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This paper analyses the associations between computer use in schools and at home and test scores by using TIMSS data covering over 900,000 children in fourth grade. When controlling for school fixed effects, pupils who use computers at school, especially those who use them frequently are found to achieve less than students who never use computers. Daily computer use at home is negatively associated with test scores, although monthly, and sometimes weekly, use is positively associated with pupil performance. There is no significant difference between subjects and only small gender and country differences are observed. Moreover, the result suggests that the negative association of computer use at school is larger among low-performing pupils than for high-performing pupils. The findings suggest a negative association of computer use at school and test scores but do not reject the possibility that computers have a positive impact on test scores if computers are used optimally.

In their personal lives, people consider it essential to separate economics and intimacy. We have, for example, a long-standing taboo against workplace romance, while we see marital love as different from prostitution because it is not a fundamentally financial exchange. In The Purchase of Intimacy, Viviana Zelizer mounts a provocative challenge to this view. Getting to the heart of one of life's greatest taboos, she shows how we all use economic activity to create, maintain, and renegotiate important ties—especially intimate ties—to other people. In everyday life, we invest intense effort and worry to strike the right balance. For example, when a wife's income equals or surpasses her husband's, how much more time should the man devote to household chores or child care? Sometimes legal disputes arise. Should the surviving partner in a same-sex relationship have received compensation for a partner's death as a result of 9/11? Through a host of compelling examples, Zelizer shows us why price is central to three key areas of intimacy: sexually tinged relations; health care by family members, friends, and professionals; and household economics. She draws both on research and materials ranging from reports on compensation to survivors of 9/11 victims to financial management Web sites and advice books for same-sex couples. From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives.

The essays in this volume probe the impact the digital revolution has had, or sometimes failed to have, on global business. Has digital technology, the authors ask, led to structural changes and greater efficiency and innovation? While most of the essays support the idea that the information age has increased productivity in global business, the evidence of a 'revolution' in the ways industries are organized is somewhat more blurred, with both significant discontinuities and features which persist from the 'second' industrial revolution.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are increasingly appreciated as down-stream effectors of cellular damage and dysfunction under natural and anthropogenic stress scenarios in aquatic systems. This comprehensive volume describes oxidative stress phenomena in different climatic zones and groups of organisms, taking into account specific habitat conditions and how they affect susceptibility to ROS damage. A comprehensive and detailed methods section is included which supplies complete protocols for analyzing ROS production, oxidative damage, and antioxidant systems. Methods are also evaluated with respect to applicability and constraints for different types of research. The authors are all internationally recognized experts in particular fields of oxidative stress research. This comprehensive reference volume is essential for students, researchers, and technicians in the field of ROS research, and also contains information useful for veterinarians, environmental health professionals, and decision makers.

Improving Performance is recognized as the book that launched the Process Improvement revolution. It was the first such approach to bridge the gap between organization strategy and the individual. Now, in this revised and expanded new edition, Gary Rummler reflects on the key needs of organizations faced with today's challenge of managing change in today's complex world. The book shows how to apply the three levels of performance and link performance to strategy, move from annual programs to sustained performance improvement, redesign processes, overcome the seven deadly sins of performance improvement and much more.

Shortcut nitrogen removal, an emerging economical solution for water resource recovery facilities, refers to the biological nitrogen removal (BNR) process whereby ammonia is not converted to nitrate, but instead stops at nitrite to shortcut the conventional nitrification/denitrification process. The resulting breakthrough single-step deammonification has significant advantages compared to conventional BNR processes, including reduced energy requirements, reduced carbon requirements, and reduced chemical costs. This book is an essential resource for facility owners and practitioners evaluating the implementation of these advancements, including guidelines for assessing the application of various technologies.

Throughout the 1980s the British Civil Service devoted much time and energy developing indicators to measure the performance of government. Never before had so much stress been placed on accountability and performance; a trend which will be reinforced as government continues to devolve activities to agencies and looks for methods to assess their performance. How Organisations Measure Success analyses existing methods from their origins in the 1960s to their revival in the 1980s as part of the Financial Management Initiative and its apotheosis in the 1990s Next Steps Initiative. How Organisations Measure Success reports on two years of field research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and will be of great interest to students of social policy and public administration as well as professionals working in government and public sector management.

Due to their sheer size and stake in the global economy, China and India have long been identified as the two giant economies of Asia. This book presents a highly engaging comparative study on the economic growth of China and India by examining the significance of the role of productivity in economic growth as well as their relations with regional partners. Through detailed analysis of trade, services, energy and pollution, readers are invited to follow the two distinctive development trajectories taken by the two countries, as well as challenged to consider the issue of sustainability of growth in the future.