149 research outputs found

    Cost-Effectiveness of Targeted Reemployment Bonuses

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    Targeting reemployment bonus offers to unemployment insurance (UI) claimants identified as most likely to exhaust benefits is estimated to reduce benefit payments. We show that targeting bonus offers with profiling models similar to those in state Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services systems can improve cost effectiveness. Since estimated average benefit payments do not steadily decline as the eligibility screen is gradually tightened, we find that narrow targeting is not optimal. The best candidate is a low bonus amount with a long qualification period, targeted to the half of profiled claimants most likely to exhaust their UI benefit entitlement. I

    The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

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    This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world

    Influence of the ratio of planktonic to benthic diatoms on lacustrine organic matter δ13C from Erlongwan maar lake, northeast China

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    Carbon isotope ratio (δ13Corg) values of organic matter in lake sediments are commonly used to reconstruct environmental change, but the factors which influence change are varied and complex. Here we report δ13C values for sediments from Erlongwan maar lake in northeast China. In this record, changes in δ13C cannot be explained by simple changes in aquatic productivity. Instead, values were likely influenced by differences in the ratio between planktonic and benthic algae, as indicated by the remains of diatoms. This is because the variation of δ13Corg in algae from different habitats is controlled by the thickness of the diffusive boundary layer, which is dependent on the turbulence of the water. Compared with benthic algae, which grow in relatively still water, pelagic algae are exposed to greater water movement. This is known to dramatically reduce the thickness of the boundary layer and was found to cause even more severe δ13C depletion. In Erlongwan maar lake, low values were linked to the dominance of planktonic diatoms during the period commonly known as the Medieval Warm Period. Values gradually increased with the onset of the Little Ice Age, which we interpret as being driven by an increase in the proportion of benthic taxa, due to effect of the colder climate. The increase in planktonic diatoms at the end of the Little Ice Age, linked to higher temperature and a reduction in ice cover, resulted in a further decline in δ13Corg

    Resilient Strategies and Sustainability in Agri-Food Supply Chains in the Face of High-Risk Events

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    [EN] Agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) are very vulnerable to high risks such as pandemics, causing economic and social impacts mainly on the most vulnerable population. Thus, it is a priority to implement resilient strategies that enable AFSCs to resist, respond and adapt to new market challenges. At the same time, implementing resilient strategies impact on the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The objective of this paper is twofold: analyze resilient strategies on AFSCs in the literature and identify how these resilient strategies applied in the face of high risks affect the achievement of sustainability dimensions. The analysis of the articles is carried out in three points: consequences faced by agri-food supply chains due to high risks, strategies applicable in AFSCs, and relationship between resilient strategies and the achievement of sustainability dimensions.Authors of this publication acknowledge the contribution of the Project 691249, RUC-APS "Enhancing and implementing Knowledge based ICT solutions within high Risk and Uncertain Conditions for Agriculture Production Systems" (www.ruc-aps.eu), funded by the European Union under their funding scheme H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015.Zavala-Alcívar, A.; Verdecho Sáez, MJ.; Alfaro Saiz, JJ. (2020). Resilient Strategies and Sustainability in Agri-Food Supply Chains in the Face of High-Risk Events. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. 598:560-570. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62412-5_46S560570598Gray, R.: Agriculture, transportation, and the COVID-19 crisis. Can. J. Agric. 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    Dynamic changes in eIF4F-mRNA interactions revealed by global analyses of environmental stress responses

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    BACKGROUND: Translation factors eIF4E and eIF4G form eIF4F, which interacts with the messenger RNA (mRNA) 5' cap to promote ribosome recruitment and translation initiation. Variations in the association of eIF4F with individual mRNAs likely contribute to differences in translation initiation frequencies between mRNAs. As translation initiation is globally reprogrammed by environmental stresses, we were interested in determining whether eIF4F interactions with individual mRNAs are reprogrammed and how this may contribute to global environmental stress responses. RESULTS: Using a tagged-factor protein capture and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) approach, we have assessed how mRNA associations with eIF4E, eIF4G1 and eIF4G2 change globally in response to three defined stresses that each cause a rapid attenuation of protein synthesis: oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide and nutrient stresses caused by amino acid or glucose withdrawal. We find that acute stress leads to dynamic and unexpected changes in eIF4F-mRNA interactions that are shared among each factor and across the stresses imposed. eIF4F-mRNA interactions stabilised by stress are predominantly associated with translational repression, while more actively initiating mRNAs become relatively depleted for eIF4F. Simultaneously, other mRNAs are insulated from these stress-induced changes in eIF4F association. CONCLUSION: Dynamic eIF4F-mRNA interaction changes are part of a coordinated early translational control response shared across environmental stresses. Our data are compatible with a model where multiple mRNA closed-loop complexes form with differing stability. Hence, unexpectedly, in the absence of other stabilising factors, rapid translation initiation on mRNAs correlates with less stable eIF4F interactions

    A comparison of two methods for expert elicitation in health technology assessments.

