Search results for " quality."

Fiscal consolidation and financial reforms

2015

We use data for a panel of 17 countries over the period 1980-2005 to investigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on the likelihood of financial reforms. We show that fiscal adjustments do not boost the implementation of financial reforms. However, tax-driven fiscal consolidation programs raise the likelihood of banking sector reforms. Moreover, we find that: (i) an increase in the degree of trade openness makes countries less likely to implement financial reforms; (ii) an increase in the interest rate spreads accelerates the path of financial reforms, especially, external capital account reforms; and (iii) an improvement in the quality of political institutions strongly enhances the prob…

Using static and dynamic indicators to evaluate soil physical quality in a Sicilian area

2016

Both capacitive indicators derived from the water retention curve and dynamic measurements of the flow-weighted mean pore radius, R0, were used to assess the soil physical quality of two agricultural areas (cropland and olive orchard) and two natural areas (grassland and managed woodlot plantation) potentially subject to soil degradation. The overall idea of the study was to investigate whether a dynamic indicator quantitatively derived from hydraulic conductivity measurements could be used to supplement the traditionally applied capacitive indicators retrieved from water retention measurements. According to the available criteria, only the surface layer of the cropland site showed optimal …

A Multi-Criteria Group Decision To Support The Maintenance Service: A Case Study

2015

The present paper wants to propose a methodology to support a group of decision makers into the choice of actions, to implement on a multi-component system, regarding the maintenance service. The choice has to be made on the basis of several criteria, namely the total maintenance cost, the system unavailability and by considering the maintenance actions feasibility. In particular, with the aim to select the maintenance service that represents for the group the best comprise among the criteria to satisfy, the proposed methodology consists of two multi-criteria decisions methods to apply in two successive phases. The first one regards the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to…

Controlling the atmosphere in the malaxation machine headspace in order to improve the quality of Sicilian extra virgin olive oils

2012

During the mechanical extraction process of Virgin Olive Oil (VOO) some important physical phenomena and enzymatic transformations occur influencing the final product quality. The control of process parameters is crucial to ensure the quality of VOO, therefore process monitoring and control is a fundamental requirement in the modern VOO processing industry. The present work proposes a research performed in order to develop a system for the oxygen continuous monitoring inside the malaxation machine to enhance the Sicilian extra virgin olive oil typicality and to establish a correlation with the quality of the final product. The results showed that the use of oxygen during malaxation, allowed…

Molecular dynamics simulations of heavy ion induced defects in SiC Schottky diodes

2018

Heavy ion irradiation increases the leakage current in reverse-biased SiC Schottky diodes. This letter demonstrates, via molecular dynamics simulations, that a combination of bias and ion-deposited energy is required to produce the degradation. Peer reviewed

Modelling phytoplankton in boreal lakes

2014

Understanding risky behaviours in nuclear facilities: The impact of role stressors

2018

Abstract Risky behaviours have received little attention in the safety literature in recent years, compared to safety behaviours such as safety compliance or safety participation. However, it is important to focus on risky behaviours and their predictors in order to prevent accidents. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of role stressors (role ambiguity and role overload) on risky behaviours, and the mediating role of dissatisfaction (both job and safety dissatisfaction). The sample consists of 566 employees from two nuclear power plants in Spain. Structural equation modelling is used to determine the effects of role ambiguity and role overload on risky behaviours. Role stressors…

Effects of a Justice-Based Partnership Between Employees and Families in Creating Services and Supports to Enhance Quality of Life Outcomes

2021

Abstract We propose a justice-based partnership between employees and family members as a means to create services and support systems for people with intellectual disability, enhancing quality of life indicators. More specifically, we examine the links from mutual intergroup justice to three outcomes reported by family members: satisfaction with the center, service quality delivered by employees, and performance focused on the quality of life of people with intellectual disability. We used data from 111 centers. In each center, a group of family members (n = 845) and a group of employees (n = 914) participated. Multilevel modeling revealed that mutual intergroup justice (between employees …

A checklist to assess the quality of survey studies in psychology

2020

Abstract Study quality is emerging as an essential component of evidence syntheses. It allows practitioners and policymakers to make informed decisions based on the quality of the evidence reviewed. Study quality is typically assessed by checklists of pre-determined quality criteria. Few study quality checklists have been systematically evaluated, and none have been developed specifically for survey studies in psychology. The present study addresses this evidence gap by developing the quality of survey studies in psychology (Q-SSP) checklistusing an expert-consensus method. An international panel of experts in psychology research and quality assessment (N = 53) evaluated the inclusion and i…

Influence of cultivation techniques and use of two nutritive solution with different electrical conductivity on the production and quality of cucumbe…

2009

The most suitable techniques and use of F1 hybrids enable greenhouse production to achieve high yields, with crops all year round. In Sicily, greenhouse production of cucumber is for fresh use (slicers), producing large fruit. The cultivation technique most suited to greenhouses is the vertical single stem. However, an innovative technique being proposed is of cultivation on a trellis, eliminating lower branches, and training the remaining branches upwards (vertical shoot positioning, VSP). Cucumbers in the south of Italy are grown as the main crop or as a catch crop between 2 main crops. The crop should be rotated on the same soil only after 3-4 years with another crop, unless the land is …