the study was, therefore, to determine inter-lingual errors on the composition papers written in English. 436 papers written by 26, intermediate level, preparatory class students (3 male, 23 female), and 642 papers written by 42 upper intermediate level students (11 male and 31 female), were examined in this study. According to the result of the study, the highest ranking interference errors of Turkish university EFL students were “word for word translation”, omitting the indefinite article, subject-verb agreement and number, quantifier and noun agreement. The study also revealed that intermediate level students committed more errors than those who were upper-intermediate and that most errors were general errors, not interference errors. And also it was clear from the present study that as the level of the students got higher, the number of the errors and interference errors got lower.

Most of undergraduate courses in higher institutions in Malaysia use final exam as assessment tool to measure students’ academic achievement. Good constructed items/questions on final exam would be able to measure both students’ academic achievement and their generic skills. As such, this study using Rasch Measurement Model to evaluate the reliability and quality of final exam questions Mathematics Engineering III course. The items in the examination paper were studied and items that do not measure up to expectations were identified. The item analysis provides clues to how well the content of the item yielded useful information about student ability. This study focuses on constructed items, where items must retain their relative difficulty on the equal interval scale ( logit ), regardless of the ability of the students that challenges the item. The analysis revealed that even though there are three misfit questions, but overall, the reliability and quality of the exam questions constructed were relatively good and calibrated with students’ learned ability.

Language testing research has recently seen growing interest in Test Wiseness (TW) strategies, particularly in answering Multiple Choice (MC) tests. Research has indicated that these strategies are deployed differently by different test takers and hence can be assumed as a threat to test fairness, validity and reliability. This study aims to answer these questions: (1) Do higher level EFL test takers of MC grammar tests use TW strategies more than lower level EFL test takers? (2)Which TW strategies are more frequent among Iranian EFL test takers in paper MC grammar tests? (3) What are the test takers’ attitudes on the use of TW Strategies in IBT and PBT? (4) Do EFL test takers with previous experience of Internet Based Tests (IBT) prefer Paper Based Tests (PBT) to IBT with respect to TW strategies? To respond the first and the second questions, this study used quantitative approach, Independent T-test and frequency measures, respectively. The study also made use of interview to indicate the test takers’ preference for PBTs or IBTs and their attitude on the employment of TW strategies in the two aforementioned test modes. The findings revealed no significant difference in the employment of TW strategies between the test takers higher and lower than the mean in a MC grammar test. “Reading the instructions carefully before the items” was found to be the most frequent and “revising answers to correct misspellings as the least frequent. There was a consensus amongst all the available test takers with IBT experience on the PBT preference. Findings in the interview provided more insights into the typical strategies and the reasons EFL test takers used them.

At the end of 2011, the Association of Lithuanian Serials initiated a survey, which aimed to ascertain whether Lithuanian journal editors, reviewers and authors encountered plagiarism, self-plagiarism and how they understood originality of a paper. Additionally, the survey looked at methods used for plagiarism prevention by editors and reviewers as well as ways, in which editors managed issues related to plagiarism. The survey suggests that no unanimous decision exists regarding the originality of a manuscript and that editors expect reviewers to identify plagiarism with little use of technologies. While answering to survey questions, respondents provided numerous comments. This demonstrates that plagiarism is a burning issue and scientific misconduct policy is needed in Lithuania. The survey was conducted during the period when the Lithuanian Research Council initiated the procedure for establishing the Ombudsman position. The Lithuanian Research Council funded several projects in 2012 and 2013, the aim of which was to familiarise the Lithuanian academic community with plagiarism prevention technologies and ethical aspects in academic publishing. The projects administrated by the Association of Lithuanian Serials provide research journal publishers and researchers related to journal publishing with a possibility of using CrossCheck system and discussing editorial policies.

