An investigation into the price transmission between producers and retailers within the UK milk market

The main aim of this article is to investigate the price transmission of milk between the producers and the retailers within the UK to understand the influence of large retailers on the market. In recent times smaller dairy farms have been forced to close down because they believe that prices are not being conveyed from retailers to producers. The research interlinks well established econometric tests, which are frequently used within vertical price transmission research to gain an understanding of the transmission from producer to retailer. These are unit root tests, cointegration tests and causality test. The main findings were that there is a unidirectional transmission of milk prices in the UK between producers and retailers. The Granger causality test shows that causality runs from the retailer to the producer and but not from the producer to the retailer. There was a significant break in 1994, which is when the MMB disbanded and has provided a new research gap. The direction of causality means that when producers are losing out to large retailers. The ECM results indicate that the prices are slow in recovering to a new equilibrium after a shock has occurred. Research specifically on the UK milk market is limited and therefore this research is a basis for future studies, which will help policy makers when moving forward post brexit

Development and characterization of a laminar aerosol flow tube

The following article appeared in Review of Scientific Instruments and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2175958. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing.We have developed a new laminar aerosol flow tube (AFT) to study transformations such as ice nucleation, deliquescence, and efflorescence in model atmospheric aerosols. The apparatus consists of four sections which can be independently cooled to reproduce temperature profiles relevant to the troposphere and stratosphere. An automatic control system maintains the average axial temperature along each section between 100 and 300 K, within ±0.1 K. Changes in aerosol composition, phase, and size distribution are monitored at the tube exit using infrared spectroscopy AFT-IR. We used computational fluid dynamics simulations to investigate flow velocity and temperature distributions within the flow tube. Based on these computations, the final design was formulated to eliminate turbulent mixing zones and buoyancy-driven convection cells. The latter can occur even under conditions where the Reynolds number indicates laminar flow. In either case, recirculation causes aerosol residence times and temperature histories to be poorly defined, leading to erroneous interpretation of experimental measurements. The resulting AFT design used copper fins to reduce temperature gradients and axial mixing of aerosol and carrier gas flows in the inlet section to reduce turbulence. The performance of the new AFT is significantly better than for previous designs.The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Studies

Home-based exercise rehabilitation in addition to specialist heart failure nurse care: design, rationale and recruitment to the Birmingham Rehabilitation Uptake Maximisation study for patients with congestive heart failure (BRUM-CHF): a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Exercise has been shown to be beneficial for selected patients with heart failure, but questions remain over its effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and uptake in a real world setting. This paper describes the design, rationale and recruitment for a randomised controlled trial that will explore the effectiveness and uptake of a predominantly home-based exercise rehabilitation programme, as well as its cost-effectiveness and patient acceptability. METHODS/DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial comparing specialist heart failure nurse care plus a nurse-led predominantly home-based exercise intervention against specialist heart failure nurse care alone in a multiethnic city population, served by two NHS Trusts and one primary care setting, in the United Kingdom. 169 English speaking patients with stable heart failure, defined as systolic impairment (ejection fraction ≤ 40%). with one or more hospital admissions with clinical heart failure or New York Heart Association (NYHA) II/III within previous 24-months were recruited. Main outcome measures at 1 year: Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, incremental shuttle walk test, death or admission with heart failure or myocardial infarction, health care utilisation and costs. Interviews with purposive samples of patients to gain qualitative information about acceptability and adherence to exercise, views about their treatment, self-management of their heart failure and reasons why some patients declined to participate. The records of 1639 patients managed by specialist heart failure services were screened, of which 997 (61%) were ineligible, due to ejection fraction>40%, current NYHA IV, no admission or NYHA II or more within the previous 2 years, or serious co-morbidities preventing physical activity. 642 patients were contacted: 289 (45%) declined to participate, 183 (39%) had an exclusion criterion and 169 (26%) agreed to randomisation. DISCUSSION: Due to safety considerations for home-exercise less than half of patients treated by specialist heart failure services were eligible for the study. Many patients had co-morbidities preventing exercise and others had concerns about undertaking an exercise programme

Persistent frequent attenders in primary care: costs, reasons for attendance, organisation of care and potential for cognitive behavioural therapeutic intervention

<p><b>Abstract</b></p> <p>Background</p> <p>The top 3% of frequent attendance in primary care is associated with 15% of all appointments in primary care, a fivefold increase in hospital expenditure, and more mental disorder and functional somatic symptoms compared to normal attendance. Although often temporary if these rates of attendance last more than two years, they may become persistent (persistent frequent or regular attendance). However, there is no long-term study of the economic impact or clinical characteristics of regular attendance in primary care. Cognitive behaviour formulation and treatment (CBT) for regular attendance as a motivated behaviour may offer an understanding of the development, maintenance and treatment of regular attendance in the context of their health problems, cognitive processes and social context.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>A case control design will compare the clinical characteristics, patterns of health care use and economic costs over the last 10 years of 100 regular attenders (≥30 appointments with general practitioner [GP] over 2 years) with 100 normal attenders (6–22 appointments with GP over 2 years), from purposefully selected primary care practices with differing organisation of care and patient demographics. Qualitative interviews with regular attending patients and practice staff will explore patient barriers, drivers and experiences of consultation, and organisation of care by practices with its challenges. Cognitive behaviour formulation analysed thematically will explore the development, maintenance and therapeutic opportunities for management in regular attenders. The feasibility, acceptability and utility of CBT for regular attendance will be examined.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The health care costs, clinical needs, patient motivation for consultation and organisation of care for persistent frequent or regular attendance in primary care will be explored to develop training and policies for service providers. CBT for regular attendance will be piloted with a view to developing this approach as part of a multifaceted intervention.</p

The Range of Applicability of the k-w Model

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye