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In July 2002 a new EC Preparations Directive came into force requiring suppliers of preparations to consider the environmental impact of their preparations. The environmental assessment can be made through consideration of the individual substances used in the preparation. A review of additives used in the formulation of metalworking fluids has highlighted that there are a number of substances that give cause for concern, especially surfactants or basefluids that are derivatives of C12‐15 or C13‐15 alcohols, such as ethoxylates, propoxylates and EO/PO copolymers. Some reformulation may be required in order to prevent preparations being classified either as; dangerous for the environment; or as very toxic/toxic/harmful to aquatic organisms; or as may cause long‐term adverse effects in the environment. The new directive will require suppliers of preparations to make available material safety data sheets for preparations classified as dangerous for the environment or for preparations containing at least one dangerous substance at a concentration of = >1 per cent. The new directive will also require suppliers to use new packaging labels for; preparations classified as dangerous for the environment; preparations containing at least one dangerous substance at a concentration of =>1 per cent; and for preparations containing =>0.1 per cent of a substance classified as a sensitiser.

LOUIS is the online library system that automates and links 17 Louisiana academic libraries. The NOTIS Library Management System (LMS) is used to automate the catalog as well as the circulation, acquisition, and serial functions of these libraries. In addition, journal databases are shared and accessed by LOUIS participants via LOUIS OPAC menus. The LOUIS Office, a department of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Office of Computing Services, trains and supports the staff at each library in these endeavors. The NOTIS software and all LOUIS data are resident on the LSU mainframe (an IBM 9672‐R53 system 390 Enterprise server), and accessed using LaNet (Louisiana's wide area, multi‐protocol network); however, each catalog is maintained by the librarians at each university or college. Funding for LOUIS was initially provided by Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund grants from the Louisiana Board of Regents and the U.S. Department of Education. Ongoing implementation and support of the existing system, as well as investigation and implementation of additional library networking activities, are now funded by a combination of an appropriation of the Louisiana state legislature and membership fees from all LOUIS institutions.

As part of its inquiry on the future growth potential of air traffic in South Africa, the National Institute for Transport and Road Research of the C.S.I.R., asked me at the beginning of 1985 to conduct an inquiry on the local tourist market. The main points to investigate were:

This paper aims to study the impact of municipalities’ own resources on their investments‘ expenditure.

Panel data analysis. A sample of 34 municipalities in Benin. Econometrics tests for the panel data models – estimation of the fixed-effect and random-effect models. Hausman test to identify the best model to explain the impact of the explanatory variables on local investments’ expenditures. Heteroskedasticity, normality and autocorrelation tests.

The results establish a positive and significant impact of own resources, state transfers and demographic variables on local investments’ expenses.

As an implication, the results show the importance of local resources’ mobilization for the municipalities’ investment capacity building. They also show that the central government transfers continue to play a major place in local investments’ finance, even in a decentralization context. Limitation: Available data do not allow to well evaluate the impact of the electoral variable on municipalities’ investments’ expenditure. This situation does not allow to well analyze the public choice considerations in local authorities’ behaviors.

Local mobilization of financial resources must be encouraged to raise municipalities’ investments’ capacities. Strategies must be developed to reinforce local capacities in local resources mobilization.

The results show the importance of local resources in local investments. They show the importance of citizens’ participation in their well-being construction, through local resource mobilization (ex: local fiscality).

Many authors assert in the literature that financial autonomy has a real impact on local development. However, empirically, it was not demonstrated. This paper contributes to correct this lack.

The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the basic role and to develop recommendations for increasing the attractiveness of a regional market of educational services in modern Russia for provision of its global competitiveness in the conditions of industry 4.0.

The authors use the method of regression analysis for evaluating the influence of the indicators of investment attractiveness of a regional market of educational services – volume of investments into fixed capital in the sphere of education and state expenditures for financing of education – on the indicator of global competitiveness of this market in the conditions of industry 4.0 – number of foreign students – by the example of regions of the Volga Federal District of the Russian Federation. The empirical basis of the research is statistical materials of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation for late 2018 and early 2019.