Volleyball game is played in an unstable setting, characterized by a great variability of the coordinates that, associated to the important number of informational clues, to the specific way of playing the ball and to the ball high flight speed, determine a series of perception difficulties and a very short time to analyze all the information. Thus, the identification of the significant indices characterizing a situation is essentially based on the perception selectiveness. This study aims at organizing the information specific to a game action within a perceptual model including data about the situational framework in which it takes place. To perceive only what is important in a game situation is an extremely complex process, which can be improved through a perceptual and motor-perceptual learning program. By means of this program, the athlete learns what to perceive, relying on the information organization under the form of perceptual models. The research consisted of a pedagogic experiment that aimed at modeling the preparation of some actions, by using the perceptual models. They show an improvement of the game efficiency in the indicators that will be detailed in our full paper. The study proves that the learning program focused on the perceptual models leads to an improvement both of the perception and of the game. This program can also be extended to the utilization of perceptual models for the preparation of the other game actions.

Forecasts indicate that it is not possible to reduce total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport to fulfill the target of two degrees global warming with technology means alone. It is possible to reduce GHG-emissions for all modes but still rail will be the most efficient mode by 2050. Rail has a modest market share in the European Union (EU) in comparison with ‘best practice’ rail systems in the world. There is a big potential if the rail system is developed with new high speed rail and freight corridors as well as an upgraded conventional network and intermodal systems. This paper presents an estimation of the effects of a partial mode shift to rail transport applying world's ‘best practice’ by the year 2050. It is shown that such a mode shift to rail can reduce EU transport GHG emissions over land by about 20%, compared with a baseline scenario. In combination with low-carbon electricity production a reduction of about 30% may be achieved. A developed rail system can thus substantially contribute to the EU target of reducing GHG emissions in the transport sector by 60% below 1990 levels. To enable such a mode shift and to manage the demand for capacity, there is a need for investments. This will also maintain and increase mobility for passengers and freight transport.

The purpose of this work is to confirm theoretical findings in the field of management of higher education (institutions) and contribute with our own findings on the elements, mechanisms and instruments that affect the quality and effectiveness of managing and organizing higher education at the national and institutional level, and thus contribute to a more efficient and effective higher education. This work will also clarify interdisciplinary connections between various segments of the above mentioned management of higher education (institutions) field, which has not been explained yet. In the introduction of the paper, the impact of higher education on economic development and on knowledge society is explained briefly. Further on, the background of the work is illustrated and the definition of the working problem is explained, which basically refers to the inefficiency of (mostly) publicly-funded higher education and lack of proper managerial solutions and skills at higher education institutions. Furthermore, the role of higher education and major trends in higher education are introduced and discussed. The main contribution of the paper is the matrix of higher education objectives which have to be realized in order to implement a successful higher education and institutions, mainly from managerial and financial perspectives.

The organizations’ need to satisfy consumers’ demand often generates various environmental negative impacts caused by delayed responses to different environmental issues. Therefore it is necessary that this relation between organizations and environment be effectively managed. This can be done only by implementing and integrating an Environmental management system (EMS). Likewise analyzing this issue through another perspective, the EMS can be considered as a hierarchical management system – that is “limited”, having in view the explosive modifications that define the current social reality. This paper presents the research results conducted at the level of NE Romania largest organizations that are predominantly developing industrial activities. The study sample is 171 organizational managers. The paper aims to improve EMS integration quality process by transforming and adapting its architecture relying on the principles of Fractal philosophy. Therefore, the general objective of this work is the development of a theoretical framework as a model based on Fractal design that should improve the EMS integration quality. It must be noted that this research also results in a practical component, since it provides the organizational manager with new working instruments in order to improve the EMS organizational integration.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the symphony orchestra as a living organism in a perpetual interaction with the volatility of the nowadays environment, as a symbiosis between the goods and the services provided by a symphony orchestra's activity. A description of the symphony orchestra's activity, with emphasize upon German orchestras (Kulturorchester), as dominators on the classical symphony orchestras’ market. This paper aims to present some of the mission statements, the goals, the good practices identified in symphony orchestras’ management, mostly German, the typical and well-known pattern that characterizes a musician, member of an orchestra, and to describe the characteristics of today's management. There is a special emphasis placed on the interdisciplinary activity and the collaboration with the educational institutions. The results consist of the identification of the multiple stakeholders, the opportunities and the threats, the best practices and the innovative aspects in today's management of a symphony orchestra. “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire” Gustav Mahler

