4,611 research outputs found
PRODUCTION STRUCTURE AND TRENDS IN THE U.S. MEAT AND POULTRY PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES
The U.S. meat products industries have experienced increasing consolidation. It has been speculated that this has resulted from cost economies, perhaps associated with technical change or trade factors. It has also been asserted that increased concentration in these industries may be allowing the exploitation of market power in the input (livestock) and output (meat product) industries. These issues are addressed for the four digit SIC meat and poultry industries. Findings show that the beef and pork products industries tend to have similar structures, which differ from the poultry industries. None of the industries, however appear to have exhibited excessive market power, particularly when scale economies (diseconomies), and resulting reductions (increases) in marginal cost from output expansion, are taken into account. Also, technical change and trade (especially export market) trend impacts seem overall to have contributed to cost efficiency.Production Economics,
Cost Economies and Market Power in U.S. Beef Packing
Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries,
THOUGHTS ON PRODUCTIVITY, EFFICIENCY AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION MEASUREMENT FOR FISHERIES
Productivity Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
Non-Simply-Connected Gauge Groups and Rational Points on Elliptic Curves
We consider the F-theory description of non-simply-connected gauge groups
appearing in the E8 x E8 heterotic string. The analysis is closely tied to the
arithmetic of torsion points on an elliptic curve. The general form of the
corresponding elliptic fibration is given for all finite subgroups of E8 which
are applicable in this context. We also study the closely-related question of
point-like instantons on a K3 surface whose holonomy is a finite group. As an
example we consider the case of the heterotic string on a K3 surface having the
E8 gauge symmetry broken to (E6 x SU(3))/Z3 or SU(9)/Z3 by point-like
instantons with Z3 holonomy.Comment: 15 pages, 2 embedded figures, some spurious U(1)'s remove
Assessing safety climate in acute hospital settings: a systematic review of the adequacy of the psychometric properties of survey measurement tools
Background:
The perceived importance of safety culture in improving patient safety and its impact on patient outcomes has led to a growing interest in the assessment of safety climate in healthcare organizations; however, the rigour with which safety climate tools were developed and psychometrically tested was shown to be variable. This paper aims to identify and review questionnaire studies designed to measure safety climate in acute hospital settings, in order to assess the adequacy of reported psychometric properties of identified tools.
Methods:
A systematic review of published empirical literature was undertaken to examine sample characteristics and instrument details including safety climate dimensions, origin and theoretical basis, and extent of psychometric evaluation (content validity, criterion validity, construct validity and internal reliability).
Results:
Five questionnaire tools, designed for general evaluation of safety climate in acute hospital settings, were included. Detailed inspection revealed ambiguity around concepts of safety culture and climate, safety climate dimensions and the methodological rigour associated with the design of these measures. Standard reporting of the psychometric properties of developed questionnaires was variable, although evidence of an improving trend in the quality of the reported psychometric properties of studies was noted. Evidence of the theoretical underpinnings of climate tools was limited, while a lack of clarity in the relationship between safety culture and patient outcome measures still exists.
Conclusions:
Evidence of the adequacy of the psychometric development of safety climate questionnaire tools is still limited. Research is necessary to resolve the controversies in the definitions and dimensions of safety culture and climate in healthcare and identify related inconsistencies. More importance should be given to the appropriate validation of safety climate questionnaires before extending their usage in healthcare contexts different from those in which they were originally developed. Mixed methods research to understand why psychometric assessment and measurement reporting practices can be inadequate and lacking in a theoretical basis is also necessary
AUTOMATION OR OPENNESS?: TECHNOLOGY AND TRADE IMPACTS ON COSTS AND LABOR COMPOSITION IN THE FOOD SYSTEM
Productivity, technology, production costs, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,
Understanding and responding when things go wrong: key principles for primary care educators
Learning from events with unwanted outcomes is an important part of
workplace based education and providing evidence for medical appraisal
and revalidation. It has been suggested that adopting a âsystems approachâ
could enhance learning and effective change. We believe the following key
principles should be understood by all healthcare staff, especially those
with a role in developing and delivering educational content for safety and
improvement in primary care.
When things go wrong, professional accountability involves accepting there
has been a problem, apologising if necessary and committing to learn and
change. This is easier in a âJust Cultureâ where wilful disregard of safe
practice is not tolerated but where decisions commensurate with training
and experience do not result in blame and punishment. People usually
attempt to achieve successful outcomes, but when things go wrong the
contribution of hindsight and attribution bias as well as a lack of
understanding of conditions and available information (local rationality) can
lead to inappropriately blame âhuman errorâ. System complexity makes
reduction into component parts difficult; thus attempting to âfind-and-fixâ
malfunctioning components may not always be a valid approach. Finally,
performance variability by staff is often needed to meet demands or cope
with resource constraints.
We believe understanding these core principles is a necessary precursor to
adopting a âsystems approachâ that can increase learning and reduce the
damaging effects on morale when âhuman errorâ is blamed. This may
result in âhuman errorâ becoming the starting point of an investigation and
not the endpoint
TECHNOLOGIES AND LOCALIZED TECHNICAL CHANGE
Heterogenous Technologies, Transformation Function, Localized Technical Change, Production Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q12, O33, C35,
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