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The Texas Pecan Board was established in 1998 to administer the Texas Pecan Checkoff Program and is financed through a one-half cent per pound assessment on grower pecan sales. The Board spends the assessment collections on a variety of advertising campaigns in an attempt to expand demand for Texas pecans, both improved and native varieties, and increase the welfare of Texas pecan growers. This study presents an evaluation of the economic effectiveness of the Texas Pecan Checkoff Program in expanding sales of Texas pecans. First, the effects of Texas Pecan Board promotion on sales of all Texas pecans are determined using the ordinary least squares estimator (OLS) followed by a test for differential effects of Texas Pecan Board promotion on sales of improved and native Texas pecan varieties using the seemingly unrelated regression. The analysis indicates that the Texas Pecan Checkoff Program has effectively increased sales of improved varieties of Texas pecans, but has had no impact on sales of native varieties of Texas pecans. A benefit-cost analysis determines that the additional sales revenues generated is relatively large compared to the dollar value spent on promotion indicating that the Texas pecan promotion program has been financially successful.

This dissertation examines three labor market issues regarding public school administrators in Texas using personnel records from the 1994-95 school year until the 2003-04 school year. The first essay explores promotion rates of men and women to school principal, a position that requires certification. I find ignoring gender differences in desire for promotion yields results similar to the existing literature: men hold an advantage in the promotion process. However, restricting the analysis to only those individuals who have expressed interest in an administrative position, those who became trained and certified as a principal, I find men and women face no statistically significant difference in the probability of promotion. Duration analysis shows that although men are most often promoted four years after they become certified and women are most often promoted six to seven years after becoming certified, women face a much higher hazard of promotion than men. This cannot be explained by a higher exit rate from the education sector by men. The second essay examines the effect of restrictive licensing on the quality of the entrants into a profession. Theory suggests that requiring minimum competency standards truncates the low end of the quality distribution, however, increased costs of entry encourage talented potential entrants to pursue outside opportunities. Using the public school principal profession in Texas and measuring teacher quality by changes in student achievement, I find evidence that lower entry costs increase the quality of entrants. As a robustness check, I categorize observations geographically into control and treatment groups to ensure the estimated effect is a result of reduced entry costs and not unobserved factors. The third essay examines the effect of increased school choice on the earnings and abilities of school administrators. I find an overall positive effect of competition on administrators' earnings suggesting that productivity gains from hiring talented managers outweigh the pressure to reduce costs by cutting salaries. However, the results are sensitive to the level of competition, the type of labor market, and the administrators' position. I control for possible endogeneity both mechanically and with outside instruments and my conclusions are largely unchanged.

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Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2009. / Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for The Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Psychology." Bibliography: leaves 79-87.

Thesis (M.A.)--Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, 1980. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-137).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 314-336). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Background Breastfeeding is beneficial to infant and child health, woman health and society. Breastfeeding is promoted by various strategies in Hong Kong. Although the breastfeeding initiation rate is increasing, the exclusive breastfeeding rate at 4-6 months remains low in Hong Kong. The current policy and interventions are not effective on promoting breastfeeding and addressing the needs of mothers. Aims This systematic review aimed to identify effective interventions to promote breastfeeding initiation, duration and exclusivity and their implications to future change of guidelines or policies in breastfeeding promotion. Method Studies were searched through PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials up to 13thMay, 2013. Grey literature was searched. English publications with full text, experimental or quasi-experimental design, using World Health Organization definitions of breastfeeding classification, targeting to healthy mothers and infants were selected. Quality assessment was done using Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials and Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies by Effective Public Health Practice Project. Result Twenty studies were included in this review. The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative was found to be the most effective strategy to promote breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. Home visit by peer counselor, a face-to-face intervention, was another effective strategy to increase initiation, duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding. The sole use of educational materials was not effective, but professional breastfeeding support combined with use of educational materials was shown to be effective on lengthening the duration of exclusive and predominant breastfeeding. The evidence of antenatal education programme was not convincing. The inclusion of father with breastfeeding promotion intervention was attempted but the evidence is less strong. The exclusion of infant formula advertisement in the educational package to mothers was effective on increasing breastfeeding rate only before hospital discharge. Findings on professional support interventions were inconsistent. Conclusion The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and home visit peer support are effective on promoting breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. Evidence for other strategies was limited due to low methodological quality and/or inconsistent findings. Future research should be conducted to investigate and identify suitable strategies that are applicable to local setting. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