Changing technologies, where development time for a new work product must be decreased with each year due to a higher customer competition, also leads to a change in mindset in the way in which product development is currently done. Gamification models are one of this “game-changing” strategies that was considered suitable to also be implemented in the automotive software product development topic, but not only in this area. This paper describes the current situation in adopting on large scale the product development phases as gamified scenario, together with the presentation of the results of several questionnaires applied on automotive project team members. The aim of the paper is to present a procedure for obtaining a gamification application on an automotive project describing in detail each step which needs to be fulfilled in an iterative way. As a starting point for the model, the DMA (Design – Mechanics – Aesthetic) procedure was used, supported with elements from the PC/game console development, but also the existing tools/frameworks were taken into consideration. The obtained method can be applied on each automotive project, but there are the steps/iterations which still need to be performed, while also the positive and negative aspects are presented.

Cloud computing is today's edge of ICT, being present in quite all fields of economy, society and human life: education, medicine, industry, communication, etc., offering services and applications that are used daily by everyone connected to the internet. The quality of these services is a cutting subject for all stakeholders. This paper synthesizes some relevant researches focusing on quality management approaches in software services using remote assistance as tool and cloud as support of this service. As first step, the literature review focuses on cloud as being the most emerging and comprehensive subject on the deck, then extends the research on software services supported by cloud, identifying quality interventions in these cases and in the end, is looking for quality related demarches in remote assistance of these services. The research tries to identify how quality could influence cloud products in favor of the customer, targeting better cloud-connected services and applications. Proposing an exploratory research, the paper's intended contribution is placed mainly in clarifying the mentioned concepts and the way they are correlated in the practical world.

This scientific paper conducts a study meant to improve the quality management of the thermosonic welding process of gold wires in the automotive industry. Within the large amount of electronic products manufactured worldwide, the gold wire bonding is the preferred technology for creating the needed interconnections in the microelectronic industry. In this paper, the quality management improving starts with an experimental research in the automotive industry, based on the gold wire thermosonic bonding, in terms of: conformal structuring, robustness and integrity of the electrical contacts. The experimental research is based on the processing parameters and on the independent variables and objective processing functions. In order to highlight the impact which one or more factors have on the quality of the thermosonic bonding, the dispersion analysis method was used. According to this, the importance of each factor, but also each factor's optimization, was underlined. The final goal was to reach a high reliability and quality of the finished goods.

The paper provides an analysis of the process of transformation of the educational activities of the Orthodoxy in the circumstances of the development of the transcultural information space in terms of clericalization and secularization (as exemplified by contemporary Russia); comprises a detailed study of the changes in the educational environment, which have taken place due to the increasing activity of the Church in post-Soviet Russia and the support of the Government; and states the correlation between this trend and the processes of the transcultural information environment that has made the religion secularization possible. This paper discusses the main attitudes of the supporters and opponents of secularization and clericalization both in the Russian Federation, and the wider world. In our understanding, there is a tendency towards secularization in the modern cultural and informational environment. It does not necessarily mean that religion is disappearing; we can see now the rise and fall of the clericalization processes which is a specific situation against the aforementioned general tendency. A renewed interest in religion in the Russian Federation today clearly means that the Russian Orthodox Church is penetrating into the sphere of education. The supporters of this process advocate moral and religious improvement of the personality and the maintenance of mental aspects of education. The opponents of comprehensive school clericalization take an ideological approach; they believe that religious education in secular schools violates the constitutional requirement of the ideological pluralism.

The paper explores the higher education institution experience activities regarding minors’ protection against abuse and exploitation within the international framework of the challenge under study. The research stands on the comparative analysis of the Lanzarote Committee documents, explored Parties’ replies to Question 2 (Education for children) of the Thematic Questionnaire and Question 8(a) (Education, awareness raising and training), first indent, of the General Overview Questionnaire. The analysis also took into account Academia's publications on the issue under study. The Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) faculty members’ participation in the Lanzarote Committee work also contributed to the research. The paper highlights qualitative analysis findings that cover such issues as the education contexts for preventive information delivery, their contents, tools and forms of disseminating preventive information, terminology used, parents’ engagement, situations of risks, etc. The above aspects are considered through the lenses of university engagement in the analysis. The paper argues that the university can contribute to capacity-building measures for minors’ education to prevent their abuse and exploitation; the university capacity to perform the relevant activities rests on its multiprofiled structure, comprehensive nature, and opportunities to collaborate with various agencies and engage specialists in pedagogy, law, medicine, psychology and psychiatry, etc. The research findings reveal that the university might play a significant role in shaping information, bridging institutional responses, coordinating the legislation, government policies and the public initiatives to promote action plans towards the nation-wide and international levels to protect minors and combat against their abuse and exploitation.

