ABSTRACT Legumes are becoming increasingly important in cropping systems due to their beneficial effects on soil nutrient availability. Including legumes into a cropping system not only positively affect many soil physical properties and increases soil nitrogen (N) supply, but is also reported to have a positive impact on soil phosphorus (P) availability. Although a series of studies have examined the effect of grain legumes in rotation on increasing soil N and P fertility after several years, the effect of forage legumes like alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) on soil P availability, the yield and P uptake of subsequently grown crops remain unknown in Western Canada. To address this gap, a four year field experiment was conducted in four soil zones of Saskatchewan: Dark Brown soil zone (Saskatoon), thin Black soil zone (Lanigan), Brown soil zone (Swift Current), and Gray soil zone (Melfort). The objectives of this study were (i) to evaluate the impact of including a two-year period of forage legumes alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) along with annual crops on soil P forms, amounts and availability and uptake of P by the crops in rotation and (ii) to evaluate the effect of the different crop rotations over the four years on soil P dynamics and P balance. After two years of forage legume and annual crop rotations, it was observed that alfalfa and red clover removed more P from the soil in the hay harvest as compared to the amount of P removed in grain in the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) - pea (Pisum sativum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) - flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) rotations at all four sites (P < 0.10). However, the four crop rotations did not significantly affect the amount of soil available P and P supply rate at all four sites (P > 0.10) despite greater P uptake and removal by forage legumes relative to annual crops in 2010 and 2011 growing seasons. Also, similar amounts of labile and stable P were measured in the different sequentially extracted chemical fractions after two years of different crop rotations at all sites (P > 0.10). Grain yields of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and canola (Brassica napus L.) crops grown following two years of forage legume and annual crop rotations were positively affected by forage legume rotations at Saskatoon, Lanigan and Melfort (P < 0.10). Wheat P uptake was improved significantly by two years of red clover at Lanigan, Swift Current and Melfort (P < 0.10) but canola P uptake was not affected by different crop rotations at all locations (P > 0.10). The amount of soil available P and P supply rate measured after wheat and canola harvest were not affected by different crop rotations at all sites (P > 0.10) despite the greater P removal by forage legumes during the first two years of the four year crop rotation period at all sites and the enhanced P removal by wheat and canola crops following forage legume rotations at Lanigan and Melfort. This suggests that forage legumes are able to maintain soil P fertility in the face of greater P removal by crops in rotation, at least in the short-term. Four years of continuous cropping with the minimum amount of fertilizer P addition resulted in a significant reduction of soil P fertility over time at all locations (P < 0.10). The lack of a significant effect of rotation treatment on available P levels in the soil does not rule out that there is an effect but variability prevented its detection. Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of several cycles of this rotation over a number of years on soil P availability and the P uptake of crops in rotation.

Memory binding is a cognitive process that enables complex objects to be stored or retrieved coherently during perception, learning, or action. Binding functions are aimed at reducing the misattribution of the features of objects in crowded and changing sensory contexts, ensuring accurate representation in visual working memory. Binding is a relatively new concept in working memory research. However, as an integrative function it provides a rich context in which to investigate the mechanisms underlying memory deterioration. In this PhD project, a range of experimental temporary binding paradigms were used to investigate whether some of the memory impairments observed in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease could be accounted for by deficits in this memory function. A set of neuropsychological tasks were used to investigate binding operations across memory domains (i.e., verbal and nonverbal), sensory modalities (i.e., visual and auditory), types of information (e.g., objects and colours), and retrieval processes (i.e., recognition and recall) in healthy individuals, Alzheimer’s Disease patients and other clinical populations. The results suggest that the efficiency of short-term memory to store bound complex events depends on the nature of the information presented (e.g., type of information bound into objects) (Chapter 2). Short-term memory seems to be equipped with relatively separate mechanisms to store integrated objects and individual features (Chapter 4). It was also observed that the binding properties of short-term memory apply to healthy young and older people, and are functions which are preserved in the elderly (Chapter 3). In two additional experimental chapters (5 and 6) the preserved binding abilities of older people were compared with temporary binding in Alzheimer’s Disease. The latter group showed a very large impairment in binding that was distinct from their impairments in memory for individual features. These findings suggest that memory binding tasks could reliably separate the cognitive changes in normal ageing from those linked with Alzheimer’ Disease. Moreover, the results of Chapter 7 suggested that memory binding tasks may detect memory changes in people that will develop Alzheimer’ Disease (i.e., asymptomatic carriers of the gene defect E280A of the Preseniline-1 gene) almost 10 years before the average age of onset. These results are relevant to our understanding of short-term memory and to the memory models currently available. Finally, it is suggested that the constructs of memory binding may increase the sensitivity of current assessment procedures for people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease.

