Trade-Offs in Values Assigned to Ecological Goods and Services Associated with Different Coral Reef Management Strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina C. Hicks

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Societies value ecosystems and the services they provide in a number of ways. These values can help inform the management of ecosystems such as coral reefs. However, the trade-offs in ecosystem goods and services associated with different social and management conditions are poorly understood. Consequently, we examined values assigned to the goods and services identified across three types of management on the Kenyan coast: (1 a government-imposed no-take area in the Mombasa Marine National Park; (2 co-management of gear between fishing communities and the government's fisheries department; and (3 community-initiated no-take area management, where a community independently initiated and controlled a small closed area. We compared the ecosystem goods and services and the broader total economic value to explore how the history of these sites, their social conditions, and different management choices were associated with these values. The highest total economic values were associated with government management interventions and were probably due to the government's priority to be involved in the high-value beach tourism destinations. This is, however, associated with losses in a range of local community-level values and the social capital of the resource-user community. For example, resource users near the government marine protected area had the lowest value for measures of biological knowledge. Sites displaying greater community-level values were characterized by high social capital, and users had the most confidence in their ability to manage the resource. This study suggests that trade-offs occur in values associated with the interests and responsibilities of the management. The ability to cope with disturbance and change will depend on these values and responsibilities, and local communities are less likely to respond when government management and interests are strong.

Access to and value of information to support good practice for staff in Kenyan hospitals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naomi Muinga

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Studies have sought to define information needs of health workers within very specific settings or projects. Lacking in the literature is how hospitals in low-income settings are able to meet the information needs of their staff and the use of information communication technologies (ICT in day-to-day information searching. Objective: The study aimed to explore where professionals in Kenyan hospitals turn to for work-related information in their day-to-day work. Additionally, it examined what existing solutions are provided by hospitals with regard to provision of best practice care. Lastly, the study explored the use of ICT in information searching. Design: Data for this study were collected in July 2012. Self-administered questionnaires (SAQs were distributed across 22 study hospitals with an aim to get a response from 34 health workers per hospital. Results: SAQs were collected from 657 health workers. The most popular sources of information to guide work were fellow health workers and printed guidelines while the least popular were scientific journals. Of value to health workers were: national treatment policies, new research findings, regular reports from surveillance data, information on costs of services and information on their performance of routine clinical tasks; however, hospitals only partially met these needs. Barriers to accessing information sources included: ‘not available/difficult to get’ and ‘difficult to understand’. ICT use for information seeking was reported and with demographic specific differences noted from the multivariate logistic regression model; nurses compared to medical doctors and older workers were less likely to use ICT for health information searching. Barriers to accessing Internet were identified as: high costs and the lack of the service at home or at work. Conclusions: Hospitals need to provide appropriate information by improving information dissemination efforts and providing an

Information Technology, the Good and Modernity.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wong, Pak-Hang; Vallverdu, Jordi

2010-01-01

In Information and Computer Ethics (ICE), and, in fact, in normative and evaluative research of Information Technology (IT) in general, analyses of the prudential values of IT are often neglected by the researchers. Yet, these analyses contain important insights for answering normative questions on

Information technology investments must deliver value

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schulz, Y.

1998-01-01

The value of information technology (IT) management for the petroleum industry was discussed. There are currently two points of view regarding the subject. Adherents of one view hold that the strategic uses of information technology are relevant to the oil and gas industry, while those opposed find no demonstrated connection between information technology investments and business results. This paper addresses the impact of the information paradox, but maintains that information technology is not only valuable but essential to the oil and gas industry. This paper maintains that whenever it is perceived as being of limited use and too expensive, it is usually because it is not well managed. Value management can and should lead to superior outcomes. Neither exploration, nor drilling nor production, nor marketing could exist without information technology as the value is imperative. To further make the case, the nature of information technology value management and the strategies required to achieve value from information technology are reviewed. figs

Good health information--an asset not a burden!

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, Ralph M

2011-02-01

Good health information is central to informing the delivery of health care. Health has mostly struggled to promote the effective use of information to manage services on a day to day basis. Based on the experience at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, a case is made for seeing information as an asset that requires a structured approach to improving data quality, and making a concerted effort to grow a more robust information culture. Transforming Health through better health information will not happen overnight. It needs a long range plan. It should be supported by appropriate business intelligence tools and a structured approach to process improvement, built around data management.

The economic value of drought information: Application to water resources management decisions in Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Garrote, Luis; Sordo, Alvaro; Iglesias, Ana

2016-04-01

Information is valuable when it improves decision-making (e.g., actions can be adjusted to better suit the situation at hand) and enables the mitigation of damage. However, quantifying the value of information is often difficult. Here we explore a general approach to understand the economic value of drought information for water managers framing our approach in the precautionary principle that reminds us that uncertainty is not a reason to postpone or avoid action. We explore how decision making can disregard uncertain effects, taking a short-term approach and focusing instead on the certain costs and benefits of taking action. Two main questions arise: How do we know that advanced drought information is actually helping decisions?; and What is the value of information in the decision process? The approach is applied to several regulated water resources systems in Spain. It first views drought information as a factor in the decision process which can be used by water managers to reduce uncertainty. Second, the value of drought information is the expected gain in a decision outcome (utility) from using additional information. Finally, the gains of improved information are compared with the information collection costs. Here we estimate the value by taking into account the accuracy of the drought information, the subjective probabilities about the value, analyzed as Bayesian probabilities, and the ability or skill of the stakeholders to apply the drought information to modify their actions. Since information may be considered a public good (non-rivalry and non-excludability), it may justify public policy in the provision of information, considering social costs and benefits. The application of the framework to the Spanish case studies shows that information benefits exceeds to costs when drought frequency is 20-40% above normal values; below these values uncertainty in the decisions dominate the results; above these values, the management decisions are limited even

Piracy prevention and the pricing of information goods

OpenAIRE

Cremer, Helmuth; Pestieau, Pierre

2006-01-01

This paper develops a simple model of piracy to analyze its effects on prices and welfare and to study the optimal enforcement policy. A monopolist produces an information good (involving a 'large' development cost and a 'small' reproduction cost) that is sold to two groups of consumers differing in their valuation of the good. We distinguish two settings: one in which the monopoly is regulated and one in which it maximizes profits and is not regulated, except that the public authority may be...

Memory for general and specific value information in younger and older adults: measuring the limits of strategic control.

Science.gov (United States)

Castel, Alan D; Farb, Norman A S; Craik, Fergus I M

2007-06-01

The ability to selectively remember important information is a critical function of memory. Although previous research has suggested that older adults are impaired in a variety of episodic memory tasks, recent work has demonstrated that older adults can selectively remember high-value information. In the present research, we examined how younger and older adults selectively remembered words with various assigned numeric point values, to see whether younger adults could remember more specific value information than could older adults. Both groups were equally good at recalling point values when recalling the range of high-value words, but younger adults outperformed older adults when recalling specific values. Although older adults were more likely to recognize negative value words, both groups exhibited control by not recalling negative value information. The findings suggest that although both groups retain high-value information, older adults rely more on gist-based encoding and retrieval operations, whereas younger adults are able to remember specific numeric value information.

Supply of goods free of charge in value added tax system

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Milošević Miloš

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Consideration represents one of the cumulatively prescribed conditions for the taxation of supplies of goods in value added tax system. In the absence of consideration there is in general no basis for taxation, which makes room for untaxed final consumption - the case in which a taxpayer deducts input VAT on purchased good that is subsequently used for his own or another person's final consumption free of charge. In this paper, the author analyzes the situations in which, for taxation purposes, the supplies of goods free of charge will be treated equally as supplies for consideration and, relying on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, notes the deviations of the domestic practice from the communautaire one, while providing concrete recommendations for their elimination.

Relationship between stakeholders' information value perception and information security behaviour

Science.gov (United States)

Tajuddin, Sharul; Olphert, Wendy; Doherty, Neil

2015-02-01

The study, reported in this paper, aims to explore the relationship between the stakeholders' perceptions about the value of information and their resultant information security behaviours. Moreover, this study seeks to explore the role of national and organisational culture in facilitating information value assignment. Information Security is a concept that formed from the recognition that information is valuable and that there is a need to protect it. The ISO 27002 defines information as an asset, which, like other important business assets, is essential to an organisation's business and consequently needs to be appropriately protected. By definition, an asset has a value to the organisation hence it requires protection. Information protection is typically accomplished through the implementation of countermeasures against the threats and vulnerabilities of information security, for example, implementation of technological processes and mechanisms such as firewall and authorization and authentication systems, set-up of deterrence procedures such as password control and enforcement of organisational policy on information handling procedures. However, evidence routinely shows that despite such measures, information security breaches and incidents are on the rise. These breaches lead to loss of information, personal records, or other data, with consequent implications for the value of the information asset. A number of studies have suggested that such problems are not related primarily to technology problems or procedural deficiencies, but rather to stakeholders' poor compliance with the security measures that are in place. Research indicates that compliance behaviour is affected by many variables including perceived costs and benefits, national and organisational culture and norms. However, there has been little research to understand the concept of information value from the perspective of those who interact with the data, and the consequences for information

Social Information Is Integrated into Value and Confidence Judgments According to Its Reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

De Martino, Benedetto; Bobadilla-Suarez, Sebastian; Nouguchi, Takao; Sharot, Tali; Love, Bradley C

2017-06-21

How much we like something, whether it be a bottle of wine or a new film, is affected by the opinions of others. However, the social information that we receive can be contradictory and vary in its reliability. Here, we tested whether the brain incorporates these statistics when judging value and confidence. Participants provided value judgments about consumer goods in the presence of online reviews. We found that participants updated their initial value and confidence judgments in a Bayesian fashion, taking into account both the uncertainty of their initial beliefs and the reliability of the social information. Activity in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex tracked the degree of belief update. Analogous to how lower-level perceptual information is integrated, we found that the human brain integrates social information according to its reliability when judging value and confidence. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The field of perceptual decision making has shown that the sensory system integrates different sources of information according to their respective reliability, as predicted by a Bayesian inference scheme. In this work, we hypothesized that a similar coding scheme is implemented by the human brain to process social signals and guide complex, value-based decisions. We provide experimental evidence that the human prefrontal cortex's activity is consistent with a Bayesian computation that integrates social information that differs in reliability and that this integration affects the neural representation of value and confidence. Copyright © 2017 De Martino et al.

Stimulating Contributions to Public Goods through Information Feedback: Some Experimental Results.

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Marco A Janssen

Full Text Available In traditional public good experiments participants receive an endowment from the experimenter that can be invested in a public good or kept in a private account. In this paper we present an experimental environment where participants can invest time during five days to contribute to a public good. Participants can make contributions to a linear public good by logging into a web application and performing virtual actions. We compared four treatments, with different group sizes and information of (relative performance of other groups. We find that information feedback about performance of other groups has a small positive effect if we control for various attributes of the groups. Moreover, we find a significant effect of the contributions of others in the group in the previous day on the number of points earned in the current day. Our results confirm that people participate more when participants in their group participate more, and are influenced by information about the relative performance of other groups.

Information as a Primary Good from a Rawlsian Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Cizmar, Francis J.

This paper seeks to establish a philosophical foundation and a conceptual framework for a belief in the right to free information access. According to an overview of the professional literature, and to the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant as operationalized in the theories of John Rawls, information can be seen as a primary good and as a…

Risk Aversion and the Value of Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Eeckhoudt, Louis; Godfroid, Phillippe

2000-01-01

Explains why risk aversion does not always induce a greater information value, but instead may induce a lower information value when increased. Presents a basic model defining the concept of perfect information value and providing a numerical illustration. Includes references. (CMK)

Informal Patient Payments and Bought and Brought Goods in the Western Balkans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buch Mejsner, Sofie; Eklund Karlsson, Leena

2017-01-01

Informal payments for healthcare are common in the Western Balkans, although these payments negatively affect public health and health care. To identify literature from the Western Balkans on what is known about informal payments and bought and brought goods, to examine their effects on healthcare...... various patterns and characteristics of these payments. Although these payments have typically been small – particularly to providers in common areas of specialized medicine – evidence regarding bought and brought goods remains limited, indicating that such practices are likely even more common...... that informal payments are a complex phenomenon. Additionally, the data on bought and brought goods illustrate that not much is known about this matter. Although informal payments have been studied and described in several settings, there is still little research on the effectiveness of such strategies...

Value of information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Straub, D.; Chatzi, E.; Bismut, E.

2017-01-01

The concept of value of information (VoI) enables quantification of the benefits provided by structural health monitoring (SHM) systems –in principle. Its implementation is challenging, as it requires an explicit modelling of the structural system’s life cycle, in particular of the decisions...... that are taken based on the SHM information. In this paper, we approach the VoI analysis through an influence diagram (ID), which supports the modelling process. We provide a simple example for illustration and discuss challenges associated with real-life implementation...

Information About Cost of Goods Produced and its Usefulness for Production Engineers - A Case of SME

Science.gov (United States)

Maruszewska, Ewa Wanda; Strojek-Filus, Marzena; Drábková, Zita

2017-12-01

The article stresses the consequences of simplifications implemented in the measurement process of goods produced that are of crucial importance to production engineers in SME. The authors show the variety of possibilities that might be used by financial employees together with probable outputs in terms of valuation distortions. Using the case study the authors emphasis the importance of close cooperation of production engineers with finance professionals as out-puts of finance departments consist an important input for decision-making process of production managers. Further-more, demonstrated deficiencies in terms of methods applicable in financial reporting for measurement of the value of goods produced indicate the need for incorporation more financial and non-financial data in the process of judgments about the final cost of goods produced as simplifications applied in SME distort financial information provided to production engineers.

Social value and information quality in online health information search

OpenAIRE

Hameed, Tahir; Swar, Bobby

2016-01-01

This paper extends and validates a model of value-driven online healthcare information search in online shared contexts. Perceived value is an important factor behind users' decisions concerning search, consumption and reuse of products and services. The role of utilitarian, hedonic and epistemic value of information in user satisfaction and intention to repeat online search is well recognized, but little support has been found for social value affecting user satisfaction critical for such de...

Essays on Pricing of Information Goods and Services

Science.gov (United States)

Lahiri, Atanu

2010-01-01

This dissertation consists of three essays that examine, in three specific contexts, issues related to pricing of information goods and services. As the ability to measure technology resource usage gets easier with increased connectivity, the question whether a technology resource should be priced by the amount of the resource used or by the…

The Value of Information in Library Catalogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Matthews, Joe

2000-01-01

Considers the value of information contained within a library's online public access catalog. Assesses the value of MARC records; authority records; indexes; location and status information; and value for an individual. (LRW)

[Good practice guidelines for health information].

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Evidence-based health information is distinguished by the provision of an unbiased and trustworthy description of the current state of medical knowledge. It enables people to learn more about health and disease, and to make health-related decisions - on their own or together with others - reflecting their attitudes and lifestyle. To adequately serve this purpose, health information must be evidence-based. A working group from the German Network for Evidence-based Medicine (Deutsches Netzwerk Evidenzbasierte Medizin) has developed a first draft of good practice guidelines for health information (Gute Praxis Gesundheitsinformation) with the aim of providing support for authors and publishers of evidence-based health information. The group included researchers, patient representatives, journalists and developers of health information. The criteria for evidence-based health information were developed and agreed upon within this author group, and then made available for public comment. All submitted comments were documented and assessed regarding the need to revise or amend the draft. Changes were subsequently implemented following approval by the author group. Gute Praxis Gesundheitsinformation calls for a transparent methodological approach in the development of health information. To achieve this, evidence-based information must be based on (a) a systematic literature search, (b) a justified selection of evidence, (c) unbiased reporting of relevant results, (d) appropriate factual and linguistic communication of uncertainties, (e) either avoidance of any direct recommendations or a strict division between the reporting of results and the derivation of recommendations, (f) the consideration of current evidence on the communication of figures, risks and probabilities, and (g) transparent information about the authors and publishers of the health information, including their funding sources. Gute Praxis Gesundheitsinformation lists a total of 16 aspects to be addressed

Digital Information and Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Walton

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Digital information changes the ways in which people and organisations interact. This paper examines the nature of this change in the context of the author’s Model for Information (MfI. It investigates the relationship between outcomes and value, selection processes and some attributes of information and explores how this relationship changes in the move from analogue to digital information. Selection processes shape the evolution of information ecosystems in which conventions are established for the ways in which information is used. The conventions determine norms for information friction and information quality as well as the sources of information and channels used. Digital information reduces information friction, often dramatically, and changes information quality. The increasing use of analytics in business increasingly delivers predictive or prescriptive digital information. These changes are happening faster than information ecosystem conventions can change. The relationships established in the paper enable an analysis of, and guide changes to, these conventions enabling a more effective use of digital information.

Information Value Distance and Crisis Management Planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brahim Herbane

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Organizational learning during and post-crisis is well established in the management literature but consideration of learning for crisis and the sources of information perceived to be useful for crisis management planning have not previously been examined. This study evaluates data from 215 U.K.-based small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs about the perceived value of 11 sources of information between planning (i.e., firms with a crisis management plan and non-planning respondents. For planning firms, the information sources considered to be useful are exclusively experience-based, and when information sources become less idiosyncratic and episodic, planning firms’ evaluations of their value begin to approximate the ratings given by non-planning firms. Furthermore, the concepts of relative value distance and value distance from threshold are original features of this study and offer new ways to evaluate the value of information sources for organizations wishing to provide information and support to improve business resilience and business continuity.

Information security value in e-entrepreneurship

OpenAIRE

Nunes, Sérgio

2012-01-01

This paper researches the information security value in e-entrepreneurship by revising the literature that establishes the entrepreneurial domain and by relating it with the development of technological resources that create value for the customer in an online business. It details multiple paradigms regarding consumer’s values of information security, while relating them with common practices and previous researches in technological entrepreneurship. This research presents and discusses the b...

The bad apple effect and social value orientation in public-goods dilemmas: replication and extension of research findings.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Song; Sun, Jiaqing; Cai, Wei; Jin, Shenghua

2014-06-01

Two studies were conducted to replicate and extend previous findings on the effect of uncooperative behavior on group cooperation (the "bad apple" effect). Study 1 (56 women, 40 men; M age = 23.5 yr.) manipulated information about contributions from the bad apple, controlling for overall contributions to a group account. Study 2 (50 women, 34 men; M age = 20.4 yr.) compared the effects of a bad apple and a good apple on cooperation. The social value orientation of participants was measured to explore individual differences in the bad apple effect. The results revealed a bad apple (a) decreased cooperation among individuals with proself and prosocial orientations in Study 1, and (b) had a greater effect than a good apple on those who were proself compared to prosocial in Study 2.

Value-informed space systems design and acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Brathwaite, Joy

Investments in space systems are substantial, indivisible, and irreversible, characteristics that make them high-risk, especially when coupled with an uncertain demand environment. Traditional approaches to system design and acquisition, derived from a performance- or cost-centric mindset, incorporate little information about the spacecraft in relation to its environment and its value to its stakeholders. These traditional approaches, while appropriate in stable environments, are ill-suited for the current, distinctly uncertain, and rapidly changing technical and economic conditions; as such, they have to be revisited and adapted to the present context. This thesis proposes that in uncertain environments, decision-making with respect to space system design and acquisition should be value-based, or at a minimum value-informed. This research advances the value-centric paradigm by providing the theoretical basis, foundational frameworks, and supporting analytical tools for value assessment of priced and unpriced space systems. For priced systems, stochastic models of the market environment and financial models of stakeholder preferences are developed and integrated with a spacecraft-sizing tool to assess the system's net present value. The analytical framework is applied to a case study of a communications satellite, with market, financial, and technical data obtained from the satellite operator, Intelsat. The case study investigates the implications of the value-centric versus the cost-centric design and acquisition choices. Results identify the ways in which value-optimal spacecraft design choices are contingent on both technical and market conditions, and that larger spacecraft for example, which reap economies of scale benefits, as reflected by their decreasing cost-per-transponder, are not always the best (most valuable) choices. Market conditions and technical constraints for which convergence occurs between design choices under a cost-centric and a value

Value of information and natural resources decision-making

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Byron K.; Johnson, Fred A.

2015-01-01

Though the potential for information to measurably improve management has been highlighted for several decades, in recent years the “value of information” has surfaced with increasing frequency in natural resources. However, the use of this phrase belies the fact that many in natural resources have only a limited understanding about what it actually means, how to measure it, and what to do with it. We introduce and describe several forms of the value of information in a context of the management of renewable natural resources. The value of information is discussed in terms of a potential gain in value with the addition of new information, as well as a loss in value associated with the absence of information. Value metrics are developed for uncertainty about resource status as well as resource processes and responses to management. We provide a common notation for the metrics of value, and discuss linkages of the value of information to strategic approaches such as adaptive resources management and partially observable decision processes.

INFORMATION ABOUT COST OF GOODS PRODUCED AND ITS USEFULNESS FOR PRODUCTION ENGINEERS – A CASE OF SME

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ewa Wanda MARUSZEWSKA

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The article stresses the consequences of simplifications implemented in the measurement process of goods produced that are of crucial importance to production engineers in SME. The authors show the variety of possibilities that might be used by financial employees together with probable outputs in terms of valuation distortions. Using the case study the authors emphasis the importance of close cooperation of production engineers with finance professionals as out-puts of finance departments consist an important input for decision-making process of production managers. Further-more, demonstrated deficiencies in terms of methods applicable in financial reporting for measurement of the value of goods produced indicate the need for incorporation more financial and non-financial data in the process of judgments about the final cost of goods produced as simplifications applied in SME distort financial information provided to pro-duction engineers.

What is a good midwife? Insights from the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Borrelli, Sara Elisabetta

2014-01-01

to review the literature around what is considered to be a good midwife and in particular what women value in a midwife, in order to identify the gaps in the evidence for future research. this paper reviews the research in the area of interest over the past 30 years. The literature search focused on the concept of good midwife using synonyms and antonyms. The inclusion criteria included language (English or Italian). The examined databases were Medline, Maternity and Infant Care, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstract and CINAHL. studies conducted in high-income countries were taken into account. A focused review of papers which explicitly investigated what a good midwife means and a thematic analysis on what women value in a midwife were carried out. different standpoints have been considered (midwives, student midwives, women and their partners), focusing in particular on women viewpoint. the literature review reveals information about what is considered to be a good midwife from a range of perspectives and what women value in a midwife. A good midwife should possess several attributes: theoretical knowledge, professional competencies, personal qualities, communication skills and moral/ethical values. According to the thematic analysis around what childbearing women value in a midwife, frequent key-themes emerging from the literature were: support, possibility of choice, feeling in control and having appropriate information. the meaning of good midwife might change according to different actors involved in midwifery care and there is no agreement on the definition of what constitutes a good midwife. Furthermore, it is not clear if what women value in a good midwife corresponds to the midwives' perception of themselves as good professionals. There is a dearth of information around women's expectations and experiences specifically of a good midwife, and even less around whether this changes according to where they give birth. this literature review seeks to

Enhancing value of information analyses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, Mart P.; Koffijberg, Hendrik

Objective: The aim of this study was to demonstrate that it is feasible and recommendable to present value of information (VOI) outcomes in terms of underlying costs and effects in addition to costs alone. Methods: The benefits of collecting additional information on health economic outcomes before

Determination of non-market values to inform conservation strategies for the threatened Alistana-Sanabresa cattle breed.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-Collado, D; Diaz, C; Drucker, A G; Carabaño, M J; Zander, K K

2014-08-01

Livestock breed-related public good functions are often used to justify support for endangered breed conservation despite the fact that little is known about such non-market values. We show how stated preference techniques can be used to assess the non-market values that people place on livestock breeds. Through the application of a case study choice experiment survey in Zamora province, Spain, the total economic value (TEV) of the threatened Alistana-Sanabresa (AS) cattle breed was investigated. An analysis of the relative importance of the non-market components of its TEV and an assessment of the socio-economic variables that influence people's valuation of such components is used to inform conservation strategy design. Overall, the findings reveal that the AS breed had significant non-market values associated with it and that the value that respondents placed on each specific public good function also varied significantly. Functions related with indirect use cultural and existence values were much more highly valued than landscape maintenance values. These high cultural and existence values (totalling over 80% of TEV) suggest that an AS in situ conservation strategy will be required to secure such values. As part of such a strategy, incentive mechanisms will be needed to permit farmers to capture some of these public good values and thus be able to afford to maintain breed population numbers at socially desirable levels. One such mechanism could be related to the development of breed-related agritourism initiatives, with a view to enhancing private good values and providing an important addition to continued direct support. Where linked with cultural dimensions, niche product market development, including through improving AS breed-related product quality and brand recognition may also have a role to play as part of such an overall conservation and use strategy. We conclude that livestock breed conservation strategies with the highest potential to maximise

Product Bundling and Shared Information Goods: A Pricing Exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Morrison, William G.

2016-01-01

In this article, the author describes an exercise in which two pricing problems (product bundling and the sharing of digital information goods) can be understood using the same analytical approach. The exercise allows students to calculate the correct numerical answers with relative ease, while the teaching plan demonstrates the importance of the…

Effects of Piracy on Quality of Information Goods

OpenAIRE

Atanu Lahiri; Debabrata Dey

2013-01-01

It is commonly believed that piracy of information goods leads to lower profits, which translate to lower incentives to invest in innovation and eventually to lower-quality products. Manufacturers, policy makers, and researchers all claim that inadequate piracy enforcement efforts translate to lower investments in product development. However, we find many practical examples that contradict this claim. Therefore, to examine this claim more carefully, we develop a rigorous economic model of th...

A Good Practice Guide on Critical Infor-mation Infrastructure Protection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luiijf, H.A.M.; Schie, T.C.C. van

2017-01-01

Early 2016, the Meridian Process and the GFCE tasked the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO to develop a Good Practice Guide on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) for governmental policy-makers [1]. The guide primarily aims at governmental policy-makers,

Not a good buy: value for money of prescription drugs sold on the internet.

Science.gov (United States)

Levaggi, Rosella; Marcantoni, Claudio; Filippucci, Laura; Gelatti, Umberto

2012-08-01

In this note we study the value for money of purchases of fluoxetine made through on-line pharmacies without prescription. We show that this channel is not good value from an economic point of view and that it can be dangerous in medical terms because of the poor quality of the drugs received and the lack of prescribing instructions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

76 FR 9025 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Good Laboratory...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-16

...; (3) equipment inspection, maintenance, calibration, and testing records; (4) documentation of feed...] Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Good Laboratory Practice... for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on the good laboratory...

Information as Work and as Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcos Dantas

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This article suggests an approach to Marx's capital valorisation theory supported by a dialectical information theory as developed by physicians, biologists and also communication theorists during the second half of the 20th century. It suggests that it is possible to link the basic concepts of information, as science has established it, to Marx's basic concepts of capital. Based on this foundation, this article also tries to explain how capital, in its development, has evolved to discharge redundant or repetitive jobs but has become increasingly dependent on random or creative ones. Because of this circumstance, in its present stage, the capitalist production process creates value in many concrete forms of semiotic information. Because information cannot be reduced to the status of a commodity, as the theory explains, capitalist states and corporations are improving and hardening the intellectual property laws in order to appropriate the information value created by "creative" or "artistic" work.

Programming for the Public Good: Ensuring Public Value Through the Cooperative Extension Program Development Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nancy Franz

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Effective Cooperative Extension programs produce important private and public value for individuals, families, businesses, and communities. However, the public value of Extension programming often goes unmeasured and unarticulated. Extension needs to reclaim its role as a key provider of public value for Land-Grant Universities through strong educational programs driven by infusing public value into all elements of the Extension Program Development Model. This article describes Extension’s public value movement including organizational, professional, program, and scholarship development efforts to enhance public good effectiveness articulation. Lessons learned, implications, and next steps for Extension’s public value success through a strong program development model are also shared.