The paper examines the potential of flipped classroom applying in foreign language teaching. The authors look back at the history of emerging of the method, analyse its advantages over other traditional approaches. Among the advantages it should be mentioned time extension between the teacher and the student; increase of responsibility and self-reliance of the latter; personified approach to each learner; teacher's capability to create authorized mini lectures, taking into account the peculiarities of vocationally-orientated teaching, as well as age peculiarities and other features of each learning group; possibility for each student to work according to his/her personal pace, using time more effectively relative to the students and the teacher; increasing creativity and critical thinking; potential for permanent data archiving; positive transformation of teacher/students’ role relations when a student becomes a protagonist and creator of his/her own knowledge, at the same time the teacher becomes the guide and councilor; advancement of the learner's motivation; improvement of the atmosphere in the classroom that becomes more friendly and comfortable; chance for better concentration in the classroom. The paper describes flipped classroom method in graphics and proposes some practical examples of its application.

The paper discusses some interdisciplinary, contextual and linguistic aspects of a new strategy for developing skills of the professional language. For their communication scientists use the academic language, involving standard word combinations and specific grammar structures. To efficiently use them in English, students should originally master the equivalent structures in their native language. The paper suggests some innovative ways of implementing the strategy. It emphasizes the significance of learning scientific discourse elements of both scientific Russian and scientific English, their specific syntax and morphology.

The paper discusses the choices of communication strategies of confrontation, distancing and cooperation in conflict discourse made by Russian and American university students. The experimental study revealed that both Russian and American male students tend to be more aggressive than females, and that both Russian and American respondents tend to choose the strategy of confrontation when they start the conversation reacting to non-verbal triggers, while in reacting to verbal triggers most respondents chose the strategies of cooperation or distancing. The paper also discusses the language units used by the four groups of students for expressing confrontation.

This paper revisits the existing literature on the concept of citizenship in digital age. It provides a detailed discussion on the proponents and opponents of technological determinism. The paper should be read as an effort to reinitiate an important debate in the scholarship, which has been largely undermined while studying the Internet phenomenon in the information age. Thus, instead of offering a solution-oriented conclusion, the paper sets the stage to invite mass media and communication scholars’ attention back to revisit the important ideological concepts, so as to evolve and improve our existing theories on communication and change in the society.

This conceptual paper examines EU institutional-legal texts as a rich repository of theoretical problems, using a synergy of linguistic and translatological approaches. The paper aims to promote awareness of EU supranational texts’ complexities, drawing on the concepts of ‘hybrid’/‘reproduced’/‘horizontal’ texts resulting in ‘language matrices’/‘mirror images’ in a multilingual communication in the EU. The paper suggests that EU texts take the form of ‘self-translation’ and interlingual imitation with broken expectancy norms of national recipients (including Slovaks) and require the source-oriented approach. Paradoxes conveying the workings of EU texts, their multilingual translation and supranational legal interpretation are also formulated.

The paper deals with the multicultural character of Slovak standard lexis, which is based on the acquisition of foreign lexemes and their adaptation into the language system of Slovak. It focuses on languages that have left important traces on Slovak lexis. The paper also considers five main factors that determine the multicultural character of Slovak standard lexis from the point of view of language ecology: language status, linguistic similarity, linguistic contrast, particularities of language, and codification of language. The influence of these factors on the hosting language represents a complex eco-linguistic phenomenon that is regularised in and by communication.

The paper addresses the issue of Russian English as a world variety used within such multicultural domain as Instagram which is an on-line social networking service. Building on an earlier idea, the paper puts forward a hypothesis regarding the existence of Instagram Russian English (IRE) which in general follows the pattern of Russian English in terms of its distinctive lexical, grammatical and pragmatic characteristics, the three-lectal continuum and the verbalization of the Russian mindset of its speakers. Therefore, IRE does reflect the Russian culture and mentality via both linguistic and pragmatic means.

The paper deals with the structure of responsibility in preschool and primary school children and its specific features. Responsibility is understood as a personality trait which is reflected in the awareness and emotional experience of the need to do a job that is significant to everybody as well as in the readiness to realize responsible behavior. The main objective of the study is to determine age-related differences (the level of formation of responsibility), as well as manifestations of the behavioral, emotional and cognitive components of responsibility in comparable age groups. The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of preschoolers’ and primary school children's notions about responsibility. The results show that the age period in question is sensitive to the formation of responsibility as a personality trait.

In an academic context, EFL/EAP students must become proficient in the skills of reading and research paper writing in order to meet the requirements of the courses in their fields of study. However, many of these students do not like to read, especially in English, and some of them have never written a research essay or paper, in which they cite and integrate information from sources into their own writing, even in their own languages. Group activities encourage students to do such tasks, as they can analyze and discuss the material together and peer teach each other. Unfortunately, some students still do not share in doing the activity, so they do not benefit from it and disappoint their teammates. The Jigsaw method plugs this gap as each member of a group has an integral role to play, on which other members of the group depend to achieve the task. The students are in control and the teacher is a facilitator who helps and provides necessary explanation. Jigsaw provides the learners with a chance to be responsible autonomous learners. Jigsaw is used here for reading and introducing research essay writing, but it can be used with any reading passage in any teaching context.

This paper aims to examine the influence of business intelligence on organizational agility through Partial mediating variable Empowerment. The statistical population of the study is consisted of Tehran Construction Engineering Organization (TCEO) and ETKA Organization Industries co. 102 questionnaires have been distributed among managers and stakeholders of information systems and these have been analyzed via SPSS and Smart PLS software. Within this paper the Popovic business intelligence questionnaire (2012), Sharifi& Zhang Organizational Agility and Spreitzer Empowerment have been used. The hypothesis of study is: Business Intelligence has direct and indirect influence through empowerment on organizational agility. Secondary hypothesis seek to examine the impact of business intelligence on organizational agility, business intelligence on empowerment and examining the impact of empowerment on organizational agility. Research studies imply the confirmation of study primary and secondary hypothesis.

For the evaluation of performance at the national level are used the different indicators in comparison with business level. The paper is focused on evaluation of indicators of national health systems’ performance at the level WHO “better health”. The aim of paper is to define the specifics of selected health systems in European Union, analyze and evaluate the selected indicators of performance of these systems which are used by WHO, compare the results of the analysis in these health systems and determine the position of the Czech health system in the set of indicators “better health” in comparison with other countries. The indicators are evaluated in the time series.

This paper presents some of the results of a broader research project on how formative assessment affects the development of specific and generic competences in teacher training subjects at higher education level. The aim of the paper is to describe the impact of formative assessment on the development of learning-to-learn skills, in a sample of 143 students on teacher training bachelor's degrees at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia. The results are from a quasi-experimental pre-post study, without a control group and follow-up, that used a quantitative method. Formative assessment was implemented in four subjects of the bachelor's degrees in Teacher in Primary Education (MEP) and Teacher in Early Childhood Education (MEI), in the second semester. At the start and end of each subject, students were asked to complete an ad hoc questionnaire to assess the effect of formative assessment on various competences, including learning-to-learn. The degree of independence and awareness that students perceived about what they had to learn increased significantly, but there were no significant differences in the level of demands on themselves. Therefore, the results suggest that formative assessment could increase students’ independence and awareness about learning.

