A preliminary analysis of the market for small, medium and large horticultural shows in England

Understanding the consumer is important in estimating the market for an event. This study analysed the socio-demographic and other characteristics of actual and potential visitors to three styles of English horticultural shows. The shows selected varied in terms of their status - national, regional, local; the number of visitors they attract and the length of time they are open to the public. The analysis of the findings of a survey of residents in southern England suggests that whilst age is a key demographic variable, a more valuable means of segmenting the population is by their level of enthusiasm for gardening. Furthermore it is proposed that demand for the largest shows, held nationally can be established not only, through these factors but also, by the potential visitors’ history of attending smaller horticultural shows. The implications for the marketing of these and similar events are discussed

Economic Evidence of Willingness to Pay for the National Animal Identification System in the US

This article investigates the willingness to pay for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) in the US. It is assumed that with the NAIS in place, consumers' risk perception about zoonosis, BSE or mad cow and residues in meat may be mitigated. Therefore, food safety indices for beef, pork and poultry summing the number of references to meat safety found in the top fifty English language news articles in circulation in the US have been constructed. These indices were incorporated in generalized almost ideal demand systems to estimate the effect of those food safety scares on the demand for meat in the US. It has been found that food safety impacts upon the final demand for meat in the US are small and do not show lagged effects. Using the preferred model, three scenarios have been constructed on the basis of hypothesized impacts of the NAIS on consumers' food safety concerns about meat. Finally, the differences in the predicted total revenue for beef, pork and poultry between scenarios are used as gross measures of the NAIS' economic value to the meat sector. The main conclusion is that if the defense of the NAIS is based on its effect on the demand side of the market for meats it is expected that the US Federal government will need to pay for a great part of the costs with the NAIS; otherwise the NAIS is likely to be economically unfeasible in the US.Animal Identification System, Food Safety, System of Demand Equations, Meat Industry, USA, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries, C22, Q11, Q13, Q18,

Investigating American Cancer Society Volunteer Experience

The nonprofit sector is crucial for a vital economy, and volunteers are at the core of many of these organizations. Research has shown many different factors related to nonprofit organization success, including volunteer management, recruitment, and retention techniques. This study adds to the current literature by investigating the American Cancer Society Relay For Life Advisory Team and explores what factors have led to the retention of these high-level volunteers, what skill-based trainings have they received throughout their volunteer career with the American Cancer Society, and what sentiment do the volunteers have toward receiving spokesperson training, facilitation training, and coaching training. Using a single, descriptive, instrumental case study design, an open-ended response questionnaire was disseminated to 31 current Relay Advisory Team volunteers. Through using coding analysis, four major themes were identified from the responses to the question “why did you begin to volunteer for the American Cancer Society?: having a personal connection to cancer; someone asked them to get involved; participants were looking for a way to give back and make a difference; and participants were looking for a sense of community and belonging. In analyzing the question “why do you continue to volunteer for the American Cancer Society?” three major themes were identified: the desire of a cure for cancer to be found, participants felt that the American Cancer Society is a reputable organization, and a belief in the mission of the American Cancer Society. Lastly, the volunteers had received a range of trainings in the past, and had a positive sentiment toward receiving spokesperson, coaching, and facilitation trainings in the future. The finding of this study can be used to inform American Cancer Society volunteer recruitment and retention techniques

Promotion of occupational therapy as a career: A survey of occupational therapy managers

A careers pack distributed to 184 occupational therapy managers in and around London contained a questionnaire which gathered information about their role in promoting occupational therapy as a career. Twenty-six managers responded (14.1%) and considered that the College of Occupational Therapists had the principal responsibility for promoting the profession. Three-quarters considered that the careers pack was fairly effective and two-thirds were willing to use it to promote the profession. Although pleased to have received the pack, the managers had more negative than positive comments about it. Managers may not appreciate their influential position in recruitment to the profession and other stakeholders should collaborate to support them in their pivotal rol

Collective nostalgia: a group-level emotion that confers unique benefits on the group

