In many Western science systems, funding structures increasingly stimulate academic research to contribute to practical applications, but at the same time the rise of bibliometric performance assessments have strengthened the pressure on academics to conduct excellent basic research that can be published in scholarly literature. We analyze the interplay between these two developments in a set o...

Following a thorough survey of the available literature and concentrating on the wax and wane of testing pragmatic competence so far, the present study firstly is an attempt to develop a comprehensive test of inter-language pragmatics mainly focusing on academic situations in the Iranian context. Secondly, the study aims to investigate the criteria required for the selection of speech acts of a...

The need for a qualified workforce in information technology and the broader science-technology fields, referred to as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has reached crisis proportions. Native born U.S. students are not entering the STEM fields in college in sufficient numbers to avoid an impending technology-talent shortage. University enrollments are dwindling in the STEM...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS The h-index, a bibliometric indicator that objectively characterizes the impact of an author's scholarship, is an effective tool that may be considered by academic departments for decisions related to hiring and faculty advancement. Our objective was to characterize the scholarly productivity of academic surgeons from different specialties relative to otolaryngologists. ...

The design of a computational facility for finite fields that allows complete freedom in the manner in which fields are constructed, is complicated by the fact that a field of fixed isomorphism type K may be constructed in many different ways. It is desirable that the user be able to perform simultaneous computations in different versions of K in such a way that isomorphisms identifying element...

Aston Business School Research Institute is the administrative centre for all research activities at Aston Business School. The School comprises more than 70 academic staff organised into thematic research groups along with a Doctoral Programme of more than 50 research students. Research is carried out in all of the major areas of business studies and a number of specialist fields. For further ...

An outline of recent work on complex networks is given from the point of view of a physicist. Motivation, achievements and goals are discussed with some of the typical applications from a wide range of academic fields. An introduction to the relevant literature and useful resources is also given.

C.W. Churchman (19132004) is probably the most influential philosopher of systems thinking thus far. A founding father of operations research and management science and NASA research philosopher, he never allowed himself to become absorbed by the mainstream of the fields he pioneered. Two outstanding qualities distinguish his academic life: intellectual honesty, and moral outrage.

JUDITH SCHOEMAN, BDietetics, BCompt, MSc Dietetics Principal Dietitian: Oncology. Stew Biko Academic Hospital Oncology Complex. Pretoria tody Schoeman started her career in 1998 and time then has gained experience in various fields of dietetics. During 2001 site became involved in the nutritional management of paediatric oncology patients. Since then her work has become her passion to work with...

The complexity of the polynomial ideal membership problem over arbitrary fields within the framework of arithmetic networks is investigated. We prove that the parallel complexity of this problem is single exponential over any infinite field. Our lower bound is obtained by combining a modification of Mayr and Meyer's (1982) key construction with an elementary degree bound. 1998 Academic Press, Inc.