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Major Variables (major + variable)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting33%

Selected Abstracts

Psychographic clustering of blood donors in Egypt using Kohonen's self-organizing maps

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 2 2010
Mohamed M. Mostafa
Blood donation has historically been marketed as one of the purest examples of altruistic or pro-social behavior. The recruitment of blood donors is, however, a challenge as transfusion centers worldwide strive to attract and retain blood donors. This study uses self-organizing maps (SOM) to examine the effect of various psychographic and cognitive factors on blood donation in Egypt. SOM is a machine learning method that can be used to explore patterns in large and complex datasets for linear and nonlinear patterns. The results show that major variables affecting blood donation are related to altruistic values, perceived risks of blood donation, blood donation knowledge, attitudes toward blood donation, and intention to donate blood. The study also shows that SOM models are capable of improving clustering quality while extracting valuable information from multidimensional data. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Psycho-social factors affecting elders' maltreatment in long-term care facilities

INTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
M. Ben Natan rn
Natan M.B., Lowenstein A. & Eisikovits Z. (2010) Psycho-social Factors Affecting Elders' Maltreatment in Long-term Care Facilities. International Nursing Review57, 113,120 Aim:, To examine and analyse major variables affecting maltreatment of elderly nursing home residents. The study was based on two theoretical paradigms: the theoretical model for predicting causes of maltreatment of elderly residents developed by Pillemer, and the Theory of Reasoned Action developed by Ajzen & Fishbein. Methods:, The study employed a correlational quantitative method. The research population consisted of the staff of 22 nursing homes in Israel. Six hundred questionnaires were distributed in these facilities and 510 were completed and returned (85%). In addition, 24 questionnaires were distributed among directors of the facilities and 22 were returned (91.6%). Findings:, Slightly more than half of the staff sampled reported abuse of elderly residents over the past year, as manifested in one or more of types of maltreatment. The total number of various types of maltreatment reported was 513. About two-thirds of the cases were incidents of neglect. Seventy per cent of respondents reported that they had been present at incidents in which another staff member abused an elderly resident in one or more types of maltreatment, and in such situations mental abuse and mental neglect were the most prevalent forms of maltreatment. Conclusion and Recommendations:, This is the first study to examine elder maltreatment in the long-term care population of Israel. The research findings produce an expanded and improved research model investigating elder maltreatment in long-term nursing homes. [source]

A decision support tool for irrigation infrastructure investments,

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE, Issue 4 2010
Shahbaz Khan
outil d'aide à la décision; gestion de l'eau; investissements saisonniers et à long terme; optimisation; simulation; analyse coûts-avantages; ensemble de l'exploitation; négociation de l'eau; économie d'eau Abstract Increasing water scarcity, climate change and pressure to provide water for environmental flows urge irrigators to be more efficient. In Australia, ongoing water reforms and most recently the National Water Security Plan offer incentives to irrigators to adjust their farming practices by adopting water-saving irrigation infrastructures to match soil, crop and climatic conditions. WaterWorks is a decision support tool to facilitate irrigators to make long- and short-term irrigation infrastructure investment decisions at the farm level. It helps irrigators to improve the economic efficiency, water use efficiency and environmental performance of their farm businesses. WaterWorks has been tested, validated and accepted by the irrigation community and researchers in NSW, Australia. The interface of WaterWorks is user-friendly and flexible. The simulation and optimisation module in WaterWorks provides an opportunity to evaluate infrastructure investment decisions to suit their seasonal or long-term water availability. The sensitivity analysis allows substantiation of the impact of major variables. Net present value, internal rate of return, benefit,cost ratio and payback period are used to analyse the costs and benefits of modern irrigation technology. Application of WaterWorks using a whole farm-level case study indicates its effectiveness in making long- and short-term investment decisions. WaterWorks can be easily integrated into commercial software such as spreadsheets, GIS, real-time data acquisition and control systems to further enhance its usability. WaterWorks can also be used in regional development planning. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. L'augmentation de la rareté de l'eau, le changement climatique et la pression pour fournir de l'eau pour l'environnement incitent les irrigants à être plus efficaces. En Australie les réformes en cours sur l'eau, et plus récemment le Plan National de Sécurité de l'Eau, incitent les irrigants à ajuster leurs pratiques agricoles par l'adoption d'infrastructures d'irrigation économisant l'eau pour s'adapter aux conditions de sols, de cultures et de climat. WaterWorks est un outil d'aide à la décision pour faciliter les décisions d'investissement à long terme et court terme au niveau de l'exploitation. Il aide les irrigants à améliorer l'efficacité économique, l'efficacité de l'utilisation de l'eau et la performance environnementale de leurs exploitations agricoles. Le WaterWorks a été testé, validé et accepté par la communauté de l'irrigation dans le New South Wales, Australie. L'interface de WaterWorks est convivial et flexible. Le module de simulation et d'optimisation dans WaterWorks permet d'évaluer les décisions d'investissement en fonction de la disponibilité en eau saisonnière ou à long terme. L'analyse de sensibilité permet d'étayer l'impact des principales variables. La valeur actuelle nette, le taux de rendement interne, le ratio coûts-avantages et la période de récupération sont utilisés pour analyser les coûts et les avantages des technologies modernes d'irrigation. L'application de WaterWorks à une étude de cas complète au niveau de l'exploitation montre son efficacité pour les décisions d'investissement à long terme et court terme. Le WaterWorks peut être facilement intégré dans des logiciels commerciaux tels que les tableurs, les SIG, des systèmes d'acquisition de données en temps réel et de contrôle afin d'améliorer sa convivialité. Le WaterWorks peut également être utilisé pour la planification du développement régional. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Soil organic matter composition and soil lightness

JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 5 2004
Sandra Spielvogel
Abstract Relationships between soil lightness, soil organic matter (SOM) composition, content of organic C, CaCO3, and texture were studied using 42 top-soil horizons from different soil types located in southern Germany. SOM composition was determined by CPMAS 13C NMR spectroscopy, soil color was measured by diffuse-reflectance spectrophotometry and given in the CIE L*a*b* color coordination system (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage, 1978). Multiple-regression analysis showed, that soil lightness of top-soil horizons is principally determined by OC concentration, but CaCO3 and soil texture are also major variables. Soil lightness decreased with increasing OC content. Carbonate content had an important effect on soil lightness even at low concentrations due to its lightening property. Regressions between soil lightness and organic C content were strongly linear, when the soils were differentiated according to texture and CaCO3 content. The aryl-C content was the only SOM component which correlated significantly with soil lightness (rS = ,0.87). In the linear regressions carried out on the different soil groups, soil aryl-C content was a more significant predictor for soil lightness than total OC content. Zusammensetzung der organischen Bodensubstanz und Bodenhelligkeit Der Zusammenhang zwischen Bodenhelligkeit, Zusammensetzung der organischen Substanz und Gehalt an Corg., CaCO3 und Textur wurde in 42 Oberböden aus verschiedenen Bodentypen Süddeutschlands untersucht. Die Zusammensetzung der organischen Substanz wurde mittels CPMAS- 13C-NMR-Spektroskopie bestimmt, die Bodenfarbe mittels Spektralphotometer und als Bodenhelligkeitswert im CIE L*a*b*-Farbkoordinatensystem (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage, 1978) angegeben. Die Auswertung über multiple Regression zeigte, dass die Bodenhelligkeit hauptsächlich vom OC-Gehalt bestimmt wird; CaCO3 -Gehalt und Textur erwiesen sich als weitere relevante Variablen. Die Bodenhelligkeit nimmt mit zunehmendem OC-Gehalt ab. Aufgrund seiner stark aufhellenden Wirkung hat der Carbonatgehalt auch bei niedrigen Konzentrationen einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Bodenhelligkeit. Bei Berücksichtigung der Textur und des Carbonatgehalts ergaben sich lineare Beziehungen zwischen Bodenhelligkeit und OC-Gehalt. Der Aryl-C-Gehalt des Bodens war als einzige Humuskomponente signifikant mit der Bodenhelligkeit korreliert (rS = ,0.87). Der Aryl-C-Gehalt des Bodens bestimmt die Bodenhelligkeit schärfer als der OC-Gehalt. [source]

Population Ageing and Social Expenditure in New Zealand

THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2005
John Creedy
As the population ages there will be potentially significant implications for a wide range of economic variables, including in particular the fiscal costs of social expenditures. Long-term fiscal planning requires estimates of the possible future path of public spending. This article presents projections for 14 categories of social spending. These projections are based on detailed demographic estimates covering fertility, migration and mortality. Distributional parameters are incorporated for all of the major variables, and are used to build up probabilistic projections for social expenditure as a share of gross domestic product using simulation. Attention is focused on health expenditures which are disaggregated into seven broad classes. In addition, we explore the impacts of alternative hypotheses about future health costs. While it can be predicted with some confidence that overall social expenditures will rise, the results suggest that long-term planning would be enriched by recognising the distributions around point estimates of projected social costs. [source]

Determinants of environmental management systems standards implementation: evidence from Greek industry

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2002
Assistant Professor George E. Halkos
This paper employs logistic regression analysis to test a model that predicts the implementation or non-implementation of Environmental Management Systems Standards (EMSSs) by considering various factors as explanatory variables. The dependent variable is dichotomous: industrial firms either implementing or not implementing EMSSs. From past experience we identify 15 major variables contributing to implementation of EMSSs. A sample of 259 respondents (84 implementing and 175 not) is used to estimate the parameters of the logistic regression model employing maximum likelihood. The results show an overall significant model with four of the 15 variables significant. The significance of management perception of environmental issues on their decision to implement EMSS was confirmed with regards to their perception on win,win possibilities. Pressure on companies to improve their environmental performance does not result in higher uptake of the standards. Company image and size are important factors in its decision to implement EMSS. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source]