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The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic, stochastic, mechanistic simulation model of a dairy business to evaluate the cost and benefit streams coinciding with technology investments. The model was constructed to embody the biological and economical complexities of a dairy farm system within a partial budgeting framework. A primary objective was to establish a flexible, user‐friendly, farm‐specific, decision‐making tool for dairy producers or their advisers and technology manufacturers.

The basic deterministic model was created in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft, Seattle, Washington). The @Risk add‐in (Palisade Corporation, Ithaca, New York) for Excel was employed to account for the stochastic nature of key variables within a Monte Carlo simulation. Net present value was the primary metric used to assess the economic profitability of investments. The model was composed of a series of modules, which synergistically provide the necessary inputs for profitability analysis. Estimates of biological relationships within the model were obtained from the literature in an attempt to represent an average or typical US dairy. Technology benefits were appraised from the resulting impact on disease incidence, disease impact, and reproductive performance. In this paper, the model structure and methodology were described in detail.

Examples of the utility of examining the influence of stochastic input and output prices on the costs of culling, days open, and disease were examined. Each of these parameters was highly sensitive to stochastic prices and deterministic inputs.

Decision support tools, such as this one, that are designed to investigate dairy business decisions may benefit dairy producers.

Automated body condition scoring (BCS) through extraction of information from digital images has been demonstrated to be feasible; and commercial technologies are being developed. The primary objective of this research was to identify the factors that influence the potential profitability of investing in an automated BCS system.

An expert opinion survey was conducted to provide estimates for potential improvements associated with technology adoption. A stochastic simulation model of a dairy system, designed to assist dairy producers with investment decisions for precision dairy farming technologies was utilized to perform a net present value (NPV) analysis. Benefits of technology adoption were estimated through assessment of the impact of BCS on the incidence of ketosis, milk fever, and metritis, conception rate at first service, and energy efficiency.

Improvements in reproductive performance had the largest influence on revenues followed by energy efficiency and then by disease reduction. The impact of disease reduction was less than anticipated because the ideal BCS indicated by experts resulted in a simulated increase in the proportion of cows with BCS at calving 3.50. The estimates for disease risks and conception rates, obtained from literature, however, suggested that this increase would result in increased disease incidence. Stochastic variables that had the most influence on NPV were: variable cost increases after technology adoption; the odds ratios for ketosis and milk fever incidence and conception rates at first service associated with varying BCS ranges; uncertainty of the impact of ketosis, milk fever, and metritis on days open, unrealized milk, veterinary costs, labor, and discarded milk; and the change in the percentage of cows with BCS at calving 3.25 before and after technology adoption. The deterministic inputs impacting NPV were herd size, management level, and level of milk production. Investment in this technology may be profitable but results were very herd‐specific. A simulation modeling a deterministic 25 percent decrease in the percentage of cows with BCS at calving ≤3.25 demonstrated a positive NPV in 86.6 percent of 1,000 iterations.

This investment decision can be analyzed with input of herd‐specific values using this model.

The study investigates perceptions and debate that are linked to the relationship between religion, alcohol, tourism and hospitality within the context of an Islamic tourist destination. An analytical approach involving a review of literature, assessment of conservationists’ attitude representing Islam and Christianity, and current trends using a student sample to determine intentions is used. The study findings suggest that alcohol and religiosity are not compatible, use, abuse and dependency are more common among non-believers than believers. A tense dispute continues in the Arab World around alcohol. The study contributes to the literature by highlighting economics, social practice, theoretical and managerial implications related to alcohol service in Egypt and suggests a way forward for global Muslim staff working in the hospitality, tourism, and travel industries.

The study uses an analytical approach involving a review of literature, assessment of conservationists’ attitude representing Islam and Christianity and current trends using a student sample to determine intentions.

The study findings suggest that alcohol and religiosity are not compatible, use, abuse and dependency are more common among non-believers than believers. A tense dispute continues in the Arab World around alcohol.

The study is assessing the relationship between religion, alcohol, hospitality and tourism within the context of Egypt, advances knowledge about halal tourism and hospitality by explicitly linking religious obligations and the implication on tourism. The findings should be used with caution considering the subjectivity of responses and the size of the sample.

The service/hospitality industry managers could be Muslims or non-Muslims representing major airlines, hotels and restaurants where alcohol is served by Muslim employees. These managers should consider avoiding the sale or serving of alcohol completely, and if not, they must not force their workers to serve alcohol if they chose not to.

