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Quality Impacts (quality + impact)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	25%

Selected Abstracts

WATER QUALITY IMPACTS AND INDICATORS OF METABOLIC ACTIVITY OF THE ZEBRA MUSSEL INVASION OF THE SENECA RIVER,

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 3 2004
Steven W. Effler
ABSTRACT: The conspicuous shifts in summertime values of common measures of water qualify that have persisted for 10 years (1993 to 2002) in the Seneca River, New York, as a result of the zebra mussel invasion are documented. Resolution of patterns in time and space is supported by water quality monitoring that extends back to the late 1970s. Patterns are evaluated to describe the stability of impacts and quantify metabolic activity of the invader. The water quality impacts that have persisted unabated for 10 years since the invasion are the most severe documented for a river in North America. Changes in summer median conditions since the invasion include: (1) a 16-fold decrease in chlorophyll concentration (Chi), (2) a 2.5-fold increase in Secchi disc transparency, (3) a 17-fold increase in soluble reactive phosphorus concentration, (4) a 3.7-fold increase in total ammonia concentration, (5) a greater than 25 percent decrease in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, and (6) a decrease in pH of 0.55 units. The strength of these signatures has been driven by anthropogenic influences that include upstream nutrient loading and morphometric modifications of the river, and the functioning of Cross Lake, through which the river flows. This hypereutrophic lake sustains dense zebra mussel populations and related water quality impacts in the river downstream of the lake outflow by acting as a source of veligers and suitable food for this bivalve. Evidence is presented that levels of metabolic activity of the zebra mussel in this river have been resource limited, manifested through increased consumption of Chl and DO with increased delivery of these constituents in the lake's outflow. [source]

WATER QUALITY IMPACTS OF CONSERVATION AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA,

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 2 2002
Walaiporn Intarapapong
ABSTRACT: Nonpoint pollution in the form of runoff generated by conventional agricultural practices is one of the major sources of environmental degradation of surface water bodies. Agricultural conservation practices including no-tillage operations have been introduced as alternatives to cope with such challenges. This study attempts to examine the economic and environmental impacts of no-tillage as compared to conventional agricultural practices for cotton, soybeans and corn cultivated in the Mississippi Delta. Impacts in the form of sediment, nutrient and pesticide runoff at farm level are investigated, using the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC). [source]

WATER QUALITY MODELING OF ALTERNATIVE AGRICULTURAL SCENARIOS IN THE U.S. CORN BELT,

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 3 2002
Kellie B. Vaché
ABSTRACT: Simulated water quality resulting from three alternative future land-use scenarios for two agricultural watersheds in central Iowa was compared to water quality under current and historic land use/land cover to explore both the potential water quality impact of perpetuating current trends and potential benefits of major changes in agricultural practices in the U.S. Corn Belt. The Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to evaluate the effect of management practices on surface water discharge and annual loads of sediment and nitrate in these watersheds. The agricultural practices comprising Scenario 1, which assumes perpetuation of current trends (conversion to conservation tillage, increase in farm size and land in production, use of currently-employed Best Management Practices (BMPs)) result in simulated increased export of nitrate and decreased export of sediment relative to the present. However, simulations indicate that the substantial changes in agricultural practices envisioned in Scenarios 2 and 3 (conversion to conservation tillage, strip intercropping, rotational grazing, conservation set-asides and greatly extended use of best management practices (BMPs) such as riparian buffers, engineered wetlands, grassed waterways, filter strips and field borders) could potentially reduce current loadings of sediment by 37 to 67 percent and nutrients by 54 to 75 percent. Results from the study indicate that major improvements in water quality in these agricultural watersheds could be achieved if such environmentally-targeted agricultural practices were employed. Traditional approaches to water quality improvement through application of traditional BMPs will result in little or no change in nutrient export and minor decreases in sediment export from Corn Belt watersheds. [source]

Do competition and managed care improve quality?

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 7 2002
Nazmi SariArticle first published online: 22 JUL 200
Abstract In recent years, the US health care industry has experienced a rapid growth of managed care, formation of networks, and an integration of hospitals. This paper provides new insights about the quality consequences of this dynamic in US hospital markets. I empirically investigate the impact of managed care and hospital competition on quality using in-hospital complications as quality measures. I use random and fixed effects, and instrumental variable fixed effect models using hospital panel data from up to 16 states in the 1992,1997 period. The paper has two important findings: First, higher managed care penetration increases the quality, when inappropriate utilization, wound infections and adverse/iatrogenic complications are used as quality indicators. For other complication categories, coefficient estimates are statistically insignificant. These findings do not support the straightforward view that increases in managed care penetration are associated with decreases in quality. Second, both higher hospital market share and market concentration are associated with lower quality of care. Hospital mergers have undesirable quality consequences. Appropriate antitrust policies towards mergers should consider not only price and cost but also quality impacts. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Performance Impact of the Elimination of Direct Labor Variance Reporting: A Field Study

JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 4 2002
Rajiv D. Banker
Using a field study approach, we examine two competing perspectives on direct labor variance reporting: some argue that direct labor variance reporting is costly and cumbersome, and should be eliminated; whereas others contend that without direct labor variance information, managers will not be able to monitor workers effectively, causing workers to shirk and worker productivity to decline. Specifically, we investigate the productivity and quality impacts of eliminating direct labor variance reporting with panel data containing 36 months of data from seven experimental plants that eliminated direct labor variance reporting and 11 control plants that did not. The experimental plants experienced a significant decline in labor productivity compared to the control plants. Also, the experimental plants showed an improvement in product quality, indicating that workers reallocate their efforts to other tasks as a result of the change in the information set available to evaluate them. [source]

Accruals Quality, Information Risk and Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australia

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING, Issue 1-2 2009
Philip Gray
Abstract:, Recent theoretical work argues that information risk is a non-diversifiable risk factor that is priced in the capital market. Using accruals quality to proxy for information risk, Francis et al. (2005) provide empirical support for this argument using a sample of US firms. This paper re-examines the interplay of accruals quality, information risk and cost of capital in Australia, where a number of important institutional and regulatory differences are hypothesized to affect the relation between accruals quality and cost of capital. The results suggest that, while accruals quality impacts on the cost of capital for Australian firms, some salient differences exist. In contrast to findings for US firms, the costs of debt and equity for Australian firms are largely influenced by accruals quality arising from economic fundamentals (i.e., innate accrual quality) but not discretionary reporting choices (i.e., discretionary accrual quality). This finding is consistent with our predictions based on the Australian institutional and regulatory environment. In addition, using both the asset pricing tests in Francis et al. (2005) and Core et al. (2008), we provide evidence consistent with accruals quality being a priced risk factor. [source]

Impacts of Alternative Manure Application Rates on Texas Animal Feeding Operations: A Macro Level Analysis,

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 3 2008
E. Osei
Abstract:, An integrated economic and environmental modeling system was developed for evaluating agro-environmental policies and practices implemented on large scales. The modeling system, the Comprehensive Economic and Environmental Optimization Tool-Macro Modeling System (CEEOT-MMS), integrates the Farm-level Economic Model (FEM) and the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model, as well as national databases and clustering and aggregation algorithms. Using micro simulations of statistically derived representative farms and subsequent aggregation of farm-level results, a wide range of agricultural best management practices can be investigated within CEEOT-MMS. In the present study, CEEOT-MMS was used to evaluate the economic and water quality impacts of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) based manure application rates when implemented on all animal feeding operations in the State of Texas. Results of the study indicate that edge-of-field total P losses can be reduced by about 0.8 kg/ha/year or 14% when manure applications are calibrated to supply all of the recommended crop P requirements from manure total P sources only, when compared to manure applications at the recommended crop N agronomic rate. Corresponding economic impacts are projected to average a US$4,800 annual cost increase per farm. Results are also presented by ecological subregion, farm type, and farm size categories. [source]