Search results for "PRODUCTIVITY"
showing 10 items of 618 documents
Comparative analysis of direct and indirect costs of two minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of renal/ureteral calculi smaller than 2 cm
2020
[EN] Objective: To perform a comparative analysis of indirect and direct costs of two minimally invasive techniques (extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) vs. ureteroscopy with holmium laser (URS/RIRS)) for the treatment of renal/ureteral calculi smaller than 2 cm. Material and methods: Prospective, comparative, non-randomized study of 84 patients treated for kidney stones smaller than 2 cm between January and December 2016. Of these, 38 (45.67%) were treated with ESWL (18 renal lithiasis and 20 ureteral lithiasis) and 46 (54.32%) with URS/RIRS (22 renal lithiasis and 24 ureteral lithiasis). A total of 19 (41.3%) patients in the URS/RIRS group and 15 (39.5%) patients in the ESWL grou…
Assessment of site-specific drivers of farmland abandonment in mosaic-type landscapes: A case study in Vidzeme, Latvia
2018
Abstract Farmland abandonment, which causes changes in rural life and farming practices, can be observed throughout Europe. Over the last decades natural afforestation has decreased the area of farmland used for agricultural production, thereby leading to landscape homogenization and polarization. This process is explicitly evident in mosaic type landscapes consisting of highly complex land cover patterns, soil composition and topography. The aim of the study was to determine the site-specific driving forces of farmland abandonment at landscape scale in relation to agro-ecological and geographic factors, in a post-Soviet country in Eastern Europe. An extensive field survey approach with sta…
Deep-sea shrimp fishery in Sicily: The economic performance of the shrimp trawling fleet in the ports of Mazara del Vallo, Sciacca, and Porto Empedoc…
2006
Shrimp fishing in Sicily is carried out by fishing companies using trawlers and multifunctional vessels equipped with trawling nets, in a complex and worrisome context, because of the decrease in catch over the last few years. After analysing the structural characteristics of Sicilian trawling, the study concentrates on the three most important shrimp fishing ports in Sicily: Mazara del Vallo, Sciacca, and Porto Empedocle. For each fleet, through a sample analysis, economic performance has been evaluated for the period from 2001 to 2003. Finally, a comparative analysis of the economic performance of the surveyed companies is carried out through a comparison of daily economic productivity in…
Effect of explosive shallow hydrothermal vents on δ13C and growth performance in the seagrass Posidonia oceanica
2010
Summary 1. Explosive volcanic submarine activity is expected to affect seagrass communities due to sudden and dramatic changes in the physical and chemical features of sea water and sediments, with possibly large ecosystem effects. However, seagrass response to the harsh environmental conditions that arise due to explosive volcanism is as yet unexplored as it is not easy to predict when and where an eruption will occur. Here, we investigate the uptake of hydrothermal carbon within the seagrass Posidonia oceanica by the analysis of δ13C and growth rates in tissue laid down before and after an exceptional and massive hydrothermal gas release in the Aeolian Islands (Italy, Mediterranean Sea). …
Adult coloration of the Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) in the Pyrenees: relation to sex, mating system and productivity.
2021
Cosmetic coloration is not a common phenomenon among bird species. Adult Bearded Vultures Gypaetus barbatus typically show orange coloration in head, chest, belly and tarsus feathers that is the result of mud baths in ferruginous substrates. Several non-mutually exclusive visual signalling hypotheses can be proposed to explain this phenomenon. Coloration could be used to signal: (1) dominance towards conspecifics, with darker birds being dominant (status signalling hypothesis); (2) sex (gender signalling hypothesis) because females are usually more intensely coloured; (3) individual quality for mate choice (quality signalling hypothesis); or (4) different reproductive strategies between ind…
Climate variability and agricultural production efficiency: evidence from Ethiopian farmers
2020
It is known that climate and weather variability have negative impacts on agricultural production efficiency. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of climatic variables on farms’ efficiency in Ethiopia making use of nationally representative datasets from Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) 2011/2012. By using the Stochastic Frontier Approach, we estimate simultaneously the farmers’ optimal production function and technical inefficiency equations, taking into account unobserved heterogeneity of farmers. Our main findings show that climate change variables have a positive effect on households’ efficiency but the impact depends on the diff…
Women’s Approach to Economics and Firms
2011
Women and works by female economists appeared in the economic literature of the Classical and Neoclassical periods. While a portion of such literature popularized the approaches of male economists, others part criticized some established views, especially those dealing with wages, education, and the position of women in the family. The objective of this article is to analyze the main economic approaches held by women, starting with an analysis of the situation of women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The differences between women’s thoughts on economics and the classical and neoclassical economic approaches are considered, as well as women’s thoughts on productivity and firm’s a…
The Real Effects of Bank Branch Deregulation at Various Stages of Economic Development: The European Experience
2011
This paper provides evidence on the links between financial deregulation and economic performance in a European context. Specifically, we study the relaxation of bank branching restrictions in Spain which triggered off a remarkable inter-regional expansion of savings banks which was coincidental with an unprecedented period of sustained growth. Although related questions have been largely investigated for the US, the European experiences remain largely unexplored. An additional contribution is the use of quantile regression techniques which, unlike traditional OLS regression analysis, do not focus on the “average effect for the average province”. This change of focus helps to overcome the d…
Agricultural Insurances and Food Security. The New Climate Change Challenges
2015
Abstract Food security is one of the highest problems that the governments have to face in the third millennium. The complexity of this problem justifies the performance of researches, in view of finding viable solutions, not only in agriculture, but in other branches of activity too. Among them, the field of insurances is to be noted by its struggles to adapt to the new challenges. This paper tries to clarify the way in which insurances may become a key factor for the food security and addresses the following issues: food security factors; factors impacting on the development of agricultural insurances, risks connected to the agricultural activities and the way in which the insurance prote…
Excluding the Poor : globalisation and educational systems
2002
02062; International audience; The article starts from the fact that one billion adults are illiterate world-wide, that more than 100 million children of school age are not schooled, and that the democratisation of the access to education is often only rhetorical. On the basis of available statistics it tackles successively three questions. First, who finances education and how much do they spend? Secondly, what resources or means are devoted to the education of an individual, and how can these data be evaluated. And finally, do the inequalities between individuals, social groups or nations tend to de- or increase with respect to education access. It will be shown that, for example, in deve…