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To explain a joint effort by the national securities exchanges to implement a Tick Size Pilot program. The pilot program would widen the minimum quoting and trading increments for certain small cap stocks.

The article reviews the Tick Size Pilot plan generally, discusses how the final plan differs from proposed plan, describes securities that will be affected by the plan, and the various test groups under the plan.

Pilot program is designed to provide the SEC with empirical data regarding the impact that tick size may have on the trading of small cap stocks.

Exchanges will be required to adopt rules to implement the pilot program. Broker-Dealers will be required to adopt written policies and procedures to comply with the pilot plan when quoting and for trading.

Practical guidance from experienced securities lawyers. The article describes the operation of the new pilot program.

Managing a library instruction program at a small liberal‐arts college has many challenges. Programs at such institutions often have limited financial resources and are maintained under difficult staffing conditions. This study examines the effectiveness of an instruction program offered at a four‐year liberal‐arts college with fewer than 3,000 students. The research was designed to assess the effectiveness of the current program and measure it against a pilot group of students exposed to enhanced information literacy opportunities based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Working with five faculty members, information literacy goals were clearly articulated and implemented into nine sections of first‐year writing and speaking courses. Bibliographic analysis, an information literacy questionnaire, and an in‐class writing exercise were used to determine whether students in the pilot groups performed better than students receiving the program’s customary library training.

This paper reports outcomes from a holistic, recovery‐based, user‐led group training for people with DSM‐IV bipolar disorder. Drawn from professional therapies and personal experience of the illness by the user‐researcher, the training was delivered over 12 weekly sessions. Using a case‐study approach, an experimental design incorporated pilot (eight participants), main study (five) and control groups (six). Self‐report scales measured mood, coping, empowerment and quality of life pre‐, post‐ and six months post‐training. Semi‐structured interviews noted individual change within the same time frame. Interviews with mental health professionals, medical note analysis and user‐researcher observations also informed the study. Findings from self‐report questionnaires indicated that participants experienced improved mood stability, symptom severity, coping and quality of life and greater empowerment. Out of the six controls, two indicated slight but slow recovery, four continued to use poor coping skills, and two of these four experienced major relapses.

This paper seeks to describe a pilot project for the Federal Science eLibrary to measure the impacts on Government of Canada researchers when provided with seamless, equitable access to an expanded core of electronic journals in science, technology and medicine (STM). The Federal Science eLibrary is an initiative supported by the Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries to provide improved access to information at the desktop for the 22,000 Canadian federal scientists, policy analysts and decision makers. The pilot project was designed to evaluate the benefits of increased access to e‐journals at the pilot sites and test network performance in connecting to a central digital repository.

A total of 500 users in three Canadian government sites with limited access to electronic resources were provided with full text access to a digital repository of over 3,000 e‐journals over a 12‐week period. Questionnaires, teleconferences, usage statistics and e‐mail correspondence were used to gather and measure researchers' response and show impacts on their ability to do their work.

Pilot groups reported significantly reduced time finding and verifying information. Time saved was redirected into critical activities such as research, laboratory activities, manuscript preparation, peer review activities and professional reading. Participants found that increased desktop access had a very positive impact on their ability to do their work.

This study shows the benefits of expanded access to electronic journals for federal government scientists through a Federal Science eLibrary initiative.

This paper aims to report on the adoption and evaluation of a Learning 2.0 program in a pilot program at the Edith Cowan University Library during 2007.

The paper examines the suitability of Learning 2.0 for training eight “early adopters” among library staff in the new and emerging Web 2.0 technologies. The program was set up and deployed via a blog, which recorded staff progress through the nine‐week implementation phase of the program. At the conclusion, a focus group was held and the pilot group members responded to questions about the relevance of the program, and the effectiveness of their learning.

It was found that library staff responded positively to this program, not least because it adhered to adult learning principles. For the authors' purpose, Learning 2.0 was an eminently suitable training package.

The paper is unique in that Edith Cowan University Library was the first Australian university library to adopt Learning 2.0.

This paper describes an investigation into the ability of man to withstand the environmental stresses existing at the high altitudes associated with supersonic flight. The medical histories of a group of pilots who had been exposed to altitudes in excess of 50,000 ft. were compared with those of a control group whose flying had been confined to normal altitudes. The total exposure time of the test group was estimated to be in excess of 35,000 hours. Dr Charles I. Barron is the Medical Director of the Lockheed‐California Company. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and he served as a flight surgeon in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He has been engaged in extensive research work and has published numerous papers on the effects of aircraft noise, microwave radiation, escape systems, decompression, and on various aspects of human engineering. He is a past president of the Aerospace Medical Association and has served on the National Research Council Committee. At present, he is the Chairman of the Research Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and Human Research for N.A.S.A. and Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council to the Federal Air Surgeon. He is a lecturer in aviation physiology in the Aerospace Safety Division at U.S.C., and an Associate Professor of Aerospace Pathology at U.C.L.A.

