4 pp. / The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension SNAP-Ed program contributes to the Arizona economy by bringing funds from outside the state and utilizing them to encourage healthy eating and active living for people in low-income households. Purchases made for conducting this work generate a ripple of economic activity in other Arizona industries. Economists call these the indirect and induced multiplier effects. This report summarizes the total economic contribution of SNAP-Ed spending, including multiplier effects, on the Arizona economy for the years 2011 and 2012.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2006.

Emergency Departments have begun implementing new patient flow processes aimed at improving ED throughput and limiting ED crowding. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two flow processes. <br>This was a retrospective quasi-experimental study designed to evaluate the impact of a Rapid Medical Assessment process versus Fast Track process on improving ED throughput. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and two-factor analyses of covariance (ANCOVA). ANCOVA statistics were calculated using “arrival to first provider contact time” and “arrival to departure time” as the dependent variables and RMA process versus FT process as well as ESI levels as the independent variables. There was a significant difference in the mean arrival to first provider contact times for all patients during all hours, F (1, 5744) = 9.5, p = .002. There was also a significant difference in the mean arrival to first provider contact time for low-acuity patients during all hours, F (1, 3131) = 14.6, p = < .001 <br>There was a significant difference in the mean arrival to departure times for all patients during all hours, F (1, 6079) = 5.8, p = .016. There was no significant difference in the mean arrival to departure times for low-acuity patients during all hours, F (1, 3306) = 0.774, p = .379, or for all patients during FT hours, F (1, 2647) = 1.1, p = .295. The results of the study support the belief that rapid evaluation and disposition of low-acuity patients improve ED efficiency and reduce ED crowding. / School of Nursing; / Nursing / PhD; / Dissertation;

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is an emerging wireless technology that has attracted many applications in modern day communications. Its ability to provide high data rates at very low complexity makes the system attractive for many indoor high-speed wireless communications. UWB signal can be transmitted by either impulse radio (IR) or multicarrier techniques. Impulse radio technique in particular, is a carrier less technology using pulses in the range of nanoseconds or less providing a low complexity, low power and low interference susceptible wireless system. These features motivate the usage of energy detection based receiver structures that operates at very low power. With the recent developments in UWB technology, a promising feature of this system is to provide high data rate with transceivers operating at very low power. High data rate on the other hand can be achieved only by using a complex modulation schemes that requires more transmitted power. As a limitation in the spectral emission associated with UWB, only low-level modulation technology can be used in UWB systems. Hence, in order to achieve high data rates using low-level modulation schemes, the Inter-symbol interference (ISI) becomes unavoidable. Decision feedback equalization (DFE) is one of the signal process techniques that can be used to mitigate the effects of ISI. This thesis proposes an energy subtraction algorithm combining with the principles of DFE to mitigate the effects of ISI in an impulse radio UWB system employing energy detection receiver. Computer simulations have been performed to verify the operation of the new proposed algorithm under UWB channel characteristics and relevant comparisons have been made with the basic energy detection receiver. Simulation results show that the ISI can be effectively mitigated with low system complexity.

No description available.

The research shows that school leadership influences school management resultsin general, and it particularly impacts student learning. This article presentsand analyzes the VAL-ED (Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education)as a school leadership assessment tool that is based on the research on learningcentered leadership. / La investigación indica que el liderazgo educativo afecta los resultados de la gestiónde los centros educativos en general, y en particular, incide en los aprendizajes delalumnado. Este artículo presenta y analiza el VAL-ED (Vanderbilt Assessment ofLeadership in Education) como un instrumento de evaluación de la gestión, apartir de la investigación sobre liderazgo centrado en los aprendizajes. / A pesquisa indica que a liderança educacional afeta os resultados da gestão dasescolas em geral, e em particular afeta a aprendizagem do aluno. Este artigoapresenta e analisa o VAL-ED (Avaliação Vanderbilt de Liderança em Educação)como uma ferramenta de avaliação da gestão, a partir de pesquisas sobre liderançacentrada na aprendizagem.

Rural tourism is relatively new product in the process of diversification of the rural economy in Republic of Macedonia. This study used desk research and life story interviews of rural tourism entrepreneurs as qualitative research method to identify prevalent success influential factors. Further quantitative analysis was applied in order to measure the strength of influence of identified success factors. The primary data for the quantitative research was gathered using telephone questionnaire composed of 37 questions with 5-points Likert scale. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) by SmartPLS 3.1.6. Results indicated that human capital, social capital, entrepreneurial personality and external business environment are predominant influential success factors. However, human capital has non-significant direct effect on success (p 0.493) nonetheless the effect was indirect with high level of partial mediation through entrepreneurial personality as mediator (VAF 73%). Personality of the entrepreneur, social capital and business environment have direct positive affect on entrepreneurial success (p 0.001, 0.003 and 0.045 respectably). Personality also mediates the positive effect of social capital on entrepreneurial success (VAF 28%). Opposite to the theory the data showed no interaction between social and human capital on the entrepreneurial success. This research suggests that rural tourism accommodation entrepreneurs could be more successful if there is increased support in development of social capital in form of conservation of cultural heritage and natural attractions. Priority should be finding the form to encourage and support the establishment of formal and informal associations of entrepreneurs in order to improve the conditions for management and marketing of the sector. Special support of family businesses in the early stages of the operation would have a particularly positive impact on the success of rural tourism. Local infrastructure, access to financial instruments, destination marketing and entrepreneurial personality have positive effect on success.

