•Significant change to farm systems under trading but only modest land-use change.•Farm system change includes deintensification and limited on-farm re-investment.•Adjustments include investment ...outside of farming/the catchment, modifying business.•Lack of viable alternative low nitrogen farming systems is a serious constraint.•Underlying driving forces suggest little change in the catchment in the near future.
Managing the effects on water quality of diffuse nitrogen pollution from agriculture is a widespread problem. Cap and Trade is a policy approach which limits nitrogen discharge (the cap) but provides flexibility in land management (using trading of nitrogen). Lake Taupo Nitrogen Trading Programme (LTNTP) in New Zealand is an exemplar case in applying nitrogen discharge limits at both catchment and farm levels, with positive environmental effects at catchment scale. Less is known about the effects on land management at farm scale. This article investigates the land use and farming practice outcomes of the LTNTP. Analysis used landscape biographies focused on different scales of effect. Results identify five pathways of change in the catchment. The dominant trajectory is lowered production with little on- farm reinvestment. Lack of viable alternative low nitrogen land-uses is a major constraint, and non-financial influences on farmer trading behaviour are also significant. To achieve its socio-economic goals, Cap and Trade policy requires farmer social values aligned to cap and trade, and research that supports practice innovation.
Assessing outcomes of agri-environmental policy implementations is complex. Traditional parametric methods such as using key indicators can miss outcomes that are displaced in time and space, seldom ...account for the integrated nature of social and biophysical dynamics, and may overlook unintended consequences. This project aimed to overcome these drawbacks by using a landscape biography approach to analyse an innovative agri-environmental policy experiment around Lake Taupo, New Zealand. Landscape biographies were developed for each of three embedded cases, analysed as socio-ecological systems focused on relationships at different spatial scales. Landscape development paths were identified and a future trajectory estimated. The multiscale approach revealed unforeseen consequences of the policy regime, enabled a more comprehensive portrayal of social and landscape outcomes, and made complex interactions and processes understandable and accessible.
Background: Pediatric otitis media with effusion is a common and costly condition. Although chiropractors have anecdotally claimed success in treating otitis media, there is little research to ...support their claims.
Objective: A pilot study was undertaken for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of conducting a full-scale randomized clinical trial investigating the efficacy of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for children with chronic otitis media with effusion.
Methods: This study was a prospective, parallel-group, observer-blinded, randomized feasibility study. Twenty-two patients, ages 6 months to 6 years, received either active chiropractic SMT or placebo chiropractic SMT. Otoscopy and tympanometry were used to create a middle ear status profile, and daily diaries were collected.
Results: Five newspaper advertisements over 6 months generated 105 responses. Twenty patients subsequently qualified and were randomized into the study. Collection of tympanometric and otoscopic data proved to be challenging. Compliance with the treatment and evaluation protocols and daily diaries was excellent. There were no reports of serious side effects as a result of either the active or placebo chiropractic treatments.
Conclusion: Recruitment for a randomized controlled trial is feasible and could be enhanced by medical collaboration. Patients and parents are able and willing to participate in a study comparing active SMT and placebo SMT. Parents were extremely compliant with the daily diaries, suggesting that similar quality-of-life and functional status measures can be successfully used in a larger trial. We found the objective outcomes assessment involving tympanometry and otoscopy extremely challenging and should be performed by experienced examiners in future studies. (J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1999; 22:292–8)
We build on the current consistent vehicle routing problem literature by formulating a novel multiobjective mathematical model of the home health scheduling and routing problem that includes the ...option of assigning some patient visits to remote monitoring devices, with the objectives of minimizing total cost, achieving nurse consistency and creating balanced nurse workloads. A heuristic solution approach that approximates the efficient frontier of this multiobjective problem is presented and validated, and the results of using this methodology to solve several realistic instances are included. We also analyze the assignment of patients to devices and present some managerial insights into making these assignments in practice.
Book review Spicer, Anne; Vallance, Suzanne
New Zealand geographer,
20/Dec , Letnik:
68, Številka:
3
Book Review
Recenzirano
Book review. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand ...Licence.