There seems to be a common understanding that the Norwegian construction industry faces challenges concerning the presence of delays and defects in the handover process. However, little research has been found regarding countermeasures to avoid these problems. This paper forms a part of a research project on handover processes in Norwegian construction projects, initiated by the municipality of Trondheim. It is supposed to work as a pilot study for further research, and examines: 1) Consequences of delays and defects, 2) the causes of them and 3) potential countermeasures that can be implemented. The case studied was the expansion of a shopping centre in Norway, a complex project, both structurally and organisationally. In addition to a literature review and a documentation study, nine semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. All of the interviews were case-specific, with client, contractor and user representatives respectively. The consequences of delays and defects were severe and resulted in additional costs, lower quality on the final product and psychological strain for the involved actors. Short construction period, diffuse contractual relationships, lack of quality assurance and a high degree of alteration work are found to constitute the most crucial causes. On the basis of the observed challenges different countermeasures are suggested. Building commissioning, realistic project plans, control on deliveries and independent control are recommended as countermeasures. The findings indicate a great potential for improvement by keeping the control throughout the whole project. Further experiments are needed to substantiate the recommendations of this paper.

This paper presents some of the results of a broader research project on how formative assessment affects the development of specific and generic competences in teacher training subjects at higher education level. The paper describes and discusses the impact of participatory and non-participatory assessment techniques on the attainment of learning outcomes in four different subjects. The sample was comprised of students (n=118) on teacher training bachelor's degrees at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia. Data were gathered on the lecturers’ activities in each subject and on the students’ final grades. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to assess the effect of formative assessment on students’ final grades for a subject. Statistical analysis shows that students who took subjects that were assessed by participatory techniques had a significantly (p

Modern classrooms see many innovative practices in facilitation. Most facilitators prefer using presentations animated videos and multimedia to better explain their content. Campuses are Wi-Fi enabled and students use tablets, laptops and smartphones to capture the essence of a lecture. However the one area where technological innovation is still lagging behind, in an academic setup, is in assessment. This paper looks at the perception of students to the use of clicker technology as a form of paperless assessment. Clicker technology was introduced as a tool for conducting formative and summative assessments to a first year electrical engineering subject, Digital Systems 1. The paper first elaborates on the significance, types and the methods of academic assessments. It then discusses the pros and cons of assessments using clicker technology. Thirdly it sheds light on the research methodology used in acquiring data for this research. Finally the results are analyzed which among others show that that 71% students enjoyed using clickers in class for formative assessments while only 52% appreciated its use in summative assessments. One of the reasons touted for this decrease is student anxiety. The key recommendation from this research is to increase the use of these assessment techniques within a formative assessment environment so as to familiarize students to eventually use it with confidence in summative assessments.

The paper discusses the conservation practices and methods of the Lithuanian medieval castles. Since 19 th century there was a lot of attention for the medieval castles in Lithuania, which later transformed into the search for the identity. As a result, in the middle of the 20 th century, medieval castles and their parts began to be restored and rebuilt. But the Vilnius Upper Castle has escaped these trends, thanks to the difficult geological conditions in its area. The conservation works of the Vilnius Upper Castle were gradual and included small reconstructions of its walls and other architectural elements. Referring to the history of the Vilnius Upper Castle, this paper examines the evolution and challenges of the medieval heritage conservation and rehabilitation works, namely of the objects constructed from stone- and/or brick-walls’.

This paper analyses the current situation of small businesses, their outlook and their problems in Europe and in Russia. The number of small businesses opened, legislative system, number of self-employed without employees, influence of bureaucratic system on small business's life, unemployment and corruption are considered in this study. The object of this paper is understanding what can modify the life of small companies. Thus the analysis of every factor is useful to understand how the economy could change, what is correct and what resolutions make the life of small businesses better. The analysis is made using data from Eurostat, Rosstat, and Fedstat (an OECD institutional website), studying how values of indicators have changed during recent years. The results clearly show that the development of small companies is correlated with the development of good institutions, a sane community and trust and optimism in economy and small business sector.