Goodness-of-fit tests for the Gompertz distribution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lenart, Adam; Missov, Trifon

The Gompertz distribution is often fitted to lifespan data, however testing whether the fit satisfies theoretical criteria was neglected. Here five goodness-of-fit measures, the Anderson-Darling statistic, the Kullback-Leibler discrimination information, the correlation coefficient test, testing ...... for the mean of the sample hazard and a nested test against the generalized extreme value distributions are discussed. Along with an application to laboratory rat data, critical values calculated by the empirical distribution of the test statistics are also presented.......The Gompertz distribution is often fitted to lifespan data, however testing whether the fit satisfies theoretical criteria was neglected. Here five goodness-of-fit measures, the Anderson-Darling statistic, the Kullback-Leibler discrimination information, the correlation coefficient test, testing...

Adaptive resource management and the value of information

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Byron K.; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Breininger, David R.

2011-01-01

The value of information is a general and broadly applicable concept that has been used for several decades to aid in making decisions in the face of uncertainty. Yet there are relatively few examples of its use in ecology and natural resources management, and almost none that are framed in terms of the future impacts of management decisions. In this paper we discuss the value of information in a context of adaptive management, in which actions are taken sequentially over a timeframe and both future resource conditions and residual uncertainties about resource responses are taken into account. Our objective is to derive the value of reducing or eliminating uncertainty in adaptive decision making. We describe several measures of the value of information, with each based on management objectives that are appropriate for adaptive management. We highlight some mathematical properties of these measures, discuss their geometries, and illustrate them with an example in natural resources management. Accounting for the value of information can help to inform decisions about whether and how much to monitor resource conditions through time.

Louis Vuitton in the bazaar: Negotiating the value of counterfeit goods in Shanghai's Xiangyang market

OpenAIRE

Hansen, Gard Hopsdal; Møller, Henrik Kloppenborg

2017-01-01

Abstract: Much work on counterfeiting takes the perspective of brand holders and focuses on strategies for restricting the infringement of their intellectual property rights (IPR). This article takes a different approach. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a market bazaar in Shanghai, the article examines the way in which market participants negotiate the value of counterfeit goods. Brand holders attempt to control the valuation of branded goods, which are usually traded in fixed-pr...

Deprival value: information utility analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Antonio Pereira

Full Text Available ABSTRACT This article contributes to the perception that the users’ learning process plays a key role in order to apply an accounting concept and this involves a presentation that fits its informative potential, free of previous accounting fixations. Deprival value is a useful measure for managerial and corporate purposes, it may be applied to the current Conceptual Framework of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB. This study analyzes its utility, taking into account cognitive aspects. Also known as value to the business, deprival value is a measurement system that followed a path where it was misunderstood, confused with another one, it faced resistance to be implemented and fell into disuse; everything that a standardized measurement method tries to avoid. In contrast, deprival value has found support in the academy and in specific applications, such as those related to the public service regulation. The accounting area has been impacted by sophistication of the measurement methods that increasingly require the ability to analyze accounting facts on an economic basis, at the risk of loss of their information content. This development becomes possible only when the potential of a measurement system is known and it is feasible to be achieved. This study consists in a theoretical essay based on literature review to discuss its origin, presentation, and application. Considering the concept’s cognitive difficulties, deprival value was analyzed, as well as its corresponding heteronym, value to the business, in order to explain some of these changes. The concept’s utility was also explored through cross-analysis with impairment and the scheme developed was applied to actual economic situations faced by a company listed on stock exchange.

The ethics of big data as a public good: which public? Whose good?

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Linnet

2016-12-28

International development and humanitarian organizations are increasingly calling for digital data to be treated as a public good because of its value in supplementing scarce national statistics and informing interventions, including in emergencies. In response to this claim, a 'responsible data' movement has evolved to discuss guidelines and frameworks that will establish ethical principles for data sharing. However, this movement is not gaining traction with those who hold the highest-value data, particularly mobile network operators who are proving reluctant to make data collected in low- and middle-income countries accessible through intermediaries. This paper evaluates how the argument for 'data as a public good' fits with the corporate reality of big data, exploring existing models for data sharing. I draw on the idea of corporate data as an ecosystem involving often conflicting rights, duties and claims, in comparison to the utilitarian claim that data's humanitarian value makes it imperative to share them. I assess the power dynamics implied by the idea of data as a public good, and how differing incentives lead actors to adopt particular ethical positions with regard to the use of data.This article is part of the themed issue 'The ethical impact of data science'. © 2016 The Author(s).

HOW TO CALCULATE INFORMATION VALUE FOR EFFECTIVE SECURITY RISK ASSESSMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Sajko

2006-12-01

Full Text Available The actual problem of information security (infosec risk assessment is determining the value of information property or asset. This is particularly manifested through the use of quantitative methodology in which it is necessary to state the information value in quantitative sizes. The aim of this paper is to describe the evaluation possibilities of business information values, and the criteria needed for determining importance of information. For this purpose, the dimensions of information values will be determined and the ways used to present the importance of information contents will be studied. There are two basic approaches that can be used in evaluation: qualitative and quantitative. Often they are combined to determine forms of information content. The proposed criterion is the three-dimension model, which combines the existing experiences (i.e. possible solutions for information value assessment with our own criteria. An attempt for structuring information value in a business environment will be made as well.

Monetary valuation of environmental goods, services and impacts: variability of monetary values. Seminar proceedings of December 10, 2014

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonnet, Xavier; Ben Maid, Atika; Calvet, Melanie; Darses, Ophelie; Devaux, Jeremy; Simon, Olivier; Gatier, Alexis; Wittmann, Anne-laure; Bonnet, Xavier; Bonroy, Olivier; Ceci-Renaud, Nila; Tarayoun, Tedjani; Mercadie, Corinne; Adam, Gabrielle; Perrissin Fabert, Baptiste; Combet, Emmanuel; Casset, Loic; Meunier, David; Le Maitre, Helene; Brunel, Julien; Rotillon, Gilles

2015-06-01

Within the General Commission for Sustainable Development, the Service for Economics, Assessment and Integration of Sustainable Development is in charge of developing and promoting the economic valuation of policies, regulations, environmental goods and services, related to biodiversity, natural assets and environmental amenities. On December 10, 2014, it held the fifth annual seminar on monetary valuation of environmental goods, services and impacts. The first four editions respectively were devoted to economic valuation methods of environmental goods and services, implementations of these methods, uses of monetary values and methodological innovations; the 2014 seminar addressed the variability of monetary values. The ten presentations of the seminar explored the different values resulting from monetary valuation methods: what do they mean? What do they measure? Why are they relevant to integrate environmental valuation in the various economic sectors? From both a theoretical and practical point of view, theses questions were addressed by considering three main topics: the integration of environmental value in market prices, the different meanings of carbon values and the temporal variability of values used in assessment of investment projects in the transport sector. Those conferences are aimed for experts and practitioners of monetary valuation techniques as well as for users of the values produced. They provide a place to gather and facilitate dialogue between representatives from universities, government agencies and private sector involved in these issues. (authors)

Hand and goods judgment algorithm based on depth information

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Mingzhu; Zhang, Jinsong; Yan, Dan; Wang, Qin; Zhang, Ruiqi; Han, Jing

2016-03-01

A tablet computer with a depth camera and a color camera is loaded on a traditional shopping cart. The inside information of the shopping cart is obtained by two cameras. In the shopping cart monitoring field, it is very important for us to determine whether the customer with goods in or out of the shopping cart. This paper establishes a basic framework for judging empty hand, it includes the hand extraction process based on the depth information, process of skin color model building based on WPCA (Weighted Principal Component Analysis), an algorithm for judging handheld products based on motion and skin color information, statistical process. Through this framework, the first step can ensure the integrity of the hand information, and effectively avoids the influence of sleeve and other debris, the second step can accurately extract skin color and eliminate the similar color interference, light has little effect on its results, it has the advantages of fast computation speed and high efficiency, and the third step has the advantage of greatly reducing the noise interference and improving the accuracy.

Value-Added Taxes, Chain Effects, and Informality

OpenAIRE

Áureo de Paula; Jose A. Scheinkman

2010-01-01

This paper investigates determinants of informal economic activity. We present an equilibrium model of informality and test its implications using a survey of 48,000+ small firms in Brazil. We define informality as tax avoidance; firms in the informal sector avoid tax payments but suffer other limitations. A novel theoretical contribution in this model is the role of value added taxes in transmitting informality. It predicts that the informality of a firm is correlated to the informality of f...

75 FR 60772 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and Permit AGENCY: U.S... the Paperwork Reduction Act: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and... techniques or other forms of information. Title: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP...

75 FR 62412 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Comment Request; HUD-Owned Real Estate-Good Neighbor...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-08

... DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [Docket No. FR-5380-N-36] Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Comment Request; HUD- Owned Real Estate-Good Neighbor Next Door Program AGENCY: Office... information: Title of Proposal: HUD-Owned Real Estate-Good Neighbor Next Door Program. OMB Control Number, if...

Depreciation of public goods in spatial public goods games

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Dong-Mei; Zhuang, Yong; Li, Yu-Jian; Wang, Bing-Hong

2011-10-01

In real situations, the value of public goods will be reduced or even lost because of external factors or for intrinsic reasons. In this work, we investigate the evolution of cooperation by considering the effect of depreciation of public goods in spatial public goods games on a square lattice. It is assumed that each individual gains full advantage if the number of the cooperators nc within a group centered on that individual equals or exceeds the critical mass (CM). Otherwise, there is depreciation of the public goods, which is realized by rescaling the multiplication factor r to (nc/CM)r. It is shown that the emergence of cooperation is remarkably promoted for CM > 1 even at small values of r, and a global cooperative level is achieved at an intermediate value of CM = 4 at a small r. We further study the effect of depreciation of public goods on different topologies of a regular lattice, and find that the system always reaches global cooperation at a moderate value of CM = G - 1 regardless of whether or not there exist overlapping triangle structures on the regular lattice, where G is the group size of the associated regular lattice.

IT Business Value Model for Information Intensive Organizations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Carlos Gastaud Maçada

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Many studies have highlighted the capacity Information Technology (IT has for generating value for organizations. Investments in IT made by organizations have increased each year. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to analyze the IT Business Value for Information Intensive Organizations (IIO - e.g. banks, insurance companies and securities brokers. The research method consisted of a survey that used and combined the models from Weill and Broadbent (1998 and Gregor, Martin, Fernandez, Stern and Vitale (2006. Data was gathered using an adapted instrument containing 5 dimensions (Strategic, Informational, Transactional, Transformational and Infra-structure with 27 items. The instrument was refined by employing statistical techniques such as Exploratory and Confirmatory Factorial Analysis through Structural Equations (first and second order Model Measurement. The final model is composed of four factors related to IT Business Value: Strategic, Informational, Transactional and Transformational, arranged in 15 items. The dimension Infra-structure was excluded during the model refinement process because it was discovered during interviews that managers were unable to perceive it as a distinct dimension of IT Business Value.

Entropy Based Feature Selection for Fuzzy Set-Valued Information Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Waseem; Sufyan Beg, M. M.; Ahmad, Tanvir

2018-06-01

In Set-valued Information Systems (SIS), several objects contain more than one value for some attributes. Tolerance relation used for handling SIS sometimes leads to loss of certain information. To surmount this problem, fuzzy rough model was introduced. However, in some cases, SIS may contain some real or continuous set-values. Therefore, the existing fuzzy rough model for handling Information system with fuzzy set-values needs some changes. In this paper, Fuzzy Set-valued Information System (FSIS) is proposed and fuzzy similarity relation for FSIS is defined. Yager's relative conditional entropy was studied to find the significance measure of a candidate attribute of FSIS. Later, using these significance values, three greedy forward algorithms are discussed for finding the reduct and relative reduct for the proposed FSIS. An experiment was conducted on a sample population of the real dataset and a comparison of classification accuracies of the proposed FSIS with the existing SIS and single-valued Fuzzy Information Systems was made, which demonstrated the effectiveness of proposed FSIS.

Depreciation of public goods in spatial public goods games

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, Dong-Mei; Zhuang, Yong; Li, Yu-Jian; Wang, Bing-Hong

2011-01-01

In real situations, the value of public goods will be reduced or even lost because of external factors or for intrinsic reasons. In this work, we investigate the evolution of cooperation by considering the effect of depreciation of public goods in spatial public goods games on a square lattice. It is assumed that each individual gains full advantage if the number of the cooperators n c within a group centered on that individual equals or exceeds the critical mass (CM). Otherwise, there is depreciation of the public goods, which is realized by rescaling the multiplication factor r to (n c /CM)r. It is shown that the emergence of cooperation is remarkably promoted for CM > 1 even at small values of r, and a global cooperative level is achieved at an intermediate value of CM = 4 at a small r. We further study the effect of depreciation of public goods on different topologies of a regular lattice, and find that the system always reaches global cooperation at a moderate value of CM = G − 1 regardless of whether or not there exist overlapping triangle structures on the regular lattice, where G is the group size of the associated regular lattice

Social value of online information in the hotel industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moraru Remus Christian

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Studies show that public information can create social value, which reflects on the purpose of this paper in identifying information on the online environment of the hotel industry which can directly or indirectly create social value and ultimately a competitive edge. Privately owned, small and mid-sized hotels in Romania find themselves in competitive online environment and, as such, many of them cannot compete or don’t possess the know-how to compete within the online environment. With identifying the information shared on the hotels online environment and the capability of the information in creating social value, hotels can reevaluate their online strategies. The immediate objective of this paper is to analyze the websites of a sample of 99 small and mid-sized hotels in Romania and to identify critical information that can directly or indirectly create social value. Part of the objective is to draw a conclusion of the main differences on the information shared on the hotels website, which in terms will show where small and mid-sized hotels can improve their online content strategy with socially valuable information. Key findings reflect that Romanian hotels have a clear pattern across the country when it come to their online environment. However, there are serious deficiencies that can influence both economical results and the possibility of creating socially valuable information online. This work increases our understanding of the information shared on the hotels websites in Romania and comes with suggestions that hoteliers can apply in the future to increase the competitiveness and the social value of their online environment.

The value of information management : trends and strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lougheed, S.

1998-01-01

QC Data's experience with the geotechnical and related information needs of the petroleum industry was described. The presentation discussed QC Data's solutions and how it brings its information and data domain expertise to bear on the oil and natural gas industry. The paper analyzes historic business issues and their limitations and outlines how advances in information and communications technology, especially software advances and server technology, have been transformed. It looks at how business is conducted today, reviews the role of other business drivers such as increasing productivity, and cost/value decisions, the value of information management, trends, issues and innovative strategies, and provides an assessment of lessons learned. figs

The Economic Value of Personal Information and Policy Implication

OpenAIRE

Kim, Jiin; Nam, Changi; Kim, Seongcheol

2015-01-01

Personal information is essential in an information-oriented society for societal development and as a valuable business resource. However, because of poor management and a lack of proper protection, leakage of personal information can take place over time, and the standard for compensation is not well established. In order to establish appropriate policies for its protection, we need to know the economic value of personal information. Using conjoint analysis, we analyze the potential value o...

Information System for the Goods Transport Service Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caj Holm

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Intermodal transport can reduce the load of the road infrastructure.Knowledge gives it the necessary competitiveness andhelps to control its costs. Fast reaction to changing conditions,opportunities and requirements gives remarkable advantage.Setting up integrated logistic chains using alternative transportmodes requires the trust and close interaction of a variety of actorsinvolved in managing the chain. Especially in the dynamicmobile environment, knowledge has so far not been effectivelyused. FREIGHTWISE tackles this complexity by developing aframework architecture anchored and validated in a range ofdemonstration cases involving commercial and public actors.This paper discusses the general FREIGHTWISE objectivesand its North-East Case, the Logistiikkainfo goods transportservice network information system to be implemented for theEstonian - Finnish transport chain.

Towards Information Systems Design for Value Webs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zarvic, N.; Wieringa, Roelf J.; Daneva, Maia; Pernici, B; Gulla, J.A.

2007-01-01

In this paper we discuss the alignment between a business model of a value web and the information systems of the participating companies needed to implement the business model. Traditional business-IT alignment approaches focus on one single company, but in a value web we are dealing with various

A monetary value for initial information in portfolio optimization

OpenAIRE

Martin Schweizer; Dirk Becherer; Jürgen Amendinger

2002-01-01

We consider an investor maximizing his expected utility from terminal wealth with portfolio decisions based on the available information flow. This investor faces the opportunity to acquire some additional initial information ${\\cal G}$. His subjective fair value of this information is defined as the amount of money that he can pay for ${\\cal G}$ such that this cost is balanced out by the informational advantage in terms of maximal expected utility. We study this value for common utility func...

Information Superiority and Game Theory: The Value of Varying Levels of Information

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

McIntosh, Gary

2002-01-01

.... This thesis examines how various levels of information and information superiority affect strategy choices and decision-making in determining the payoff value for opposing forces in a classic zero-sum two-sided contest...

Living the Good (Work) Life: Implications of General Values for Work Values

Science.gov (United States)

Carlstrom, Aaron H.

2011-01-01

Advances in the understanding of general values from personality and social psychology apply to work values. In this paper, I introduce the concepts of values, value priorities, motivational goals, value types, and personal value systems used to clarify work values. I also introduce the terms basic and broad value and work value types. Second, I…

Constructing the Value of Information Systems Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Avital, Michel

2014-01-01

Building on a social constructivist approach, this commentary examines the value of Information Systems (IS) research and its bearing on the future of the discipline in three steps as follows. First, it is argued that the product of IS scholars can serve as a proxy for IS research and that the su......Building on a social constructivist approach, this commentary examines the value of Information Systems (IS) research and its bearing on the future of the discipline in three steps as follows. First, it is argued that the product of IS scholars can serve as a proxy for IS research...

76 FR 6488 - Notice of Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB; HUD-Owned Real Estate-Good...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-04

... DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [Docket No. FR-5480-N-11] Notice of Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB; HUD-Owned Real Estate--Good Neighbor Next Door Program AGENCY... Lists the Following Information Title of Proposal: HUD-Owned Real Estate--Good Neighbor Next Door...

Firm-specific information, analysts’ superiority and investment value

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Lu; Li; Erjia; Yang; Tusheng; Xiao

2014-01-01

Using a sample of Chinese security analysts’recommendations from 2005 to2010,we examine the source of analysts’superiority and the investment value of their recommendations.Using a calendar-time portfolio approach,we find that,on average,analysts’recommendations are valuable and that analysts are better at analyzing and transferring firm-specific information than market-wide or industry-level information.In addition,we show that the investment value of recommendations increases as firm-specific information becomes more important in stock pricing.Our empirical results are useful in guiding investors and helping brokerage houses to evaluate the output of research departments.

Extreme value problems without calculus: a good link with geometry and elementary maths

Science.gov (United States)

Ganci, Salvatore

2016-11-01

Some classical examples of problem solving, where an extreme value condition is required, are here considered and/or revisited. The search for non-calculus solutions appears pedagogically useful and intriguing as shown through a rich literature. A teacher, who teaches both maths and physics, (as happens in Italian High schools) can find in these kinds of problems a mind stimulating exercise compared with the standard solution obtained by the differential calculus. A good link between the geometric and analytical explanations is so established.

Economic Assessment of the Use Value of Geospatial Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Bernknopf

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Geospatial data inform decision makers. An economic model that involves application of spatial and temporal scientific, technical, and economic data in decision making is described. The value of information (VOI contained in geospatial data is the difference between the net benefits (in present value terms of a decision with and without the information. A range of technologies is used to collect and distribute geospatial data. These technical activities are linked to examples that show how the data can be applied in decision making, which is a cultural activity. The economic model for assessing the VOI in geospatial data for decision making is applied to three examples: (1 a retrospective model about environmental regulation of agrochemicals; (2 a prospective model about the impact and mitigation of earthquakes in urban areas; and (3 a prospective model about developing private–public geospatial information for an ecosystem services market. Each example demonstrates the potential value of geospatial information in a decision with uncertain information.

Economic assessment of the use value of geospatial information

Science.gov (United States)

Bernknopf, Richard L.; Shapiro, Carl D.

2015-01-01

Geospatial data inform decision makers. An economic model that involves application of spatial and temporal scientific, technical, and economic data in decision making is described. The value of information (VOI) contained in geospatial data is the difference between the net benefits (in present value terms) of a decision with and without the information. A range of technologies is used to collect and distribute geospatial data. These technical activities are linked to examples that show how the data can be applied in decision making, which is a cultural activity. The economic model for assessing the VOI in geospatial data for decision making is applied to three examples: (1) a retrospective model about environmental regulation of agrochemicals; (2) a prospective model about the impact and mitigation of earthquakes in urban areas; and (3) a prospective model about developing private–public geospatial information for an ecosystem services market. Each example demonstrates the potential value of geospatial information in a decision with uncertain information.

Value Relevance of Accounting Information in the United Arab Emirates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamal Barzegari Khanagha

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the value relevance of accounting information in per and post-periods of International Financial Reporting Standards implementation using the regression and portfolio approaches for sample of the UAE companies. The results obtained from a combination of regression and portfolio approaches, show accounting information is value relevant in UAE stock market. A comparison of the results for the periods before and after adoption, based on both regression and portfolio approaches, shows a decline in value relevance of accounting information after the reform in accounting standards. It could be interpreted to mean that following to IFRS in UAE didn’t improve value relevancy of accounting information. However, results based on and portfolio approach shows that cash flows’ incremental information content increased for the post-IFRS period.

OPPORTUNITIES TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF SLOVENIA’S TRADE IN GOODS WITH THE PACIFIC RIM COUNTRIES – THE CASE OF AUSTRALIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DEJAN ROMIH

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Slovenia is, like many other countries, especially small ones, dependent on exports and imports of goods and services. European countries are Slovenia’s main trade partners, together accounting for almost 90 per cent of the value of Slovenia’s trade in goods. There are various reasons for this, such as the relatively short distance between Slovenia and other European countries. If Slovenia wants to increase the value of its trade with non-European countries, it should adopt a number of measures, such as increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of its trade promotion. In this paper the authors discuss opportunities to increase the value of Slovenia’s trade in goods with the Pacific Rim countries by focusing on the specific case of Australia.

78 FR 76152 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-16

... Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and Permit AGENCY: U.S... the Paperwork Reduction Act: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and..., mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information. Title: Transportation Entry and...

"Everyone just ate good food": 'Good food' in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Science.gov (United States)

Hasnain, Saher

2018-08-01

In recent years, consumption of alternatively produced foods has increased in popularity in response to the deleterious effects of rapidly globalising and industrialised food systems. Concerns over food safety in relation to these changes may result from elevated levels of risk and changing perceptions associated with food production practices. This paper explores how the middle class residents of Islamabad, Pakistan, use the concept of 'good food' to reconnect themselves with nature, changing food systems, and traditional values. The paper also demonstrates how these ideas relate to those of organic, local, and traditional food consumption as currently used in more economically developed states in the Global North. Through research based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this paper illustrates that besides price and convenience, purity, freshness, association with specific places, and 'Pakistani-ness' were considered as the basis for making decisions about 'good food'. The results show that while individuals are aware of and have some access to imported organic and local food, they prefer using holistic and culturally informed concepts of 'good food' instead that reconnect them with food systems. I argue that through conceptualisations of 'good food', the urban middle class in Islamabad is reducing their disconnection and dis-embeddedness from nature, the food systems, and their social identities. The paper contributes to literature on food anxieties, reconnections in food geography, and 'good food' perceptions, with a focus on Pakistan. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Developments in the Value Chain of Scientific Information [Powerpoint Presentation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roosendaal, Hans E.

The values in scientific information relevant for the individual researcher can be represented in the value chain for this process. IT is a strong engine for change, in particular as IT has the potential not only to innovate the research information system but also the educational information system

Rangeland ecosystem goods and services: Values and evaluation of opportunities for ranchers and land managers

Science.gov (United States)

Kristie Maczko; John A. Tanaka; Robert Breckenridge; Lori Hidinger; H. Theodore Heintz; William E. Fox; Urs P. Kreuter; Clifford S. Duke; John E. Mitchell; Daniel W. McCollum

2011-01-01

Although the US Department of Agriculture's 2005 public commitment to use market-based incentives for environmental stewardship and cooperative conservation focused land managers' attention on the concept of ecosystem goods and services (EGS), this was not a new idea. Much earlier in the 20th century, Aldo Leopold embraced the value of open space, calling for...

Value in Informational Capitalism and on the Internet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arvidsson, Adam Erik; Colleoni, Elanor

2012-01-01

We engage with recent applications of the Marxist “labor theory of value” to online prosumer practices, and offer an alternative framework for theorizing value creation in such practices. We argue that the labor theory of value is difficult to apply to online prosumer practices for two reasons. O...... labor theory of value. We also suggest that our approach can cast new light on value creation within informational capitalism in general....

The Good Work.

Science.gov (United States)

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly

2003-01-01

Examines the working lives of geneticists and journalists to place into perspective what lies behind personal ethics and success. Defines "good work" as productive activity that is valued socially and loved by people engaged in it. Asserts that certain cultural values, social controls, and personal standards are necessary to maintain good work and…

A Value Function Approach to Information Operations MOE's: A Preliminary Study

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Doyle, Michael

1997-01-01

A value focused thinking approach is applied to information operations. A preliminary value hierarchy for information operations is constructed by extracting the values of senior military leadership from existing doctrine...

Monopolistic Insurance and the Value of Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arthur Snow

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The value of information regarding risk class for a monopoly insurer and its customers is examined in both symmetric and asymmetric information environments. A monopolist always prefers contracting with uninformed customers as this maximizes the rent extracted under symmetric information while also avoiding the cost of adverse selection when information is held asymmetrically. Although customers are indifferent to symmetric information when they are initially uninformed, they prefer contracting with hidden knowledge rather than symmetric information since the monopoly responds to adverse selection by sharing gains from trade with high-risk customers when low risks are predominant in the insurance pool. However, utilitarian social welfare is highest when customers are uninformed, and is higher when information is symmetric rather than asymmetric.

Exploring consumer values of comparative performance information for hospital choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ketelaar, Nicole A B M; Faber, Marjan J; Westert, Gert P; Elwyn, Glyn; Braspenning, Jozé C

2014-01-01

In many countries, market orientation in healthcare has resulted in the publication of comparative performance information (CPI). Most of the research in this field is oriented towards the content and the presentation format of CPI while little is known about how consumers value CPI and the use of this information. The aim of this study was to clarify the perceived value that CPI brings for consumers of healthcare. Methods Qualitative research using six focus group interviews. Twenty-seven healthcare consumers were recruited using a mailing list and by personal invitation. Data from focus group interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis undertaken. Most participants were unaware of CPI, and valued alternative sources of information more than CPI. Through discussion with other consumers and by means of examples of CPI, respondents were able to express the values and perceived effects of CPI. Numerous underlying values hindered consumers' use of CPI, and therefore clarification of consumer values gave insights into the current non-usage of CPI. CPI is marginally valued, partly because of conflicting values expressed by consumers and, as such, it does not yet provide a useful information source on hospital choice beyond consumers' current selection routines in healthcare. Future research should be more focused on the values of consumers and their impact on the use of CPI.

WHAT SHOULD ESTONIA DO IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF ITS EXPORTS OF GOODS TO SLOVAKIA AND SLOVENIA?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dejan Romih

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses Estonia’s trade in goods with the world in general and with Slovakia and Slovenia in particular. Additionally, it also proposes some measures to increase the value of Estonia’s exports of goods to the aforementioned countries, both of which are Estonia’s minor export partners in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2013, the value of Estonia’s exports of goods to Slovakia and Slovenia amounted to €51.3 million and €7.4 million respectively. In order to increase the value of its exports of goods to these two countries, Estonia should increase the competitiveness of Estonian enterprises (especially small- and medium-sized ones in the Slovakian and Slovenian markets and adopt other measures such as increasing the sustainability of the aforementioned enterprises with a view to facilitating their entry into new markets. In recent years, sustainability has become an important factor in competitiveness, which is mainly the result of increased environmental awareness of consumers and other stakeholders, foremost in developed countries (including Slovakia and Slovenia. Sustainable innovation has therefore become an important source of competitive advantage, which is especially true for enterprises operating in competitive markets. Therefore, in order to increase the competitiveness of Estonian enterprises in the aforementioned markets, Estonia should promote sustainable innovation and take certain other measures.

