2,107 research outputs found

    Regulatory systems, institutions and practices

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    Regulation is a fact of life. It affects the food we eat, the safety of our workplace, the goods and services we buy and sell and the quality of our natural environment. It plays an important role in guarding New Zealanders from harm, protecting our rights, and ensuring that markets work fairly and efficiently. However, when regulation is badly designed or implemented it can fail to provide these protections, or place unnecessary burdens on personal freedoms and business efficiency. So is the New Zealand regulatory system as good as it should be, and how could it be improved? • Steven Bailey is a director at the Productivity Commission and led the commission’s inquiry into regulatory institutions and practices. Judy Kavanagh is a principal advisor at the New Zealand Productivity Commission

    A personal computer-based, multitasking data acquisition system

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    A multitasking, data acquisition system was written to simultaneously collect meteorological radar and telemetry data from two sources. This system is based on the personal computer architecture. Data is collected via two asynchronous serial ports and is deposited to disk. The system is written in both the C programming language and assembler. It consists of three parts: a multitasking kernel for data collection, a shell with pull down windows as user interface, and a graphics processor for editing data and creating coded messages. An explanation of both system principles and program structure is presented

    MAPPER: A personal computer map projection tool

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    MAPPER is a set of software tools designed to let users create and manipulate map projections on a personal computer (PC). The capability exists to generate five popular map projections. These include azimuthal, cylindrical, mercator, lambert, and sinusoidal projections. Data for projections are contained in five coordinate databases at various resolutions. MAPPER is managed by a system of pull-down windows. This interface allows the user to intuitively create, view and export maps to other platforms

    Racial Variations in Shock Presentation and Outcome

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    Working toward inclusive strategies for data sampling, trials, and triage is essential. Whatever the approach, it is important to do better than what has been done in the past when considering race and ethnicity in patient care. Although there may be limited publications with information on this topic, they have shown clear differences in patient outcomes with possible associations with gender, race, and ethnicity. It is critical to view the implications of this on socioeconomic status, access, resources, patient phenotypes, and patient desires and expectations. The disparities must first be recognized before any treatment options can be identified

    Estimating the Market Demand for Value-Added Beef: Testing for BSE Announcement Effects Using a Nested PIGLOG Model Approach

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    This paper estimates an AIDS model and corrects for first-order autocorrelation using retail meat data. We fail to reject the null hypothesis of no BSE announcement effects.Demand and Price Analysis,

    Community structure and dynamics of benthic macroinvertebrates in a recreated headwater stream system on a valley fill in a retrofitted watershed located in the Appalachian Coalfields of Southeastern Kentucky (U.S.A.)

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    The extraction of coal from steep-gradient surface mining sites such as in the Appalachian Coalfields of the U.S. produces excess debris that is often placed in adjacent valleys resulting in the creation of valley fills. Not only are headwater streams buried in the process, but watershed functions are either destroyed outright, or become fragmented and disconnected from adjacent ecosystems resulting in adverse effects to downstream biological communities. In this dissertation, the dynamics of stream macroinvertebrate community structure, composition, diversity, and biotic integrity are assessed at a “proof of concept” stream system recreated on a retrofitted valley fill. For comparison, two reference streams were selected with contrasting degrees of environmental impact from surface mining and deforestation. Each stream was sampled monthly over the course of one year. Sixteen environmental variables were measured and sixteen biotic metrics for benthic invertebrate dynamics were calculated. From this analysis, it was apparent that the recreated stream supported a diverse and abundant benthic macroinvertebrate community more similar to an unmined stream than to a mine-impacted stream located immediately downgradient of a traditionally constructed valley fill. These results suggest that the retrofitted watershed, 1) improved water quality in the recreated stream system by mitigating elevated specific conductance, and 2) improved stream habitat availability and quality by restoring, at least partially, ecological functions that were lost to deforestation, mining, and valley fill creation. Overall, these results can help inform and guide stakeholders and decision-makers considering future reclamation projects at any of the hundreds of valley fills created on the surface mined lands in the Appalachian Coalfields of the Southeastern United States
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