Em 2009, a Federação Internacional de Judô (FIJ) instituiu um sistema de ranqueamento (SR) para classificar os atletas em suas categorias de disputa e para os Jogos Olímpicos de Londres 2012. Porém, o SR não considera o fenômeno conhecido como home advantage, relacionado à vantagem de vencer quando se compete em casa. Esse fenômeno ainda não foi estudado no judô e se comprovado traz implicações para o SR. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi verificar se há ocorrência de home advantage nas competições que integram o SR no judô, para a conquista de medalha e número de lutas vencidas. Para tal, foram analisadas todas as competições internacionais de judô do SR realizadas em 2009. Para verificar se os atletas que competiram em casa tiveram mais chance de conquistar medalha foi utilizada a análise de regressão logística e para verificar se houve associação do número de lutas vencidas e competir em casa foi utilizado o modelo linear generalizado de Poisson. Os modelos contaram com uma variável de ajuste referente à qualidade relativa dos atletas em duas possibilidades: posição no SR da FIJ e neutro (construído com lutas disputadas em território neutro). A amostra foi dividida em: Grupo I - todas as participações; Grupo II - somente os atletas que haviam competido dentro e fora de casa. Dado que alguns atletas não puderam lutar em território neutro e, portanto, não tiveram codificação para esse SR, foram criados duas subamostras do Grupo I e do Grupo II, excluindo os atletas sem codificação nesta variável. Todas as análises foram realizadas considerando os gêneros conjunta e separadamente. A variável qualidade relativa foi significante em todas as análises e também modificou os modelos (p<0,001). Ao considerarmos a subamostra do Grupo II, a razão de chance para conquista de medalhas foi superior para os atletas que competiram em casa para o grupo masculino (2,33; p<0,001) e feminino (1,58; p = 0,019). A associação entre número de lutas vencidas e competir em casa foi significante para os atletas do masculino (p<0,001), mas não significante para o feminino (p = 0,088). A ausência da vantagem no feminino para número de lutas vencidas pode ter sido limitada e confundida com o número reduzido de atletas participantes em muitas das competições. As atletas que conquistaram medalha em competições mais vazias, não precisaram vencer mais lutas, dado que um número reduzido de vitórias garantia a medalha. É possível que a torcida seja a principal responsável pelos achados, tanto por influenciar o julgamento dos árbitros a favorecer os atletas da casa como pela motivação para os atletas. Outra possibilidade é que aspectos associados à dominância territorial tenham influenciado as disputas masculinas, porém não as femininas. Assim, foi comprovada a existência do home advantage nas competições que integram o SR de judô para conquista de medalha no masculino e feminino, e para número de lutas vencidas apenas para o masculino. Desta forma, é provável que os atletas de países que sediam competições do SR tenham vantagem para a obtenção da classificação olímpica / In 2009 the International Judo Federation (IJF) established a ranking system (RS) to classify athletes in the competition categories and in the distribution of vacancies for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the RS does not consider the phenomenon known as home advantage, i.e. the advantage of winning when competing in your home country. This phenomenon has not been studied in judo and its implications for the RS have not been proven. The objective of this study was to determine whether there was occurrence of home advantage in competitions that use the RS in judo, in winning a medal, and in the number of matches won. Therefore, we analyzed all international judo competitions using the RS in 2009. Logistic regression analysis was used to verify if the athletes who competed in their home countries were more likely to win a medal, and we used the Poisson generalized linear model to check whether there were associations between the number of matches won and competing at home. The models have an adjustment variable in the relative quality of athletes in two possibilities: position in the IJF RS and matches played on neutral territory. The sample was divided into two groups: Group I all participants and Group II only athletes who had competed inside and outside their home country. Given that some athletes could not fight on neutral territory and therefore did not have this RS coding, a sub-sample of Group I and a sub-sample of Group II were created, excluding athletes without the coding from this variable. All tests were performed considering the groups together and separately. The relative quality variable was significant in all tests and also modified the models (p <0.001). For the sub-sample of Group II the odds ratio for winning medals was higher for the athletes who competed at home for the male group (2.33, p <0.001) and the female group (1.58, p = 0.019). The association between the