Sizewell: good value for consumers' money

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MacKerron, G.

1984-01-01

For consumers, the overriding issues in electricity policy are always likely to be those which affect prices, both in the near future and over the longer term. It is therefore the 'need and economics' part of the overall case for Sizewell that consumers' representatives chose to scrutinize. This paper argues that there are no compelling short-term reasons to start construction of Sizewell at the earliest possible time. Further, long-term considerations suggest that there are good reasons not to make an early commitment to the Westinghouse four-loop design of PWR, either for Sizewell or for subsequent orders. (author)

Deprival value: information utility analysis

OpenAIRE

Pereira, Marco Antonio; Pinto, Alexandre Evaristo; Barbosa Neto, João Estevão; Martins, Eliseu

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the perception that the users’ learning process plays a key role in order to apply an accounting concept and this involves a presentation that fits its informative potential, free of previous accounting fixations. Deprival value is a useful measure for managerial and corporate purposes, it may be applied to the current Conceptual Framework of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This study analyzes its utility, taking into account cognitive...

75 FR 43997 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-27

... Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and Permit AGENCY: U.S... agencies to comment on an information collection requirement concerning the: Transportation Entry and... CBP is soliciting comments concerning the following information collection: Title: Transportation...

78 FR 57405 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-18

... Activities: Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and Permit AGENCY: U.S... agencies to comment on an information collection requirement concerning the: Transportation Entry and... CBP is soliciting comments concerning the following information collection: Title: Transportation...

Informativeness of Diagnostic Marker Values and the Impact of Data Grouping.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Hua; Bandos, Andriy I; Gur, David

2018-01-01

Assessing performance of diagnostic markers is a necessary step for their use in decision making regarding various conditions of interest in diagnostic medicine and other fields. Globally useful markers could, however, have ranges of values that are " diagnostically non-informative" . This paper demonstrates that the presence of marker values from diagnostically non-informative ranges could lead to a loss in statistical efficiency during nonparametric evaluation and shows that grouping non-informative values provides a natural resolution to this problem. These points are theoretically proven and an extensive simulation study is conducted to illustrate the possible benefits of using grouped marker values in a number of practically reasonable scenarios. The results contradict the common conjecture regarding the detrimental effect of grouped marker values during performance assessments. Specifically, contrary to the common assumption that grouped marker values lead to bias, grouping non-informative values does not introduce bias and could substantially reduce sampling variability. The proven concept that grouped marker values could be statistically beneficial without detrimental consequences implies that in practice, tied values do not always require resolution whereas the use of continuous diagnostic results without addressing diagnostically non-informative ranges could be statistically detrimental. Based on these findings, more efficient methods for evaluating diagnostic markers could be developed.

Effect of the depreciation of public goods in spatial public goods games

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Dong-Mei; Zhuang, Yong; Wang, Bing-Hong

2012-02-01

In this work, the depreciation effect of public goods is considered in the public goods games, which is realized by rescaling the multiplication factor r of each group as r‧=r( (β≥0). It is assumed that each individual enjoys the full profit r of the public goods if all the players of this group are cooperators. Otherwise, the value of public goods is reduced to r‧. It is found that compared with the original version (β=0), the emergence of cooperation is remarkably promoted for β>0, and there exist intermediate values of β inducing the best cooperation. Particularly, there exists a range of β inducing the highest cooperative level, and this range of β broadens as r increases. It is further presented that the variation of cooperator density with noise has close relations with the values of β and r, and cooperation at an intermediate value of β=1.0 is most tolerant to noise.

Understanding attitudes toward information and communication technology in home-care: Information and communication technology as a market good within Norwegian welfare services.

Science.gov (United States)

Øyen, Karianne Røssummoen; Sunde, Olivia Sissil; Solheim, Marit; Moricz, Sara; Ytrehus, Siri

2018-09-01

The aim of this study was to better understand nurses' and other staff members' attitudes toward the usefulness of information and communication technology in home-care settings. Research has found that beliefs about the expected benefits of information and communication technology impact the use of technology. Furthermore, inexperience with using information and communication technology may cause negative attitudes. This article is based on a questionnaire to 155 nurses and other staff members in home-care in Sogn og Fjordane county in Norway. The results revealed minimal use of information and communication technology at work; however, participants had positive attitudes regarding the potential benefits of information and communication technology use in home-care. Individuals' extensive use of and familiarity with different solutions in private lives could be an important context for explaining employees' attitudes. Given that information and communication technology is both a welfare service and a market good, this may explain individuals' positive attitudes toward information and communication technology despite their lack of experience with it at work. Experiences with information and communication technology as a market good and the way new technologies can affect work routines will affect the implementation of information and communication technology in home-care.

HOW GOOD IS GOODS AND SERVICES TAX

OpenAIRE

Dr. Sreemoyee Guha Roy

2016-01-01

Goods and Services Tax is a broad based and a single comprehensive tax levied on goods and services consumed in an economy. GST is levied at every stage of the production-distribution chain with applicable set offs in respect of the tax remitted at previous stages. It is basically a tax on final consumption. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a value added tax to be implemented in India, the decision on which is pending. GST is the only indirect tax that directly affects all sectors and sect...

The Impact Of Good Corporate Governance To Manufacturing Firm’s Profitability And Firm’s Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johanes Sumarno

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This paper studied the behavior of management toward the implementation of Good Corporate Governance in Indonesia to determine whether it has any influence towards profitability and its implication to the Manufacturing Firms’ value publicly listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange. There were 41 corporations who met the criteria of the survey. The data were analyzed using Panel Regression with fixed effects Model. The empirical findings show that the implementation of Corporate Governance in Indonesia has a positive, significant and direct impact toward firms’ profitability and firms’ value. Corporate Governance principles based on OECD principles that have positive and significant impact to both profitability and Firms’ Valueis Rights of Shareholders, Role of Stakeholders, Responsibilities of the Board Commissioners and Board of Directors. The principles that have significance and negative impact towards corporate profitability and value, are: Equitable treatment of shareholders and Disclosure and Transparencies. The most significant principle influencing profitability and firms’ value is Disclosure and Transparencies. Profitability plays a greater role in influencing Manufacturing Firms’ value in Indonesia. DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v5i2.3542

Data Democracy and Decision Making: Enhancing the Use and Value of Geospatial Data and Scientific Information

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, C. D.

2014-12-01

Data democracy is a concept that has great relevance to the use and value of geospatial data and scientific information. Data democracy describes a world in which data and information are widely and broadly accessible, understandable, and useable. The concept operationalizes the public good nature of scientific information and provides a framework for increasing benefits from its use. Data democracy encompasses efforts to increase accessibility to geospatial data and to expand participation in its collection, analysis, and application. These two pillars are analogous to demand and supply relationships. Improved accessibility, or demand, includes increased knowledge about geospatial data and low barriers to retrieval and use. Expanded participation, or supply, encompasses a broader community involved in developing geospatial data and scientific information. This pillar of data democracy is characterized by methods such as citizen science or crowd sourcing.A framework is developed for advancing the use of data democracy. This includes efforts to assess the societal benefits (economic and social) of scientific information. This knowledge is critical to continued monitoring of the effectiveness of data democracy implementation and of potential impact on the use and value of scientific information. The framework also includes an assessment of opportunities for advancing data democracy both on the supply and demand sides. These opportunities include relatively inexpensive efforts to reduce barriers to use as well as the identification of situations in which participation can be expanded in scientific efforts to enhance the breadth of involvement as well as expanding participation to non-traditional communities. This framework provides an initial perspective on ways to expand the "scientific community" of data users and providers. It also describes a way forward for enhancing the societal benefits from geospatial data and scientific information. As a result, data

Estimation of Monetary Value of Information on the Internet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohsen Nazari

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This research estimates the monetary value of internet information for each type of information and services by using Hedonic pricing method. The statistic social of this research is high-speed internet users in Tehran. Based on the results, high speed internet users of Tehran consider a positive monetary value for some information types in the internet, in descendent respect, such as film downloading, gaming, News, social network, and music. Also, the results indicates that people with higher education level and people who are subscribed to high speed internet earlier than other people consider more monetary value to use the internet. For generalizing the result of this research, it’s suggested to do this research at other cities of Iran. At last, some applicable suggestions made.

Using a 'value-added' approach for contextual design of geographic information.

Science.gov (United States)

May, Andrew J

2013-11-01

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how a 'value-added' approach can be used for user-centred design of geographic information. An information science perspective was used, with value being the difference in outcomes arising from alternative information sets. Sixteen drivers navigated a complex, unfamiliar urban route, using visual and verbal instructions representing the distance-to-turn and junction layout information presented by typical satellite navigation systems. Data measuring driving errors, navigation errors and driver confidence were collected throughout the trial. The results show how driver performance varied considerably according to the geographic context at specific locations, and that there are specific opportunities to add value with enhanced geographical information. The conclusions are that a value-added approach facilitates a more explicit focus on 'desired' (and feasible) levels of end user performance with different information sets, and is a potentially effective approach to user-centred design of geographic information. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Exploiting the information content of hydrological ''outliers'' for goodness-of-fit testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Laio

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Validation of probabilistic models based on goodness-of-fit tests is an essential step for the frequency analysis of extreme events. The outcome of standard testing techniques, however, is mainly determined by the behavior of the hypothetical model, F_X(x, in the central part of the distribution, while the behavior in the tails of the distribution, which is indeed very relevant in hydrological applications, is relatively unimportant for the results of the tests. The maximum-value test, originally proposed as a technique for outlier detection, is a suitable, but seldom applied, technique that addresses this problem. The test is specifically targeted to verify if the maximum (or minimum values in the sample are consistent with the hypothesis that the distribution F_X(x is the real parent distribution. The application of this test is hindered by the fact that the critical values for the test should be numerically obtained when the parameters of F_X(x are estimated on the same sample used for verification, which is the standard situation in hydrological applications. We propose here a simple, analytically explicit, technique to suitably account for this effect, based on the application of censored L-moments estimators of the parameters. We demonstrate, with an application that uses artificially generated samples, the superiority of this modified maximum-value test with respect to the standard version of the test. We also show that the test has comparable or larger power with respect to other goodness-of-fit tests (e.g., chi-squared test, Anderson-Darling test, Fung and Paul test, in particular when dealing with small samples (sample size lower than 20–25 and when the parent distribution is similar to the distribution being tested.

Expected net present value of sample information: from burden to investment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Peter S; Edlin, Richard; Kharroubi, Samer; Gregory, Walter; McCabe, Christopher

2012-01-01

The Expected Value of Information Framework has been proposed as a method for identifying when health care technologies should be immediately reimbursed and when any reimbursement should be withheld while awaiting more evidence. This framework assesses the value of obtaining additional evidence to inform a current reimbursement decision. This represents the burden of not having the additional evidence at the time of the decision. However, when deciding whether to reimburse now or await more evidence, decision makers need to know the value of investing in more research to inform a future decision. Assessing this value requires consideration of research costs, research time, and what happens to patients while the research is undertaken and after completion. The investigators describe a development of the calculation of the expected value of sample information that assesses the value of investing in further research, including an only-in-research strategy and an only-with-research strategy.

High value of ecological information for river connectivity restoration

Science.gov (United States)

Sethi, Suresh; O'Hanley, Jesse R.; Gerken, Jonathon; Ashline, Joshua; Bradley, Catherine

2017-01-01

ContextEfficient restoration of longitudinal river connectivity relies on barrier mitigation prioritization tools that incorporate stream network spatial structure to maximize ecological benefits given limited resources. Typically, ecological benefits of barrier mitigation are measured using proxies such as the amount of accessible riverine habitat.ObjectivesWe developed an optimization approach for barrier mitigation planning which directly incorporates the ecology of managed taxa, and applied it to an urbanizing salmon-bearing watershed in Alaska.MethodsA novel river connectivity metric that exploits information on the distribution and movement of managed taxon was embedded into a barrier prioritization framework to identify optimal mitigation actions given limited restoration budgets. The value of ecological information on managed taxa was estimated by comparing costs to achieve restoration targets across alternative barrier prioritization approaches.ResultsBarrier mitigation solutions informed by life history information outperformed those using only river connectivity proxies, demonstrating high value of ecological information for watershed restoration. In our study area, information on salmon ecology was typically valued at 0.8–1.2 M USD in costs savings to achieve a given benefit level relative to solutions derived only from stream network information, equating to 16–28% of the restoration budget.ConclusionsInvesting in ecological studies may achieve win–win outcomes of improved understanding of aquatic ecology and greater watershed restoration efficiency.

The value of information in electricity investment games

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliveira, Fernando

2008-01-01

In this paper we look at the assumptions behind a Cournot model of investment in electricity markets. We analyze how information influences investment, looking at the way common knowledge of marginal costs, expectations on the competitors' marginal costs, expectations on the level and duration of demand, and conjectures on the others' behavior, influence the value of a project. We expose how the results are highly dependent on the assumptions used, and how the investment Nash-Cournot game with perfect and complete information implies such a degree of coordination between players that the outcome of the game would be classified by any regulation law as collusive behavior. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of Nash Value of Complete Information. As an example we use a stylized model of investment in liberalized electricity markets

Use and value of information sources by parents of child psychiatric patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Adrienne; Kabashi, Arta; Guthrie, Hannah; Burket, Roger; Turner, Philip

2011-06-01

With Web 2.0, the variety of information sources for parents of paediatric psychiatric patients has increased dramatically. Information use theory suggests newer sources supplement rather than supplant traditional sources of health information. This study sought to determine the use and value of traditional and emerging sources of information and whether the subjects had access to highly valued sources of information. One hundred parents indicated the use and value of six sources of information on the child's symptoms, diagnoses and treatment. The data were analyzed to determine if significant relationships existed between type of source and the use and value of the information sources. Ninety-four percent of the subjects had access to the Internet and almost half of those reported using the Social Web. Eighty-five percent had at least one high-value information source. The psychiatrist in the clinic, the Internet and the primary care physician were the most highly used and valued sources. Use of digital information sources was greater than found in other studies of similar populations. This use appears to complement rather than supplant more traditional sources. Further studies are needed to see if the negative impact of lack of Internet access is replicated. © 2011 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2011 Health Libraries Group.

Business Value of Information Technology in Network Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yucong

2012-01-01

Information Technology (IT) business value research is suggested as fundamental to the contribution of the IS discipline. The IS research community has accumulated a critical mass of IT business value studies, but only limited or mixed results have been found on the direct relationship between IT and firm performance. Extant studies mostly focus…

Leverage, Asymmetric Information, Firm Value, and Cash Holdings in Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aldea Mita Cheryta

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This research aimed to analyze the effect of leverage and asymmetry information on the firm value through cash holding as mediation variable. The populations of this research were all the firms which listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange since 2012 – 2015. A sample of this research was saturated sample and census, consisted 56 firms related the population criteria.  This research used secondary data from the firm financial report through path analysis method. This research showed that leverage had a negative effect on the cash holdings, asymmetry information had a negative effect on the firm value through cash holding, and cash holding had a negative effect on the firm value.  With leverage and effect on cash, holding cannot affect the firm value, due to investor risk-averse, investor risk seeker, and neutral investor has their own point of view in assessing the company. Cash holdings can lead to asymmetric information that can lead to agency conflict that can affect a company's performance, so that indirectly, with the existence of asymmetry information had an effect on the declining the firm value. 

A new calibrated bayesian internal goodness-of-fit method: sampled posterior p-values as simple and general p-values that allow double use of the data.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédéric Gosselin

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Recent approaches mixing frequentist principles with bayesian inference propose internal goodness-of-fit (GOF p-values that might be valuable for critical analysis of bayesian statistical models. However, GOF p-values developed to date only have known probability distributions under restrictive conditions. As a result, no known GOF p-value has a known probability distribution for any discrepancy function. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We show mathematically that a new GOF p-value, called the sampled posterior p-value (SPP, asymptotically has a uniform probability distribution whatever the discrepancy function. In a moderate finite sample context, simulations also showed that the SPP appears stable to relatively uninformative misspecifications of the prior distribution. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These reasons, together with its numerical simplicity, make the SPP a better canonical GOF p-value than existing GOF p-values.

Executive Enhance Business Value of BAL Information System

OpenAIRE

Muhammad Bilal; Muhammad Awais

2012-01-01

It has become gradually more complex to give more attention to the importance of business value of information system in the early hours of time. Above the past few days researchers have high lightened the requirement of information system in business field. Almost every organization and industry like electronics, textile, computer, health, education etc is investing appreciably in information system. It is generally observed that IS savings facilitate firms to achieve competitive benefit and...

Cascading value: the true value of advanced data collection solutions can be found in the information

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neilson, R.D.

1999-01-01

Utilities and other energy related businesses are still trying to find the right gear on the road to realizing the full value potential of the information they collect and manage. The energy industry as a whole has yet to discover the true value of a commodity that is very available in its own backyard, while other companies have done so. By deploying advanced technology, energy related companies are able to collect advanced metering information and put it to use in ways never imagined a decade two or ago. Utilities and their clients can use this information to run their businesses more efficiently or market new valued added products and services to customers. The best vantage point from which to understand and appreciate the new value proposition for meter data and energy use information is to divide the meter into two parts: the client side and the utility side. Breaking it down even further, each side presents two areas of opportunity: the first of which covers applications and practices which enable a utility or client to manage itself better as a business, while the second area covers opportunities to develop and market new services to clients. An account is given of these areas and of how utilizing advanced data collection technology to gather daily, interval and off-schedule reads, along with outage and power quality data, can dramatically extend and increase the value of meter data they collect. By collecting sophisticated energy use data more frequently and efficiently than ever before, today's data collection solutions have transformed this value proposition into bottom-line reality

Humans as Sensors: Assessing the Information Value of Qualitative Farmer's Crop Condition Surveys for Crop Yield Monitoring and Forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

Beguería, S.

2017-12-01

While large efforts are devoted to developing crop status monitoring and yield forecasting systems trough the use of Earth observation data (mostly remotely sensed satellite imagery) and observational and modeled weather data, here we focus on the information value of qualitative data on crop status from direct observations made by humans. This kind of data has a high value as it reflects the expert opinion of individuals directly involved in the development of the crop. However, they have issues that prevent their direct use in crop monitoring and yield forecasting systems, such as their non-spatially explicit nature, or most importantly their qualitative nature. Indeed, while the human brain is good at categorizing the status of physical systems in terms of qualitative scales (`very good', `good', `fair', etcetera), it has difficulties in quantifying it in physical units. This has prevented the incorporation of this kind of data into systems that make extensive use of numerical information. Here we show an example of using qualitative crop condition data to estimate yields of the most important crops in the US early in the season. We use USDA weekly crop condition reports, which are based on a sample of thousands of reporters including mostly farmers and people in direct contact with them. These reporters provide subjective evaluations of crop conditions, in a scale including five levels ranging from `very poor' to `excellent'. The USDA report indicates, for each state, the proportion of reporters fort each condition level. We show how is it possible to model the underlying non-observed quantitative variable that reflects the crop status on each state, and how this model is consistent across states and years. Furthermore, we show how this information can be used to monitor the status of the crops and to produce yield forecasts early in the season. Finally, we discuss approaches for blending this information source with other, more classical earth data sources

Balancing Good Intentions: Protecting the Privacy of Electronic Health Information

Science.gov (United States)

McClanahan, Kitty

2008-01-01

Electronic information is a vital but complex component in the modern health care system, fueling ongoing efforts to develop a universal electronic health record infrastructure. This innovation creates a substantial tension between two desirable values: the increased quality and utility of patient medical records and the protection of the privacy…

Uncertain Reasoning for Detection of Selling Stolen Goods in Online Auctions Using Contextual Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ladislav Beranek

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This work describes the design of a decision support system for detection of fraudulent behavior of selling stolen goods in online auctions. In this system, each seller is associated with a type of certification, namely “proper seller,” “suspect seller,” and “selling stolen goods.” The certification level is determined on the basis of a seller’s behaviors and especially on the basis of contextual information whose origin is outside online auctions portals. In this paper, we focus on representing knowledge about sellers in online auctions, the influence of additional information available from other Internet source, and reasoning on bidders’ trustworthiness under uncertainties using Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence. To demonstrate the practicability of our approach, we performed a case study using real auction data from Czech auction portal Aukro. The analysis results show that our approach can be used to detect selling stolen goods. By applying Dempster-Shafer theory to combine multiple sources of evidence for the detection of this fraudulent behavior, the proposed approach can reduce the number of false positive results in comparison to approaches using a single source of evidence.

Development of the information model for consumer assessment of key quality indicators by goods labelling

Science.gov (United States)

Koshkina, S.; Ostrinskaya, L.

2018-04-01

An information model for “key” quality indicators of goods has been developed. This model is based on the assessment of f standardization existing state and the product labeling quality. According to the authors’ opinion, the proposed “key” indicators are the most significant for purchasing decision making. Customers will be able to use this model through their mobile technical devices. The developed model allows to decompose existing processes in data flows and to reveal the levels of possible architectural solutions. In-depth analysis of the presented information model decomposition levels will allow determining the stages of its improvement and to reveal additional indicators of the goods quality that are of interest to customers in the further research. Examining the architectural solutions for the customer’s information environment functioning when integrating existing databases will allow us to determine the boundaries of the model flexibility and customizability.

The Value of Sharing Information: A Neural Account of Information Transmission.

Science.gov (United States)

Baek, Elisa C; Scholz, Christin; O'Donnell, Matthew Brook; Falk, Emily B

2017-07-01

Humans routinely share information with one another. What drives this behavior? We used neuroimaging to test an account of information selection and sharing that emphasizes inherent reward in self-reflection and connecting with other people. Participants underwent functional MRI while they considered personally reading and sharing New York Times articles. Activity in neural regions involved in positive valuation, self-related processing, and taking the perspective of others was significantly associated with decisions to select and share articles, and scaled with preferences to do so. Activity in all three sets of regions was greater when participants considered sharing articles with other people rather than selecting articles to read themselves. The findings suggest that people may consider value not only to themselves but also to others even when selecting news articles to consume personally. Further, sharing heightens activity in these pathways, in line with our proposal that humans derive value from self-reflection and connecting to others via sharing.

Creating Business Value through Agile Project Management and Information Systems Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kautz, Karlheinz; Johansen, Thomas Heide; Uldahl, Andreas

2014-01-01

Value creation through information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) is a major IS research topic. However there still exists an ambiguity and fuzziness of the ‘IS business value’ concept and a lack of clarity surrounding the value creation process. This also true for organizations...... that develop IS/IT and for development technologies like information systems development and project management methods that are applied in the production of IS/IT. The agile method Scrum is one such technology. In the research presented here we studied productivity, quality and employee satisfaction...... with some of the deficiencies in current IS business value research and contribute to filling existing gaps in an IS business value research agenda....

The value of information for decision-making in the healthcare environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Shabtai, Itamar; Leshno, Moshe; Blondheim, Orna; Kornbluth, Jonathan

2007-01-01

With their ever-growing importance and usability, the healthcare sector has been investing heavily in medical information systems in recent years, as part of the effort to improve medical decision-making and increase its efficiency through improved medical processes, reduced costs, integration of patients' data, etc. In light of these developments, this research aims to evaluate the contribution of information technology (IT) to improving the medical decision-making processes at the point of care of internal medicine and surgical departments and to evaluate the degree to which IT investments are worthwhile. This has been done by assessing the value of information to decision-makers (physicians) at the point of care by investigating whether the information systems improved the medical outcomes. The research included three steps (after a pilot study)--the assessment of the subjective value of information, the assessment of the realistic value of information, and the assessment of the normative value of information, the results of each step being used as the starting assumptions for the following steps. Following a discussion and integration of the results from the various steps, the results of the three assessment stages were summarized in a cost-effectiveness analysis and an overall return on investment (ROI) analysis. In addition, we tried to suggest IT strategies for decision-makers in the healthcare sector on the advisability of implementing such systems as well as the implications for managing them. This research is uniquely pioneering in the manner in which it combines an assessment of the three kinds of measures of value of information in the healthcare environment. Our aim in performing it was to contribute to researchers (by providing additional insight into the fields of decision theory, value of information and medical informatics, amongst others), practitioners (by promoting efficiency in the design of new medical IS and improving existing IS), physicians

Informal Patient Payments and Bought and Brought Goods in the Western Balkans – A Scoping Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sofie Buch Mejsner

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction Informal patient payments for healthcare are common in the Western Balkans, negatively affecting public health and healthcare. Aim To identify literature from the Western Balkans on what is known about informal patient payments and bought and brought goods, to examine their effects on healthcare and to determine what actions can be taken to tackle these payments. Methods After conducting a scoping review that involved searching websites and databases and filtering with eligibility criteria and quality assessment tools, 24 relevant studies were revealed. The data were synthesized using a narrative approach that identified key concepts, types of evidence, and research gaps. Results The number of studies of informal patient payments increased between 2002 and 2015, but evidence regarding the issues of concern is scattered across various countries. Research has reported incidents of informal patient payments on a wide scale and has described various patterns and characteristics of these payments. Although these payments have typically been small – particularly to providers in common areas of specialized medicine – evidence regarding bought and brought goods remains limited, indicating that such practices are likely even more common, of greater magnitude and perhaps more problematic than informal patient payments. Only scant research has examined the measures that are used to tackle informal patient payments. The evidence indicates that legalizing informal patient payments, introducing performance-based payment systems, strengthening reporting, changing mentalities and involving the media and the European Union (EU or religious organizations in anti-corruption campaigns are understood as some of the possible remedies that might help reduce informal patient payments. Conclusion Despite comprehensive evidence regarding informal patient payments, data remain scattered and contradictory, implying that informal patient payments are a

Value of information analysis for corrective action unit No. 98: Frenchman Flat

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-06-01

A value of information analysis has been completed as part of the corrective action process for Frenchman Flat, the first Nevada Test Site underground test area to be scheduled for the corrective action process. A value of information analysis is a cost-benefit analysis applied to the acquisition of new information which is needed to reduce the uncertainty in the prediction of a contaminant boundary surrounding underground nuclear tests in Frenchman Flat. The boundary location will be established to protect human health and the environment from the consequences of using contaminated groundwater on the Nevada Test Site. Uncertainties in the boundary predictions are assumed to be the result of data gaps. The value of information analysis in this document compares the cost of acquiring new information with the benefit of acquiring that information during the corrective action investigation at Frenchman Flat. Methodologies incorporated into the value of information analysis include previous geological modeling, groundwater flow modeling, contaminant transport modeling, statistics, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty analysis, and decision analysis

Simulating cyber warfare and cyber defenses: information value considerations

Science.gov (United States)

Stytz, Martin R.; Banks, Sheila B.

