The problem of this study was to determine what effect purpose, background and distractions have on the effectiveness of the listening act.

The 2011 National Feeder Cattle Audit evaluated 42,704 cattle in 260 lots from 12 Texas and five Nebraska feedyards to determine BQA adherence, the effects prior management and transportation practices had on feedyard performance and health, and established industry benchmark data so that future advancements and improvements in beef quality related areas can be monitored. This study suggested most feedyard managers and some cow-calf producers and stocker operators have implemented Beef Quality Assurance plans into their respective operations. Survey data documents that the many stakeholders in the beef cattle industry have followed BQA guidelines in an effort to improve the quality and safety of beef being produced. The lots of cattle traveled an average distance of 468 miles from their origin to the feedyard and spent an average of 185.7 days on feed. The majority of the lots were from a single-source origin. Of the cattle where feedlot performance data was available, they gained an average of 3.2 lb/day and converted at 6.2:1. Across all lots, the average animal cost per day was $3.30. Cattle in the feedyard appeared healthy with a 1.7% average death loss and 19.6% average morbidity rate. Processing costs averaged $14.47 per animal, and medicine costs were $5.22 per animal in the lot. The majority of lots had lot tags present in their ear (98.8%), were branded with at least one hide brand (64.3%) and were polled (79.8%). The cattle had primarily a solid hide color (70.7%) and were black (49.6%). Lots appeared uniform with 82.9% being termed slightly to extremely uniform and only 17.1% of the evaluated lots being assessed as slightly to extremely variable. Cattle that traveled further distances to the feedyard had higher processing costs, but in turn did not have differences in medicine costs through the finishing period. It appears the industry will need more communication across the different segments to ensure a sustainable future. Continuing to track cattle origin and what management practices have been done will be important so that cattle can be received with the appropriate processing protocol. Across-segment collaboration and communication provides economic opportunities for beef cattle producers.

Estimates indicate that by 2010 RN demand will exceed supply by over 400,000 full-time equivalents and by 2020 the RN shortage will increase to over 1 million. Turnover is a major contributor to the nursing shortage and job dissatisfaction is a well-established cause of nursing turnover. Understanding RN job satisfaction is an objective that is critical to keeping experienced nurses working in nursing and minimizing RN turnover. Many facets of RN job satisfaction have been examined in previous studies; however, much of the variance in job satisfaction remains unexplained. The purpose of this study was to explore job strain, body mass index, and background information variables (age, education, ethnicity, number of years in nursing, and perceived general health) as possible predictors of job satisfaction among hospital staff nurses. Resilience was examined for its mediating and moderating effects on the relationships between job strain and job satisfaction and body mass index and job satisfaction. The research design was cross-sectional and correlational. Surveys were mailed to RNs across the state of Texas. Reliable instruments were used to measure hospital staff RN job satisfaction, job strain, and resilience. Body mass index was calculated based on self-reported height and weight. From a sampling frame of full-time, hospital staff RNs purchased from the Texas Board of Nursing, a random sample of 556 RNs was obtained. The response rate was 27.6% (n = 147). Results showed that 25.2% of the RNs sampled reported high job strain. Job strain was significantly related to body mass index, and high job strain was significantly negatively related to job satisfaction. High job strain explained 24.7% of the variance in job satisfaction. None of the background information variables were significantly related to job satisfaction. Resilience had a moderating effect on the relationship between job strain and job satisfaction. Resilience did not mediate or moderate the relationship between body mass index and job satisfaction. Future research should focus on creating a nurse-specific instrument that measures job strain in hospital staff RNs. Intervention studies that investigate the effects of resilience training on the job satisfaction of hospital staff RNs should also be conducted. / text

Submitted by Maria Guazzelli Modes (maria.guazzelli-modes@itau-unibanco.com.br) on 2012-11-07T14:07:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese - Maria Guazzelli Modes.docx: 143384 bytes, checksum: 2cd7e8f4995fc9d48536b5dbf57a85d3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2012-11-07T14:19:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese - Maria Guazzelli Modes.docx: 143384 bytes, checksum: 2cd7e8f4995fc9d48536b5dbf57a85d3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-11-07T14:24:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese - Maria Guazzelli Modes.docx: 143384 bytes, checksum: 2cd7e8f4995fc9d48536b5dbf57a85d3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-08 / This article examines the relationship between information about the background of brazilian mayors and pattern of their spending. Using data from 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections, we seek to investigate whether the educational level and prior occupation of these rulers affect how they perform the municipal expenses. The results suggest that mayors whose previous occupation was political, on average, spend less (1.8% to 2.0%) than other mayors with some other occupations. The data also indicate that the education level of the mayors have no effect on spending. Political career, once in the local executive, spend less on urban planning (3.32% to 8.95% over the percentage spent on urban planning) and health (1.55% to 3.9% over the percentage spent on health) and, also, spend more on transport (6.69% to 9.41% over the percentage spent on transport) and administration (3.43% to 5.63% over the percentage spent on administration) than other professionals with training. / Este artigo examina a relação entre informações acerca do background dos prefeitos brasileiros e o padrão dos seus respectivos gastos. Usando dados das eleições de 1996, 2000, 2004 e 2008, busca-se investigar se o nível educacional e a ocupação prévia desses governantes afetam a maneira como os mesmos realizam os gastos municipais. Os resultados sugerem que prefeitos cuja ocupação anterior tenha sido político, em média, gastam menos (entre 1.8% e 2.0%) do que prefeitos com algumas outras experiências. Os dados apontam ainda que o nível de escolaridade dos prefeitos não tem efeitos sobre o nível de gastos. Políticos de carreira, uma vez no executivo local, gastam menos em urbanismo (entre 3.32% e 8.95% sobre o percentual gasto com urbanismo) e saúde (entre 1.55%. e 3.9% sobre o percentual gasto com saúde) e mais em transporte (de 6.69% a 9.41% sobre o percentual gasto com transporte) e administração (entre 3.46% e 5.63% sobre o percentual gasto com administração) do que profissionais com outra formação.

The aim of this thesis is an analysis of activities of the Parliamentary Institute (PI) which serves as an expert base for the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The Parliamentary Institute resolves the tasks of scientific, informative and educational nature for the Chamber of Deputies as well as the Senate. The PI originated from an initiative of deputies who lacked apolitical and unbiased information of a professional nature in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, the need for objective information persists to this day. The importance of the PI thus lies primarily in the fact that it enables legislators to create good quality laws and control the executive by providing them with the specific unbiased information. The text focuses on the establishment, development, structure, functions and outputs of the institute.