This study represents an inquiry into job satisfaction of employees working in private firms in Kuwaiti manufacturing sector. A survey was conducted to collect information on a number of issues relating to job satisfaction. The survey results were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis The technique of factor analysis was used to analyze the relationships among the interrelated variables affecting job satisfaction. The principal component method, with varimax rotation, is utilized to reduce the large number of explanatory variables to a few underlying factors. A two-group discriminant analysis was used to find out whether there are any significant demographic differences among the Kuwaiti nationals and the expatriates in their views of job satisfaction. Factor scores were used as predictive variables in the discriminant analysis.

Η μη-φαρανταïκή ενίσχυση ετερογενών καταλυτικών αντιδράσεων (φαινόμενο NEMCA) έχει μελετηθεί διεξοδικά για πληθώρα χημικών αντιδράσεων σε περισσότερα από 70 καταλυτικά συστήματα. Η μέχρι τώρα, σχεδόν αποκλειστική, χρήση υψηλού κόστους συνεχών καταλυτικών υμενίων πάχους 0.1-5μm με διασπορά <0.01%, σε αντιδραστήρες καθαρά εργαστηριακής κλίμακας αποτελεί ίσως τον σημαντικότερο λόγο που κάνει δύσκολη την εφαρμογή του φαινομένου σε βιομηχανική κλίμακα. Η παρούσα διατριβή έχει ως αντικείμενο της την διερεύνηση του μηχανισμού της ηλεκτροχημικής ενίσχυσης και την συσχέτισή του με την ανάπτυξη μιας ευρείας κλίμακας αλληλεπιδράσεων μετάλλου-φορέα, καθώς και την ανάπτυξη νέων συστημάτων στην κατεύθυνση της πλήρους μεταφοράς και εφαρμογής του φαινομένου NEMCA από την εργαστηριακή στην βιομηχανική κλίμακα. Κατασκευάστηκε ένας πρωτότυπος, ηλεκτροχημικά ενισχυόμενος καταλυτικός αντιδραστήρας (Monolithic Electrochemical Promoted Reactor, MEPR) και δοκιμάστηκε για την οξείδωση υδρογονανθράκων και την αναγωγή του ΝΟ. Στον αντιδραστήρα τοποθετούνται επίπεδες πλάκες στερεού ηλεκτρολύτη YSZ (0.25mm) οι οποίες είναι καλυμμένες και από τις δύο πλευρές με κατάλληλα λεπτά (400Å), πορώδη, αγώγιμα καταλυτικά στρώματα. Είκοσι δύο (22) τέτοιες πλάκες τοποθετούνται σε κατάλληλες εσοχές που έχουν χαραχθεί στις εσωτερικές επιφάνειες των τοιχωμάτων του κεραμικού περιβλήματος του αντιδραστήρα λειτουργώντας είτε ως καταλυτικά στοιχεία (21 πλάκες) είτε ως ηλεκτροχημικός ανιχνευτής (1 πλάκα). Κατά την λειτουργία του αντιδραστήρα επιτεύχθηκε φαρανταϊκή απόδοση μέχρι 27 για σχεδόν πλήρη μετατροπή του καυσίμου και του ΝΟ, σε ογκομετρικές παροχές αντιδρώντων που υπερέβαιναν το 1.5 l/min. Η διασπορά του καταλύτη ήταν υψηλότερη από 10%. Η νέα αυτή σχεδίαση του αντιδραστήρα απαιτεί μόνο δύο εξωτερικές ηλεκτρικές συνδέσεις και συνεπώς διευκολύνει την πρακτική εφαρμογή της ηλεκτροχημικής ενίσχυσης της κατάλυσης. Αναπτύχθηκε και παρουσιάζεται ακόμη μία νέα διάταξη και μια μέθοδος για την ενίσχυση της απόδοσης κελιών καυσίμου, η τριοδική κυψέλη καυσίμου (TFC). Η καινοτομία αυτή συνίσταται στην εισαγωγή, πέραν της ανόδου και καθόδου, ενός τρίτου βοηθητικού ηλεκτροδίου σε επαφή με τον στερεό ηλεκτρολύτη το οποίο και αποτελεί μαζί με την άνοδο ένα δεύτερο, βοηθητικό, ηλεκτροχημικό κελί. Η τριοδική λειτουργία κυψελών