number of matches won and competing at home was significant for the male athletes (p <0.001), but not for the females (p = 0.088). The absence of the female advantage in the number of matches won may have been limited and confused by the small number of athletes participating in many of the competitions. The athletes who won medals in competitions with fewer competitors did not need to win more matches since a small number of wins guaranteed the medal. It is possible that the crowd was mainly responsible for the findings, both in influencing the judgement of the referees to favour the home athletes and in motivating the athletes. Another possibility is that aspects related to territorial dominance influenced the male competitors but not the female competitors. Thus, the existence of home advantage was observed in the competitions that used the judo RS in the achievement of medals for males and females, and in the number of matches won, only for males. Thus, it is likely that athletes from countries that host competitions using the RS have an advantage for obtaining the Olympic classification

Em 2009, a Federação Internacional de Judô (FIJ) instituiu um sistema de ranqueamento (SR) para classificar os atletas em suas categorias de disputa e para os Jogos Olímpicos de Londres 2012. Porém, o SR não considera o fenômeno conhecido como home advantage, relacionado à vantagem de vencer quando se compete em casa. Esse fenômeno ainda não foi estudado no judô e se comprovado traz implicações para o SR. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi verificar se há ocorrência de home advantage nas competições que integram o SR no judô, para a conquista de medalha e número de lutas vencidas. Para tal, foram analisadas todas as competições internacionais de judô do SR realizadas em 2009. Para verificar se os atletas que competiram em casa tiveram mais chance de conquistar medalha foi utilizada a análise de regressão logística e para verificar se houve associação do número de lutas vencidas e competir em casa foi utilizado o modelo linear generalizado de Poisson. Os modelos contaram com uma variável de ajuste referente à qualidade relativa dos atletas em duas possibilidades: posição no SR da FIJ e neutro (construído com lutas disputadas em território neutro). A amostra foi dividida em: Grupo I - todas as participações; Grupo II - somente os atletas que haviam competido dentro e fora de casa. Dado que alguns atletas não puderam lutar em território neutro e, portanto, não tiveram codificação para esse SR, foram criados duas subamostras do Grupo I e do Grupo II, excluindo os atletas sem codificação nesta variável. Todas as análises foram realizadas considerando os gêneros conjunta e separadamente. A variável qualidade relativa foi significante em todas as análises e também modificou os modelos (p<0,001). Ao considerarmos a subamostra do Grupo II, a razão de chance para conquista de medalhas foi superior para os atletas que competiram em casa para o grupo masculino (2,33; p<0,001) e feminino (1,58; p = 0,019). A associação entre número de lutas vencidas e competir em casa foi significante para os atletas do masculino (p<0,001), mas não significante para o feminino (p = 0,088). A ausência da vantagem no feminino para número de lutas vencidas pode ter sido limitada e confundida com o número reduzido de atletas participantes em muitas das competições. As atletas que conquistaram medalha em competições mais vazias, não precisaram vencer mais lutas, dado que um número reduzido de vitórias garantia a medalha. É possível que a torcida seja a principal responsável pelos achados, tanto por influenciar o julgamento dos árbitros a favorecer os atletas da casa como pela motivação para os atletas. Outra possibilidade é que aspectos associados à dominância territorial tenham influenciado as disputas masculinas, porém não as femininas. Assim, foi comprovada a existência do home advantage nas competições que integram o SR de judô para conquista de medalha no masculino e feminino, e para número de lutas vencidas apenas para o masculino. Desta forma, é provável que os atletas de países que sediam competições do SR tenham vantagem para a obtenção da classificação olímpica / In 2009 the International Judo Federation (IJF) established a ranking system (RS) to classify athletes in the competition categories and in the distribution of vacancies for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the RS does not consider the phenomenon known as home advantage, i.e. the advantage of winning when competing in your home country. This phenomenon has not been studied in judo and its implications for the RS have not been proven. The objective of this study was to determine whether there was occurrence of home advantage in competitions that use the RS in judo, in winning a medal, and in the number of matches won. Therefore, we analyzed all international judo competitions using the RS in 2009. Logistic regression analysis was used to verify if the athletes who competed in their home countries were