2011-06-01

Simulating cyber warfare is critical to the preparation of decision-makers for the challenges posed by cyber attacks. Simulation is the only means we have to prepare decision-makers for the inevitable cyber attacks upon the information they will need for decision-making and to develop cyber warfare strategies and tactics. Currently, there is no theory regarding the strategies that should be used to achieve objectives in offensive or defensive cyber warfare, and cyber warfare occurs too rarely to use real-world experience to develop effective strategies. To simulate cyber warfare by affecting the information used for decision-making, we modify the information content of the rings that are compromised during in a decision-making context. The number of rings affected and value of the information that is altered (i.e., the closeness of the ring to the center) is determined by the expertise of the decision-maker and the learning outcome(s) for the simulation exercise. We determine which information rings are compromised using the probability that the simulated cyber defenses that protect each ring can be compromised. These probabilities are based upon prior cyber attack activity in the simulation exercise as well as similar real-world cyber attacks. To determine which information in a compromised "ring" to alter, the simulation environment maintains a record of the cyber attacks that have succeeded in the simulation environment as well as the decision-making context. These two pieces of information are used to compute an estimate of the likelihood that the cyber attack can alter, destroy, or falsify each piece of information in a compromised ring. The unpredictability of information alteration in our approach adds greater realism to the cyber event. This paper suggests a new technique that can be used for cyber warfare simulation, the ring approach for modeling context-dependent information value, and our means for considering information value when assigning cyber

Impact of Non Accounting Information on The Value Relevance of Accounting Information: The Case of Jordan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DHIAA SHAMKI

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The paper presents empirical evidence about the impact of firm’s shareholders number as non accounting information on the value relevance of its earnings and book value of equity as accounting information for Jordanian industrial firms for the period from 1993 to 2002. Employing the return regression analysis and using shareholders number in two proxies namely local and foreign shareholders number, the findings of the study are fourfold. First, Individual earnings are value relevant while book value is irrelevant. Second, combining earnings with book value leads both of them to be irrelevant. Third, extending local shareholders number has significant impact on the value relevance of individual and combined earnings. Forth, extending foreign shareholders number has significant impact on the value relevance of individual book value and combined earnings. Since studies on the value relevance of these variables have neglected Jordan (and the Middle Eastern region, the study is the first especially in Jordan that tries to fill this gap by examiningthe impact of shareholders numbers on the value relevance of earnings and book valueto indicate firm value.

Value of information in natural resource management: technical developments and application to pink-footed geese

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Byron K.; Johnson, Fred A.

2015-01-01

The “value of information” (VOI) is a generic term for the increase in value resulting from better information to guide management, or alternatively, the value foregone under uncertainty about the impacts of management (Yokota and Thompson, Medical Decision Making 2004;24: 287). The value of information can be characterized in terms of several metrics, including the expected value of perfect information and the expected value of partial information. We extend the technical framework for the value of information by further developing the relationship between value metrics for partial and perfect information and describing patterns of their performance. We use two different expressions for the expected value of partial information to highlight its relationship to the expected value of perfect information. We also develop the expected value of partial information for hierarchical uncertainties. We highlight patterns in the value of information for the Svalbard population of the pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus), a population that is subject to uncertainty in both reproduction and survival functions. The framework for valuing information is seen as having widespread potential in resource decision making, and serves as a motivation for resource monitoring, assessment, and collaboration.

Good government and good governance: record keeping in a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article addresses the challenges that arise when record keeping systems are advocated as a necessary under-pinning for good government and good governance. The relationship between record keeping and accountability is analysed and contextualised in relation to transparency and Freedom of Information ...

Goodness-of-Fit Assessment of Item Response Theory Models

Science.gov (United States)

Maydeu-Olivares, Alberto

2013-01-01

The article provides an overview of goodness-of-fit assessment methods for item response theory (IRT) models. It is now possible to obtain accurate "p"-values of the overall fit of the model if bivariate information statistics are used. Several alternative approaches are described. As the validity of inferences drawn on the fitted model…

The Value of Logistics Information to the Warfighter

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Corrigan, Christopher

2004-01-01

...) technology into the Department of Defense supply chain management infrastructure. The project confirms the existence of an inherent value in logistics information used as a resource in Department of Defense supply chain management applications...

The Value of Information - Accounting for a New Geospatial Paradigm

Science.gov (United States)

Pearlman, J.; Coote, A. M.

2014-12-01

A new frontier in consideration of socio-economic benefit is valuing information as an asset, often referred to as Infonomics. Conventional financial practice does not easily provide a mechanism for valuing information and yet clearly for many of the largest corporations, such as Google and Facebook, it is their principal asset. This is exacerbated for public sector organizations, as those that information-centric rather than information-enabled are relatively few - statistics, archiving and mapping agencies are perhaps the only examples - so it's not at the top of the agenda for Government. However, it is a hugely important issue when valuing Geospatial data and information. Geospatial data allows public institutions to operate, and facilitates the provision of essential services for emergency response and national defense. In this respect, geospatial data is strongly analogous to other types of public infrastructure, such as utilities and roads. The use of Geospatial data is widespread from companies in the transportation or construction sectors to individual planning for daily events. The categorization of geospatial data as infrastructure is critical to decisions related to investment in its management, maintenance and upgrade over time. Geospatial data depreciates in the same way that physical infrastructure depreciates. It needs to be maintained otherwise its functionality and value in use declines. We have coined the term geo-infonomics to encapsulate the concept. This presentation will develop the arguments around its importance and current avenues of research.

The importance of information goods abstraction levels for information commerce process models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijnhoven, Alphonsus B.J.M.

2002-01-01

A process model, in the context of e-commerce, is an organized set of activities for the creation, (re-)production, trade and delivery of goods. Electronic commerce studies have created important process models for the trade of physical goods via Internet. These models are not easily suitable for

Different Electrophysiological Responses to Informative Value of Feedback Between Children and Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Du

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The ability to learn from feedback is important for children’s adaptive behavior and school learning. Feedback has two main components, informative value and valence. How to disentangle these two components and what is the developmental neural correlates of using the informative value of feedback is still an open question. In this study, 23 children (7–10 years old and 19 adults (19–22 years old were asked to perform a rule induction task, in which they were required to find a rule, based on the informative value of feedback. Behavioral results indicated that the likelihood of correct searching behavior under negative feedback was low for children. Event-related potentials showed that (1 the effect of valence was processed in a wide time window, particularly in the N2 component; (2 the encoding process of the informative value of negative feedback began later for children than for adults; (3 a clear P300 was observed for adults; for children, however, P300 was absent in the frontal region; and (4 children processed the informative value of feedback chiefly in the left sites during the P300 time window, whereas adults did not show this laterality. These results suggested that children were less sensitive to the informative value of negative feedback possibly because of the immature brain.

Smart health community: the hidden value of health information exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciriello, James N; Kulatilaka, Nalin

2010-12-01

Investments in health information technology are accelerating the digitization of medicine. The value from these investments, however, can grow beyond efficiencies by filling the information gaps between the various stakeholders. New work processes, governance structures, and relationships are needed for the coevolution of healthcare markets and business models. But coevolution is slow, hindered by the scarcity of incentives for legacy delivery systems and constrained by the prevailing patient-healthcare paradigm. The greater opportunity lies in wellness for individuals, families, communities, and society at large: a consumer-community paradigm. Capturing new value from this opportunity can start with investment in health information exchange and the creation of Smart Health Communities. By shifting the focus of exchange from public servant to value-added service provider, these communities can serve as a platform for a wider array of wellness services from consumer care, traditional healthcare, and research.

Value of freeway travel time information

OpenAIRE

Soriguera Martí, Francesc

2013-01-01

This paper analyzes the value of highway travel time information systems. This is achieved by using notions of expected utility theory to develop a departure time selection and route choice model. The model assumes that every driver has a level of accepted lateness for his trip and some perceived knowledge of the travel times on the route. Only these two inputs support his decisions. The decision making process does not require the consideration of a complex cost function and does not involve...

Self-Service Banking: Value Creation Models and Information Exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ragnvald Sannes

2001-01-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that most banks have failed to exploit the potential of self-service banking because they base their service design on an incomplete business model for self-service. A framework for evaluation of self-service banking concepts is developed on the basis of Stabell and Fjeldstad's three value configurations. The value network and the value shop are consistent with self-service banking while the value chain is inappropriate. The impact of the value configurations on information exchange and self-service functionality is discussed, and a framework for design of such services proposed. Current self-service banking practices are compared to the framework, and it is concluded that current practice matches the concept of a value network and not the value shop. However, current practices are only a partial implementation of a value network-based self-service banking concept.

Effect of local information within network layers on the evolution of cooperation in duplex public goods games

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou, Yifeng; Zheng, Xiaoming; Wu, Weiwei

2015-01-01

Traditional works of public goods game (PGG) are often studied in simplex networks where agents play games through the same type of social interactions. In order to promote cooperation against the defection in PGGs in simplex network environment, many mechanisms have been proposed from different perspectives, such as the volunteering mechanisms, and the punishment and reward approaches. However, due to diverse types of interactions between agents in reality, the study of PGG should also consider the characteristic of multiplexity of networks. Hence, we firstly model the public goods game in the duplex network (for simplification of analysis, the duplex network is considered), in which agents have two types of social interactions, and thus the network is modeled as two network layers. This type of PGG is naturally named as duplex public goods game (D-PGG), in which agents can select one of the network layers to allocate their limited resources. Then for the new game environment (D-PGG), we propose a novel perspective to promote cooperation: degrading the information integrity, i.e., agents get information just from one network layer (local information) rather than from the whole duplex network (global information) in the evolution process. Finally, through theoretical analyses and simulations, we find that if agents imitate based on the local information of the payoff in the evolution, cooperation can be generally promoted; and the extent of promotion depends on both the network structure and the similarity of the network layers

Effects of the "beauty is good" stereotype on children's information processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramsey, Jennifer L; Langlois, Judith H

2002-03-01

The authors tested schematic information processing as a function of attractiveness stereotyping in two studies. An adult experimenter read children (ages 3 to 7 years) eight different stories in which a child narrator encountered two characters who varied in level of attractiveness and displayed positive or negative traits that were either consistent or inconsistent with the "beauty is good" stereotype. Following the story, the experimenter showed each child a photograph of the two characters' faces and asked the child to point to the character who displayed the positive trait. In Experiment 1, children made more errors in identifying female characters with stereotype inconsistent traits but did just the opposite with male characters. Experiment 2 replicated the findings with female characters but found no difference in errors with male characters. The findings have implications for how attractiveness and gender stereotypes affect children's information processing, how attractiveness schemata may be organized, and why physical attractiveness stereotypes are maintained. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

Book value, earnings, dividends, and audit quality on the value relevance of accounting information among Nigerian listed firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Yusuf Alkali

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS as a new accounting reporting among Nigerian listed firms. This study uses book value, earnings and dividends to fill in the gap using a sample of 126 Nigerian listed firms in the stock market from 2009 to 2013 (pre and Post-IFRS adoption. Data was collected from Thompson Reuters, Bank scope DataStreams and annual reports. The study adopted Ohlson (1995 [Ohlson, J. (1995. Earnings, book-value, and dividends in equity valuation. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11(2, 661–687.] price model that has been frequently used in determining the quality of accounting information studies. The study finds that combined book value, earnings and dividends do not provide statistical significance effects on IFRS after adoption on the quality of accounting information. This could be possible, as dividends do not provide a significant effect in the presence of earnings. Furthermore, the audit big 4 quality provided an effect on the quality of accounting information because of IFRS adoption. Therefore, findings of this study provide additional literature on the decreasing quality of accounting information in an emerging market setting like Nigeria. The study implication is to the policy makers, regulators, and government that accounting information do not provide value relevance among Nigerian listed firms after IFRS adoption.

Value of information in closed-loop reservoir managment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Barros, E.G.D.; Van den Hof, P.M.J.; Jansen, J.D.

This paper proposes a new methodology to perform value of information (VOI) analysis within a closed-loop reservoir management (CLRM) framework. The workflow combines tools such as robust optimization and history matching in an environment of uncertainty characterization. The approach is illustrated

Value of digital information networks : A holonic framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Madureira, A.J.P.S.

2011-01-01

The extraordinary level of interest worldwide in Digital Information Networks (DINs)’ deployment is due to the strong perception that they bring economic, social and environmental value. However, scientific attempts to evidence this perception lead to speculative, elusive or limited conclusions. In

An Early Model for Value and Sustainability in Health Information Exchanges: Qualitative Study

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Background The primary value relative to health information exchange has been seen in terms of cost savings relative to laboratory and radiology testing, emergency department expenditures, and admissions. However, models are needed to statistically quantify value and sustainability and better understand the dependent and mediating factors that contribute to value and sustainability. Objective The purpose of this study was to provide a basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. Methods A qualitative study was conducted with 21 interviews of eHealth Exchange participants across 10 organizations. Using a grounded theory approach and 3.0 as a relative frequency threshold, 5 main categories and 16 subcategories emerged. Results This study identifies 3 core current perceived value factors and 5 potential perceived value factors—how interviewees predict health information exchanges may evolve as there are more participants. These value factors were used as the foundation for early model development for sustainability of health information exchange. Conclusions Using the value factors from the interviews, the study provides the basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. This basis includes factors from the research: fostering consumer engagement; establishing a provider directory; quantifying use, cost, and clinical outcomes; ensuring data integrity through patient matching; and increasing awareness, usefulness, interoperability, and sustainability of eHealth Exchange. PMID:29712623

An Early Model for Value and Sustainability in Health Information Exchanges: Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, Sue S

2018-04-30

The primary value relative to health information exchange has been seen in terms of cost savings relative to laboratory and radiology testing, emergency department expenditures, and admissions. However, models are needed to statistically quantify value and sustainability and better understand the dependent and mediating factors that contribute to value and sustainability. The purpose of this study was to provide a basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. A qualitative study was conducted with 21 interviews of eHealth Exchange participants across 10 organizations. Using a grounded theory approach and 3.0 as a relative frequency threshold, 5 main categories and 16 subcategories emerged. This study identifies 3 core current perceived value factors and 5 potential perceived value factors-how interviewees predict health information exchanges may evolve as there are more participants. These value factors were used as the foundation for early model development for sustainability of health information exchange. Using the value factors from the interviews, the study provides the basis for early model development for health information exchange value and sustainability. This basis includes factors from the research: fostering consumer engagement; establishing a provider directory; quantifying use, cost, and clinical outcomes; ensuring data integrity through patient matching; and increasing awareness, usefulness, interoperability, and sustainability of eHealth Exchange. ©Sue S Feldman. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 30.04.2018.

Ecology and the Good

Science.gov (United States)

Gustafson, James W.

1971-01-01

Our value system relating to the natural sciences is examined for its acceptability and worthiness. Scrutinized are the cognitive meanings about values, validity of values, subjective and cultural relativism, the good of objective realities, and cooperation with natural forces and God. (BL)

Innovation Value of Information Technology: Impact of Information Technology--Intensity on Innovation Capability and Firm Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Ramamani, Mahesh Kumar

2010-01-01

Though information technology adoptions have been always referred to as innovations in firms, much of the business value literature has concentrated on the tangible and immediately measurable impacts of information technology (IT) adoptions. This study aims to explore the impact of information technology investments on the innovativeness of a…

Management Documentation: Indicators & Good Practice at Cultural Heritage Places

Science.gov (United States)

Eppich, R.; Garcia Grinda, J. L.

2015-08-01

Documentation for cultural heritage places usually refers to describing the physical attributes, surrounding context, condition or environment; most of the time with images, graphics, maps or digital 3D models in their various forms with supporting textural information. Just as important as this type of information is the documentation of managerial attributes. How do managers of cultural heritage places collect information related to financial or economic well-being? How are data collected over time measured, and what are significant indicators for improvement? What quality of indicator is good enough? Good management of cultural heritage places is essential for conservation longevity, preservation of values and enjoyment by the public. But how is management documented? The paper will describe the research methodology, selection and description of attributes or indicators related to good management practice. It will describe the criteria for indicator selection and why they are important, how and when they are collected, by whom, and the difficulties in obtaining this information. As importantly it will describe how this type of documentation directly contributes to improving conservation practice. Good practice summaries will be presented that highlight this type of documentation including Pamplona and Ávila, Spain and Valletta, Malta. Conclusions are drawn with preliminary recommendations for improvement of this important aspect of documentation. Documentation of this nature is not typical and presents a unique challenge to collect, measure and communicate easily. However, it is an essential category that is often ignored yet absolutely essential in order to conserve cultural heritage places.

How value-glamour investors use financial information: UK evidence of investor's confirmation bias

OpenAIRE

Doung, C.; Pescetto, G.; Santamaria, D.

2014-01-01

The paper investigates investor’s behaviour in the context of value–glamour investing and fundamental analysis, and provides a direct test of the confirmation bias by bringing together the evidence from several strands of literature into a well-defined framework of investor behaviour. The empirical evidence presented is in line with a model of\\ud investor’s asymmetric reaction to good and bad news due to confirmation bias. Pessimistic value investors typically under-react to good financial in...

A Terrible Predicament: The De-Evolution of Values in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."

Science.gov (United States)

Tietz, Stephen; Logsdon, Loren

2001-01-01

Addresses problems concerning the ways Flannery O'Connor's fiction has been read. Proposes an alternate reading of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Suggests the primary theme of the story is the idea that each generation has the responsibility to pass on values to the next. (PM)

The value of pathogen information in treating clinical mastitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cha, Elva; Smith, Rebecca L; Kristensen, Anders R; Hertl, Julia A; Schukken, Ynte H; Tauer, Loren W; Welcome, Frank L; Gröhn, Yrjö T

2016-11-01

The objective of this study was to determine the economic value of obtaining timely and more accurate clinical mastitis (CM) test results for optimal treatment of cows. Typically CM is first identified when the farmer observes recognisable outward signs. Further information of whether the pathogen causing CM is Gram-positive, Gram-negative or other (including no growth) can be determined by using on-farm culture methods. The most detailed level of information for mastitis diagnostics is obtainable by sending milk samples for culture to an external laboratory. Knowing the exact pathogen permits the treatment method to be specifically targeted to the causation pathogen, resulting in less discarded milk. The disadvantages are the additional waiting time to receive test results, which delays treating cows, and the cost of the culture test. Net returns per year (NR) for various levels of information were estimated using a dynamic programming model. The Value of Information (VOI) was then calculated as the difference in NR using a specific level of information as compared to more detailed information on the CM causative agent. The highest VOI was observed where the farmer assumed the pathogen causing CM was the one with the highest incidence in the herd and no pathogen specific CM information was obtained. The VOI of pathogen specific information, compared with non-optimal treatment of Staphylococcus aureus where recurrence and spread occurred due to lack of treatment efficacy, was $20.43 when the same incorrect treatment was applied to recurrent cases, and $30.52 when recurrent cases were assumed to be the next highest incidence pathogen and treated accordingly. This indicates that negative consequences associated with choosing the wrong CM treatment can make additional information cost-effective if pathogen identification is assessed at the generic information level and if the pathogen can spread to other cows if not treated appropriately.

The Value of Information from a GRACE-Enhanced Drought Severity Index

Science.gov (United States)

Kuwayama, Y.; Bernknopf, R.; Macauley, M.; Brookshire, D.; Zaitchik, B. F.; Rodell, M.

2013-12-01

Water storage anomalies derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Data Assimilation System (GRACE-DAS) have been used to enhance the information contained in drought indicators. The potential value of this information is to inform local and regional decisions to improve economic welfare in the face of drought. Based on a characterization of current drought evaluations, a modeling framework has been structured to analyze the contributed value of the Earth observations in the assessment of the onset and duration of droughts and their regional impacts. The analysis focuses on (1) characterizing how GRACE-DAS provides Earth observation information for a drought warning, (2) assessing how a GRACE-DAS-enhanced U.S. Drought Monitor would improve economic outcomes in a region, and (3) applying this enhancement process in a decision framework to illustrate the potential role of GRACE data products in a recent drought and response scenario for a value-of-information (VOI) analysis. The VOI analysis quantifies the relative contribution of enhanced understanding and communication of the societal benefits associated with GRACE Earth observation science. Our emphasis is to illustrate the role of an enhanced National Integrated Drought Information System outlook on three key societal outcomes: effects on particular economic sectors, changes in land management decisions, and reductions in damages to ecosystem services.

Software licenses: Good fences make good neighbors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCreary, J.G.; Woodyard, A.

1995-01-01

The basis for a good contract is that it is beneficial to both parties. A good foundation will cement the responsibilities and obligations of the parties after areas of agreement have been negotiated. Unfortunately, software licenses do not always reflect what is best for all. Some clauses are definitely for the benefit of the vendor, while others are required by a prudent client. The resulting contract is then a matter of reasonable compromise to achieve a good business relationship. Major issues of warranty, liability, training, support, and payment may be in conflict. Such topics as maintenance, testing, patents, extent of use, and return of software are often overlooked or addressed unevenly. This paper addresses these subjects and provides guidelines for software licenses. An understanding of legal phrases is of value. A better understanding of the viewpoints of both the vendor and the client results in a better working relationship

Is a comparative clinical trial for breast cancer tumor markers to monitor disease recurrence warranted? A value of information analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Thariani, Rahber; Henry, Norah Lynn; Ramsey, Scott D; Blough, David K; Barlow, Bill; Gralow, Julie R; Veenstra, David L

2013-05-01

Breast cancer tumor markers are used by some clinicians to screen for disease recurrence risk. Since there is limited evidence of benefit, additional research may be warranted. To assess the potential value of a randomized clinical trial of breast tumor marker testing in routine follow-up of high-risk, stage II-III breast cancer survivors. We developed a decision-analytic model of tumor marker testing plus standard surveillance every 3-6 months for 5 years. The expected value of sample information was calculated using probabilistic simulations and was a function of: the probability of selecting the optimal monitoring strategy with current versus future information; the impact of choosing the nonoptimal strategy; and the size of the population affected. The value of information for a randomized clinical trial involving 9000 women was US$214 million compared with a cost of US$30-60 million to conduct such a trial. The probability of making an alternate, nonoptimal decision and choosing testing versus no testing was 32% with current versus future information from the trial. The impact of a nonoptimal decision was US$2150 and size of population impacted over 10 years was 308,000. The value of improved information on overall survival was US$105 million, quality of life US$37 million and test performance US$71 million. Conducting a randomized clinical trial of breast cancer tumor markers appears to offer a good societal return on investment. Retrospective analyses to assess test performance and evaluation of patient quality of life using tumor markers may also offer valuable areas of research. However, alternative investments may offer even better returns in investments and, as such, the trial concept deserves further study as part of an overall research-portfolio evaluation.

THE INFLUENCE OF ECONOMIC VALUE ADDED AND MARKET VALUE ADDED ON CORPORATE VALUE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taslim F.A.

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This research aims to determine the influence of economic value added and market value added on corporate value of manufacturing companies on sector consumer goods industry listed in Indonesia Stock Exchanges of 2011-2014. The sample of this research was 10 manufacturing companies on sector consumer goods industry listed in Indonesia Stock Exchanges. The method used was purposive sampling technique. This research used confirmatory factor analysis to form a combined proxy of corporate value comprised price earning ratio, price to book value and Tobin's Q.

Leveraging multi-generational workforce values in interactive information societies

OpenAIRE

Sophie van der Walt; Tanya du Plessis

2010-01-01

Background: The success of organisations relies on various factors including the ability of its multi-generational workforce to collaborate within the interactive information society. By developing an awareness of the different values of a diverse workforce, organisations may benefit from diversity. Various diversity factors, such as ethnicity, age and gender, impact on the way people interact, especially in the interactive information society.Objectives: This article advocates the need for g...

Educational Goods and Values: A Framework for Decision Makers

Science.gov (United States)

Brighouse, Harry; Ladd, Helen F.; Loeb, Susanna; Swift, Adam

2016-01-01

This article articulates a framework suitable for use when making decisions about education policy. Decision makers should establish what the feasible options are and evaluate them in terms of their contribution to the development, and distribution, of educational goods in children, balanced against the negative effect of policies on important…

78 FR 58344 - Proposed Information Collection: Colorado River Total Value Survey

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-23

... information for the economic analysis of the alternative management and operation protocols for Glen Canyon Dam. The economic analysis provides one piece of information that the Secretary of the Interior will... generations. This collection will provide park managers and NPS partners with information about the values U.S...

The Value of Information for Populations in Varying Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Rivoire, Olivier; Leibler, Stanislas

2011-04-01

The notion of information pervades informal descriptions of biological systems, but formal treatments face the problem of defining a quantitative measure of information rooted in a concept of fitness, which is itself an elusive notion. Here, we present a model of population dynamics where this problem is amenable to a mathematical analysis. In the limit where any information about future environmental variations is common to the members of the population, our model is equivalent to known models of financial investment. In this case, the population can be interpreted as a portfolio of financial assets and previous analyses have shown that a key quantity of Shannon's communication theory, the mutual information, sets a fundamental limit on the value of information. We show that this bound can be violated when accounting for features that are irrelevant in finance but inherent to biological systems, such as the stochasticity present at the individual level. This leads us to generalize the measures of uncertainty and information usually encountered in information theory.

Information Technology and generating business value: An analysis in industrial SMEs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Trigueros-Preciado

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The literature examines the relationship between information technologies and business results mainly through direct relationship between investment on Information Technologies (IT and financial measures. This has resulted in disparity of results and lack of consensus, and therefore, the necessity to deepen this topic. In this sense, this paper aims to analyze in industrial SMEs the effects of the use of IT on different financial and non-financial variables related to business value. Design/methodology/approach: The work follows the classical research scheme with literature review, statement of hypotheses and application of quantitative empirical methodology, collecting information through questionnaires sent by email, for further processing and statistical testing using ANOVA models, which allow get results and conclusions. Findings and Originality/value: The study provides an approach beyond classical search of direct relationship between IT investment and financial measures, using instead as an explanatory variable the "use of IT" and as explained variables the Balance scorecard dimensions, which considers the financial ones and introduces other more qualitative as customers, human resources and internal processes. The obtained results show that IT contributes to the generation of value not only through the profitability but also other more qualitative factors. Research limitations/implications: The sample size (85 companies complicates the extrapolation of results. In addition, in the future it would be appropriate to consider new technological developments like Cloud computing, along with variables such as information security and its impact on value creation. Originality/value: This work shows that to analyze the generated value by IT it must to be considered financial and non-financial variables. The proposed approach, variables and scales complement traditional approaches and can guide future research as well as companies who

Virtual Travel Agencies - Tourist Value through Travel Information Systems

OpenAIRE

Anckar, Bill

1999-01-01

Anckar, B. (1999), ?Virtual Travel Agencies - Tourist Value through Travel Information Systems?. IAMSR Research Report 5/99. Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research, ?bo Akademi University. As electronic commerce enables the tourist service providers to sell their products directly to the consumer, travel agencies are faced with the imminent threat of being by-passed in the travel industry chain in the information age. This paper suggests that virtual travel agencies can compete su...

Value of information-based inspection planning for offshore structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Irman, Arifian Agusta; Thöns, Sebastian; Leira, Bernt J.

2017-01-01

with each inspection strategy. A simplified and generic risk-based inspection planning utilizing pre- posterior Bayesian decision analysis had been proposed by Faber et al. [1] and Straub [2]. This paper provides considerations on the theoretical background and a Value of Information analysis......-based inspection planning. The paper will start out with a review of the state-of-art RBI planning procedure based on Bayesian decision theory and its application in offshore structure integrity management. An example of the Value of Information approach is illustrated and it is pointed to further research......Asset integrity and management is an important part of the oil and gas industry especially for existing offshore structures. With declining oil price, the production rate is an important factor to be maintained that makes integrity of the structures one of the main concerns. Reliability based...

Forecasting Value-at-Risk Using High-Frequency Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huiyu Huang

2013-06-01

Full Text Available in the prediction of quantiles of daily Standard&Poor’s 500 (S&P 500 returns we consider how to use high-frequency 5-minute data. We examine methods that incorporate the high frequency information either indirectly, through combining forecasts (using forecasts generated from returns sampled at different intraday interval, or directly, through combining high frequency information into one model. We consider subsample averaging, bootstrap averaging, forecast averaging methods for the indirect case, and factor models with principal component approach, for both direct and indirect cases. We show that in forecasting the daily S&P 500 index return quantile (Value-at-Risk or VaR is simply the negative of it, using high-frequency information is beneficial, often substantially and particularly so, in forecasting downside risk. Our empirical results show that the averaging methods (subsample averaging, bootstrap averaging, forecast averaging, which serve as different ways of forming the ensemble average from using high-frequency intraday information, provide an excellent forecasting performance compared to using just low-frequency daily information.