This research established collective nostalgia as a group-level emotion and ascertained the benefits it confers on the group. In Study 1, participants who reflected on a nostalgic event they had experienced together with ingroup members (collective nostalgia) evaluated the ingroup more positively and reported stronger intentions to approach (and not avoid) ingroup members than those who recalled a nostalgic event they had experienced individually (personal nostalgia), those who reflected on a lucky event they had experienced together with ingroup members (collective positive), and those who did not recall an event (no recall). In Study 2, collective (vs. personal) nostalgia strengthened behavioral intentions to support the ingroup more so than did recalling an ordinary collective (vs. personal) event. Increased collective self-esteem mediated this effect. In Study 3, collective nostalgia (compared with recall of an ordinary collective event) led participants to sacrifice money in order to punish a transgression perpetrated against an ingroup member. This effect of collective nostalgia was more pronounced when social identification was high (compared with low). Finally, in Study 4, collective nostalgia converged toward the group average (i.e., was socially shared) when participants thought of themselves in terms of their group membership. The findings underscore the viability of studying nostalgia at multiple levels of analysis and highlight the significance of collective nostalgia for understanding group-level attitudes, global action tendencies, specific behavioral intentions, and behavior

Risk management standards for P5M

Risk can be managed, minimized, shared, transferred or accepted but it cannot be ignored. An effective and efficient risk management approach requires a proper and systematic methodology and, more importantly, knowledge and experience. Risk management are coordinated activities to direct and control an organization with regard to risk. Based on this definition, project risk management can be derivatively defined as coordinate activities to direct and control a project with regard to risk. In this way, it becomes an integral part of every aspect of managing the project. The goal of this paper is to present and compare the main standards for project risk management that are currently available today. Five international standards recognized world-wide were selected for comparison PMI, PRINCE2, IPMA, ISO 31000 and IEC 62198.Web of Science131341

Safety of medication use in primary care

© 2014 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.BACKGROUND: Medication errors are one of the leading causes of harmin health care. Review and analysis of errors have often emphasized their preventable nature and potential for reoccurrence. Of the few error studies conducted in primary care to date, most have focused on evaluating individual parts of the medicines management system. Studying individual parts of the system does not provide a complete perspective and may further weaken the evidence and undermine interventions.AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review is to estimate the scale of medication errors as a problem across the medicines management system in primary care. Objectives were: To review studies addressing the rates of medication errors, and To identify studies on interventions to prevent medication errors in primary care.METHODS: A systematic search of the literature was performed in PubMed (MEDLINE), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), Embase, PsycINFO, PASCAL, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, and CINAHL PLUS from 1999 to November, 2012. Bibliographies of relevant publications were searched for additional studies.KEY FINDINGS: Thirty-three studies estimating the incidence of medication errors and thirty-six studies evaluating the impact of error-prevention interventions in primary care were reviewed. This review demonstrated that medication errors are common, with error rates between 90%, depending on the part of the system studied, and the definitions and methods used. The prescribing stage is the most susceptible, and that the elderly (over 65 years), and children (under 18 years) are more likely to experience significant errors. Individual interventions demonstrated marginal improvements in medication safety when implemented on their own.CONCLUSION: Targeting the more susceptible population groups and the most dangerous aspects of the system may be a more effective approach to error management and prevention. Co-implementation of existing interventions at points within the system may offer time- and cost-effective options to improving medication safety in primary care.Peer reviewe

Toward a constructivist model of radicalization and deradicalization: a conceptual and methodological proposal.

© 2019 Feixas and Winter.This article identifies common features of existing models of radicalization and deradicalization, such as the transition from uncertainty to certainty, before integrating these in a model based upon personal construct theory. It is proposed that the personal construct concepts of validation and invalidation are particularly relevant to processes of identity change such as radicalization and deradicalization. Thus, it is argued that radicalization occurs when major invalidation of an individual’s construing is followed by the development of a new radicalized view of the world that provides a turning point in his or her sense of identity and a more structured and certain view of the world. There is likely to be seeking out of validation for this view in interactions with others who share similar views or by extorting evidence for the individual’s radical constructions. These constructions are likely to involve extreme negative views of another group, by contrast to members of which, and possibly by taking extreme action against this group, the individual’s new self-construction may become further defined. These same processes can be seen to operate in deradicalization, and it will therefore be argued that the model has implications for the development of deradicalization programs. A further advantage of the model is that it has an associated personal construct methodology, particularly repertory grid technique, that may be used to investigate processes of radicalization and deradicalization. As illustrations of such investigations, results will be summarized from a repertory grid study of Salafist Muslims in Tunisia, some of whom had returned from fighting in Syria, and an analysis of the writings of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik. The findings of these investigations are argued to be consistent with the personal construct model of radicalization and deradicalization.Peer reviewe