Operational risk management has been identified as one of the primary risk types that short-term insurance companies will have to deal with on a rigorous basis in the future.

This study set out to investigate the visuo-spatial component of Baddeley and Hitch's (1974) Working Memory framework. The development of our understanding of this component has been less dramatic than that of its verbal counterpart, the Articulatory Loop. The primary reason for this can be said to be the lack of techniques for investigation (Logie, 1986). This thesis presents one attempt to try to explore the nature of this code and to reveal possible new techniques of investigation. The following are three possible areas of investigation : 1. Is the system spatially or visually based? 2. Does movement have a role in the system? 3. How is information stored? The latter two issues are investigated here. Experiments 1-4 set out to explore the possibility that movement may be involved in the code. These experiments supported the idea that movement has a role to play in spatial coding and more specifically demonstrated that arm movements which are not compatible with the presentation of spatial material can cause disruption. In addition it was shown that when movement identical to that involved in presentation is encouraged at recall subjects show marked improvement in performance. Together these results very strongly suggest that movement should be given prominent reference in the definition of spatial coding and in the description of the visuo-spatial slave system. Another development that came out of these experiments relates to the lack of investigative techniques in the field of visuo-spatial short term memory. The fact that movement has been shown to be important suggests that techniques employed to investigate kinaesthetic memory will aid us in exploring visuo-spatial coding. The second issue in this thesis explored further the nature of the internal code. Research into the nature of coding in visuo-spatial memory had previously argued for the presence of a sequential component. Experiments 1-4 in this thesis had shown that movement had an important role to play in coding. The fact that movement by its very nature would appear to be sequential suggested that there was a strong sequential element in coding within visuo-spatial memory. However, concern was expressed that the materials and presentation format used may have led to sequential coding. This was first explored in experiments 5-8. The results supported the view that the material and presentation format used had led to sequential coding. This was further explored by Experiments 9 and 10 which illustrated that while it may be important under certain conditions, sequentiality is not always a dominant element in coding within the Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad. This thesis has explored two of the central issues currently interesting theorists of Working Memory and has put forward suggestions for techniques which may in the future help us to advance our knowledge of the visuo-spatial component of the Working Memory framework.

This thesis deals with factoring as a short-term debt financing. The theoretical part of the thesis discusses financial analysis of the company, working capital financing and enterprise receivables management, including the possibility of funding claims. The widest part is devoted to the description of factoring, factoring types, features, advantages and disadvantages. We also describe the course of a typical factoring case from the beginning to the end of the contract. Part of this work is devoted to a description accounting for factoring and comparison in factoring and revolving credit. Last part shows the factoring financing impact in specific firm on financial analysis indicators. The positive impact of factoring in the increase primarily reflected the Company's liquidity and payment behavior of customers.

Lee Park Keong. / 據手稿本影印. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院教育學部. / Ju shou gao ben ying yin. / Includes bibliographical references: leaves 183-188. / Lee Park Keong. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan jiao yu xue bu. / Chapter 第一章 --- 導言 / Chapter 一、 --- 問題說明 --- p.1 / Chapter 二、 --- 有關文獻 --- p.3 / Chapter 三、 --- 研究問題 --- p.9 / Chapter 四、 --- 假設 --- p.14 / Chapter 第二章 --- 研究方法 / Chapter 一、 --- 研究對象與取樣 --- p.17 / Chapter 二、 --- 研究工具 --- p.18 / Chapter 三、 --- 研究設計 --- p.26 / Chapter 四、 --- 資料整理與分析 --- p.30 / Chapter 五、 --- 實驗程序的控制 --- p.31 / Chapter 第三章 --- 結果與討論 / Chapter 一、 --- 實驗一的結果與討論 --- p.35 / Chapter 二、 --- 實驗二的結果與討論 --- p.61 / Chapter 三、 --- 實驗三的結果與討論 --- p.78 / Chapter 四、 --- 其他結果與討論 --- p.83 / Chapter 第四章 --- 摘要檢討與建議 / Chapter 一、 --- 摘要 --- p.99 / Chapter 二、 --- 檢討 --- p.101 / Chapter 三、 --- 建議 --- p.104 / Chapter 第五章 --- 附錄 / Chapter 一、 --- 註釋 --- p.108 / Chapter 二、 --- 表目 --- p.109 / Chapter 三、 --- 實驗所用材料 --- p.111 / Chapter 四、 --- 實驗所得數據 --- p.145 / Chapter 五、 --- 數據圖 --- p.175 / Chapter 六、 --- 參考書目 --- p.183

Article Excerpt: Tennessee is well-known to tourists. According to the Tennessee Economic and Community Development blog…..

Previous work has demonstrated that infant visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity increases dramatically between 6 and 10 months of life (Ross-Sheehy, S., Oakes, L. M., & Luck, S. J. (2003). The development of visual short-term memory capacity in infants. Child Development, 74, 1807-1822). However, it is unclear if this increase is a function of improving memory abilities, or alternatively, if it is a function of improving attentional abilities. Moreover, it is currently unknown if infants, like adults, can use attention to form stable VSTM representations in situations where they would otherwise fail. Four experiments explored the relationship between visual attention and VSTM in 5.5- and 10-month-old infants. Results indicated that 1) 10-month-old infants are able to use attention to selectively encode items into VSTM, 2) this ability does not appear to be present in younger infants, 3) this ability does not appear to interact with the complexity of the test array, and 4) attentional facilitation requires a relatively salient cue. Taken together, these results are the first to demonstrate that infant VSTM representations can be mediated by visual attention, and that this mediation relies on relatively well-developed visual attention mechanisms.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-104). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Course:        Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS   Topic:          The Impact of Strategic Purchasing on an Organization’s Profitability                      A Case Study of Ghana Telecom Company                                                     Supervisor:     Mats Viimne Background:  The purchasing function contributes directly to the operating results and                        profitability of an organization. It has been argued out that, the fact that                        purchasing is responsible for spending more than 60 percent of an organization’s                            sales dollars highlights the profit-enhancing potentials of the purchasing on an                        organization.                                     Problem:       How can strategic purchasing affect the profitability of an organization?   Purpose:       The purpose of this research is to describe how strategic purchasing impact on                       the profitability of Ghana Telecom Company.       Method:      The author collected both primary and secondary data in order to fulfill the                       purpose of the paper; the primary data was gathered directly from relevant sources                     in Ghana Telecom Company, through telephone and email interviews. The                     secondary data was obtained from indirect sources, such as textbooks, articles, and                     websites. The method used can be described as a qualitative.   Conclusion: An organization’s purchasing strategy is becoming recognized as a strategic weapon                     equal in importance to its marketing, conversion and finance strategies as pointed                      out by Dobler et al. Ghana Telecom Company’s strategic approach to buying include                     multiple sourcing, short-term contracting and competitive bidding as a measure                     towards increasing its profitability by being able to source at the lowest cost, and                     having other sourcing alternatives, which leads to cost reduction.