It is proved that investment attractiveness of a regional market of educational services is the basis of its global competitiveness in the conditions of industry 4.0. A barrier on the path of full-scale digital modernization of the system of higher education in modern Russia is the absence of private venture investments, which shows low investment attractiveness of a regional market of educational services.

It is substantiated that the causes of emergence of the determined barriers have the institutional nature and could be eliminated with the help of the complex of the recommended measures that are connected to usage of the mechanism of public–private partnership for financing of digital modernization education, flexible regulation of investment activities of digital universities, which is selected for each specific project, and coordination of the investment activities of universities at the regional level and creation of a specialized digital portal. Practical implementation of the offered measures will allow achieving significant growth of global competitiveness of a regional market of educational services of modern Russia in the conditions of industry 4.0.

Despite being a global public–private partnerships (PPPs) leader, the Asian region is characterised by a wide PPP-divide, wherein select countries attract majority of PPP projects, while other countries fail to attract the requisite PPP investments. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of PPP projects in Asia.

Using quantitative methods on secondary data, this study analyses the macroeconomic determinants of value and number of PPPs in Asia for the period 2010–2019. The methodology relies on panel fixed effects, random effects, two-step system generalised method of moments and negative binomial regression.

Results underline the importance of the country’s experience with PPPs, physical infrastructure, financial sector development, market conditions, institutional quality and political stability in attracting PPP projects.

Identification of the determinants of PPPs will assist private investors in making informed decisions related to the selection of countries for PPP investments, thereby increasing the likelihood of a project’s success.

The results are expected to enable countries to formulate policies aimed at attracting higher PPP investments, thereby propelling economic development and improvement in the quality of life.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first such study that comprehensively analyses the determinants of both value of PPP investments and number of PPP projects for Asian countries.

The “five‐inch” compact laserdisc is described. The Compact Disc‐Read Only Memory data format is explained and illustrated, as are current and potential applications. A sidebar presents photographs of an IBM PC/Hitachi CD‐ROM system adopted by Library Corporation to support its MARC database—BiblioFile. Several screen displays for BiblioFile are included.

An efficient method for the calculation of 3‐D stress distributions at embedded structures in silicon caused by different thermal expansion coefficients between silicon and inclusion is presented. The method is based on the analytical solution for the stress field outside a rectangular parallelepipedic trench. This solution is adapted for the calculation of arbitrarily shaped inclusions and for the stress calculation inside the inclusion, too.

Agency theory motivated this study, posing that leverage mitigates the agency problem. The aim was to examine whether leverage influences the relationship between executive-employee pay gaps (EEPGs) and firm performance. The study was conducted in the mining and retail sectors between 2012 and 2021.

Two EEPGs were featured based on their executive fixed pay and variable incentives accumulation. Proxies of firm performance were headline earnings per share; return on assets; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; and return on stock price. Data were collected from 76 JSE-listed firms in the retail and mining sectors and analysed using the two-step generalised method of moments.

The results revealed the hybrid implication of the pay gap for firm performance in the retail and mining sectors of South Africa, depending on the performance measures emphasised. More importantly, the study shows that with the moderating effects of leverage, firms can improve their performance while shrinking the pay gap.

The results have implications for policy addressing income inequality, debt management, executive compensation and regulatory reforms in South Africa concerning productivity and remuneration decisions.

The article provides specific literature for retail and mining industries on pay gaps, shows that it is possible to reduce the pay gap without compromising performance and suggests a new measure of performance that is more attuned to pay gap effect measurement.

The reported inquiry-based learning (IBL) study was designed in 2012–2013 for the highest achieving undergraduate students at a research-intensive university in the United Kingdom (U.K.). In 2005, the University received national funding from the U.K. Higher Education Academy (HEA) to develop an innovative model of IBL to be used in a multidisciplinary context (Tosey, 2006). As a consequence, IBL was an obvious tool when, in 2012, the authors set out to design learning interventions to improve the teamwork and leadership skills of high-attaining students. In the process of exploring the application of IBL to this task, the need to ensure the intervention allowed for development in the conative domain was considered important. Historically, IBL practice at the University had catered well for cognitive and affective learning but had not been focussed to develop conation. A conative-heavy element was therefore purposefully designed into the latest IBL intervention.