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This paper presents part of the results of ongoing integrated and interdisciplinary studies conducted at a vulnerable coastal lagoon system with the aim of protecting it from further anthropogenic pollution. The target area is in southwestern Turkey, consisting of a lake that joins the Mediterranean Sea via a lagoon channel system. Land resources in the watershed are identified, including all the elements of the physical environment that influence potential land‐use, and are illustrated by the application of geographical information systems through mapping and visualization of various thematic layers of land. This study will enlighten those working on lagoon watersheds aiming at conservation of natural resources since it states the results of the studies conducted so far through various disciplines, and presents how data are utilized by the groups in an integrated manner. Based on the available data, pre‐modelling studies on hydrodynamic modelling and on water quality modelling are also referred. Identification of a watershed depends on gathering satisfactory data, which will further be used to establish sustainable development and management plans, apart from utilizing the obtained data for watershed and hydrodynamic modelling approaches and to better understand such complex systems.

Non‐marketable natural coastal resources such as beaches, sand‐dune systems and cliff sides have an economic value deriving not least from the various services which they provide as well as the human demand for consuming some of these services. Coastal defence projects designed to protect the coast against erosion and flooding by the sea have often caused irreversible degradation to coastal natural resources. The main aim of this article is to investigate whether the joint use of cost‐benefit analysis and environmental resource valuation techniques can give any insights toward the sustainable use of the coast. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) in order to assess the justifiability of carrying out coast protection works in a particular location. This paper also uses contingent valuation methodology (CVM) to estimate the economic values of non‐marketable coastal environmental services. In particular, this paper employs willingness to pay (WTP) technique and try to elicit satisfaction values from beach users by conducting an on‐site questionnaire survey. Findings – his paper argues that there are many advantages in approaching shoreline protection project appraisal both from an environmental as well as an economics point of view. However, when conducting a cost‐benefit analysis the monetary value of environment elicited by contingent valuation techniques has very limited use in it self. It can set the financial budget within which likely coast protection options should be considered but it cannot determine which option is more sustainable. What the decision‐maker needs is to give real meaning to this value by translating it into people's specific preferences and behavioural characteristics. The next step should be setting out pragmatic project characteristics to accommodate the above preferences. Practical implications – Knowledge‐based planning and scheduling as well as informed coastal protection decisions is central to achieving sustainability in the coastal zone. Prior to managing a coastal area, the baseline information needed is the economic value of services that the coastal location in question provides. Originality/value – Generally speaking, the economic value of non‐marketable natural coastal resources such as beaches is closely associated with the way in which society perceives the environment. Both use and non‐use values that are placed upon the environment by individuals have an anthropocentric basis. In this respect, it could be argued that these values often reflect multiple coastal zone uses, conflicts of human interests, levels of environmental education, environmental awareness and environmental appreciation.

Chemical treatability of dairy wastewater originating from a dairy and dairy products plant at Istanbul was investigated on the basis of chemical oxygen demand (COD) parameter as a pre‐treatment alternative. FeCl₃, FeSO₄ and alum were used as coagulants in the jar‐test experiments of four sets of daily composite wastewater samples taken once every month. The effect of acid cracking has also been searched through acid addition and pH adjustment. Characterisation studies demonstrated that wastewater characteristics varied within a wide range in spite of no significant production changes at the plant during the experimentation period. Optimum coagulant dosage has been determined as 200mg l^–1 for all the coagulants with the optimum pH values between 4 and 4.5 for FeCl₃ and FeSO₄, and 5‐6 for alum. Maximum overall COD removal efficiencies were obtained as 72 per cent, 59 per cent and 54 per cent for FeCl₃, FeSO₄ and alum, respectively. Nevertheless, COD removal efficiencies were found to be inadequate to meet the current discharge standards of Greater Metropolitan Istanbul to sewer systems indicating that chemical treatment is insufficient for discharging chemically pre‐treated dairy wastewater to a sewage system, which was actually the main objective of the study. The results showed that the wastewater composition greatly influences the maximum removal efficiencies and also the conditions for optimum coagulation. However, attention to such chemical treatment studies on dairy wastewater has started to accelerate within the last decade in various countries of the world, such as United Arabic Emirates and Scandinavian countries where the targets of applying chemical treatment varied. In Scandinavian countries, biodegradable coagulants have been applied to use the sludge arising from the system for livestock feeding, leading to reuse of sludge. In Arabic Emirates, chemically treated dairy effluents are utilised for irrigation purposes. These recent studies point out that application of chemical treatment to dairy wastewater with various coagulants lead to a variety of utilities apart from being a pre‐treatment alternative.

