Measuring trade policy intervention : a cross-country index of relative price dispersion

In the debate about the relationship between trade policy and growth, various measures for trade intervention have been used. The author presents a new measure based on a country's relative price structure and the structure of relative world prices. This measure, he argues, conforms more closely than existing measures to the concept of trade intervention. The relationship between openness and trade liberalization is more complicated than is often believed. Whether a country intervenes does not tell the whole story about its trade policy, and misses an essential aspect of intervention: which goods are favored by subsidies and which are protected by tariffs. The debate has been confused by the failure to distinguish between trade intervention and outward orientation. Trade intervention implies policies that distort the flow or pattern of trade; outward orientation implies incentives to export that are greater than incentives for import substitution. The two may be related but a heavily interventionist policy could be outwardly oriented. The index of relative price dispersion that the author develops has the advantage that it is objective, measures intervention in both exports and imports, is comparable across countries, and is independent of fluctuations in exchange rates caused by macroeconomic mismanagement.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets

Inaugural Talk - Why Fieldwork?

I have organised a two-day photography forum held at the University of Central Lancashire in its Media Innovation Studio. The event showcased a wide range of practitioners, which included Peter Kennard and Magnum's Ian Berry. Both days sold out and engaged photographers, undergraduates and postgraduates in debates centering on contemporary documentary and socially engaged practices. I delivered the inaugural talk to contextualise the event and hosted the proceedings for both days

Temporary Research Space - The Industrial Road Project - Guangzhou

Using Guangzhou’s historic Industrial Road as a case study, the project investigates the transformation of everyday life and landscapes in the Chinese megacity. In the Maoist era, Industrial Road typified the emphasis on the city as a site of collectivized industrial production, with State Owned Enterprises and workers housing compounds, densely packed along the five and a half kilometres stretch of road. Today the factories along Industrial Road have either closed or are being relocated to the expanding outskirts of the city. Traditional workers housing and public spaces associated with the factories are being demolished and replaced by spaces of consumption and luxury apartment complexes. Project researchers will share their work in progress in the form of a Temporary Research Space, designed as an open public forum. Guests will be invited to view or handle some of the materials generated so far, including photographs and video of walks and interviews with project participant Mr Li, a resident of Industrial Road and former shipyard worker. John van Aitken, Jane Brake (IUD) and Dr Huizhen Du (GDUFS) will give short presentations, inviting the audience to participate in a dialogue about what is lost and gained in the process of urban change, which is shaping world cities everywhere. The Industrial Road Project is a collaboration between the Institute of Urban Dreaming (IUD), Salford UK & Dr Du, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS), Guangzhou China. Manchester's Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art will host the space and the event. IUD engages in research, practice and interdisciplinary partnerships about housing and planned environments, with a commitment to spatial justice. www.iudblog.or

A human factors approach to range scheduling for satellite control

Range scheduling for satellite control presents a classical problem: supervisory control of a large-scale dynamic system, with unwieldy amounts of interrelated data used as inputs to the decision process. Increased automation of the task, with the appropriate human-computer interface, is highly desirable. The development and user evaluation of a semi-automated network range scheduling system is described. The system incorporates a synergistic human-computer interface consisting of a large screen color display, voice input/output, a 'sonic pen' pointing device, a touchscreen color CRT, and a standard keyboard. From a human factors standpoint, this development represents the first major improvement in almost 30 years to the satellite control network scheduling task

Characteristics of successful interventions to reduce turnover and increase retention of early career nurses: a systematic review

Background nurse shortages have been identified as central to workforce issues in healthcare systems globally and although interventions to increase the nursing workforce have been implemented, nurses leaving their roles, particularly in the first year after qualification, present a significant barrier to building the nurse workforce. Objective to evaluate the characteristics of successful interventions to promote retention and reduce turnover of early career nurses. Design this is a systematic review Data sources Online databases including Academic Search Complete, Medline, Health Policy reference Centre, EMBASE, Psychinfo, CINAHL and the Cochran Library were searched to identify relevant publications in English published between 2001 and April 2018. Studies included evaluated an intervention to increase retention or reduce turnover and used turnover or retention figures as a measure. Review methods The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies were quality-assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tools for Quasi Experimental and Randomised Controlled Trials. Retention/turnover data were used to guide the comparison between studies and appropriate measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated and presented, based on the normality of the data. Results A total of 11, 656 papers were identified, of which 53 were eligible studies. A wide variety of interventions and components within those interventions were identified to improve nurse retention. Promising interventions appear to be either internship/residency programmes or orientation/transition to practice programmes, lasting between 27-52 weeks, with a teaching and preceptor and mentor component. Conclusions Methodological issues impacted on the extent to which conclusions could be drawn, even though a large number of studies were identified. Future research should focus on standardising the reporting of interventions and outcome measures used to evaluate these interventions and carrying out further research with rigorous methodology. Clinical practice areas are recommended to assess their current interventions against the identified criteria to guide development of their effectiveness. Evaluations of cost-effectiveness are considered an important next step to maximise return on investment

Studies in Nerve Regeneration and in the Innervation of Voluntary Muscle

Abstract Not Provided