more likely to win a medal, and we used the Poisson generalized linear model to check whether there were associations between the number of matches won and competing at home. The models have an adjustment variable in the relative quality of athletes in two possibilities: position in the IJF RS and matches played on neutral territory. The sample was divided into two groups: Group I all participants and Group II only athletes who had competed inside and outside their home country. Given that some athletes could not fight on neutral territory and therefore did not have this RS coding, a sub-sample of Group I and a sub-sample of Group II were created, excluding athletes without the coding from this variable. All tests were performed considering the groups together and separately. The relative quality variable was significant in all tests and also modified the models (p <0.001). For the sub-sample of Group II the odds ratio for winning medals was higher for the athletes who competed at home for the male group (2.33, p <0.001) and the female group (1.58, p = 0.019). The association between the number of matches won and competing at home was significant for the male athletes (p <0.001), but not for the females (p = 0.088). The absence of the female advantage in the number of matches won may have been limited and confused by the small number of athletes participating in many of the competitions. The athletes who won medals in competitions with fewer competitors did not need to win more matches since a small number of wins guaranteed the medal. It is possible that the crowd was mainly responsible for the findings, both in influencing the judgement of the referees to favour the home athletes and in motivating the athletes. Another possibility is that aspects related to territorial dominance influenced the male competitors but not the female competitors. Thus, the existence of home advantage was observed in the competitions that used the judo RS in the achievement of medals for males and females, and in the number of matches won, only for males. Thus, it is likely that athletes from countries that host competitions using the RS have an advantage for obtaining the Olympic classification

Wildfire is a destructive and devastating phenomenon experienced all around the world, which is predicted to increase in frequency and geographical range as climate change continues throughout the 21st century and beyond. This paper used a GIS approach to analyse the expected change in wildfire geographical range by 2050 using a Global Climate Model of the worst case scenario. After new wildfire-prone regions were identified, an analysis of these regions was undertaken regarding human-risk to ignition, currently the largest cause of wildfire outbreaks. This was performed using a ranking system of variables known to increase the human-risk, namely rural exodus, density of agricultural machinery, prevalence of tobacco smoking, and camping tourism popularity. The results were in consensus with the scientific community regarding the effect of climate change on the geographical range of wildfire outbreaks, and identified Europe as a key area of future concern. Within Europe, Austria was seen as having the highest risk to human-ignition. This could be of utmost importance to European, especially Austrian, management agencies as they look to restrict the future impact of climate change on their communities. This paper serves as an example of how spatiotemporal patterns of extreme weather events and climate change can be projected using GIS. / Skogsbrand är ett destruktivt och förödande fenomen över hela världen och förutspås att öka i frekvens och geografisk utbredning med förändrade klimatförutsättningar under det tjugoförsta århundradet och framöver. Den här studien har använt GIS som metod för att analysera den förväntade förändringen av skogsbränders geografiska utbredning år 2050, baserat på värsta scenariot framtaget i en global klimatmodellering. Efter att nya skogsbrandsbenägna regioner identifierats, gjordes en analys av regionerna avseende mänskliga faktorer som ökar risken för antändning, för närvarande den största orsaken till skogbrandssutbrott. Riskanalyserna utfördes med ett rankingsystem av variabler som är kända för att öka risken, nämligen avfolkning av landsbygden, densitet av jordbruksmaskiner, förekomsten av tobaksrökning, och campingturismens popularitet. Studiens resultat stämmer överens med vetenskapliga studier avseende klimatförändringens effekter på geografisk utbredning av skogbrandssutbrott. I studien identifierades Europa som ett nyckelområde för framtida risker. Inom Europa hade Österrike den högsta risken för mänsklig antändning. Resultatet kan vara av yttersta vikt för europeiska, särskilt österrikare, förvaltningsorgan som försöker att begränsa den framtida inverkan av klimatförändringar på deras samhällen. Den här studien är ett exempel på hur rumsliga fördelningsmönster av extrema väderförhållanden och klimatförändringar kan projiceras genom att använda GIS.