The Good Society: Lessons for Integrated Governance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neesham C.

2009-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper I argue that philosophies of the good society can inform theories of integrated governance in two significant ways. Firstly, they can provide a reasonable foundation for legitimating forms of authority to govern a society across the government, corporate and civil sector. Secondly, they promote value systems that can be constitutive of a normative theory of integrated governance. In developing this argument, I explore conceptions of the good society put forward by Marquis de Condorcet, Adam Smith and Karl Marx, and evaluate the modalities in which the social projects proposed by these authors involve issues of integrated governance. For this purpose, I examine the three theories in relation to three questions: (1 What goals (or objectives should social action be directed to? (2 What should be the scope and limits of social responsibility lying behind the social authority of each sector (government, market or civil society? (3 How is social authority to be exercised beyond legislation? What source(s of legitimacy should one appeal to? Although Condorcet’s idea of the natural social order, Smith’s system of natural liberty and Marx’s political economy of human value have all received their fair share of criticism from empirical theories of society, I suggest that these conceptions are still useful to us today as radical normative experiments. These experiments can have guiding value in formulating models of integrated governance. However, the fundamental differences displayed by these three conceptions reveal the importance of determining whether one can develop models of integrated governance that would accommodate plural, incompatible, or unknown conceptions of the good society.

Calibrating the social value of prospective new goods: The case of hydrogen fuel cell electric Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Topel, Robert H.

2018-01-01

Economic studies of the value of a new good or product innovation are typically retrospective: after a new good has been developed and marketed to consumers, data on prices and consumer choices can be used to estimate welfare gains. This paper calibrates the prospective welfare gains in the United States from a nascent vehicle platform, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCVs), that may or may not succeed in competition with existing vehicle platforms. Prospective gains are due to three main sources: (1) possibly reduced carbon emissions compared to existing vehicle alternatives; (2) the monopsony benefit to the U.S. from reducing world oil demand and hence the price of oil; (3) national security benefits due to reduced "oil dependence", mitigating the impact of oil price shocks on national income. I find that the benefits of reduced carbon emissions are likely to be quite small because reduced oil demand in the U.S. as only a small impact on world oil consumption and carbon emissions. Net monopsony benefits to U.S. consumers are much larger.

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 48: Valuing information in an interactive environment

Science.gov (United States)

Brinberg, Herbert R.; Pinelli, Thomas E.; Barclay, Rebecca O.

1995-01-01

Consideration effort has been devoted over the past 30 years to developing methods and means of assessing the value of information. Two approaches - value in exchange and value in use - dominate; however, neither approach enjoys much practical application because validation schema for decision-making is missing. The approaches fail to measure objectively the real costs of acquiring information and the real benefits that information will yield. Moreover, these approaches collectively fail to provide economic justification to build and/or continue to support an information product or service. In addition, the impact of Cyberspace adds a new dimension to the problem. A new paradigm is required to make economic sense in this revolutionary information environment. In previous work, the authors explored the various approaches to measuring the value of information and concluded that, in large measure, these methods were unworkable concepts and constructs. Instead, they proposed several axioms for valuing information. Most particularly they concluded that the 'value of information cannot be measured in the absence of a specific task, objective, or goal.' This paper builds on those axioms and describes under which circumstances information can be measured in objective and actionable terms. This paper also proposes a methodology for undertaking such measures and validating the results.

Information Technology and Value Creation in the Public Sector Organizations

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Min-Seok

2011-01-01

In this dissertation, I study the performance impact of information technology (IT) investments in the public sector. IT has been one of the key assets in public administration since the early MIS era. Even though the information systems (IS) discipline has witnessed a considerable amount of research efforts on the subject of IT business value for…

An Improved Information Value Model Based on Gray Clustering for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qianqian Ba

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Landslides, as geological hazards, cause significant casualties and economic losses. Therefore, it is necessary to identify areas prone to landslides for prevention work. This paper proposes an improved information value model based on gray clustering (IVM-GC for landslide susceptibility mapping. This method uses the information value derived from an information value model to achieve susceptibility classification and weight determination of landslide predisposing factors and, hence, obtain the landslide susceptibility of each study unit based on the clustering analysis. Using a landslide inventory of Chongqing, China, which contains 8435 landslides, three landslide susceptibility maps were generated based on the common information value model (IVM, an information value model improved by an analytic hierarchy process (IVM-AHP and our new improved model. Approximately 70% (5905 of the inventory landslides were used to generate the susceptibility maps, while the remaining 30% (2530 were used to validate the results. The training accuracies of the IVM, IVM-AHP and IVM-GC were 81.8%, 78.7% and 85.2%, respectively, and the prediction accuracies were 82.0%, 78.7% and 85.4%, respectively. The results demonstrate that all three methods perform well in evaluating landslide susceptibility. Among them, IVM-GC has the best performance.

On valuing information in adaptive-management models.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Alana L; McCarthy, Michael A

2010-08-01

Active adaptive management looks at the benefit of using strategies that may be suboptimal in the near term but may provide additional information that will facilitate better management in the future. In many adaptive-management problems that have been studied, the optimal active and passive policies (accounting for learning when designing policies and designing policy on the basis of current best information, respectively) are very similar. This seems paradoxical; when faced with uncertainty about the best course of action, managers should spend very little effort on actively designing programs to learn about the system they are managing. We considered two possible reasons why active and passive adaptive solutions are often similar. First, the benefits of learning are often confined to the particular case study in the modeled scenario, whereas in reality information gained from local studies is often applied more broadly. Second, management objectives that incorporate the variance of an estimate may place greater emphasis on learning than more commonly used objectives that aim to maximize an expected value. We explored these issues in a case study of Merri Creek, Melbourne, Australia, in which the aim was to choose between two options for revegetation. We explicitly incorporated monitoring costs in the model. The value of the terminal rewards and the choice of objective both influenced the difference between active and passive adaptive solutions. Explicitly considering the cost of monitoring provided a different perspective on how the terminal reward and management objective affected learning. The states for which it was optimal to monitor did not always coincide with the states in which active and passive adaptive management differed. Our results emphasize that spending resources on monitoring is only optimal when the expected benefits of the options being considered are similar and when the pay-off for learning about their benefits is large.

"Good mothering" or "good citizenship"?

Science.gov (United States)

Porter, Maree; Kerridge, Ian H; Jordens, Christopher F C

2012-03-01

Umbilical cord blood banking is one of many biomedical innovations that confront pregnant women with new choices about what they should do to secure their own and their child's best interests. Many mothers can now choose to donate their baby's umbilical cord blood (UCB) to a public cord blood bank or pay to store it in a private cord blood bank. Donation to a public bank is widely regarded as an altruistic act of civic responsibility. Paying to store UCB may be regarded as a "unique opportunity" to provide "insurance" for the child's future. This paper reports findings from a survey of Australian women that investigated the decision to either donate or store UCB. We conclude that mothers are faced with competing discourses that force them to choose between being a "good mother" and fulfilling their role as a "good citizen." We discuss this finding with reference to the concept of value pluralism.

Automated negotiation and bundling of information goods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Somefun, D.J.A.; Gerding, E.H.; Bohté, S.M.; Poutré, la J.A.; Faratin, P.; Parkes, D.; Rodriquez-Aguilar, J.

2004-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel system for selling bundles of news items. Through the system, customers bargain with the seller over the price and quality of the delivered goods. The advantage of the developed system is that it allows for a high degree of flexibility in the price, quality, and

Is informality a good measure of job quality? Evidence from job satisfaction data

OpenAIRE

Pagés, Carmen; Madrigal, Lucía

2008-01-01

The formality status of a job is the most widely used indicator of job quality in developing countries. However, a number of studies argue that, at least for some workers, the informality status may be driven by choice rather than exclusion. This paper uses job satisfaction data from three low-income countries (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) to assess whether informal jobs are less valued than formal jobs. The paper finds substantial differences in job satisfaction within different type...

Value of Information Analysis in Structural Safety

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konakli, Katerina; Faber, Michael Havbro

2014-01-01

of structural systems. In this context, experiments may refer to inspections or techniques of structural health monitoring. The Value of Information concept provides a powerful tool for determining whether the experimental cost is justified by the expected benefit and for identifying the optimal among different...... possible experimental schemes. This concept is elaborated through principal examples for structural components and system models. Sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate how the decision problem is influenced by the level of uncertainty that characterizes the structural properties, the amount...

Resilience of System by Value of Information and SHM

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Miragliaa, S.; Nielsen, Michael Havbro Faber; Thöns, S.

2017-01-01

infrastructure systems. In response to this challenge, the present contribution puts forwards a novel approach, taking basis in the concept of value of information analysis from Bayesian pre posterior decision analysis. Utilizing a principal model framework we show how the proposed approach is implemented...

Resilience of systems by value of information and SHM

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Miraglia, Simona; Faber, Michael H.; Thöns, Sebastian

2017-01-01

infrastructure systems. In response to this challenge, the present contribution puts forwards a novel approach, taking basis in the concept of value of information analysis from Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis. Utilizing a principal model framework we show how the proposed approach is implemented...

The value of pathogen information in treating clinical mastitis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cha, Elva; Smith, Rebecca L.; Kristensen, Anders R.; Hertl, Julia A.; Schukken, Ynte H.; Tauer, Loren W.; Welcome, Frank L.; Gröhn, Yrjö T.

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine the economic value of obtaining timely and more accurate clinical mastitis (CM) test results for optimal treatment of cows. Typically CM is first identified when the farmer observes recognisable outward signs. Further information of whether the

The value of pathogen information in treating clinical mastitis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cha, Elva; Smith, Rebecca L.; Kristensen, Anders R.; Hertl, Julia A.; Schukken, Ynte H.; Tauer, Loren W.; Welcome, Frank L.; Gröhn, Yrjö T.

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine the economic value of obtaining timely and more accurate clinical mastitis (CM) test results for optimal treatment of cows. Typically CM is first identified when the farmer observes recognisable outward signs. Further information of whether the pathogen

The value of informal care: A further investigation of the feasibility of contingent valuation in informal caregivers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meijer, C.A.M.; Brouwer, W.B.F.; Koopmanschap, M.A.; van den Berg, B.; Exel, N.J.A.

2010-01-01

Including informal care in economic evaluations is increasingly advocated but problematic. We investigated three well-known concerns regarding contingent valuation (CV): (1) the item non-response of CV values, (2) the sensitivity of CV values to the individual circumstances of caring, and (3) the

A Good Work - Quality and Values in the Job

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bilfeldt, Anette; Hofmeister, Elsebeth; Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard

2003-01-01

A good work is difficult to define since it has several aspects. It is on the one hand a question about the conditions for the work, so that the work is done under satisfying conditions and on the other hand it is a question about how these conditions impact the content of the work. This means wh...... the impact of management strategies for quality in products and servies for the employees....

Carbon information disclosure of enterprises and their value creation through market liquidity and cost of equity capital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Li

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Drawing on asymmetric information and stakeholder theories, this paper investigates two mechanisms, namely market liquidity and cost of equity capital, by which the carbon information disclosure of enterprises can benefit their value creation. Design/methodology/approach: In this research, web crawler technology is employed to study the link between carbon information disclosure and enterprises value creation?and the carbon information data are provided by all companies listed in Chinese A-share market Findings: The results show that carbon information disclosure have significant positive influence on enterprise value creation, which is embodied in the relationship between carbon information disclosure quantity, depth and enterprise value creation, and market liquidity and cost of equity capital play partially mediating role in it, while the influence of carbon information disclosure quality and concentration on enterprise value creation are not significant in statistics. Research limitations/implications: This paper explains the influence path and mechanism between carbon information disclosure and enterprise value creation deeply, answers the question of whether carbon information disclosure affects enterprise value creation or not in China. Practical implications: This paper finds that carbon information disclosure contributes positively to enterprise value creation suggests that managers can reap more financial benefits by disclosing more carbon information and investing carbon emissions management. So, managers in the enterprises should strengthen the management of carbon information disclosure behavior. Originality/value: The paper gives a different perspective on the influence of carbon information disclosure on enterprise value creation, and suggests a new direction to understand carbon information disclosure behavior.

Expected value information improves financial risk taking across the adult life span.

Science.gov (United States)

Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R; Wagner, Anthony D; Knutson, Brian

2011-04-01

When making decisions, individuals must often compensate for cognitive limitations, particularly in the face of advanced age. Recent findings suggest that age-related variability in striatal activity may increase financial risk-taking mistakes in older adults. In two studies, we sought to further characterize neural contributions to optimal financial risk taking and to determine whether decision aids could improve financial risk taking. In Study 1, neuroimaging analyses revealed that individuals whose mesolimbic activation correlated with the expected value estimates of a rational actor made more optimal financial decisions. In Study 2, presentation of expected value information improved decision making in both younger and older adults, but the addition of a distracting secondary task had little impact on decision quality. Remarkably, provision of expected value information improved the performance of older adults to match that of younger adults at baseline. These findings are consistent with the notion that mesolimbic circuits play a critical role in optimal choice, and imply that providing simplified information about expected value may improve financial risk taking across the adult life span.

19 CFR 10.594 - Originating goods.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... States Free Trade Agreement Rules of Origin § 10.594 Originating goods. Except as otherwise provided in... good otherwise satisfies any applicable regional value content or other requirements specified in...

Measuring the strategic value of information technology investments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Conrad, K.W.

1994-08-01

Value is often perceived differently by the proponents of new information technologies and those who allocate resources and define priorities. Such differences often become a roadblock to meeting true business needs. Project justifications regularly rely on calculated cost savings, which rarely measure the full benefit of new technologies. In fact, if cost savings provide a complete picture, then the organization is probably just automating routine clerical operations and has abandoned efforts that would provide significant strategic value. Strategic value is not limited to financial calculations, but includes quality, time and risk criteria. This paper describes approaches for measuring strategic value that can provide organizations with proven techniques to improve performance, reengineer processes, benchmark performance against other suppliers, identify outsourcing opportunities, or defend themselves from pressures to outsource. Many organizations respond to tightening budgets by cutting overhead. These measurement approaches can demonstrate how overhead is critical to organizational effectiveness and how cost savings can be found, instead, by measurably improving performance throughout the organization. Finally, the paper describes efforts underway within the Department of Energy and at the Hanford Site to implement the approaches described in this paper

Measuring the strategic value of information technology investments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Conrad, K.W. [Boeing Computer Services Co., Richland, WA (United States)

1994-08-01

Value is often perceived differently by the proponents of new information technologies and those who allocate resources and define priorities. Such differences often become a roadblock to meeting true business needs. Project justifications regularly rely on calculated cost savings, which rarely measure the full benefit of new technologies. In fact, if cost savings provide a complete picture, then the organization is probably just automating routine clerical operations and has abandoned efforts that would provide significant strategic value. Strategic value is not limited to financial calculations, but includes quality, time and risk criteria. This paper describes approaches for measuring strategic value that can provide organizations with proven techniques to improve performance, reengineer processes, benchmark performance against other suppliers, identify outsourcing opportunities, or defend themselves from pressures to outsource. Many organizations respond to tightening budgets by cutting overhead. These measurement approaches can demonstrate how overhead is critical to organizational effectiveness and how cost savings can be found, instead, by measurably improving performance throughout the organization. Finally, the paper describes efforts underway within the Department of Energy and at the Hanford Site to implement the approaches described in this paper.

Valuing information for sewer replacement decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

van Riel, Wouter; Langeveld, Jeroen; Herder, Paulien; Clemens, François

Decision-making for sewer asset management is partially based on intuition and often lacks explicit argumentation, hampering decision transparency and reproducibility. This is not to be preferred in light of public accountability and cost-effectiveness. It is unknown to what extent each decision criterion is appreciated by decision-makers. Further insight into this relative importance improves understanding of decision-making of sewer system managers. As such, a digital questionnaire (response ratio 43%), containing pairwise comparisons between 10 relevant information sources, was sent to all 407 municipalities in the Netherlands to analyse the relative importance and assess whether a shared frame of reasoning is present. Thurstone's law of comparative judgment was used for analysis, combined with several consistency tests. Results show that camera inspections were valued highest, while pipe age was considered least important. The respondents were pretty consistent per individual and also showed consistency as a group. This indicated a common framework of reasoning among the group. The feedback of the group showed, however, the respondents found it difficult to make general comparisons without having a context. This indicates decision-making in practice is more likely to be steered by other mechanisms than purely combining information sources.

Return on research investments: personal good versus public good

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, P. A.

2017-12-01

For some time the outputs, i.e. what's produced, of publicly and privately funded research while necessary, are far from sufficient, when considering an overall return on (research) investment. At the present time products such as peer-reviewed papers, websites, data, and software are recognized by funders on timescales related to research awards and reporting. However, from a consumer perspective impact and value are determined at the time a product is discovered, accessed, assessed and used. As is often the case, the perspectives of producer and consumer communities can be distinct and not intersect at all. We contrast personal good, i.e. credit, reputation, with that of public good, e.g. interest, leverage, exploitation, and more. This presentation will elaborate on both the metaphorical and idealogical aspects of applying a "return on investment" frame for the topic of assessing "good".

Bank Risk Profile, Good Corporate Governance And Company Values in Banking Companies Go Public in Indonesia

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Susi Retna Cahyaningtyas

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The latest Bank Indonesia Regulation No.14/18/PBI/2012 requires bank to have minimum capital of 8%-14% depends on the risk profile of each bank. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to assess whether the total of inherent risk profile of each bank meets the terms of this regulation. In addition, this study aims to examine the impact of inherent risk profile and GCG on the banking company value. The sample in this study is determined by purposive sampling method and resulted in 24 banks or 72 observations during 2011-2013. The results showed that 23 banks had low risk and low to moderate risk, and only one bank had moderate risk. The results also showed that inherent risk profile rating is equivalent to capital adequacy. In other words, inherent risk profile of these banks have complied with Bank Indonesia Regulation No.14/18/PBI/2012. Furthermore, this study indicated that GCG has significant and positive influence on the company value, while the inherent risk has no influence on the company value. Overall, this study suggest that go public banks in Indonesia are one of good alternative means of investment for its soundness as reflected by the fulfillment of minimum capital ratio required by the regulator.

Measuring the Value of Earth Observation Information with the Gravity Research and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Bernknopf, R.; Kuwayama, Y.; Brookshire, D.; Macauley, M.; Zaitchik, B.; Pesko, S.; Vail, P.

2014-12-01

Determining how much to invest in earth observation technology depends in part on the value of information (VOI) that can be derived from the observations. We design a framework and then evaluate the value-in-use of the NASA Gravity Research and Climate Experiment (GRACE) for regional water use and reliability in the presence of drought. As a technology that allows measurement of water storage, the GRACE Data Assimilation System (DAS) provides information that is qualitatively different from that generated by other water data sources. It provides a global, reproducible grid of changes in surface and subsurface water resources on a frequent and regular basis. Major damages from recent events such as the 2012 Midwest drought and the ongoing drought in California motivate the need to understand the VOI from remotely sensed data such as that derived from GRACE DAS. Our conceptual framework models a dynamic risk management problem in agriculture. We base the framework on information from stakeholders and subject experts. The economic case for GRACE DAS involves providing better water availability information. In the model, individuals have a "willingness to pay" (wtp) for GRACE DAS - essentially, wtp is an expression of savings in reduced agricultural input costs and for costs that are influenced by regional policy decisions. Our hypothesis is that improvements in decision making can be achieved with GRACE DAS measurements of water storage relative to data collected from groundwater monitoring wells and soil moisture monitors that would be relied on in the absence of GRACE DAS. The VOI is estimated as a comparison of outcomes. The California wine grape industry has features that allow it to be a good case study and a basis for extrapolation to other economic sectors. We model water use in this sector as a sequential decision highlighting the attributes of GRACE DAS input as information for within-season production decisions as well as for longer-term water reliability.

State or nature? Endogenous formal versus informal sanctions in the voluntary provision of public goods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kamei, Kenju; Putterman, Louis; Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl

2015-01-01

We investigate the endogenous formation of sanctioning institutions supposed to improve efficiency in the voluntary provision of public goods. Our paper parallels Markussen et al. (Rev Econ Stud 81:301–324, 2014) in that our experimental subjects vote over formal versus informal sanctions......, but it goes beyond that paper by endogenizing the formal sanction scheme. We find that self-determined formal sanctions schemes are popular and efficient when they carry no up-front cost, but as in Markussen et al. informal sanctions are more popular and efficient than formal sanctions when adopting...... the latter entails such a cost. Practice improves the performance of sanction schemes: they become more targeted and deterrent with learning. Voters’ characteristics, including their tendency to engage in perverse informal sanctioning, help to predict individual voting....

Understanding News Values: Secret to Good Public Relations.

Science.gov (United States)

Oates, Rita Haugh

1981-01-01

Explains the news values that journalists use. Shows English teachers and administrators how they can apply this knowledge of news media to improve public relations between the school and the community. (RL)

Valuing Informal Care Experience: Does Choice of Measure Matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Mentzakis, Emmanouil; McNamee, Paul; Ryan, Mandy; Sutton, Matthew

2012-01-01

Well-being equations are often estimated to generate monetary values for non-marketed activities. In such studies, utility is often approximated by either life satisfaction or General Health Questionnaire scores. We estimate and compare monetary valuations of informal care for the first time in the UK employing both measures, using longitudinal…

Values determine the (ineffectiveness of informational interventions in promoting pro-environmental behavior.

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Jan Willem Bolderdijk

Full Text Available Informational interventions (e.g., awareness campaigns, carbon footprint calculators are built on the assumption that informing the public about the environmental consequences of their actions should result in increased pro-environmental intentions and behavior. However, empirical support for this reasoning is mixed. In this paper, we argue that informational interventions may succeed in improving people's knowledge about the negative environmental consequences of one's actions, but this knowledge will not gain motivational force if people do not consider protecting the environment an important personal value. In an experiment, we measured individual differences in value priorities, and either presented participants a movie clip that portrayed the negative environmental consequences of using bottled water, or a control movie. As predicted, we found that the environmental movie improved recipients' knowledge of the negative environmental impact of bottled water, but this knowledge only resulted in concomitant changes in intentions and acceptability of related policies among participants who strongly endorsed biospheric (i.e. environmental values, while having no effect on those who care less about the environment. Interestingly, the results suggest that although informational interventions are perhaps not always successful in directly affecting less environmentally-conscious recipients, they could still have beneficial effects, because they make those who strongly care about the environment more inclined to act on their values.

INFORMATIVE ADVERTISING: A MARKET INFORMATION PROVIDER OR A SEED OF MARKET POWER?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anzhelika G. GERASYMENKO

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the role of informative advertising in creation and augment of market power as well as the ability of an advertiser to maximize the value of its economic rent. Informative advertising is considered to be a merit good unlike a persuasive one that is mostly associated with a bad. But analysis of the advertisement breakdown in Ukraine shows that the share of price advertisements, which are the most beneficial for the public, is negligible today. Further still those advertisements are mostly situated in the sectors, where price competition is the least strong. Another kind of informative advertising – differentiating advertising – turns from an instrument of informing consumers into the vehicle of manipulation of consumer choice. Using the blind tests the author has compared the quality and the prices of the range of advertised goods and has found out a low level of correlation between the variables. That means that informative advertising serves a function of informing consumers inefficiently. At the same time phantom differentiation and misleading advertising proliferation as well as informative advertising concentration on experience and credible goods instead search ones testify to effective serving a function of maximizing advertiser welfare.

A comparison between probability and information measures of uncertainty in a simulated soil map and the economic value of imperfect soil information.

Science.gov (United States)

Lark, R. Murray

2014-05-01

Conventionally the uncertainty of a conventional soil map has been expressed in terms of the mean purity of its map units: the probability that the soil profile class examined at a site would be found to correspond to the eponymous class of the simple map unit that is delineated there (Burrough et al, 1971). This measure of uncertainty has an intuitive meaning and is used for quality control in soil survey contracts (Western, 1978). However, it may be of limited value to the manager or policy maker who wants to decide whether the map provides a basis for decision making, and whether the cost of producing a better map would be justified. In this study I extend a published analysis of the economic implications of uncertainty in a soil map (Giasson et al., 2000). A decision analysis was developed to assess the economic value of imperfect soil map information for agricultural land use planning. Random error matrices for the soil map units were then generated, subject to constraints which ensure consistency with fixed frequencies of the different soil classes. For each error matrix the mean map unit purity was computed, and the value of the implied imperfect soil information was computed by the decision analysis. An alternative measure of the uncertainty in a soil map was considered. This is the mean soil map information which is the difference between the information content of a soil observation, at a random location in the region, and the information content of a soil observation given that the map unit is known. I examined the relationship between the value of imperfect soil information and the purity and information measures of map uncertainty. In both cases there was considerable variation in the economic value of possible maps with fixed values of the uncertainty measure. However, the correlation was somewhat stronger with the information measure, and there was a clear upper bound on the value of an imperfect soil map when the mean information takes some

Advances in participatory occupational health aimed at good practices in small enterprises and the informal sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Kogi, Kazutaka

2006-01-01

Participatory programmes for occupational risk reduction are gaining importance particularly in small workplaces in both industrially developing and developed countries. To discuss the types of effective support, participatory steps commonly seen in our "work improvement-Asia" network are reviewed. The review covered training programmes for small enterprises, farmers, home workers and trade union members. Participatory steps commonly focusing on low-cost good practices locally achieved have led to concrete improvements in multiple technical areas including materials handling, workstation ergonomics, physical environment and work organization. These steps take advantage of positive features of small workplaces in two distinct ways. First, local key persons are ready to accept local good practices conveyed through personal, informal approaches. Second, workers and farmers are capable of understanding technical problems affecting routine work and taking flexible actions leading to solving them. This process is facilitated by the use of locally adjusted training tools such as local good examples, action checklists and group work methods. It is suggested that participatory occupational health programmes can work in small workplaces when they utilize low-cost good practices in a flexible manner. Networking of these positive experiences is essential.

Substantial Goodness and Nascent Human Life.

Science.gov (United States)

Floyd, Shawn

2015-09-01

Many believe that moral value is--at least to some extent--dependent on the developmental states necessary for supporting rational activity. My paper rejects this view, but does not aim simply to register objections to it. Rather, my essay aims to answer the following question: if a human being's developmental state and occurrent capacities do not bequeath moral standing, what does? The question is intended to prompt careful consideration of what makes human beings objects of moral value, dignity, or (to employ my preferred term) goodness. Not only do I think we can answer this question, I think we can show that nascent human life possesses goodness of precisely this sort. I appeal to Aquinas's metaethics to establish the conclusion that the goodness of a human being--even if that being is an embryo or fetus--resides at the substratum of her existence. If she possesses goodness, it is because human existence is good.

Neighborhood scale quantification of ecosystem goods and ...

Science.gov (United States)

Ecosystem goods and services are those ecological structures and functions that humans can directly relate to their state of well-being. Ecosystem goods and services include, but are not limited to, a sufficient fresh water supply, fertile lands to produce agricultural products, shading, air and water of sufficient quality for designated uses, flood water retention, and places to recreate. The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Office of Research and Development’s Tampa Bay Ecosystem Services Demonstration Project (TBESDP) modeling efforts organized existing literature values for biophysical attributes and processes related to EGS. The goal was to develop a database for informing mapped-based EGS assessments for current and future land cover/use scenarios at multiple scales. This report serves as a demonstration of applying an EGS assessment approach at the large neighborhood scale (~1,000 acres of residential parcels plus common areas). Here, we present mapped inventories of ecosystem goods and services production at a neighborhood scale within the Tampa Bay, FL region. Comparisons of the inventory between two alternative neighborhood designs are presented as an example of how one might apply EGS concepts at this scale.