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    BACKGROUND: When data needed to inform parameters in decision models are lacking, formal elicitation of expert judgement can be used to characterise parameter uncertainty. Although numerous methods for eliciting expert opinion as probability distributions exist, there is little research to suggest whether one method is more useful than any other method. This study had three objectives: (i) to obtain subjective probability distributions characterising parameter uncertainty in the context of a health technology assessment; (ii) to compare two elicitation methods by eliciting the same parameters in different ways; (iii) to collect subjective preferences of the experts for the different elicitation methods used. METHODS: Twenty-seven clinical experts were invited to participate in an elicitation exercise to inform a published model-based cost-effectiveness analysis of alternative treatments for prostate cancer. Participants were individually asked to express their judgements as probability distributions using two different methods - the histogram and hybrid elicitation methods - presented in a random order. Individual distributions were mathematically aggregated across experts with and without weighting. The resulting combined distributions were used in the probabilistic analysis of the decision model and mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and the expected values of perfect information (EVPI) were calculated for each method, and compared with the original cost-effectiveness analysis. Scores on the ease of use of the two methods and the extent to which the probability distributions obtained from each method accurately reflected the expert's opinion were also recorded. RESULTS: Six experts completed the task. Mean ICERs from the probabilistic analysis ranged between £162,600-£175,500 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) depending on the elicitation and weighting methods used. Compared to having no information, use of expert opinion decreased decision uncertainty: the EVPI value at the £30,000 per QALY threshold decreased by 74-86 % from the original cost-effectiveness analysis. Experts indicated that the histogram method was easier to use, but attributed a perception of more accuracy to the hybrid method. CONCLUSIONS: Inclusion of expert elicitation can decrease decision uncertainty. Here, choice of method did not affect the overall cost-effectiveness conclusions, but researchers intending to use expert elicitation need to be aware of the impact different methods could have.This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for the South West Peninsula

    Resurgence of a Nation’s Radiation Science Driven by Its Nuclear Industry Needs

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    From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2021-10-26, pub-electronic 2021-11-23Publication status: PublishedThis article describes the radiation facilities and associated sample preparation, management, and analysis equipment currently in place at the Dalton Cumbrian Facility, a facility which opened in 2011 to support the UK’s nuclear industry. Examples of measurements performed using these facilities are presented to illustrate their versatility and the breadth of research they make possible. Results are presented from research which furthers our understanding of radiation damage to polymeric materials, radiolytic yield of gaseous products in situations relevant to nuclear materials, radiation chemistry in light water reactor cooling systems, material chemistry relevant to immobilization of nuclear waste, and radiation-induced corrosion of fuel cladding elements. Applications of radiation chemistry relevant to health care are also described. Research concerning the mechanisms of radioprotection by dietary carotenoids is reported. An ongoing open-labware project to develop a suite of modular sample handling components suited to radiation research is described, as is the development of a new neutron source able to provide directional beams of neutrons

    Neonatal cerebrovascular autoregulation.

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    Cerebrovascular pressure autoregulation is the physiologic mechanism that holds cerebral blood flow (CBF) relatively constant across changes in cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP). Cerebral vasoreactivity refers to the vasoconstriction and vasodilation that occur during fluctuations in arterial blood pressure (ABP) to maintain autoregulation. These are vital protective mechanisms of the brain. Impairments in pressure autoregulation increase the risk of brain injury and persistent neurologic disability. Autoregulation may be impaired during various neonatal disease states including prematurity, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), intraventricular hemorrhage, congenital cardiac disease, and infants requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Because infants are exquisitely sensitive to changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF), both hypoperfusion and hyperperfusion can cause significant neurologic injury. We will review neonatal pressure autoregulation and autoregulation monitoring techniques with a focus on brain protection. Current clinical therapies have failed to fully prevent permanent brain injuries in neonates. Adjuvant treatments that support and optimize autoregulation may improve neurologic outcomes
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