Malaysian Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is largest business establishment and vital component of the country's economic development. However, limited studies were examined on their development, challenges and future green prospects, especially in service sector. Therefore this article examines the development of SMEs in Malaysia, challenges and opportunities of green practices among SMEs which is play a vital role in the nation growth. The uniqueness of this paper focuses on green practices which is important for SMEs to progress and competitive in domestically and globally. The key messages from these studies examined in this paper are that Malaysian SMEs contribute to the largest business establishment in Malaysia especially service sector and majority of them are in micro size establishment. Nevertheless, there are wide recognition in the literature about the factors hinder SMEs from expanding, this is mainly because high cost of raw materials, high initial cost of investment and shortage of skilled labour. The concept of green environment is still at infancy stage in Malaysian SMEs. Environmental management literature mostly published in the developed countries has proven that ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) implementation has a positive and significant relationship with SMEs performance. This study is important indicator to encourage other SMEs which has no green practices in place to consider joining the green bandwagon, especially SMEs service sectors. The studies focused are conditioned by the search strategy used. In addition, other key words could be including in future studies such as performance, customer satisfaction, financial performance, environmental and green supply chain management in order to expand this search. The main contribution of this paper is to identify the development of SMEs in Malaysia and future research proposals with regards to the benefit of the green practices (ISO 14001 standards) in Malaysian SMEs service sector.

Barnard thought that it was possible to improve effectiveness and efficiency through formal organization. He was trying to understand how to obtain organizational survival "maintaining equilibrium of complex character in permanent turbulent environment of physical, biological and social materials and elements and forces" within the organization, exploring in parallel the outer powers to which the organization must adapt on all levels and analysing the functions which in that context are performed by executive directors in the organization as a whole system. This paper explores the influences of Chester Barnard on Blake and Mouton's leadership-management network, Hersey-Blanchard's situational leadership and Maslow's motivational theory, as well as on organisational purpose, communication and team work. This paper examines the relevance of the principles and theories developed by Barnard from the point of today's managers and leaders. According to Barnard, this can be achieved through linking Barnard's central ideas with new concepts of management and leadership. Our opinion is that even today Barnard represents a very important part of the chain of examination and exploration of management and leadership thought. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The main aim of this paper is to assess and analyse how sustainable public transit (SPT) services contribute to building living cities in emerging economies through value network and resource integration/value co-creation, which is embedded on societal and environmental perspectives. The main theoretical and empirical challenges are how to understand public transport as dynamic and transformative values based service eco-system for living city regions to develop and implement a feasible and proactive tool for changing the mind-set, which is embedded on societal and environmental perspectives. The objective is to look deeper on how these emergent and fast growing cities are put together STP for building cities for people by focusing on societal and environmental issues, which value network of SPT are integrated and value is co-created within the service system. The paper has an explorative nature. It is built around three concepts - (i) SPT and value network (ii), resilient living cities in emerging economies and (iii) Societal and environmental perspectives. The paper illustrates these concepts with four different cases from Cape Town - South Africa, Buenos Aires – Argentina; Singapore - Singapore, and Jakarta - Indonesia. The study has identified the challenges of transforming emergent and fast urbanized cities, and understanding the role of public transport services from the cities perspective in an international context by embedding social and environmental perspectives. The challenges of transforming today's cities have created many new opportunities for prosperity through new ways of living and working in urban areas. The paper makes a contribution to the study of public transit services by explicitly linking the adoption of SPT value network in emerging economies based on sustainability, and resource integration/value co-creation for building resilient living cities.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the service quality transformation opportunities currently offered to rural areas of ASEAN through innovative approaches in training and through widespread use of internet support. More than half of the population of ASEAN lives in rural areas, which have long been marginalized and left at the periphery of the recent economic development of the region. Despite multiple programmes and policies aimed at fostering tourism development opportunities, the gap remains between the tourism potential of the rural areas and the lack of service management expertise. Capacity building is seen as a crucial step towards the development of a trained labour force. This study explores different tourism capacity building cases across the ASEAN region. It reviews how innovative approaches have managed to connect the local community needs with the global tourism expectations. It analyses secondary data from three cases in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, looking at the relationship between the community, the capacity building process and the impact on tourism in the local area. The findings show contrasted results that nevertheless share common patterns where innovation has enabled participation and positive service involvement towards tourism. The paper argues for an integration of tourism service management capacity within a wider set of competences which actually empower the community while paradoxically providing higher satisfaction. This study refers to innovative practices initiated by specific community training projects that enhance socio-economic development of the community and appropriate positively tourism and build entrepreneurs. The results of this reflection and comparison provide researchers and practitioners, a matrix of initiatives that could be extended to other rural areas of the ASEAN region.