How much is information worth? Calculating the economic value of a library’s services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maira Nani França

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The benefits of the services offered by an informational unit have been characterized by the desired outcome, such as the effective response from a user. These values are made up of enough concrete data if expressed in monetary terms, that is, finding out which is the cost to provide such services. Assigning value to each of the information services offered by university libraries and measuring it are one of the most challenging and less applied managerial tasks in information environments. This paper aims to assign economic value to the services provided by a Brazilian university library, developing a tool that will assist managers in decision -making and evaluation of informational units in order to guarantee the quality of services provided.

Information Quality in Regulatory Decision Making: Peer Review versus Good Laboratory Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

McCarty, Lynn S; Borgert, Christopher J; Mihaich, Ellen M

2012-07-01

There is an ongoing discussion on the provenance of toxicity testing data regarding how best to ensure its validity and credibility. A central argument is whether journal peer-review procedures are superior to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards employed for compliance with regulatory mandates. We sought to evaluate the rationale for regulatory decision making based on peer-review procedures versus GLP standards. We examined pertinent published literature regarding how scientific data quality and validity are evaluated for peer review, GLP compliance, and development of regulations. Some contend that peer review is a coherent, consistent evaluative procedure providing quality control for experimental data generation, analysis, and reporting sufficient to reliably establish relative merit, whereas GLP is seen as merely a tracking process designed to thwart investigator corruption. This view is not supported by published analyses pointing to subjectivity and variability in peer-review processes. Although GLP is not designed to establish relative merit, it is an internationally accepted quality assurance, quality control method for documenting experimental conduct and data. Neither process is completely sufficient for establishing relative scientific soundness. However, changes occurring both in peer-review processes and in regulatory guidance resulting in clearer, more transparent communication of scientific information point to an emerging convergence in ensuring information quality. The solution to determining relative merit lies in developing a well-documented, generally accepted weight-of-evidence scheme to evaluate both peer-reviewed and GLP information used in regulatory decision making where both merit and specific relevance inform the process.

Accurate Information, Virtual Reality, Good Librarianship Doğru Bilgi, Sanal Gerçeklik, İyi Kütüphanecilik

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Tayfun Gülle

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Departing from the idea that internet, which has become a deep information tunnel, is causing a problem in access to “accurate information”, it is expressed that societies are imprisoned within the world of “virtual reality” with web 2.0/web 3.0 technologies and social media applications. In order to diagnose this problem correctly, the media used from past to present for accessing information are explained shortly as “social tools.” Furthermore, it is emphasised and summarised with an editorial viewpoint that the means of reaching accurate information can be increased via the freedom of expression channel which will be brought forth by “good librarianship” applications. IFLA Principles of Freedom of Expression and Good Librarianship is referred to at the end of the editorial.

Mandatory Fair Value Accounting and Information Asymmetry: Evidence from the European Real Estate Industry

OpenAIRE

Karl A. Muller, III; Edward J. Riedl; Thorsten Sellhorn

2011-01-01

We examine the effects of mandating the provision of fair value information for long-lived tangible assets on firms' information asymmetry. Specifically, we investigate whether European real estate firms' compulsory adoption of International Accounting Standard 40 (IAS 40; Investment Property), which mandated the provision of investment property fair values in 2005, resulted in reduced information asymmetry across market participants. Using as a control group firms that voluntarily provided t...

Integration of information for research and education: changes in the value chain?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roosendaal, Hans E.; Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.; van der Vet, P.E.

2002-01-01

Changes in the value chain induced by the use of ICT are discussed. ICT will lead to innovation not only in the research information system but also in the educational information system or even the education system at large.

Building a Values-Informed Mental Model for New Orleans Climate Risk Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Bessette, Douglas L; Mayer, Lauren A; Cwik, Bryan; Vezér, Martin; Keller, Klaus; Lempert, Robert J; Tuana, Nancy

2017-10-01

Individuals use values to frame their beliefs and simplify their understanding when confronted with complex and uncertain situations. The high complexity and deep uncertainty involved in climate risk management (CRM) lead to individuals' values likely being coupled to and contributing to their understanding of specific climate risk factors and management strategies. Most mental model approaches, however, which are commonly used to inform our understanding of people's beliefs, ignore values. In response, we developed a "Values-informed Mental Model" research approach, or ViMM, to elicit individuals' values alongside their beliefs and determine which values people use to understand and assess specific climate risk factors and CRM strategies. Our results show that participants consistently used one of three values to frame their understanding of risk factors and CRM strategies in New Orleans: (1) fostering a healthy economy, wealth, and job creation, (2) protecting and promoting healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, and (3) preserving New Orleans' unique culture, traditions, and historically significant neighborhoods. While the first value frame is common in analyses of CRM strategies, the latter two are often ignored, despite their mirroring commonly accepted pillars of sustainability. Other values like distributive justice and fairness were prioritized differently depending on the risk factor or strategy being discussed. These results suggest that the ViMM method could be a critical first step in CRM decision-support processes and may encourage adoption of CRM strategies more in line with stakeholders' values. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

An Empirical Study on Listed Company’s Value of Cash Holdings: An Information Asymmetry Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chuangxia Huang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The value of a company’s cash holdings is currently a hot issue in corporate finance research. Current studies have not reached a unified conclusion. Moreover, no one has ever studied that from the perspective of information asymmetry. However, there still exist disputes about the measurement of the degree of information asymmetry. Previous studies mostly adopt single index to analysis this issue, and the economic meaning it represents only reflects some information of asymmetric information, so it was one-sided and the conclusion also differ. Drawing on the market microstructure and the index of information asymmetry of managers and investors, this paper constructs a new proxy for information asymmetry based on the principal component analysis. We find that a company’s value of cash holdings decreases increasingly with its level of information asymmetry, and the relationship between information asymmetry and the value of cash holdings is nonlinear.

'Who's actually gonna read this?' An evaluation of staff experiences of the value of information contained in written care plans in supporting care in three different dementia care settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Drummond, C; Simpson, A

2017-08-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: A written plan is designed to improve communication and co-ordinate care between mental health inpatient wards and community settings. Reports of care plan quality issues and staff and service user dissatisfaction with healthcare bureaucracy have focused on working age mental health or general hospital settings. Little is known about mental health staff perspectives on the value of written care plans in supporting dementia care. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: Competing demands on staff time and resources to meet administrative standards for care plans caused a tension with their own professional priorities for supporting care. Mental health staff face difficulties using electronic records alongside other systems of information sharing. Further exploration is needed of the gap between frontline staff values and those of the local organization and managers when supporting good dementia care. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Frontline staff should be involved in designing new information systems including care plans. Care plan documentation needs to be refocused to ensure it is effective in enabling staff to communicate amongst themselves and with others to support people with dementia. Practice-based mentors could be deployed to strengthen good practice in effective information sharing. Background Reports of increased healthcare bureaucracy and concerns over care plan quality have emerged from research and surveys into staff and service user experiences. Little is known of mental health staff perspectives on the value of written care plans in supporting dementia care. Aim To investigate the experiences and views of staff in relation to care planning in dementia services in one National Health Service (NHS) provider Trust in England. Method Grounded Theory methodology was used. A purposive sample of 11 multidisciplinary staff were interviewed across three sites in one NHS Trust. Interviews were transcribed, coded

Retrieval monitoring is influenced by information value: the interplay between importance and confidence on false memory.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonough, Ian M; Bui, Dung C; Friedman, Michael C; Castel, Alan D

2015-10-01

The perceived value of information can influence one's motivation to successfully remember that information. This study investigated how information value can affect memory search and evaluation processes (i.e., retrieval monitoring). In Experiment 1, participants studied unrelated words associated with low, medium, or high values. Subsequent memory tests required participants to selectively monitor retrieval for different values. False memory effects were smaller when searching memory for high-value than low-value words, suggesting that people more effectively monitored more important information. In Experiment 2, participants studied semantically-related words, and the need for retrieval monitoring was reduced at test by using inclusion instructions (i.e., endorsement of any word related to the studied words) compared with standard instructions. Inclusion instructions led to increases in false recognition for low-value, but not for high-value words, suggesting that under standard-instruction conditions retrieval monitoring was less likely to occur for important information. Experiment 3 showed that words retrieved with lower confidence were associated with more effective retrieval monitoring, suggesting that the quality of the retrieved memory influenced the degree and effectiveness of monitoring processes. Ironically, unless encouraged to do so, people were less likely to carefully monitor important information, even though people want to remember important memories most accurately. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Values and organization of time in Danish schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vaaben, Nana Katrine

The aim is to tease out the logics, fantasies and values informing certain views about how to organize and prioritize time, especially I will be interested in finding out how organization of and struggles about time hold references to ideas about social structures and “the good society” (Graeber...

Alignment Effectiveness for Value Creation with Information Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martina MITAMBO

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Enterprises often face problems while executing business strategies to exploit opportunities or solve problems. Within enterprises, strategy blindness could be affected by mistranslation of strategic intent, flexibility of the information system, or cognitive entrenchment. The alignment between business strategy and business processes is a critical factor in the ability of enterprises to overcome the phenomenon. Opportunities for value creation include magnifying the positive spread in cash flow or pursuing growth opportunities. Information systems could greatly simplify the processes involved in business strategy by integrating process-related decision-making with the business strategy. Decision support tools such as knowledge management, decision strategy, decision content, and expert groups, customised for organisational information systems can help enterprises optimise operations in a variety of ways such as becoming more responsive to changing market conditions in hypercompetitive markets. Greatest opportunities for decision support are incorporating external sources of data such as economic data and user behaviour analytics. Benefits are more effective utilisation of resources, larger product portfolio, better product or service quality, and shorter delivery times.

An upper echelons perspective on information technology business value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Fernando López-Muñoz

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that information technology (IT outcomes are more valuable to companies when their top management team (TMT moves from flirting with IT to marriage. Previous research has demonstrated an association between top management support (TMS and IT value. We extend the concept of TMS with the imbrication metaphor to define the construct of TMT-IT imbrication, which allows us to account for a tighter and continuous entwining of the TMT and IT to create IT value. Our definition of the TMT-IT imbrication construct embraces four dimensions: involvement, participation, attention, and use. In addition, with the support of upper echelons (UE theory, we explore certain managerial traits, competences, and team processes that may be antecedents of this imbrication. As a result, our work provides a variance model and various propositions rooted in the logic of UE that contribute to research on IT business value.

Estimating the social value of geologic map information: A regulatory application

Science.gov (United States)

Bernknopf, R.L.; Brookshire, D.S.; McKee, M.; Soller, D.R.

1997-01-01

People frequently regard the landscape as part of a static system. The mountains and rivers that cross the landscape, and the bedrock that supports the surface, change little during the course of a lifetime. Society can alter the geologic history of an area and, in so doing, affect the occurrence and impact of environmental hazards. For example, changes in land use can induce changes in erosion, sedimentation, and ground-water supply. As the environmental system is changed by both natural processes and human activities, the system's capacity to respond to additional stresses also changes. Information such as geologic maps describes the physical world and is critical for identifying solutions to land use and environmental issues. In this paper, a method is developed for estimating the economic value of applying geologic map information to siting a waste disposal facility. An improvement in geologic map information is shown to have a net positive value to society. Such maps enable planners to make superior land management decisions.

Rule of morality versus rule of law? A Multi-method comparative study into the values that characterize a good civil servant in China and the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yang, L.

2015-01-01

This project answers the following research question: "Do the values that civil servants in China and the Netherlands regard important for being a good civil servant reflect the administrative traditions in both countries?" The findings show that civil servant value preferences do not unambiguously

Smoking cessation: Exploration of perceived technology-related information value.

Science.gov (United States)

Reychav, Iris; McHaney, Roger; Hirak, Eyal; Merker, Ben

2018-01-01

This study describes a unique approach to information transfer affecting the perceived value of this information and related impact on smoker behavior. Data were collected via survey, sampling approximately 120 participants. An online survey tool was used for the survey creation, data collection and monitoring. Another online tool was used by participants to create short animation videos as a means of increasing their engagement with information in an experiential fashion. Study findings included that the process experienced by the test group was influential and facilitated participants' change of mind regarding enrollment in a smoking cessation workshop. This was partly attributable to the IKEA effect. The study provides evidence that a change in habits crucial to improve health and enhance positive lifestyle choices can be stimulated through active engagement with artifact creation in a technology-mediated environment.

[Study of personal best value of peak expiratory flow in patients with asthma--comparison of the highest value of daily PEF under good control and the highest value of daily PEF obtained after using repeated inhaled beta2-agonist during high-dose inhaled steroid treatment].

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Naoto; Makino, Sohei; Kihara, Norio; Fukuda, Takeshi

2008-12-01

In the guideline for asthma management, it is important to find the personal best value of peak expiratory flow (best PEF). Recently, we have substituted the highest value of PEF in daily life under good control (daily highest PEF) for the best PEF. In the present study, we considered whether the daily highest PEF could be used as the best PEF or not. Subjects were 30 asthmatics who were well controlled but whose baseline PEF values were less than 80 percent of predicted values. We compared the daily highest PEF and the highest of PEF obtained after repeated inhaled beta2-agonist (salbutamol MDI every 20 minutes three times). All subjects then received 1600 microg/day of beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) for 4 to 8 weeks. We studied the effect of high-dose inhaled steroid treatment on each PEF value and compared the daily highest PEF and the highest PEF obtained after using repeated salbutamol MDI during high dose inhaled steroid therapy on the examination day again. The baseline PEF, daily highest PEF and the highest PEF obtained after salbutamol MDI were significantly less than the each values obtained after high-dose BDP. The best PEF value of them was the value obtained after repeated salbutamol MDI during high dose BDP. We suggest that the daily highest PEF under good control is not a substitute for best PEF because it changes according to the degree of improvement of airway inflammation. We recommend that a course of high dose inhaled steroid is effective in finding the best value of PEF for each individual with moderate asthma.

Utilizing a Value of Information Framework to Improve Ore Collection and Classification Procedures

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Phillips, Julia A

2006-01-01

.... We use a value of information framework (VOI) to consider the economic feasibility of a mine purchasing additional information on extracted ore type to reduce the uncertainty of extracted ore grade quality...

The Value of RFID Technology Enabled Information to Manage Perishables

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.E. Ketzenberg (Michael); J.M. Bloemhof-Ruwaard (Jacqueline)

2009-01-01

textabstractWe address the value of RFID technology enabled information to manage perishables in the context of a supplier that sells a random lifetime product subject to stochastic demand and lost sales. The product's lifetime is largely determined by the time and temperature history in the supply

Exploring consumer values of comparative performance information for hospital choice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ketelaar, N.A.B.M.; Faber, M.J.; Westert, G.P.; Elwyn, G.; Braspenning, J.C.C.

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: In many countries, market orientation in healthcare has resulted in the publication of comparative performance information (CPI). Most of the research in this field is oriented towards the content and the presentation format of CPI while little is known about how consumers value CPI and

Numerical Investigations into the Value of Information in Lifecycle Analysis of Structural Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konakli, Katerina; Sudret, Bruno; Faber, Michael Havbro

2015-01-01

of decisions related to maintenance of structural systems. In this context, experiments may refer to inspections or structural health monitoring. The value-of-information concept comprises a powerful tool for determining whether the experimental cost is justified by the expected gained benefit during...... investigations demonstrate how the decision problem is influenced by the assumed probabilistic models, including the type of probability distribution and the degree of uncertainty reflected in the coefficient of variation, the degradation law, the quantity and quality of information, and the probabilistic...... dependencies between the components of a system. Furthermore, challenges and potentials in value-of-information analysis for structural systems are discussed....

ANTI – CORRUPTION INITIATIVES, GOOD GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS: THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena ANDREEVSKA

2018-05-01

Full Text Available In fighting corruption, good governance efforts rely on principles such as accountability, transparency and participation to shape anti-corruption measures. Initiatives may include establishing institutions such as anti-corruption commissions, creating mechanisms of information sharing, and monitoring governments’ use of public funds and implementation of policies. Good governance and human rights are mutually reinforcing. Human rights principles provide a set of values to guide the work of governments and other political and social actors. They also provide a set of performance standards against which these actors can be held accountable. Moreover, human rights principles inform the content of good governance efforts: they may inform the development of legislative frameworks, policies, programmers, budgetary allocations and other measures. Corruption is recognized as a serious crime in the EU, which is reflected in its many anti-corruption instruments covering existing member states. Countries wishing to join still face considerable systemic corruption issues in their public institutions. In Macedonia as one of these countries the most significant human rights problems stemmed from pervasive corruption and from the government’s failure to respect fully the rule of law. This article introduces anti-corruption work, good governance, and attempts to identify the various levels of relationship between that work and human rights with particular reference to Macedonia as an EU candidate country

Influence of the Good-Practice Principles and Codes in the Corporate Governance upon the Quality of the Financial-Accounting Information

OpenAIRE

Mirela Niculae

2017-01-01

This hereby works tries to identify the principles regarding the corporate governance and analyze the way in which such corporate governance templates influence the qualitative characteristics of the financial information. The execution of the governance means the obligation to implement the processes and structures corresponding to the management and the administration of the business and company’s operations, to provide their good operation. The final scope of the good corporate governance ...

On minimal inhibitory rules for almost all k-valued information systems

KAUST Repository

Moshkov, Mikhail

2009-07-30

The minimal inhibitory rules for information systems can be used for construction of classifiers. We show that almost all information systems from a certain large class of information systems have relatively short minimal inhibitory rules. However, the number of such rules is not polynomial in the number of attributes and the number of objects. This class consists of all k-valued information systems, k ≥ 2, with the number of objects polynomial in the number of attributes. Hence, for efficient construction of classifiers some filtration techniques in rule generation are necessary. Another way is to work with lazy classification algorithms based on inhibitory rules.

The value of health information technology: filling the knowledge gap.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudin, Robert S; Jones, Spencer S; Shekelle, Paul; Hillestad, Richard J; Keeler, Emmett B

2014-11-01

Despite rapid growth in the rate of adoption of health information technology (HIT), and in the volume of evaluation studies, the existing knowledge base for the value of HIT is not advancing at a similar rate. Most evaluation articles are limited in that they use incomplete measures of value and fail to report the important contextual and implementation characteristics that would allow for an adequate understanding of how the study results were achieved. To address these deficiencies, we present a conceptual framework for measuring HIT value and we propose a checklist of characteristics that should be considered in HIT evaluation studies. The framework consists of 3 key principles: 1) value includes both costs and benefits; 2) value accrues over time; and 3) value depends on which stakeholder's perspective is used. Through examples, we show how these principles can be used to guide and improve HIT evaluation studies. The checklist includes a list of contextual and implementation characteristics that are important for interpretation of results. These improvements will make future studies more useful for policy makers and more relevant to the current needs of the healthcare system.

The Stock Market's Reaction to Unemployment News: Why Bad News is Usually Good for Stocks

OpenAIRE

John H. Boyd; Ravi Jagannathan; Jian Hu

2001-01-01

We find that on average an announcement of rising unemployment is 'good news' for stocks during economic expansions and 'bad news' during economic contractions. Thus stock prices usually increase on news of rising unemployment, since the economy is usually in an expansion phase. We provide an explanation for this phenomenon. Unemployment news bundles two primitive types of information relevant for valuing stocks: information about future interest rates and future corporate earnings and divide...

The Origin of Value Through Information Networks : A Preliminary Framework from an Evolutionary Holonic Perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Madureira, A.; Bakena, N.; Bouwman, H.

2010-01-01

The worldwide extraordinary level of interest in digital information networks deployment among nations is due to the strong perception that they bring economic, social and environmental value. Our literature review on studies aiming at clarifying the value of information networks, led us to conclude

Value-informed pricing in its organizational context: literature review, conceptual framework, and directions for future research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ingenbleek, P.T.M.

2007-01-01

Purpose ¿ In the face of increased pricing pressure, managerial attention for value-informed pricing (in which a price is based on the customer¿s value perception) is on the rise. Although value-informed pricing in its organizational context received a great deal of attention, the body of literature

Missing value imputation for microarray gene expression data using histone acetylation information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Jihua

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background It is an important pre-processing step to accurately estimate missing values in microarray data, because complete datasets are required in numerous expression profile analysis in bioinformatics. Although several methods have been suggested, their performances are not satisfactory for datasets with high missing percentages. Results The paper explores the feasibility of doing missing value imputation with the help of gene regulatory mechanism. An imputation framework called histone acetylation information aided imputation method (HAIimpute method is presented. It incorporates the histone acetylation information into the conventional KNN(k-nearest neighbor and LLS(local least square imputation algorithms for final prediction of the missing values. The experimental results indicated that the use of acetylation information can provide significant improvements in microarray imputation accuracy. The HAIimpute methods consistently improve the widely used methods such as KNN and LLS in terms of normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE. Meanwhile, the genes imputed by HAIimpute methods are more correlated with the original complete genes in terms of Pearson correlation coefficients. Furthermore, the proposed methods also outperform GOimpute, which is one of the existing related methods that use the functional similarity as the external information. Conclusion We demonstrated that the using of histone acetylation information could greatly improve the performance of the imputation especially at high missing percentages. This idea can be generalized to various imputation methods to facilitate the performance. Moreover, with more knowledge accumulated on gene regulatory mechanism in addition to histone acetylation, the performance of our approach can be further improved and verified.

Quantification of the Value of Structural Health Monitoring Information for Fatigue Deteriorating Structural Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thöns, Sebastian; Schneider, Ronald; Faber, Michael Havbro

2015-01-01

This paper addresses the quantification of the value of structural health monitoring (SHM) before its implementation for structural systems on the basis of its Value of Information (VoI). The value of SHM is calculated utilizing the Bayesian pre-posterior decision analysis modelling the structural...... life cycle performance, the integrity management and the structural risks. The relevance and precision of SHM information for the reduction of the structural system risks and the expected cost of the structural integrity management throughout the life cycle constitutes the value of SHM...... and is quantified with this framework. The approach is focused on fatigue deteriorating structural steel systems for which a continuous resistance deterioration formulation is introduced. In a case study, the value of SHM for load monitoring is calculated for a Daniels system subjected to fatigue deterioration...

Leveraging multi-generational workforce values in interactive information societies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie van der Walt

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Background: The success of organisations relies on various factors including the ability of its multi-generational workforce to collaborate within the interactive information society. By developing an awareness of the different values of a diverse workforce, organisations may benefit from diversity. Various diversity factors, such as ethnicity, age and gender, impact on the way people interact, especially in the interactive information society.Objectives: This article advocates the need for generational awareness and addresses how this awareness presents benefits to companies, such as, increased productivity, improved succession planning policies and strategies to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. The research problem is directed at how diversity management influences Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y in terms of their work performance and co-worker relationships.Method: The research design combines Critical Theory and Generational Theory within the mixed-method paradigm. The sequential exploratory design was decided upon as it studies the unknown relationships between different generations of employees. The literature review was followed by a quantitative empirical research component and data was collected by means of a questionnaire. Results: The findings highlight specific differences between generations regarding their perspectives on work values and co-worker relationships, rewards, work-life balance and retirement.Conclusion: The article concludes with recommendations on the role diversity management plays in terms of work performance and co-worker relationships. By leveraging generational awareness in the interactive information society organizations with a multi-generational workforce will succeed in the competitive business environment.

The Value of Darkness: A Moral Framework for Urban Nighttime Lighting.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Taylor

2018-04-01

The adverse effects of artificial nighttime lighting, known as light pollution, are emerging as an important environmental issue. To address these effects, current scientific research focuses mainly on identifying what is bad or undesirable about certain types and uses of lighting at night. This paper adopts a value-sensitive approach, focusing instead on what is good about darkness at night. In doing so, it offers a first comprehensive analysis of the environmental value of darkness at night from within applied ethics. A design for values orientation is utilized to conceptualize, define, and categorize the ways in which value is derived from darkness. Nine values are identified and categorized via their type of good, temporal outlook, and spatial characteristics. Furthermore, these nine values are translated into prima facie moral obligations that should be incorporated into future design choices, policy-making, and innovations to nighttime lighting. Thus, the value of darkness is analyzed with the practical goal of informing future decision-making about urban nighttime lighting.

What makes a good sports parent?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Søbirk Petersen

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Two practical measures that have been introduced in an effort to stop sports parents from behaving badly will be critically discussed. The first measure is known under the slogan quiet weekends'. These prohibit parents from attending games in which their child is participating. Although this strategy calls attention to an important issue, it is unfair. The second, and far more elaborate, measure is to have a set of ethical guidelines informing parents how they should behave towards their child and others in the context of sport. Two central values tend to run through these guidelines: namely parental concern for the child's autonomy and parental concern for the child's well-being. These values are discussed as I apply them to cases in what can be called a grey area, where it is not obvious what is morally right or wrong. In the concluding discussion a tentative checklist will be presented which good sports parents can use when they are confronted with ethical issues.http://dx.doi.org/10.5324/eip.v4i1.1738

区间直觉模糊信息系统中的信息粒度%Information granularity in interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information systems

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

杨伟萍; 林梦雷

2012-01-01

Interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information system is able to be more comprehensively, detailedly and visually depict and characterize the decision-making information than the general information system, so reaseaching its research uncertainty is of great importance. With the help of information granularity, this paper characterized the uncertainty of the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information system. It constructed intersection, union, subtraction and complement four operators among granular structures, introduced three new partial order relations in interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information systems and established the relationships among them. It defined an interval-valued inluitionistic fuzzy information granularity and an axiomatic approach to interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information granularity in interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information systems. Finally, it investigated the properties of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information granularity.%区间直觉模糊信息系统比一般信息系统更能全面、细致、直观地描述和刻画决策信息,对其进行不确定性研究具有重要的意义.利用信息粒度对区间直觉模糊信息系统的不确定性进行了刻画,给出了区间直觉模糊粒度结构的交、并、差、补等四种运算.提出了区间直觉模糊粒度结构上的三种偏序关系,并建立了它们之间的联系.定义了区间直觉模糊信息粒度和区间直觉模糊信息粒度的公理化,并研究它们的性质.

Critical mass of public goods and its coevolution with cooperation

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Dong-Mei; Wang, Bing-Hong

2017-07-01

In this study, the enhancing parameter represented the value of the public goods to the public in public goods game, and was rescaled to a Fermi-Dirac distribution function of critical mass. Public goods were divided into two categories, consumable and reusable public goods, and their coevolution with cooperative behavior was studied. We observed that for both types of public goods, cooperation was promoted as the enhancing parameter increased when the value of critical mass was not very large. An optimal value of critical mass which led to the best cooperation was identified. We also found that cooperations emerged earlier for reusable public goods, and defections became extinct earlier for the consumable public goods. Moreover, we observed that a moderate depreciation rate for public goods resulted in an optimal cooperation, and this range became wider as the enhancing parameter increased. The noise influence on cooperation was studied, and it was shown that cooperation density varied non-monotonically as noise amplitude increased for reusable public goods, whereas decreased monotonically for consumable public goods. Furthermore, existence of the optimal critical mass was also identified in other three regular networks. Finally, simulation results were utilized to analyze the provision of public goods in detail.

Considering value of information when using CFD in design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Misra, John Satprim [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

2009-01-01

This thesis presents an approach to find lower resolution CFD models that can accurately lead a designer to a correct decision at a lower computational cost. High-fidelity CFD models often contain too much information and come at a higher computational cost, limiting the designs a designer can test and how much optimization can be performed on the design. Lower model resolution is commonly used to reduce computational time. However there are no clear guidelines on how much model accuracy is required. Instead experience and intuition are used to select an appropriate lower resolution model. This thesis presents an alternative to this ad hoc method by considering the added value of the addition information provided by increasing accurate and more computationally expensive models.

