Real-Time Epidemic Monitoring and Forecasting of H1N1-2009 Using Influenza-Like Illness from General Practice and Family Doctor Clinics in Singapore

10.1371/journal.pone.0010036PLoS ONE54

Directors’ duties and risk governance

Managerial literature offers anecdotal evidence that board risk oversight is mainly driven by the search for compliance with regulatory requirements, thus turning a value creation mechanism into an ineffective bureaucratic exercise. The inadequate risk culture of most boards is often reported as the main determinant of the gap between the expected and the actual effectiveness of board risk oversight. We provide an additional explanation based on a review of the leading guidance on corporate governance. We contend that the image of board risk oversight marketed through most of the governance literature is a simplified, unrealistic representation of a complex set of activities, whose effectiveness depends on the solution of theoretical as well as practical problems. In our view, leading risk management frameworks and guidance do not address most of those critical issues, just providing one size fits all solutions that are frequently derived from concepts and practices developed in highly regulated industries, a-critically transferred to different and distant industries and contexts. We argue that this practice has led to some significant biases that make the implementation of risk oversight in different contexts, less effective than in the original one. We also re-examine board risk oversight in the light of directors’ fiduciary duties. We contend that the well-established jurisprudential orientation of courts inspired by the business judgment rule may even encourage boards to be uninformed of aggressive risk-taking by officers and management. Nonetheless recent jurisprudence seems to reconsider responsibility (and liability) of directors for risk oversight, apparently recognizing the conflict between the weak fiduciary standards set by previous jurisprudence and the increasing request coming from investors for a more active role of the board

Special issue on risk management

Our contention in developing the special issue has been that risk is both a pervasive phenomenon that requires systematic assessment and management efforts and, at the same time, a slippery concept that evades attempts to achieve precise quantification. The pervasiveness is demonstrated by the range of application areas which are represented in this special issue

Evaluating mental models in mathematics: a comparison of methods

Cognitive scientists investigate mental models (how humans organize and structure knowledge in their minds) so as to understand human understanding of and interactions with the world. Cognitive and mental model research is concerned with internal conceptual systems that are not easily or directly observable. The goal of this research was to investigate the use of Evaluation of Mental Models (EMM) to assess the mental models of individuals and groups in solving complex problems and to compare novices and experts models as bases for providing feedback to learners. This study tested a qualified web-based assessment tool kit, Highly Interactive Model-based Assessment Tools and Technologies (HIMATT), in an as yet untested domain-mathematics. In this study, university students and their mathematics instructors used two tools in HIMATT, Dynamic Evaluation of Enhanced Problem Solving (DEEP) and Text-Model Inspection Trace of Concepts and Relations (T-MITOCAR). The research questions include: Do novice participants exhibit common patterns of thoughts when they conceptualize complex mathematical problems? Do novices conceptualize complex mathematical problems differently from experts? What differences in DEEP and T-MITOCAR patterns and responses exist according to the measures of HIMATT? Findings suggest that EMM and HIMATT could effectively support formative assessment in a complex mathematical domain. Finally, this study confirms a common assumption of cognitive scientists that the tool being used could affect the tool user's understanding of the problem being solved. In this case, while DEEP and T-MITOCAR led to somewhat different expert models, both tools prove useful in support of formative assessment

Cybercrime Initiatives South of the Border: A Complicated Endeavor

Cybercrime is no longer just a societal problem. In the globalized world of the twenty-first century and given the democratization of technology, individuals as well as nation-state can carry out their nefarious activities without fear of protection or detention. Cybercrime is becoming a major issue in Latin America. Several Latin American countries are investigated here to illustrate their cyber issues and how they have created laws to mitigate cyber concerns. Again, cybercrime can never be eliminated. But, nation-state can mitigate and take actions to protect their critical infrastructure

Micellar Properties for Propoxylated Surfactants in Water/Alcohol Solvent Mixtures and Their Antibacterial and Polyester Fabric Antistatic Performances

Two propoxylated quaternary amine surfactants characterized by two and six average POadduct numbers (PO-2 and PO-6 QA surfactants) were synthesized to investigate the micellar properties of propoxylated cationic surfactants in water/alcohol mixtures. The effect of PPO groups on micelle formation was explored using conductivity, UV–vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering techniques. Regular or reverse micellization occur with water or alcohol rich solvent mixtures, respectively. For intermediate composition no micellization occurs. Also the performances in antibacterial and antistatic fabrics were studied. PO-2 QA surfactant has excellent antibacterial activities against both the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli and the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus while both surfactants have good antistatic activity over polyester fabric