The continuous increase in the level of education in the EU countries is one of the fundamental objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy. Taking into consideration the fact that the economical efficiency is significantly influenced by the quality of the human resource, the level of education of the active population is an important variable in the process of the economic growth. The current different politics applied in the EU28 countries 20 years ago had a big structural diversity as a direct consequence concerning the level of education of the active population. Based on these findings, the paper analyses the evolution of the characteristics of the active population in the EU28 countries on the level of education in the last 10 years, a period which includes the economical crisis. The analyses based on official databases show the tendency of increasing the share of the active population with tertiary education and the relative stability of those with upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education. At the same time the fact that the difference between the countries with high shares of the tertiary education attainment level and those with still low shares is continuously increasing is emphasized, the process still being divergent. The paper also investigates the convergence in terms of the structure of the active population in EU countries.

Creating quality and sustainable urban environments has always been a challenge for urban planners and designers. The modern perception of urban planning is directed towards promoting pedestrian movement and, at the same time, limiting the excessive use of automobiles. For understanding how pedestrian movement is generated in relation to the urban layouts and for predicting this movement in public spaces, GIS database, statistical methods as well as space syntax approaches are used and tested in the case of the Municipality of Athens. In particular, this paper attempts to: (a) interpret and predict densities of pedestrian movement though the effective study of configuration characteristics and syntactic properties of urban space; (b) identify inconsistencies and limitation in the prediction of pedestrian movement; (c) propose a methodological framework to overcome these limitations. Correlation analysis is also performed between the results of axial and segment analysis to establish the syntactic analysis that better simulates the pedestrian movement. This paper is part of a wider research that intents to interpret the characteristics of the public space in order to create, through more holistic approaches, a methodological framework for decision-making analysis towards sustainable urban planning.

In the context of Europe 2020 Strategy, where the cities’ role in the global competition brings along a scale shift in terms of networking system, the paper refers to a research project investigating the potential socio-economic impact of major advancing Euro-Mediterranean cohesion. Highlighting a holistic multidisciplinary approach the paper stresses the role of local cultural heritage towards a Mediterranean sustainable development process, especially in less-known destinations, where the cultural resources are the main strategic assets for development. In conclusion a research model is presented in order to design a systematic tool to combine the Mediterranean common roots, territorial development needs and Euro-Mediterranean policies aiming at contributing to the multicultural dialogue in this transnational panorama.

Internal service quality and organizational innovation are really important in satisfying the internal and external customers’ expectation and needs. Organizational innovation is actually one of the significant factors that can affect the internal service quality of the organization. This paper describes the development of Innovative Internal Service Quality (IISQ) Model in measuring the influence of organizational innovation (based on its three main determinants) towards internal service quality (reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, assurance and empathy) in MBKS while gender acts as the moderating factor. The paper examines three main determinants of organizational innovation (innovation leadership, managerial levers and business processes) which can affect the internal service quality of an organization as well as describes how those three determinants affect the internal service quality. It will help to provide future researchers with literature in studying the influence of organizational innovation towards internal service quality. This paper can contribute in developing an improved model for organizational innovation and internal service quality.

The paper is part of the final outcomes of the the EU research project “Estudio de la Amenaza Sísmica y Vulnerabilidad Física del Gran Santo Domingo”, as produced by the Italian partenership (Istituto di Ricerca su Innovazione e Servizi per lo Sviluppo, CNR-IRISS). The paper discusses the application of the multi-criteria approach to identify urban vulnerability with respect to seismic risk. Starting from the case study of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the Italian research team provided a GIS-based design approach aimed at managing vulnerability as whole (whether physical, morphological, or social, and functional). The study depiscts and tests a wide range of indicators aimed at mapping seiemic vulnerabilty at urban district scale, according to both the probability of seismic event (the Haiti earthquake of 2010), and the site-specific vulnerability of the city. The research has been carried out with the specialistic supports of the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières -BRGM (Fr), and with the Istituto Geologico y Minero de Espana (IGME), who produced the seiemic micro-zoning mapping of the city. The GIS-based design approach, as well as the multi-criteria analysis made by the CNR research team, was here tested as innovative risk reduction planning method able at prevent and prepare to severe hazards.