Adjusting Estimates of the Expected Value of Information for Implementation: Theoretical Framework and Practical Application.

Science.gov (United States)

Andronis, Lazaros; Barton, Pelham M

2016-04-01

Value of information (VoI) calculations give the expected benefits of decision making under perfect information (EVPI) or sample information (EVSI), typically on the premise that any treatment recommendations made in light of this information will be implemented instantly and fully. This assumption is unlikely to hold in health care; evidence shows that obtaining further information typically leads to "improved" rather than "perfect" implementation. To present a method of calculating the expected value of further research that accounts for the reality of improved implementation. This work extends an existing conceptual framework by introducing additional states of the world regarding information (sample information, in addition to current and perfect information) and implementation (improved implementation, in addition to current and optimal implementation). The extension allows calculating the "implementation-adjusted" EVSI (IA-EVSI), a measure that accounts for different degrees of implementation. Calculations of implementation-adjusted estimates are illustrated under different scenarios through a stylized case study in non-small cell lung cancer. In the particular case study, the population values for EVSI and IA-EVSI were £ 25 million and £ 8 million, respectively; thus, a decision assuming perfect implementation would have overestimated the expected value of research by about £ 17 million. IA-EVSI was driven by the assumed time horizon and, importantly, the specified rate of change in implementation: the higher the rate, the greater the IA-EVSI and the lower the difference between IA-EVSI and EVSI. Traditionally calculated measures of population VoI rely on unrealistic assumptions about implementation. This article provides a simple framework that accounts for improved, rather than perfect, implementation and offers more realistic estimates of the expected value of research. © The Author(s) 2015.

An Axiology of Information Security for Futuristic Neuroprostheses: Upholding Human Values in the Context of Technological Posthumanization.

Science.gov (United States)

Gladden, Matthew E

2017-01-01

Previous works exploring the challenges of ensuring information security for neuroprosthetic devices and their users have typically built on the traditional InfoSec concept of the "CIA Triad" of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. However, we argue that the CIA Triad provides an increasingly inadequate foundation for envisioning information security for neuroprostheses, insofar as it presumes that (1) any computational systems to be secured are merely instruments for expressing their human users' agency, and (2) computing devices are conceptually and practically separable from their users. Drawing on contemporary philosophy of technology and philosophical and critical posthumanist analysis, we contend that futuristic neuroprostheses could conceivably violate these basic InfoSec presumptions, insofar as (1) they may alter or supplant their users' biological agency rather than simply supporting it, and (2) they may structurally and functionally fuse with their users to create qualitatively novel "posthumanized" human-machine systems that cannot be secured as though they were conventional computing devices. Simultaneously, it is noted that many of the goals that have been proposed for future neuroprostheses by InfoSec researchers (e.g., relating to aesthetics, human dignity, authenticity, free will, and cultural sensitivity) fall outside the scope of InfoSec as it has historically been understood and touch on a wide range of ethical, aesthetic, physical, metaphysical, psychological, economic, and social values. We suggest that the field of axiology can provide useful frameworks for more effectively identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing such diverse types of values and goods that can (and should) be pursued through InfoSec practices for futuristic neuroprostheses.

Cost-volume-profit and net present value analysis of health information systems.

Science.gov (United States)

McLean, R A

1998-08-01

The adoption of any information system should be justified by an economic analysis demonstrating that its projected benefits outweigh its projected costs. Analysis differ, however, on which methods to employ for such a justification. Accountants prefer cost-volume-profit analysis, and economists prefer net present value analysis. The article explains the strengths and weaknesses of each method and shows how they can be used together so that well-informed investments in information systems can be made.

The value of informal care in the context of option B+ in Malawi: a contingent valuation approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiwaula, Levison Stanely; Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere; Cataldo, Fabian; Kapito-Tembo, Atupele; Hosseinipour, Mina C; van Lettow, Monique; Tweya, Hannock; Kayoyo, Virginia; Khangamwa-Kaunda, Blessings; Kasende, Florence; Trapence, Clement; Gugsa, Salem; Rosenberg, Nora E; Eliya, Michael; Phiri, Sam

2016-04-19

Informal care, the health care provided by the patient's social network is important in low income settings although its monetary value is rarely estimated. The lack of estimates of the value of informal care has led to its omission in economic evaluations but this can result in incorrect decisions about cost effectiveness of an intervention. We explore the use of contingent valuation methods of willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) to estimate the value of informal care provided to HIV infected women that are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) under the Option B+ approach to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in Malawi. We collected cross sectional data from 93 caregivers of women that received ART care from six health facilities in Malawi. Caregivers of women that reported for ART care on the survey day and consented to participate in the survey were included until the targeted sample size for the facility was reached. We estimated the value of informal care by using the willingness to accept (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) approaches. Medians were used to summarize the values and these were compared by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The median WTA to provide informal care in a month was US$30 and the median WTP for informal care was US$13 and the two were statistically different (p lower quintile (US$15 vs. US$13, p < 0.0462). Informal caregivers place substantial value on informal care giving. In low income settings where most caregivers are not formally employed, WTP and WTA approaches can be used to value informal care. NCT02005835.

How to Create Business Value through Information Technology (A Case Study on Automotive Production

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Kamran Feizi

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at designing information technology business value model in order to explain the value of information technology in business and evaluate information technology contribution in organization function. For the purpose of a comprehensive analysis of the subject using qualitative data, the research method was set to be mixed method focusing on qualitative sequential design. The first stage of the research strategy was an exploratory single case study and for the second phase, the researchers used focus groups design. Saipa Corporation, one of the most famous firms in Iranian automotive industry, was selected as the case. The varied qualitative date were gathered through interview, document review and observation methods and were analyzed afterwards. Ultimately, the findings of the study highlighted the items and dimensions of information technology business value. This model is composed of the relationship between different dimensions of the theoretical models regarding and the share of information technology in building a business. In order to ensure research generalizability, the results of the research were compared with those in the literature review and the theoretic adequacy of the proposed framework was confirmed.

Relevance between the degree of industrial competition and fair value information: Study on the listed companies in China

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Xuemin Zhuang

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this article is to study whether there exists natural relationship between fair value and corporate external market. A series of special phenomenon in the application of fair value arouses our research interests, which present evidences on how competition affects the correlation of fair value information. Design/methodology/approach: this thesis chooses fair value changes gains and losses and calculate the ratio of DFVPSit as the alternative variable of the fair value. In order to effectively inspect the mutual influence between the degree of industry competition and the value relevance of fair value, and reduce the impact of multi-collinearity, we built a regression model on the hypothesis, which supposes that if other conditions are the same, the fair value information has greater value relevance if the degree of the industry competition is greater. To test the hypothesis, we use the comparison of the DFVPSit coefficient absolute value to judge the value relevance of fair value information, and the greater the absolute value is, the higher relevance between the changes in fair value per share profits and losses with the stock prices. Findings: The higher the degree of competition in the industry is, the more fair value information relevance is. Also, there are evidences representing that fair value information often presents negative correlation with the stock price. Originality/value: The main contribution of the article is to show that not only need we make the formulation and implementation of the high quality of fair value accounting standards to suit for both the national conditions and international practice, but also need we further to improve the company's external governance mechanism to promote fair value’s information correlation.

From Goods to Solutions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chakkol, Mehmet; Johnson, Mark; Raja, Jawwad

2014-01-01

Purpose – This paper aims to adopt service-dominant logic (SDL) to empirically explore network configurations resulting from the provision of goods, goods and services, and solutions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a single, in-depth, exploratory case study in a truck manufacturer......: dyadic, triadic and tetradic. The extent to which different network actors contribute to value co-creation varies across the offerings. Research limitations/implications – This paper is based on a single, in-depth case study developed in one industrial context. Whilst this represents an appropriate...

Gravity with Intermediate Goods Trade

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Sujin Jang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper derives the gravity equation with intermediate goods trade. We extend a standard monopolistic competition model to incorporate intermediate goods trade, and show that the gravity equation with intermediates trade is identical to the one without it except in that gross output should be used as the output measure instead of value added. We also show that the output elasticity of trade is significantly underestimated when value added is used as the output measure. This implies that with the conventional gravity equation, the contribution of output growth can be substantially underestimated and the role of trade costs reduction can be exaggerated in explaining trade expansion, as we demonstrate for the case of Korea's trade growth between 1995 and 2007.

The impact of intangibles on the value relevance of accounting information: Evidence from French companies

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Bilal Kimouche

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The paper aims to explore whether intangible items that recognised in financial statements are value-relevant to investors in the French context, and whether these items affect the value relevance of accounting information. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data were collected from a sample of French listed companies, over the nine-year period of 2005 to 2013. Starting of Ohlson’s (1995 model, the correlation analysis and the linear multiple regressions have been applied. Findings: We find that intangibles and traditional accounting measures as a whole are value relevant. However, the amortization and impairment charges of intangibles and cash flows do not affect the market values of French companies, unlike other variables, which affect positively and substantially the market values. Also goodwill and book values are more associated with market values than intangible assets and earnings respectively. Finally, we find that intangibles have improved the value relevance of accounting information. Practical implications: French legislators must give more interest for intangibles, in order to enrich the financial statements content and increasing the pertinence of accounting information. Auditors must give more attention for intangibles’ examination process, in order to certify the amounts related to intangibles in financial statements, and hence enrich their reliability, what provides adequacy guarantees for investors to use them in decision making. Originality/value: The paper used recently available financial data, and proposed an improvement concerning the measure of incremental value relevance of intangibles items.

Value Assessment Frameworks for HTA Agencies: The Organization of Evidence-Informed Deliberative Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Baltussen, Rob; Jansen, Maarten Paul Maria; Bijlmakers, Leon; Grutters, Janneke; Kluytmans, Anouck; Reuzel, Rob P; Tummers, Marcia; der Wilt, Gert Jan van

2017-02-01

Priority setting in health care has been long recognized as an intrinsically complex and value-laden process. Yet, health technology assessment agencies (HTAs) presently employ value assessment frameworks that are ill fitted to capture the range and diversity of stakeholder values and thereby risk compromising the legitimacy of their recommendations. We propose "evidence-informed deliberative processes" as an alternative framework with the aim to enhance this legitimacy. This framework integrates two increasingly popular and complementary frameworks for priority setting: multicriteria decision analysis and accountability for reasonableness. Evidence-informed deliberative processes are, on one hand, based on early, continued stakeholder deliberation to learn about the importance of relevant social values. On the other hand, they are based on rational decision-making through evidence-informed evaluation of the identified values. The framework has important implications for how HTA agencies should ideally organize their processes. First, HTA agencies should take the responsibility of organizing stakeholder involvement. Second, agencies are advised to integrate their assessment and appraisal phases, allowing for the timely collection of evidence on values that are considered relevant. Third, HTA agencies should subject their decision-making criteria to public scrutiny. Fourth, agencies are advised to use a checklist of potentially relevant criteria and to provide argumentation for how each criterion affected the recommendation. Fifth, HTA agencies must publish their argumentation and install options for appeal. The framework should not be considered a blueprint for HTA agencies but rather an aspirational goal-agencies can take incremental steps toward achieving this goal. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge asymmetries about product "goodness"

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kampf, Constance

and actions towards workers, and findings of independent researchers.  Currently, differing perspectives on product "goodness" are being addressed and mediated by NGOs and B-corporations, as they work with private companies and corporations to communicate product information to consumers.  One organization...... focused on scenarios where shoppers were asked about CSR in their product decisions found that: "...when consumers are given information that they trust about a company's level of social responsibility, it affects how they evaluate the company and their purchase intentions. Furthermore, a low price did.......  Asymmetries in knowledge about product "goodness" make it difficult for ethically inspired consumers to make informed decisions about the products they purchase.  These knowledge asymmetries emerge from differing perspectives on guidelines for consumer safety set by government bodies, CSR initiatives...

Assessing the Added Value of information systems supporting facilities management business processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ebbesen, Poul; Jensen, Per Anker

2017-01-01

Purpose: To present a method for assessing the added value of Information Systems (IS), which are implemented to support the business processes in Facilities Management (FM). Theory: The method is based on a supply chain management model of FM, general value dimensions such as efficiency...... illustrates that implementing IS includes both organisational and technological changes and demonstrates that the proposed assessment method is applicable to practice. Originality/value: This is the first paper using a supply chain management model of FM, general value dimensions, VAM and Functional...... and effectiveness and the concepts of Value Adding Management (VAM) and Functional Affordances of IS. Design/methodology/approach: From case studies of IS implementation processes in FM in different countries, a general picture of the expressed added value of IS in FM was established. Based on this insight a method...

Ecocultural Attributes: Evaluating Ecological Degradation in Terms of Ecological Goods and Services Versus Subsistence and Tribal Values

Science.gov (United States)

Burger, Joanna; Gochfeld, Michael; Pletnikoff, Karen; Snigaroff, Ronald; Snigaroff, Daniel; Stamm, Tim

2014-01-01

It is becoming increasingly clear that scientists, managers, lawyers, public policymakers, and the public must decide how to value what is provided by, and is a consequence of, natural resources. While “Western” scientists have clear definitions for the goods and services that ecosystems provide, we contend that these categories do not encompass the full totality of the values provided by natural resources. Partly the confusion results from a limited view of natural resources derived from the need to monetize the value of ecosystems and their component parts. Partly it derives from the “Western” way of separating natural resources from cultural resources or values, and partly it derives from the false dichotomy of assuming that ecosystems are natural, and anything constructed by man is not natural. In this article, we explore the previous assumptions, and suggest that because cultural resources often derive from, and indeed require, intact and unspoiled natural ecosystems or settings, that these values are rightly part of natural resources. The distinction is not trivial because of the current emphasis on cleaning up chemically and radiologically contaminated sites, on restoration of damaged ecosystems, on natural resource damage assessments, and on long-term stewardship goals. All of these processes depend upon defining natural resources appropriately. Several laws, regulations, and protocols depend upon natural resource trustees to protect natural resources on trust lands, which could lead to the circular definition that natural resources are those resources that the trustees feel they are responsible for. Where subsistence or tribal peoples are involved, the definition of natural resources should be broadened to include those ecocultural attributes that are dependent upon, and have incorporated, natural resources. For example, a traditional hunting and fishing ground is less valued by subsistence peoples if it is despoiled by contamination or physical

Information Rx: prescribing good consumerism and responsible citizenship.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Samantha; de Bont, Antoinette

2007-12-01

Recent medical informatics and sociological literature has painted the image of a new type of patient--one that is reflexive and informed, with highly specified information needs and perceptions, as well as highly developed skills and tactics for acquiring information. Patients have been re-named "reflexive consumers." At the same time, literature about the questionable reliability of web-based information has suggested the need to create both user tools that have pre-selected information and special guidelines for individuals to use to check the individual characteristics of the information they encounter. In this article, we examine suggestions that individuals must be assisted in developing skills for "reflexive consumerism" and what these particular skills should be. Using two types of data (discursive data from websites and promotional items, and supplementary data from interviews and ethnographic observations carried out with those working to sustain these initiatives), we examine how users are directly addressed and discussed. We argue that these initiatives prescribe skills and practices that extend beyond finding and assessing information on the internet and demonstrate that they include ideals of consumerism and citizenship.

Connecting Inquiry and Values in Science Education. An Approach Based on John Dewey's Philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Eun Ah; Brown, Matthew J.

2018-03-01

Conducting scientific inquiry is expected to help students make informed decisions; however, how exactly it can help is rarely explained in science education standards. According to classroom studies, inquiry that students conduct in science classes seems to have little effect on their decision-making. Predetermined values play a large role in students' decision-making, but students do not explore these values or evaluate whether they are appropriate to the particular issue they are deciding, and they often ignore relevant scientific information. We explore how to connect inquiry and values, and how this connection can contribute to informed decision-making based on John Dewey's philosophy. Dewey argues that scientific inquiry should include value judgments and that conducting inquiry can improve the ability to make good value judgments. Value judgment is essential to informed, rational decision-making, and Dewey's ideas can explain how conducting inquiry can contribute to make an informed decision through value judgment. According to Dewey, each value judgment during inquiry is a practical judgment guiding action, and students can improve their value judgments by evaluating their actions during scientific inquiry. Thus, we suggest that students need an opportunity to explore values through scientific inquiry and that practicing value judgment will help informed decision-makings.

Connecting Inquiry and Values in Science Education - An Approach Based on John Dewey's Philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Eun Ah; Brown, Matthew J.

2018-01-01

Conducting scientific inquiry is expected to help students make informed decisions; however, how exactly it can help is rarely explained in science education standards. According to classroom studies, inquiry that students conduct in science classes seems to have little effect on their decision-making. Predetermined values play a large role in students' decision-making, but students do not explore these values or evaluate whether they are appropriate to the particular issue they are deciding, and they often ignore relevant scientific information. We explore how to connect inquiry and values, and how this connection can contribute to informed decision-making based on John Dewey's philosophy. Dewey argues that scientific inquiry should include value judgments and that conducting inquiry can improve the ability to make good value judgments. Value judgment is essential to informed, rational decision-making, and Dewey's ideas can explain how conducting inquiry can contribute to make an informed decision through value judgment. According to Dewey, each value judgment during inquiry is a practical judgment guiding action, and students can improve their value judgments by evaluating their actions during scientific inquiry. Thus, we suggest that students need an opportunity to explore values through scientific inquiry and that practicing value judgment will help informed decision-makings.

The value of information: Current challenges in surveillance implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Stärk, Katharina D C; Häsler, Barbara

2015-11-01

Animal health surveillance is a complex activity that involves multiple stakeholders and provides decision support across sectors. Despite progress in the design of surveillance systems, some technical challenges remain, specifically for emerging hazards. Surveillance can also be impacted by political interests and costly consequences of case reporting, particularly in relation to international trade. Constraints on surveillance can therefore be of technical, economic and political nature. From an economic perspective, both surveillance and intervention are resource-using activities that are part of a mitigation strategy. Surveillance provides information for intervention decisions and thereby helps to offset negative effects of animal disease and to reduce the decision uncertainty associated with choices on disease control. It thus creates monetary and non-monetary benefits, both of which may be challenging to quantify. The technical relationships between surveillance, intervention and loss avoidance have not been established for most hazards despite being important consideration for investment decisions. Therefore, surveillance cannot just be maximised to minimise intervention costs. Economic appraisals of surveillance need to be done on a case by case basis for any hazard considering both surveillance and intervention performance, the losses avoided and the values attached to them. This can be achieved by using an evaluation approach which provides a systematic investigation of the worth or merit of surveillance activities. Evaluation is driven by a specific evaluation question which for surveillance systems commonly considers effectiveness, efficiency, implementation and/or compliance issues. More work is needed to provide guidance on the appropriate selection of evaluation attributes and general good practice in surveillance evaluation. Due to technical challenges, economic constraints and variable levels of capacity, the implementation of surveillance systems

Natural Good Theories and the Value of Human Dignity.

Science.gov (United States)

Muders, Sebastian

2016-04-01

One of the widely recognized facts about human dignity is its vastly divergent applicability-from highly controversial issues in bioethics to broader topics in political philosophy. A group of theories that this article subsumes under the header "natural good theories" appears to be especially fitted for normatively multifaceted notions like dignity. However, the heavy normative weight the concept of dignity has to bear due to the central position it occupies within these theories creates its own difficulties. As is shown in a discussion of Martha Nussbaum's capability conception of dignity, dignity appears to be unable to mirror the special normative relevance people want to assign to it in cases of great moral misconduct. The article provides a suggestion on how to solve this problem by means of paradigmatic cases that work as material constraints regarding the exact boundaries of dignity violations.

Changes in the value chain of scientific information: economic consequences for academic institutions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roosendaal, Hans E.; Huibers, Theo W.C.; Geurts, Petrus A.T.M.; van der Vet, P.E.

2003-01-01

The economic impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the academic library and on the academic institution are discussed in terms of changes in the value chain of scientific information induced by the use of ICT. Argues that ICT is a very strong engine for change as it has the

Partial Adaptation of Obtained and Observed Value Signals Preserves Information about Gains and Losses.

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Christopher J; Baddeley, Michelle; Tobler, Philippe N; Schultz, Wolfram

2016-09-28

Given that the range of rewarding and punishing outcomes of actions is large but neural coding capacity is limited, efficient processing of outcomes by the brain is necessary. One mechanism to increase efficiency is to rescale neural output to the range of outcomes expected in the current context, and process only experienced deviations from this expectation. However, this mechanism comes at the cost of not being able to discriminate between unexpectedly low losses when times are bad versus unexpectedly high gains when times are good. Thus, too much adaptation would result in disregarding information about the nature and absolute magnitude of outcomes, preventing learning about the longer-term value structure of the environment. Here we investigate the degree of adaptation in outcome coding brain regions in humans, for directly experienced outcomes and observed outcomes. We scanned participants while they performed a social learning task in gain and loss blocks. Multivariate pattern analysis showed two distinct networks of brain regions adapt to the most likely outcomes within a block. Frontostriatal areas adapted to directly experienced outcomes, whereas lateral frontal and temporoparietal regions adapted to observed social outcomes. Critically, in both cases, adaptation was incomplete and information about whether the outcomes arose in a gain block or a loss block was retained. Univariate analysis confirmed incomplete adaptive coding in these regions but also detected nonadapting outcome signals. Thus, although neural areas rescale their responses to outcomes for efficient coding, they adapt incompletely and keep track of the longer-term incentives available in the environment. Optimal value-based choice requires that the brain precisely and efficiently represents positive and negative outcomes. One way to increase efficiency is to adapt responding to the most likely outcomes in a given context. However, too strong adaptation would result in loss of precise

Earned value project management

CERN Document Server

Fleming, Quentin W

2010-01-01

Organizations that follow the principles of good Earned Value Management (EVM) create an environment that allows teams to successfully operate and thrive ? even in the face of challenges that could negatively impact their projects. Earned Value Project Management (EVPM) is a methodology used to measure and communicate the real physical progress of a project taking into account the work completed, the time taken and the costs incurred to complete that work. As a result, EVPM allows more educated and effective management decision-making, which helps evaluate and control project risk by measuring project progress in monetary terms. In the first two editions of Earned Value Project Management, Quentin W. Fleming and Joel M. Koppelman provided guidance for project management practitioners already familiar with EVPM, was well as those who were new to the use of this technique. The third edition expanded the information available on of EVPM for medium and smaller projects while still being relevant for larger projec...

Values Underlying the Information Culture in Communist and Post-Communist Russia (1917−1999

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Hedwig de Smaele

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this article the concept of information culture—understood as the dominant handling of information, shared by a dominant proportion of journalists, the public, authorities and other actors within a societal environment at a given time and place—is explored in the context of Communist and early post-Communist Russia (1917−1999. Three value pairs underlying the attitude towards information are explored: individualism and collectivism (the relation of man to the state, universalism and particularism (the relation of man to man, and pluralism versus dominance (the nature of knowledge and truth. Continuities are found between the Communist Soviet Union and post-Communist Russia in their instrumental use of media and information (collectivism, the view on information as a particular privilege rather than a universal right and the monopoly of truth. Post-Communism, therefore, appears not only as an indication of time (i.e. the period after Communism but also as an indicator of the continuation of basic value orientations over these time periods.

Value-Based Caching in Information-Centric Wireless Body Area Networks

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Fadi M. Al-Turjman

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a resilient cache replacement approach based on a Value of sensed Information (VoI policy. To resolve and fetch content when the origin is not available due to isolated in-network nodes (fragmentation and harsh operational conditions, we exploit a content caching approach. Our approach depends on four functional parameters in sensory Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs. These four parameters are: age of data based on periodic request, popularity of on-demand requests, communication interference cost, and the duration for which the sensor node is required to operate in active mode to capture the sensed readings. These parameters are considered together to assign a value to the cached data to retain the most valuable information in the cache for prolonged time periods. The higher the value, the longer the duration for which the data will be retained in the cache. This caching strategy provides significant availability for most valuable and difficult to retrieve data in the WBANs. Extensive simulations are performed to compare the proposed scheme against other significant caching schemes in the literature while varying critical aspects in WBANs (e.g., data popularity, cache size, publisher load, connectivity-degree, and severe probabilities of node failures. These simulation results indicate that the proposed VoI-based approach is a valid tool for the retrieval of cached content in disruptive and challenging scenarios, such as the one experienced in WBANs, since it allows the retrieval of content for a long period even while experiencing severe in-network node failures.

Information Technology for Good (IT4G): Merging Information Technology with Social Responsibility

Science.gov (United States)

Saulnier, Bruce

2013-01-01

A case is made for a new approach to higher education in the 21st century, an approach in which the traditional majors are extended beyond their usual boundaries by applying one's education to address the public good. The LEAP initiative and the Learning Paradigm College are advanced as exemplars of effective 21st century educational practices,…

Current means for raising efficiency of counteraction to counterfeit goods trafficking

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Dronova O.B.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The urgency of counteraction to counterfeit goods trafficking is shown. Annual loss due to counterfeit goods producing and trafficking reaches several billion dollars. There remains a danger of buying low-quality and counterfeit goods despite implementing new producing techniques and protective elements. Measures, taken by law enforcement agencies, state authorities and public human rights organizations have not led to systematic suppression of producing and trafficking of such goods. Creation of new information and reference resource, containing information blocks of protective symbols on goods and packages and illustrated materials comprising patterns of discovered counterfeit goods, can assist to increase public awareness and to give necessary information to law enforcement agencies. Organizations, realizing state and social protection of consumers and entrepreneurs, along with producers, rightholders’ representatives and law enforcement bodies can accept the responsibility of creating and functioning this information and reference system in the Internet. Such level of cooperation of all interested organizations will allow to raise efficiency of measures for counteraction to trafficking goods with violated consumer properties. The author proves the necessity to organize functioning of information and reference resource for a wide range of users. Operation of such resource should comply with main principles of generating any information resource, notably full scale, authenticity and relevance of information. The author proposes the algorithm of creating such system which provides cooperation of law enforcement agencies, producers and consumers for the purpose of preventing counterfeit goods trafficking and investigating committed crimes.

Superintendents and Principals Need Quality Public Information That Informs Decisions, Empowers Action. Don't Make Decisions in the Dark

Science.gov (United States)

Data Quality Campaign, 2014

2014-01-01

District superintendents or school principals need to be able to access and use high-quality data to make good decisions. Often this data is collected and stored locally, but information that is publicly reported by the state can provide additional value. Although public reporting in a few states is designed to serve information needs, states'…

The Impact of Corporate Reputation and Information Sharing on Value Creation for Organizational Customers

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Žabkar Vesna

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The importance of corporate communication to build, protect and maintain corporate reputation has been advocated in numerous publications in recent years. The main goal of this paper is to provide an understanding of the impact of corporate reputation and information sharing on value creation. Both reputation and information sharing represent signals that customers observe in the process of value creation, which is seen as the end focus for corporate marketing. The paper draws on signaling theory and corporate marketing literature from the European and American schools of thought.

The theoretical foundations of value-informed pricing in the service-dominant logic of marketing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ingenbleek, P.T.M.

2014-01-01

Purpose – In the mainstream normative pricing literature, value assessment is virtually non-existent. Although the resource-based literature recognizes that pricing is a competence, value-informed pricing practices are still weakly grounded in theory. The purpose of this paper is to strengthen the

Are Australian Universities Making Good Use of ICT for CSR Reporting?

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Raquel Garde Sánchez

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The higher education system in Australia has witnessed various government initiatives that have provided funding to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR issues and thus contribute to the training of professionals with a strong sense of ethics, social values and concern for the repercussions of business activities in society. There are increasing demands from stakeholders for more transparent and more accountable information, including questions related to CSR. This paper analyses the policies and communication strategies regarding CSR information applied in Australian universities and considers whether they are making good use of information and communication technologies (ICT to facilitate interaction with stakeholders. The results show that ICT have not been considered a relevant tool in terms of improving accountability regarding CSR concerns in Australian universities, although they could represent a differentiation factor in the competitive environment of higher education.