This study aims to identify variability in aviation operators in order to gain greater understanding of the changes in aviation professional groups. Research has commonly addressed human factors and automation in broad categories according to a group’s function (e.g., pilots, air traffic controllers [ATCOs], engineers). Accordingly, pilots and Air Traffic Controls (ATCOs) have been treated as homogeneous groups with a set of characteristics. Currently, critical themes of human performance in light of systems’ developments place the emphasis on quality training for improved situational awareness (SA), decision-making and cognitive load.

As key solutions centre on the increased understanding and preparedness of operators through quality training, the authors deploy an iterative mixed methodology to reveal generational changes of pilots and ATCOs. In total, 46 participants were included in the qualitative instrument and 70 in the quantitative one. Preceding their triangulation, the qualitative data were analysed using NVivo and the quantitative analysis was aided through descriptive statistics.

The results show that there is a generational gap between old and new generations of operators. Although positive views on advanced systems are being expressed, concerns about cognitive capabilities in the new systems, training and skills gaps, workload and role implications are presented.

The practical implications of this study extend to different profiles of operators that collaborate either directly or indirectly and that are critical to aviation safety. Specific implications are targeted on automation complacency, bias and managing information load, and training aspects where quality training can be aided by better understanding the occupational transitions under advanced systems.

In this paper, the authors aimed to understand the changing nature of the operators’ profession within the advanced technological context, and the perceptions and performance-shaping factors of pilots and ATCOs to define the generational changes.

This paper aims at understanding the action of pilot entities, in order to ultimately infer about their role to the overall reform process of public sector accounting (PSA).

Taking the Portuguese case as a reference, the new institutional theory (isomorphism perspective) and institutional logics are used to explain the action and stance of pilot entities in the implementation process of reforms.

Pilot experiments are expected to provide feedback on the main difficulties felt in the implementation of a new PSA system, helping to define a global strategy to overcome those problems and to improve the system to be generally and finally put into practice. Nevertheless, entities seem to find it important to be pilots, more for individual advantages than for the common benefit of the reform as a whole. Therefore, in order for them to actually be important actors in the reform process, pilots need to be included in the decision process, better realizing the benefits of the new IPSAS-based system and be provided with the proper technical, human and financial support.

This research suffers from some limitations, namely concerning the use of questionnaires. The findings may, in some points, reflect the perceptions of the respondents and not the actual reality. Additionally, the respondents were not asked about any personal background factors, which may influence their answers. Also, they did not allow relating the new PSA system features with the way pilot entities (re)acted. In regard to the implications for practice, the study points to a need for decision-makers and external support bodies to work more closely with pilot entities in the overall design and implementation of PSA reforms. Pilot entities need to understand the importance and usefulness of changes, and reform authorities need to better recognize their institutional reality and the support they require. Only in this way, the use of pilots can make a difference in the implementation of PSA innovations.

This paper contributes to theory by adding to a better understanding of the role of the ones acting in the development and implementation of PSA innovations, enlightening on how pilot entities can act/react. Despite several studies on PSA reforms, very few so far have addressed pilot entities in particular, their attitude and actual contribution toward PSA reforms, and why. The case of Portugal as a frontrunner in adopting an IPSAS-based system within the EU helps contribute to that understanding in the setting of European countries.

Continuous improvement groups are teams of employees with special responsibility for improving quality. This paper reports on the first 12 months of a pilot implementation by Land Rover and gives the main results of initial interviews with team members. The analysis concentrates on the attitudes of members who were previously active participants in the quality circle programme, which was formally closed at the end of 1996. The main finding at this stage of the pilot was that these employees welcomed the increased structure and management control of continuous improvement groups where it facilitated improvements to quality consistent with Rover Group’s business goals. Such willingness to accept reduced autonomy in exchange for increased employee involvement and contribution is explained by characterising continuous improvement groups as a stewardship approach to quality management.

A pilot project was initiated in Wrexham in North Wales with two groups of patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). One group was provided with a commercial telehealth system (HomMed Genesis) while the other received a medical telecare service involving standalone vital signs peripherals and a phone call from a respiratory nurse who collected data and entered them into a spreadsheet. After four months of monitoring, the outcomes were analysed for both groups and were found to be largely similar both in terms of the interventions, and the perceived quality of life benefits for the patients. A cost benefit analysis showed that the savings to the NHS exceeded the project costs by about £9,000 thanks mainly to a reduction in the number of exacerbations exhibited by the patients. It is recommended that this form of telecare may greatly increase the independence of people with a chronic disease or long‐term condition and that further studies need to be initiated to determine which measurement regime is most suitable.