Ogni anno in Europa milioni di tonnellate di cibo vengono gettate via. Una stima pubblicata dalla Commissione europea afferma che, nei 27 Stati membri, 89 milioni di tonnellate di cibo, o di 179 kg pro capite, vengono scartati. Lo spreco si verifica lungo tutta la catena di agro alimentare; la riduzione dei rifiuti alimentari è diventata una delle priorità dell'agenda europea. La ricerca si concentra su un caso studio, Last Minute Market, un progetto di recupero di sprechi alimentari. L'impatto di questo progetto dal punto di vista economico e ambientale è già stato calcolato. Quello che verrà analizzato è l'impatto di questa iniziativa sulla comunità e in particolare sul capitale sociale, definito come "l'insieme di norme e reti che consentono l'azione collettiva". Obiettivo del presente lavoro è, quindi, quello di eseguire, attraverso la somministrazione di un questionario a diversi stakeholder del progetto, un’analisi confrontabile con quella del 2009 e di verificare a distanza di cinque anni, se l'iniziativa Last Minute Market abbia prodotto una crescita di capitale sociale nella comunità interessata da questa iniziativa. Per riassumere l’influenza del progetto sul capitale sociale in un indice sintetico, viene calcolato quello che verrà chiamato indice di "affidabilità del progetto" (definito in statistica, la "capacità di un prodotto, un sistema o un servizio di fornire le prestazioni richieste, per un certo periodo di tempo in condizioni predeterminate"). / Every year in Europe million tons of food are thrown away. An estimation published by the European Commission states that, in the 27 Member States, 89 million tons of food, or 179 kg per capita, are discarded. Waste occurs all along food supply chain; reducing food waste has thus become one of the priorities on the European agenda. The research focuses on a case study, Last Minute Market, a project of recovery of food waste. The impact of this project from an economical and environmental point of view has already been calculated. What is going to be analyzed is the impact of this initiative on the community and specifically on social capital, defined as "the set of norms and networks that enable collective action". The objective of the work is to carry out an analysis on social capital dimensions through interviews to the different stakeholders involved in Last Minute Market project. The results of the analysis will be compared to the results of an analysis made in 2009 on the same project in order to check if it has produced a growth on social capital dimensions. Than, in order to summarize the influence of the project on social capital in a synthetic index, is calculated what we can called the index of “reliability of the project” (defined in statistics, the “ability of a product, a system or a service to provide the performance required, for a certain period of time under predetermined conditions”).

The dependence of industrial agricolture on fossil fuels has been assessed in two comparative case studies between Italy (Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte)and Missouri. The first is related to dairy farming; 15 different farms were surveyed, divided into three different groups: grain based, pasture based and organic. The second is devoted to rice cropping; 12 holdings were examined divided into two groups: conventional and organic. Energy footprint was determined for structures, machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, fuel, electricity, feed and seeds. Possible scenarios of transition to a more sustainable agricolture based on renewable energy sources were analized in detail for all the farms analized.

Questa ricerca analizza le implicazioni derivanti dall’introduzione della procedura di co-decisione come procedura legislativa ordinaria nel processo di riforma della politica agricola comune. La diversa distribuzione dei poteri tra le istituzioni europee modifica gli assetti istituzionali e fornisce al Parlamento il ruolo di colegislatore in materia agricola. La forma assunta dalla nuova politica agricola europea scaturisce dalla configurazione dei poteri di contrattazione che ciascun attore ha mostrato nella sede dei triloghi negoziali. La ricerca tenta di verificare la accuratezza predittiva di diversi modelli di contrattazione legislativa attraverso il confronto e la verifica degli errori di predizione sui risultati finali di alcune questioni salienti della riforma della Politica Agricola Comune e allo stesso tempo, cerca di identificare il peso del potere del Parlamento europeo in veste di co-legislatore nel processo di riforma della PAC post-2013. / This research analyzes the implications of the introduction of the codecision procedure as the ordinary legislative procedure in the process Common Agricultural Policy reform. The different distribution of powers between the European institutions modified the institutional structure and give to the European Parliament the role of colegislator in agricultural matters. The form taken by the new European agricultural policy derives from the configuration of the bargaining power that each actor has shown in the seat of the trialogue negotiations. The research attempts to verify the predictive accuracy of different models of legislative bargaining through the comparison and verification of prediction errors on the final results of some salient issues emerged during the Common Agricultural Policy reform process, and at the same time, try to identify the weight of the power of European Parliament as colegislator in the of CAP reform process post-2013.