Faith-based (e.g. Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons), ideological or ethically driven alternative services should be created for the staff concerned with alcohol service/consumption. Employment is to be provided to adherents of these faiths or ideologies as an alternative resort.

The purpose of the research is to evaluate the visibility and effectiveness of responsible drinking campaigns used for the sale of the product “beer” (on labels and commercials) on a sample of university students at the University of Pisa to verify whether a preventive “education” on the issue of the effects of alcohol consumption is suitable to improve the perception of responsible communication.

A focus group methodology was used. Three interviews were conducted with 21 university students. The interview protocol was divided into three sections and ten guiding questions were prepared to conduct the focus groups.

The study shows the weak effectiveness of responsible communication promoted by brewers, even though the sample knew aspects related to responsible communication and the adverse health effects of alcohol. Most respondents failed to remember the existence of responsibility messages placed on beverage labels, except as a result of visual stimuli, a sign that preventive education can play a role in message recognition. Commercials seem to have a more significant impact when associated with the dangers of drunk driving. However, promoting consumer awareness campaigns continues to be perceived as contradictory.

This study presents the results of qualitative research that focuses on university students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the most recent responsible communication campaigns conducted by brewers. The research is significant in assessing the effectiveness of communication tools, providing theoretical and industrial implications for improving the understanding of the phenomenon and the effectiveness of responsible messages.

Women with little-to-no English continue to have poor birth outcomes and low service user satisfaction. When language support services are used it enhances the relationship between the midwife and the woman, improves outcomes and ensures safer practice. However, this study has shown a reluctance to use professional interpreter services by midwives. This study aims to understand the experiences of midwives using language support services.

A maximum variation purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit midwives (N = 12) to a qualitative, semi-structured interview study. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Four themes were generated from the data analysis with a central organising concept of “Navigating Care Without Language”. These themes were: “Continuity as Key”, “Facilitating Tools”, “Networks of Support” and “Innovative Planning”. Each of these themes had between three and four sub-themes. It was found midwives are keen to support women with language barriers. However, support can be difficult due to the unavailability of equipment and resources; lack of continuity (of interpreter and midwife); inability to plan for the acute care of women who require interpreter services; and the system not being accessible enough to women who require language support services, thus causing them to fall through the net.

Continuity of carer appears to be a protective factor due to the flexibility, relationship and continuum of support. This study will aid the development of education for undergraduate, post-graduate and practising midwives. It will also inform policymakers working to improve the service offered to women who speak little-to-no English.

Using techniques developed mainly in subjective well-being and “happiness” studies, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the applicability of these and related methods for understanding and evaluating the emotional responses experienced within the live music event environment.

The concept of “experience” is debated and set within the context of music events designed to create a specific type of emotional experience for the attendees. The main tools for researching experiences over a time period are considered focusing on the “experience sampling method” (ESM) (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) and the “day reconstruction method” (Kahneman et al., 2004). These methods are critiqued in terms of their usefulness and practicality as research tools in the study of audience emotions.

A revised method was then developed and a small-scale trial undertaken at a live music event, the results of which are presented and discussed. A conceptual model illustrating the interconnectedness of experience is introduced as an example of the application of the data gathered through this method to theory development. The paper concludes by reflecting on both the methodological appropriateness and practicality of ESMs as a way of gathering valuable data on the emotions engendered by events.

An obstacle yet to be overcome is using this data to predict attitudinal and behavioural change related to arts marketing goals. However, studies in other areas have clearly shown that emotional response is a significant indicator of future behaviour suggesting that the potential is there.

The trialled method provides a useful starting point for better understanding the complexity of emotional effects triggered at live music events.

The paper concludes that an adaptation of these methods has the potential to provide much needed rich and credible data on the feelings and emotional reactions triggered by different elements of a live event.

Much has been written about student accountability, teacher accountability, and school accountability. More limited research is available on administrator accountability. Recently there have been substantial initiatives undertaken world‐wide to increase educational accountability. With increasing demands and changing expectations in the role of school administration, researchers, practitioners and policy makers and departments of education have become socially preoccupied with educational accountability. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive literature review on accountability of school administrators over the last two decades to demonstrate how aspiring, new and practicing school administrators understand and meet the demands of accountability in a time of tumultuous change when the stakes are high.