καυσίμου, βρέθηκε ότι ελέγχει και ενισχύει σημαντικά (μέχρι και 800%) την παραγόμενη ηλεκτρική ισχύ και την θερμοδυναμική απόδοσή τους. Η τριοδική λειτουργία κυψελών καυσίμου, είναι ιδιαίτερα επωφελής στις περιπτώσεις όπου η ανοδική ή καθοδική υπέρταση είναι σημαντικές, και ανοίγει το δρόμο για πρακτικές εφαρμογές σε κυψέλες καυσίμου SOFC χαμηλής ή ενδιάμεσης θερμοκρασίας ή PEMFC. / Although the non-faradaic electrochemical promotion of heterogeneous catalytic reactions (NEMCA effect) has been studied extensively for over seventy catalytic systems, there has been so far no large scale commercial utilization of electrochemical promotion for two reasons: (a) Expensive thick catalyst films (typically 0.1 μm to 5 μm thick) with metal dispersion below 0.01%. (b) Lack of efficient and compact reactor design allowing for the utilization of electrochemical promotion with a minimum of electrical connections to the external power supply. This thesis has two major goals: investigating the mechanism of electrochemical promotion and the correlation with metal-support interactions, which is of interest of academic point of view, and developing of new electrochemically promoted systems in the direction of future industrial applications. A novel dismantlable monolithic-type electrochemically promoted catalytic reactor has been constructed and tested for hydrocarbon oxidation and NO reduction. In this novel reactor, thin (~20-40 nm) porous catalyst films made of two different materials are sputter-deposited on opposing surfaces of thin (0.25 mm) parallel solid electrolyte (YSZ) plates supported in the grooves of a ceramic monolithic holder and serve as sensor (1 plate) or electropromoted catalyst elements (21 plates). Using Rh/YSZ/Pt type catalyst elements, the 22 plate reactor operated with apparent faradaic efficiency up to 27 achieving near complete fuel and NO conversion at gas flowrates exceeding 1.5 l/min. The metal catalyst dispersion was of the order of at least 10%. The novel reactor design requires only two external electrical connections and permits easy practical utilization of the electrochemical promotion of catalysis. There has been developed and described another new device and method for enhancing the power output and thermodynamic efficiency of fuel cells. In addition to the anode and cathode, the new device introduces a third electrode together with an auxiliary circuit which is run in the electrolytic mode and permits battery or fuel cell operation under previously inaccessible anode-cathode potential differences. The new device and method introduces a new controllable variable in fuel cell operation and has been found to very significantly reduce overpotential and to cause up to 800% enhancement in SOFC fuel cell power output, and also enhancement in overall thermodynamic efficiency. The triode operating mode is quite advantageous under conditions of high anodic or cathodic overpotential. Application of the triode concept to low temperature SOFC and PEM fuel cell units can significantly decrease anodic and cathodic polarization losses, and may, in principle, permit the use of alternative less costly electrode materials.