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Evaluation of contaminated sites based on human health and environmental hazards is an essential task for the proper management of the contaminated sites. A large number of contaminated sites have been waiting for remediation all over the World. However, contaminated site remediation is generally a difficult, time consuming and very expensive process. Ranking systems for contaminated sites are useful tools to determine the remedial priority and to manage the available remediation budget in the most efficient way before the costly remedial actions are taken. To be able to have a reliable ranking result, accurate and sufficient amount of data on the nature of contamination and site characteristics are needed, which are usually not available at the early identification phases of contaminated sites, and the available data is mostly limited and vague in nature. If the available data are inaccurate or vague, the corresponding remedial ranking results can be questionable, as well. Most of the current ranking methodologies overlook the vagueness in the parameter values. The main objective of this study is to develop a remedial priority ranking system for contaminated sites by taking vagueness in parameter values into account. Within this context, development of the new Remedial Priority Ranking System, RPRS, aims to define and evaluate the current and possible environmental risks by using sufficiently comprehensive readily available parameters describing the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment and considering vagueness in those parameter values. The consideration of vagueness in parameter values was included in remedial prioritization of contaminated sites by means of fuzzy set theory. A fuzzy expert system was built up for the evaluation of contaminated sites and it was developed in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 platform, with the intention of making the evaluation fast and user friendly. Hypothetical and real case study applications are presented to test ease of use and validity of the results of the developed methodology. Results of case study applications revealed that the developed RPRS can serve as an alternative method for remedial priority ranking of contaminated sites.

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in high school mathematics education, especially in the teaching and learning of calculus. For example, studies conducted by Bressoud (2010); Judson and Nishimori (2005); Koh and Divaharan (2011); and St. Jarre (2008) all looked at how to improve the understanding of calculus students and what roles the educator must take to ensure that their students are successful. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference between instruction using computer algebra system (CAS) compared to instruction using the graphing calculator in high school calculus on students’ conceptual and procedural understanding. This study explored and compared two different types of instruction based on the use of two different types of technology, CAS and graphing calculator. The total population for this study consisted of 333 students. There were 187 students classified as using the graphing calculator and 146 students classified as using CAS. The data for this study were collected from four Advanced Placement (AP) calculus AB courses from high schools in Florida. The study used observations and two sets of calculus tasks in order to gather data. The research questions for this study looked at comparing the grades of students categorized based on the type of instruction received during the learning of calculus. The statistical procedure that was used was a simple oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the two types of instruction on the students’ procedural knowledge, iii however, there was statistical significance on the students’ conceptual understanding in favor of the CAS students. The study introduces a framework on how to obtain information about the effects of different types of instruction on students’ understanding of calculus. The results of this study contribute in assisting teachers and future researchers on how to analyze student work in order to obtain information about the students’ conceptual and procedural understanding of first semester calculus.

建構一套健全的公司治理評等機制，為落實公司治理相關議題的核心工作。本研究以經濟暨合作發展組織之公司治理原則、世界銀行之公司治理架構與國內外公司治理相關實證文獻作為理論基礎，透過分析量化之公司層級衡量指標，嘗試建構一套可行且適合衡量台灣企業之公司治理評等指標，以作為投資人制定投資決策與授信機構評估企業債信風險時之參考。 本研究以2002年國內523家非金融業上市公司為樣本，利用LISREL方法 (線性結構關係模式統計方法)建構台灣公司治理評等指標。分析結果共得出：股權結構構面 (盈餘股份比、專業機構投資者持股率)；董事會職責構面 (盈餘席次比、外部董事席次比率、外部監察人席次數與外部董監持股率)；財務透明度構面 (盈餘管理幅度、損益平穩化程度與財報重編率)等3個構面、9項衡量指標。 透過與企業當期及次期經營績效、公司價值與投資人投資風險間之關聯性實證測試，本研究發現，前項公司治理評等指標與企業之經營績效、公司價值呈顯著正相關，而與投資人投資風險呈顯著負相關。此項實證結果一方面顯示，前項公司治理評等指標愈佳，企業當期與次期之經營績效與公司價值愈高，投資人之投資風險愈低；另方面亦表示本研究所建構之公司治理評等指標對於企業之經營績效、公司價值與投資人投資風險，具有一定程度之關聯性與預測能力。 / A well-developed corporate governance ranking system is essential to implantation of corporate governance. Base on principles proposed by OECD, a framework provided by the World-Bank and empirical literature on corporate governance, this research attempts to develop a workable TCGI (herein Taiwan Corporate Governance Index or TCGI) ranking system. The purpose of provision of TCGI is to help investors and creditors to make better decisions. Using data for 523 non-banking corporations publicly traded at Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2002, and LISREL as the analytical tool, this research constructs a three-aspect (including ownership structure, responsibility of the board and financial transparency) TCGI ranking system with 9 corresponding indicators in total. The empirical results of association tests show that TCGI indicators are significantly and positively (negatively) related to operation performance and market value (the occurrence of firms encountering financial difficulties). The findings thus imply that the TCGI ranking system developed in this research may be useful in investors and creditors decision-making.