The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to the intersection of external and internal accountability systems within urban schools, and the role of school leadership, especially that of the principal, in managing this intersection. In particular, the paper explores how school leaders are able to strengthen and sustain the school's internal accountability system, in pursuit of school‐defined learning improvement agenda, and at the same time respond productively to external accountability demands. The paper also seeks to identify consequences of these leaders’ efforts to navigate an often problematic set of converging demands.

This paper draws on findings from a larger multi‐case study of learning‐focused leadership in 15 schools in four urban school districts in the USA. Schools were chosen to represent those that were “making progress” (by local measures). Data were collected over 18 months, spanning two school years, from Spring 2007 to Fall 2008. Data collection included multiple site visits, semi‐structured interviews and observations of leadership activity across school and district settings, and a variety of documentary evidence.

Though working in substantially different contexts, these leaders found remarkably similar ways of crafting tools and creating occasions, from the array of external accountability demands and resources, to serve internal accountability purposes. They did so by internalizing external expectations and developing accountable practice within the school, leading through data, and modelling what it meant to learn to lead in a fully accountable way. As they did so, they reshaped the scope of instruction and the instructional improvement conversation, and also made teaching and leadership practice more public.

This paper extends discussions of school‐level accountability in two ways. First, it updates scholarship on accountability by examining school‐level responses at a time five years into the new accountability context in the USA defined by strict system‐wide expectations and mechanisms. Second, the paper demonstrates ways in which the often onerous demands of external accountability systems can be treated as a resource by school leaders and used in ways that bolster the school's capacity for accountable professional practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how principals and school supervisory authorities understand and use feedback from mandatory proficiency tests (VERA) in the low-stakes context of Germany. For the analysis, the authors refer to a theoretical model of schools that differentiates between Autonomous and Managed Professional Organisations (Thiel, 2008a).

The empirical basis of the qualitative research are contrastive case studies which are focusing on individual schools and on school supervisory authorities. The selection of cases was oriented on Theoretical Sampling according to Glaser and Strauss (2005). For the analysis, the authors used a sample of upper track secondary schools (Gymnasien), four from Berlin and five each from Thuringia, Brandenburg and Baden-Wuerttemberg. In total, the authors conducted 229 structured interviews over two periods in 19 schools with different protagonists on all levels of the educational system (principals, heads of subject departments, teachers and school supervisory officials). The interview data were descriptively analysed according to procedures of qualitative content analyses (Mayring, 2010).

The analyses show a clear tendency in the direction of the Autonomous Professional Organisation within the context of VERA. However, some principals reported activities according to a Managed Professional Organisation. The traditional decoupling remains and the supervisory authorities retain their picture of the individual school as an Autonomous Professional Organisation. Both levels have a major deficit in a competent use of VERA and lack profound experience with accountability and evaluation processes.

The sampling has certain restraints: schools of a particular type, few schools within one state, four of 16 states.

Even though German test-based school reforms have been in progress for one decade, systematic analyses of the reform’s relevance for leadership and for school supervisory authorities’ actions in a low-stakes context have not been conducted yet. The analysis meets this lack of research with an explorative reconstruction of principal leadership within the context of test-based school reform as well as the corresponding school supervisory officials.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the positive future gains of reaching women with perinatal mental illness at the first midwifery booking-in appointment, a unique opportunity that could be more widely used as a point of detection, awareness and prevention of illness in the perinatal period.

A more robust section of this appointment that includes focussed detection and awareness of prior and current mental health concerns as well as the stigma attached to these conditions will allow midwives to signpost women to get much needed treatment prior to delivery. Suitable treatment options also need to be available and in place at this point.

The existing booking-in process, for highlighting and diagnosing mental health conditions, has limited suitability. Detection in the postnatal period has inherent difficulties due to time pressures on women, the costs to the mother, baby, family and the economic costs to society, which are considerable. The postnatal period may be too late for treatment, with the harm already done to the woman, their baby and their family.

Research is needed to assess the efficacy of such a strategy, including the costs to train the midwives to deliver this additional service, and the consideration of suitable treatment options at the antenatal stage. This may help to reduce the high levels of attrition within treatment programmes currently running.

This paper fulfils a need to diagnose and prevent perinatal mental illness at an earlier point in pregnancy.