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Most business schools in the U.S. are employing various initiatives to "internationalize" their curriculum in order to prepare students to participate more effectively in a globally interconnected business world. An integral part of these initiatives is to encourage more students to participate in study abroad programs. Though it maybe optimal for students to study abroad for a semester or more, many students do not have the time, resources or confidence to commit to a long-term experience. Consequently, short-term two to three week study abroad programs (SSA) are often a viable and worth while experiential alternative. Often, the process of developing a short-term study abroad experience can be daunting. We use a case study approach to examine how short-term study programs were initiated, planned, organized and implemented in five countries--Malaysia, Singapore, Chile, Germany and Australia. These programs were led by business faculty, at an AACSB accredited Midwestern University, each of whom also had prior experience in conducting study abroad programs. These faculty leaders provided detailed accounts related to each of the programs. A guide using probing questions was prepared through a triangulation process that included the faculty leaders and an administrator that had reviewed and audited 12 previous short-term study abroad programs. Drawing on actual SSA experiences and outcomes, this paper proposes a SSA framework consisting of planning, marketing, conducting and evaluating stages that can make the study abroad process understandable, efficient and easier to implement.

River floods are generated by various processes that, if disregarded, may induce errors in flood hazard assessment. This is particularly relevant where events extraordinarily larger than the typical floods have been observed, that is, for rivers with a flood divide in their flood‐frequency curves. We identify 11 such cases in a large set of German catchments and test a statistical approach that accounts for different runoff‐generation processes to predict the magnitude and frequency of extraordinarily high floods. We observe that in catchments with a flood divide, ordinary peaks are generated by different runoff‐generation processes and the distribution of at least one process is heavy‐tailed. By accounting for the different tail behaviors of multiple processes, we can reproduce flood‐frequency curves in these catchments. Our findings shed light on the origin of flood divides and set a method to improve the estimation of high flood quantiles in these high‐risk cases. Plain Language Summary: River floods can be caused by many different processes. Neglecting this fact may impair our capability to predict the probability of occurrence of the most extreme floods. In this study, we combine knowledge of runoff‐generation mechanisms across different events with a statistical method which uses information on these ordinary events to infer the magnitude and frequency of floods. We apply the method to 11 rivers in Germany where extraordinarily high floods have been observed. By accounting for ordinary runoff events and their diverse runoff‐generation processes we obtain accurate estimates of the magnitude of rare and extreme floods, substantially improving results provided by traditional methods. Key Points: We develop a statistical model to predict extraordinarily high floods occurring in river basins with variable flood extremesThe approach leverages knowledge of various hydrologic processes generating runoff events to estimate the magnitude of extreme floodsBy accounting for multiple processes in flood magnitude‐frequency analysis, we improve the estimation of extraordinarily high floods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a method to select ex ante the ordinary distribution in the MEV approach. • The approach identifies the optimal distribution in the majority of case studies. • The proposed methodology is robust to changes of the dataset. • Flood appraisal improves by reducing estimation bias and decreasing uncertainty. Recent advances in the study of extreme values, namely the Metastatistical extreme value (MEV) framework, showed good performances for the estimation of extremes in several fields. Here we adopt MEV for flood frequency analysis and leverage its intrinsic property of allowing for the choice of the distribution which best describes ordinary peaks to improve flood estimation. To this end, we develop a non-parametric approach to select ex ante the most suitable distribution of ordinary peaks between Gamma and Log-Normal. The method relies on the tail ratio, which we define as the ratio between the empirical 99th and 95th percentile of the ordinary peaks, and is tested by using daily streamflow time series from 182 gauges in Germany. Based on the value of the tail ratio index, we choose either the Gamma or the Log-Normal distributions to represent the ordinary peaks in each gauge. The approach correctly identifies the most suitable distribution of ordinary peaks in a large majority of the analyzed basins, and is robust to changes of the considered dataset. The preliminary selection of the ordinary distribution based on the tail ratio index improves the estimation of frequent and rare floods with respect to MEV applied with a single distribution not tailored on the specific statistical properties of the ordinary peaks. Finally, by comparing the developed methodology with the standard Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution, we show that we are able to reduce the estimation uncertainty of high flood quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: As with any technology-driven field, laparoscopic surgery has made tremendous progress in recent years. Since the performance of first laparoscopic cholecystectomy by Prof Dr Med Erich Mühe of Böblingen, Germany 1985, this procedure has overtaken open cholecystectomy as the treatment of choice in cholelithiasis. However due to the cost incurred thereof and surgical training needed, open cholecystectomy is still performed on a very large scale in most parts of the third world countries. We tried to modify the conventional cholecystectomy to a minimal access approach (with minimal required infrastructure) to suit majority of patients with cholelithiasis in lieu of cost and morbidity. Objective: To assess the outcome of modified mini-lap cholecystectomy and report our experience with our innovations and modifications of the technique. Patients and methods: Between May 2006 and May 2008, two hundred patients with cholelithiasis aged between 15 and 56 years underwent mini-lap cholecystectomy in a prospective study in Government medical college Srinagar. Our surgical approach was carried out using a 3–5cm oblique incision located two finger breadths below the costal margin; fashioned more laterally with a muscle cutting or splitting technique. The outcome was assessed in terms of intraoperative and postoperative parameters. The median (range) age was 38 (15–56) years and there were 143 females and 57 males in the study. All the procedures were completed successfully without any complications, though one patient needed the extension of incision as in conventional cholecystectomy. Results: All the procedures were completed successfully. The mean (range) operative time was 35 (20–110)min and the average blood loss was 30ml. The mean (range) hospital stay was 2 (1–5) days. All patients returned back to routine work within 9 days of surgery. The mean follow-up was 12 (7–14) months. Conclusions: These results confirm that mini-lap cholecystectomy by our modified approach is safe, feasible and has lesser morbidity and postoperative pain as compared to conventional open cholecystectomy. The technique is cost effective, easy to practice and can benefit majority of patients who otherwise cannot afford the laparoscopic surgery. Hence it can serve as an alternative to the gold standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy with almost comparable results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]