This paper examines to what extent consonants in brand names influence consumers’ perceptions of feminine and masculine brand personality.

Four experiments empirically test the influence of consonants on feminine and masculine brand personality. The experiments involve different sets of new brand names, variations regarding the consonants tested (the stops k and t, the fricatives f and s), as well as different locations of the focal consonant in the brand name.

Consonants influence consumers’ brand perceptions: brand masculinity is enhanced by stops (rather than fricatives), and brand femininity is enhanced by fricatives (rather than stops). Consonants specifically affect feminine and masculine brand personality, but not other brand personality dimensions. Consumers’ responses to brand names and resulting brand gender perceptions (i.e. likelihood to recommend) were moderated by salience of masculinity or femininity as a desirable brand attribute.

This research has implications for brand name selection: consonants are effective in creating a specifically masculine or a feminine brand personality.

This research is the first to specifically link consonants and feminine/masculine brand personality. By specifically examining consonants, this research extends the marketing literature on sound symbolism that is characterized by a focus on vowels effects. This research is also the first to address whether the position of the focal phoneme in the brand name matters.

The software industry, especially software development (SD), in Estonia is at the present moment in the phase of expansion: first level of life cycle of the industry. Initial maturity level of the industry is among other factors characterized by lower maturity level of development process in companies/development teams. The goal of this paper is to analyze the maturity level of SD process in Estonian companies. Usually, poorly managed processes and low‐development performance are the major reasons for overrun deadlines and insufficient competitive advantages. Therefore, improved performance is the key factor of SD industry competitiveness.

The methodology used in the paper is semi‐structured interviews with experienced software developers/project managers in Estonian SD enterprises. On the basis of the interviews, authors were analyzing the usability of capability maturity model integration (CMMI) in Estonian SD companies to perform/apply the software process improvement (SPI).

Results based on self‐evaluation are describing the current level of SD process maturity in sense of CMMI in Estonian SD enterprises. Also, the difficulties of collecting process performance data were discovered. SD companies did not find it necessary to collect and save development process performance data, such as number of (corrected) errors, number of lines of code, etc.

The paper describes structured performance as SD process maturity in sense of CMMI together with development process performance as project characteristics: product quality, cycle‐time, development effort, product maintainability, etc.

Customer satisfaction has become a key factor in the strategic work of many universities towards the increasing competition regarding student recruitment. This paper presents a systematic approach to the course development process where focus is put on student satisfaction and learning. The approach consists of a combined usage of several methods, such as quality function deployment and conjoint analysis, that together transform student needs into quantified course attributes. In the paper, a two‐semester graduate course has been developed where the combined usage of the applied methods has shown itself to be very powerful when designing services from student satisfaction and learning perspectives. The outcome of the study is a university course where pedagogical and learning aspects have been combined with contents and work approaches with substantial interest for the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to buildup baseline data for ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K levels in different food samples and computes their cancer risk (CR).

This report has been performed to buildup baseline data for ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K levels in different food samples and computes their CR. ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K activity levels were measured using ?-ray spectrometry based on high-purity germanium (HPGe).

The findings exhibited that the annual effective dose (AED) and CR due to ²²⁶Ra ingestion in foodstuff samples have shown the trends cereal > vegetable > meat > fruits > sesame. Meanwhile, (AED) and (CR) due to ⁴⁰K displayed the trends vegetable > cereal > meat > fruits > sesame. Although the average value of radiological dose due to ingestion of some radionuclides slightly exceed the values of some foodstuff around the world. However, the overall average of (AED) for all foodstuff samples (226.6 µSv/y) was found to be far below the world average (AED) (300 µSv/y).

The main contributor to the AED was ⁴⁰K 85, ²²⁶Ra 9 and ²³²Th 6%. The computed magnitude values for CR owing to ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K (1.3 × 10⁻⁵) lower than International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) CR of (2.5 × 10⁻³) for the general public.

The main contributor to the AED was ⁴⁰K 85 %, ²²⁶Ra 9% and ²³²Th 6%. The computed magnitude values for CR owing to ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K (1.3 × 10⁻⁵) lower than ICRP CR of (2.5 × 10⁻³) for the general public.