Good mates retain us right: investigating the relationship between mate retention strategies, mate value, and relationship satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Salkicevic, Svjetlana; Stanic, Ajana L; Grabovac, Masa T

2014-12-07

Mate retention strategies are an important tool in keeping a partner, and their use is determined by the mate value (MV) of the partner one is trying to keep. The type of strategy used is also dependent on one's own MV: mates of lower MV are more prone to exhibiting strategies that are cost-inflicting for their partners, whereas partner-benefiting strategies are used by mates of higher value. The type of strategies used affects relationship satisfaction (RS), and is also affected by the perceived difference in MVs. However, it is unclear how someone's perception of their partner's MV is related to that partner's behavior and their own RS. To this aim, we investigated the relationship between these variables on a sample of 178 couples. Our results showed that benefit-inducing strategies were used more by--and towards--partners of higher MV, and were positively connected with RS. Cost-inflicting strategies were more used by--and towards--partners of lower MV, and were negatively connected with RS. Less MV difference was positively correlated with RS and benefiting strategies, and negatively correlated with cost-inflicting strategies. It seems that good mates use strategies that benefit their partners, which, in turn, make them more valuable and, consequently, their partner more satisfied.

How to derive biological information from the value of the normalization constant in allometric equations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaitaniemi, Pekka

2008-04-09

Allometric equations are widely used in many branches of biological science. The potential information content of the normalization constant b in allometric equations of the form Y = bX(a) has, however, remained largely neglected. To demonstrate the potential for utilizing this information, I generated a large number of artificial datasets that resembled those that are frequently encountered in biological studies, i.e., relatively small samples including measurement error or uncontrolled variation. The value of X was allowed to vary randomly within the limits describing different data ranges, and a was set to a fixed theoretical value. The constant b was set to a range of values describing the effect of a continuous environmental variable. In addition, a normally distributed random error was added to the values of both X and Y. Two different approaches were then used to model the data. The traditional approach estimated both a and b using a regression model, whereas an alternative approach set the exponent a at its theoretical value and only estimated the value of b. Both approaches produced virtually the same model fit with less than 0.3% difference in the coefficient of determination. Only the alternative approach was able to precisely reproduce the effect of the environmental variable, which was largely lost among noise variation when using the traditional approach. The results show how the value of b can be used as a source of valuable biological information if an appropriate regression model is selected.

19 CFR 10.531 - Originating goods.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... ARTICLES CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement... (2) The good otherwise satisfies any applicable regional value content or other requirements...

Information needs of engineers. The methodology developed by the WFEO Committee on Engineering Information and the use of value analysis for improving information services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darjoto, S.W.; Martono, A.; Michel, J.

1990-05-01

The World Federation of Engineering Organizations - WFEO - through the work of its Committee on Engineering Information, aims at improving the efficiency of engineers and particularly at developing new attitudes and practices concerning the specialized information mastering. One important part of the WFEO/CEI programme of activities during the last years and for the next years was and is devoted to a better understanding of the information needs of engineers. But also, it seems now essential to WFEO/CEI to better evaluate information services in order to correctly adapt them to the identified needs of engineers. The following communication will emphasize these two main and related perspectives: identifying the information needs of engineers; developing Value Analysis approaches for engineering information services. (author). 3 refs

Information needs of engineers. The methodology developed by the WFEO Committee on Engineering Information and the use of value analysis for improving information services

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Darjoto, S W [Indonesian Inst. of Sciences, Bandung (Indonesia); Martono, A [Indonesian Inst. of Engineers, Jakarta (Indonesia); Michel, J [Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, Paris (France)

1990-05-01

The World Federation of Engineering Organizations - WFEO - through the work of its Committee on Engineering Information, aims at improving the efficiency of engineers and particularly at developing new attitudes and practices concerning the specialized information mastering. One important part of the WFEO/CEI programme of activities during the last years and for the next years was and is devoted to a better understanding of the information needs of engineers. But also, it seems now essential to WFEO/CEI to better evaluate information services in order to correctly adapt them to the identified needs of engineers. The following communication will emphasize these two main and related perspectives: identifying the information needs of engineers; developing Value Analysis approaches for engineering information services. (author). 3 refs.

Good governance: The role of information, communication and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

For decades, the state has been considered as the sole agent of development and governance. However, since the dawn of democracy (which is considered to be the basis for good governance) in the 1980's there has been a paradigm shift in the governance process in sub-Saharan Africa. Different kinds of civil society ...

Buying stolen goods: the ambiguity in trading consumer-to-consumer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kammersgaard, Tobias; Heinskou, Marie Bruvik; Demant, Jakob

2017-01-01

This study investigates the buying of stolen goods in Denmark. The study consists of a self-report survey based on a representative sample of the general Danish population (n = 2311) and six focus group interviews consisting of both informants experienced with buying stolen goods and of those...... with no experience (n = 37). The survey showed that 4.8% had bought stolen goods, while 15.7% were uncertain whether they had bought stolen goods. Young people, males, and unemployed were more likely to purchase stolen goods. No clear correlation between income and buying stolen goods was found. Focus groups suggest...... the buyers of stolen goods did not buy stolen goods because they could not afford legitimate products. We recommend targeting consumers not interested in buying stolen goods with information about how to avoid such activity....

Governing Civil Society Organisations and Constructing the Common Good

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hein Jessen, Mathias

This paper argues that civil society is something that must be produced and constructed in order to come into existence. This construction entails a specific production of what civil society is, which values are (and should be) present in it, what the common good is and how civil society and civil...... with specific (good) values, but is at the same time instrumentalised to provide welfare services the state can and will no longer provide. Civil society, civil society organisations and the common good are not given entities, but constantly produced and mobilised in different political conjunctures....

Valuing attributes of enhanced traffic information: an experience in Kolkata

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Basu

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Most of the traffic information considers a single item like travel time or delay. In the present work, enhanced traffic information displaying instantaneous travel time and its variation from the previous interval to the present, is considered. An initial investigation is made on the effectiveness of such traffic information on route choice behavior of trip makers by valuation of attributes of the traffic information. Taking a case study of two urban corridors in the Kolkata metro city, India, the valuation is done separately for private car and taxi trip makers. The stated preference (choice based data collected from trip makers are analyzed using both multinomial logit (MNL and mixed logit (ML modeling techniques. Assuming sparsely used constrained triangular distribution of random parameters, two different types of ML model are developed: one with independent choice sets and the other one by accounting heterogeneity around the mean of random parameter(s. Both family income and trip purpose are found to decompose heterogeneity around the mean estimate(s. The values of travel time and their variation presented in the paper encourage further investigation on such type of traffic information for management of congestion on alternative urban corridors both spatially and temporally.

19 CFR 10.451 - Originating goods.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... ARTICLES CONDITIONALLY FREE, SUBJECT TO A REDUCED RATE, ETC. United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Rules... good otherwise satisfies any applicable regional value content or other requirements specified in...

The information value of early career productivity in mathematics: a ROC analysis of prediction errors in bibliometricly informed decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindahl, Jonas; Danell, Rickard

The aim of this study was to provide a framework to evaluate bibliometric indicators as decision support tools from a decision making perspective and to examine the information value of early career publication rate as a predictor of future productivity. We used ROC analysis to evaluate a bibliometric indicator as a tool for binary decision making. The dataset consisted of 451 early career researchers in the mathematical sub-field of number theory. We investigated the effect of three different definitions of top performance groups-top 10, top 25, and top 50 %; the consequences of using different thresholds in the prediction models; and the added prediction value of information on early career research collaboration and publications in prestige journals. We conclude that early career performance productivity has an information value in all tested decision scenarios, but future performance is more predictable if the definition of a high performance group is more exclusive. Estimated optimal decision thresholds using the Youden index indicated that the top 10 % decision scenario should use 7 articles, the top 25 % scenario should use 7 articles, and the top 50 % should use 5 articles to minimize prediction errors. A comparative analysis between the decision thresholds provided by the Youden index which take consequences into consideration and a method commonly used in evaluative bibliometrics which do not take consequences into consideration when determining decision thresholds, indicated that differences are trivial for the top 25 and the 50 % groups. However, a statistically significant difference between the methods was found for the top 10 % group. Information on early career collaboration and publication strategies did not add any prediction value to the bibliometric indicator publication rate in any of the models. The key contributions of this research is the focus on consequences in terms of prediction errors and the notion of transforming uncertainty

Local School Board Members Need Quality Public Information That Informs Decisions, Empowers Action. Don't Make Decisions in the Dark

Science.gov (United States)

Data Quality Campaign, 2014

2014-01-01

Local school board members need to be able to access and use high-quality data to make good decisions. Often this data is collected and stored locally, but information that is publicly reported by the state can provide additional value. Most state public reporting is designed to serve information needs, and are geared toward compliance with state…

Size, Book-to-Market Ratio and Relativity of Accounting Information Value: Empirical Research on the Chinese Listed Company

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Jing; Cheng, Siwei; Xu, Bin

Recently there are many literatures studying the effect of factors such as size or book-market ratio on fluctuation of accounting earnings, stock price or earnings respectively, but so far their affection on accounting information value relativity has been scarcely addressed. This paper presents the detail analyses of their effect of the two factors to the relativity of accounting information value respectively by taking Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets as sample. And the analyses supports the following two hypotheses, (1) The relativity of accounting information value of big size corporation is more than that of small size corporation. (2) The relativity of accounting information value of low B/M ratio corporation is more than that of low B/M ratio corporation.

Business intelligence: using insight to improve the value and performance of your practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Coan, Tim

2007-01-01

Using information to improve the value of your practice can be a great way to create leverage and improve the performance of your practice. Business intelligence (BI) is the result of a complete system that produces meaningful insights by providing the information necessary to make business decisions. Changes made from these insights improve both the performance and value of your practice. It is important to identify the key elements required of a good BI system and the areas within a practice that can directly benefit from an effective BI system.

Barriers and enablers to good communication and information-sharing practices in care planning for chronic condition management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lawn, Sharon; Delany, Toni; Sweet, Linda

2015-01-01

Our aim was to document current communication and information-sharing practices and to identify the barriers and enablers to good practices within the context of care planning for chronic condition management. Further aims were to make recommendations about how changes to policy and practice can ......, and the expectation of collaborative and effective communication of care that underpins it, within their practice with patients and all members of the care team. To assist in meeting these aims, we make several recommendations....... as a communication and information-sharing tool may be achieved through practice initiatives that reflect the rhetoric of collaborative person-centred care, which is already supported through existing policy in Australia. General practitioners and other primary care providers should operationalise care planning...

49 CFR 218.97 - Good faith challenge procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Good faith challenge procedures. 218.97 Section... Derails § 218.97 Good faith challenge procedures. (a) Employee responsibility. An employee shall inform the railroad or employer whenever the employee makes a good faith determination that the employee has...

Forest landowner decisions and the value of information under fire risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregory S. Amacher; Arun S. Malik; Robert G. Haight

2005-01-01

We estimate the value of three types of information about fire risk to a nonindustrial forest landowner: the relationship between fire arrival rates and stand age, the magnitude of fire arrival rates, and the efficacy of fuel reduction treatment. Our model incorporates planting density and the level and timing of fuel reduction treatment as landowner decisions. These...

Public cultural property: Some reflections on its evaluation and the role of information.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. FORTE

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The paper firstly deals with the main theories of prices of visual art goods considering, in particular, the “stars”. whose high value reflects the rarity and the convexity of the demand by the main purchasers, interested in “famous” goods. The contingent valuation methodology is also discussed. The second section presents an art market matrix focusing on the assets’ value. The role of information, regulations and purchasing power for the art market values is discussed, on the basis of statistical analysis of the auction prices of the “informal art” and of the “pop art” of US authors compared with Europeans and Italians. In the third section a diffusion index is presented and used to test the influence of “information” on the art market value. It is argued that certification may improve both the information and economic appreciation of the works of the great Italian masters.

Quest for a good life: spiritual values, life goals, and college students.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Kaili Chen; Yu, Esther Dawen

2014-03-01

Values and life goals are associated with one's general well-being and quality of life. However, there is insufficient documentation about issues that are linked with the notions of spiritual values and life goals among college students in Asia. This study addressed this lack of research by focusing on the spiritual values and life goals among students in Singapore. Four hundred and ninety structured surveys and 64 follow-up interviews were taken in two government-sponsored universities in Singapore. Statistics showed that spiritual values were positively correlated with intrinsic goals, which had been shown to strongly relate to subjective well-being (SWB). Developing spiritual values may promote subjective well-being by enabling college students to find meaning and purpose in life. Copyright © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Creating Value for Customer in Business Networks of High-Tech Goods Manufacturers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Wiechoczek

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The main paper goal is to recognize the category of value for customer with respect to high-tech products, and to propose a model of creation of this value in business networks established by manufacturers. The research methods include critical analysis of the literature, documentation method, as well as the case research method and observation method. The results of the research proved that the value offered to buyers is characterized by growing multidimensionality which results in increasing complexity of the creation process of this value by their manufacturers. Due to the fact that they do not have complex skills and resources to create the value independently, they form business networks. These networks include increasingly larger group of entities, in which the importance of individual cooperants is highly diversified.

The role of value-informed pricing in market-oriented product innovation management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ingenbleek, P.; Frambach, R.T.; Verhallen, T.M.M.

2010-01-01

Although the positive effect of a market orientation on new product success is widely accepted and the market orientation literature has increased its understanding of how a market orientation leads to performance, the extant literature has overlooked the role of value-informed pricing in the

The Role of Value-Informed Pricing in Market-Oriented Product Innovation Management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ingenbleek, P.T.M.; Frambach, R.T.; Verhallen, Th.M.M.

2010-01-01

Although the positive effect of a market orientation on new product success is widely accepted and the market orientation literature has increased its understanding of how a market orientation leads to performance, the extant literature has overlooked the role of value-informed pricing in the

The Economic Value of Fundamental and Technical Information in Emerging Currency Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G.J. de Zwart (Gerben); T.D. Markwat (Thijs); L.A.P. Swinkels (Laurens); D.J.C. van Dijk (Dick)

2007-01-01

textabstractWe measure the economic value of information derived from macroeconomic variables and from technical trading rules for emerging markets currency investments. Our analysis is based on a sample of 21 emerging markets with a floating exchange rate regime over the period 1997-2007 and

Applying an expectancy-value model to study motivators for work-task based information seeking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sigaard, Karen Tølbøl; Skov, Mette

2015-01-01

on the theory of expectancy-value and on the operationalisation used when the model was first developed. Data for the analysis were collected from a sample of seven informants working as consultants in Danish municipalities. Each participant filled out a questionnaire, kept a log book for a week...... for interpersonal and internal sources increased when the task had high-value motivation or low-expectancy motivation or both. Research limitations/implications: The study is based on a relatively small sample and considers only one motivation theory. This should be addressed in future research along...... with a broadening of the studied group to involve other professions than municipality consultants. Originality/value: Motivational theories from the field of psychology have been used sparsely in studies of information seeking. This study operationalises and verifies such a theory based on a theoretical adaptation...

Interactive effects of carbon footprint information and its accessibility on value and subjective qualities of food products.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, Atsushi; Wada, Yuji; Kamada, Akiko; Masuda, Tomohiro; Okamoto, Masako; Goto, Sho-ichi; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Cai, Dongsheng; Oka, Takashi; Dan, Ippeita

2010-10-01

We aimed to explore the interactive effects of the accessibility of information and the degree of carbon footprint score on consumers' value judgments of food products. Participants (n=151, undergraduate students in Japan) rated their maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for four food products varying in information accessibility (active-search or read-only conditions) and in carbon footprint values (low, middle, high, or non-display) provided. We also assessed further effects of information accessibly and carbon footprint value on other product attributes utilizing the subjective estimation of taste, quality, healthiness, and environmental friendliness. Results of the experiment demonstrated an interactive effect of information accessibility and the degree of carbon emission on consumer valuation of carbon footprint-labeled food. The carbon footprint value had a stronger impact on participants' WTP in the active-search condition than in the read-only condition. Similar to WTP, the results of the subjective ratings for product qualities also exhibited an interactive effect of the two factors on the rating of environmental friendliness for products. These results imply that the perceived environmental friendliness inferable from a carbon footprint label contributes to creating value for a food product.

Reflexion on linear regression trip production modelling method for ensuring good model quality

Science.gov (United States)

Suprayitno, Hitapriya; Ratnasari, Vita

2017-11-01

Transport Modelling is important. For certain cases, the conventional model still has to be used, in which having a good trip production model is capital. A good model can only be obtained from a good sample. Two of the basic principles of a good sampling is having a sample capable to represent the population characteristics and capable to produce an acceptable error at a certain confidence level. It seems that this principle is not yet quite understood and used in trip production modeling. Therefore, investigating the Trip Production Modelling practice in Indonesia and try to formulate a better modeling method for ensuring the Model Quality is necessary. This research result is presented as follows. Statistics knows a method to calculate span of prediction value at a certain confidence level for linear regression, which is called Confidence Interval of Predicted Value. The common modeling practice uses R2 as the principal quality measure, the sampling practice varies and not always conform to the sampling principles. An experiment indicates that small sample is already capable to give excellent R2 value and sample composition can significantly change the model. Hence, good R2 value, in fact, does not always mean good model quality. These lead to three basic ideas for ensuring good model quality, i.e. reformulating quality measure, calculation procedure, and sampling method. A quality measure is defined as having a good R2 value and a good Confidence Interval of Predicted Value. Calculation procedure must incorporate statistical calculation method and appropriate statistical tests needed. A good sampling method must incorporate random well distributed stratified sampling with a certain minimum number of samples. These three ideas need to be more developed and tested.

Value of information in sequential decision making: Component inspection, permanent monitoring and system-level scheduling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Memarzadeh, Milad; Pozzi, Matteo

2016-01-01

We illustrate how to assess the Value of Information (VoI) in sequential decision making problems modeled by Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs). POMDPs provide a general framework for modeling the management of infrastructure components, including operation and maintenance, when only partial or noisy observations are available; VoI is a key concept for selecting explorative actions, with application to component inspection and monitoring. Furthermore, component-level VoI can serve as an effective heuristic for assigning priorities to system-level inspection scheduling. We introduce two alternative models for the availability of information, and derive the VoI in each of those settings: the Stochastic Allocation (SA) model assumes that observations are collected with a given probability, while the Fee-based Allocation model (FA) assumes that they are available at a given cost. After presenting these models at component-level, we investigate how they perform for system-level inspection scheduling. - Highlights: • On the Value of Information in POMDPs, for optimal exploration of systems. • A method for assessing the Value of Information of permanent monitoring. • A method for allocating inspections in systems made up by parallel POMDPs.

Measuring value for money: a scoping review on economic evaluation of health information systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Bassi, Jesdeep; Lau, Francis

2013-01-01

To explore how key components of economic evaluations have been included in evaluations of health information systems (HIS), to determine the state of knowledge on value for money for HIS, and provide guidance for future evaluations. We searched databases, previously collected papers, and references for relevant papers published from January 2000 to June 2012. For selection, papers had to: be a primary study; involve a computerized system for health information processing, decision support, or management reporting; and include an economic evaluation. Data on study design and economic evaluation methods were extracted and analyzed. Forty-two papers were selected and 33 were deemed high quality (scores ≥ 8/10) for further analysis. These included 12 economic analyses, five input cost analyses, and 16 cost-related outcome analyses. For HIS types, there were seven primary care electronic medical records, six computerized provider order entry systems, five medication management systems, five immunization information systems, four institutional information systems, three disease management systems, two clinical documentation systems, and one health information exchange network. In terms of value for money, 23 papers reported positive findings, eight were inconclusive, and two were negative. We found a wide range of economic evaluation papers that were based on different assumptions, methods, and metrics. There is some evidence of value for money in selected healthcare organizations and HIS types. However, caution is needed when generalizing these findings. Better reporting of economic evaluation studies is needed to compare findings and build on the existing evidence base we identified.

RESEARCH Voluntary informed consent and good clinical practice ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

of South Africa (1996) and applicable legislation, it is apparent that voluntary informed ... Seoul, 2008);4 Ethics in Health Research: Principles, Structures and. Processes (Department of Health 2004 – 'ethical guidelines' for the purpose of this ... workers have a legal duty to obtain a patient's informed consent for any medical ...

p-values for model evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beaujean, F.; Caldwell, A.; Kollar, D.; Kroeninger, K.

2011-01-01

Deciding whether a model provides a good description of data is often based on a goodness-of-fit criterion summarized by a p-value. Although there is considerable confusion concerning the meaning of p-values, leading to their misuse, they are nevertheless of practical importance in common data analysis tasks. We motivate their application using a Bayesian argumentation. We then describe commonly and less commonly known discrepancy variables and how they are used to define p-values. The distribution of these are then extracted for examples modeled on typical data analysis tasks, and comments on their usefulness for determining goodness-of-fit are given.

Effective information flow through efficient supply chain management - Value stream mapping approach Case Outokumpu Tornio Works

OpenAIRE

Juvonen, Piia

2012-01-01

ABSTRACT Juvonen, Piia Suvi Päivikki 2012. Effective information flow through efficient supply chain management -Value stream mapping approach - Case Outokumpu Tornio Works. Master`s Thesis. Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences. Business and Culture. Pages 63. Appendices 2. The general aim of this thesis is to explore effective information flow through efficient supply chain management by following one of the lean management principles, value stream mapping. The specific research...

Good practices for improved nuclear power plant performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1989-04-01

This report provides an overview of operational principles, practice and improvements which have contributed to good performance of eight selected world nuclear power stations. The IAEA Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) was used to identify a population of good performers. It is recognized that there are many other good performing nuclear power stations not included in this report. Specific criteria described in the introduction were used in selecting these eight stations. The information contained in this report was obtained by the staff from IAEA, Division of Nuclear Power. This was accomplished by visits to the stations and visits to a number of utility support groups and three independent organizations which provide support to more than one utility. The information in this report is intended as an aid for operating organizations to identify possible improvement initiatives to enhance plant performance. Figs and tabs

Pricing Digital Goods: Discontinuous Costs and Shared Infrastructure

OpenAIRE

Ke-Wei Huang; Arun Sundararajan

2006-01-01

We develop and analyze a model of pricing for digital products with discontinuous supply functions. This characterizes a number of information technology-based products and services for which variable increases in demand are fulfilled by the addition of "blocks" of computing or network infrastructure. Examples include internet service, telephony, online trading, on-demand software, digital music, streamed video-on-demand and grid computing. These goods are often modeled as information goods w...

Narrating the Good Life: Illuminations.

Science.gov (United States)

Suoranta, Juha

2000-01-01

The conception of the good life in theoretical texts and adult learners' written narratives depicts well-being in terms of aesthetic experiences, values, existential experiences, autonomy, and significant others. Future prospects for adult education as legislative practice, as therapy and as commitment are derived from the discussion. (SK)

Value-based choice: An integrative, neuroscience-informed model of health goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Berkman, Elliot T

2018-01-01

Traditional models of health behaviour focus on the roles of cognitive, personality and social-cognitive constructs (e.g. executive function, grit, self-efficacy), and give less attention to the process by which these constructs interact in the moment that a health-relevant choice is made. Health psychology needs a process-focused account of how various factors are integrated to produce the decisions that determine health behaviour. I present an integrative value-based choice model of health behaviour, which characterises the mechanism by which a variety of factors come together to determine behaviour. This model imports knowledge from research on behavioural economics and neuroscience about how choices are made to the study of health behaviour, and uses that knowledge to generate novel predictions about how to change health behaviour. I describe anomalies in value-based choice that can be exploited for health promotion, and review neuroimaging evidence about the involvement of midline dopamine structures in tracking and integrating value-related information during choice. I highlight how this knowledge can bring insights to health psychology using illustrative case of healthy eating. Value-based choice is a viable model for health behaviour and opens new avenues for mechanism-focused intervention.

Does the Model of Evaluation Based on Fair Value Answer the Requests of Financial Information Users?

OpenAIRE

Mitea Neluta; Sarac Aldea Laura

2010-01-01

Does the model of evaluation based on the fair value answers the requests of the financial information users? The financial situations have as purposes the presentation of the information concerning the enterprise financial position, the performances and modifications of this position which, according to IASB and FASB, must be credible and useful. Both referential maintain the existence of several conventions regarding assessment, like historical cost, actual cost, the realizable value or act...

Attenuating initial beliefs: Increasing the acceptance of anthropogenic climate change information by reflecting on values

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Prooijen, A.M.; Sparks, P.

2014-01-01

Anthropogenic climate change information tends to be interpreted against the backdrop of initial environmental beliefs, which can lead to some people being resistant toward the information. In this article (N = 88), we examined whether self-affirmation via reflection on personally important values

77 FR 48504 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Economic Value of Puerto Rico's Coral Reef...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-14

... Collection; Comment Request; Economic Value of Puerto Rico's Coral Reef Ecosystems for Recreation-Tourism... the market and non-market economic values of Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems. Estimates will be... Puerto Rico's coral reef ecosystems. The required information is to conduct focus groups to help in...

75 FR 16719 - Information Collection; Forest Landscape Value and Special Place Mapping for National Forest...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-02

... Collection; Forest Landscape Value and Special Place Mapping for National Forest Planning AGENCY: Forest... on the new information collection, Forest Landscape Value and Special Place Mapping for National Forest Planning. DATES: Comments must be received in writing on or before June 1, 2010 to be assured of...

Personal Values, Social Capital, and Higher Education Student Career Decidedness: A New "Protean"-Informed Model

Science.gov (United States)

Fearon, Colm; Nachmias, Stefanos; McLaughlin, Heather; Jackson, Stephen

2018-01-01

This study investigates the role of personal values as motivational antecedents for understanding higher education (HE) student career decidedness among university business school (UBS) students. We propose a new "protean"-informed HE student career decidedness model for theorizing how both personal values and social capital mediators…

Consumer Right to Information before Purchase: Research on the Romanian Online Stores for Technical Consumer Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen Balan

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The goal of the present paper is to evaluate the status of the protection of consumer right to information before the purchase from Romanian online stores. The perspective focuses on technical consumer goods. The research pursued two major objectives. The former consisted in analysing the compliance of the online stores with the provisions of article 6 paragraph 1 of the Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, relative to the information provided to potential buyers before the purchase. The latter was to identify the consumer awareness of the rights stipulated by article 6 of the directive, as well as to study the opinions of consumers relative to the information that online stores are compelled to supply before purchase. The first objective was accomplished by applying the content analysis method to the information available on the Web for a sample of 100 online stores. The second objective was achieved through the survey method on a sample of 351 persons from the 25 to 34 age group, residing in Bucharest. Compared to other studies, the major contributions of the present research approach are the following: the investigation of an extensive sample of online stores; the wider range of products; the focus on both online stores and consumers. The results show that improvements are needed in the level of compliance and in the consumer awareness of own rights.

Testing the Value of Information of Climate Change Indicators that use Earth Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Kenney, M. A.

2012-12-01

. Such a result would mean that the indicator has a negative value of information. Granted the value of information depends on the intended audience(s), with some groups being able to understand and want more technically sophisticated and detailed information presented as an indicator. However, if the goal of an indicator is to provide information to a wide range of groups, it is essential to assure that these groups have a correct understanding of the indicator, its assumptions, and the ability to use the indicator (as presented or modified) for decision-making contexts. In this talk, I will present the preliminary results of a study that is testing the value of information of a range of climate change indicators, and I will focus on indicators that use earth observations. Such results contribute to a richer understanding of the value of information of indicators, and can shape the development of both individual indicators and systems of indicators, such as the development of the indicator system for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, National Climate Assessment.

Good leadership for good quality

OpenAIRE

Franzon, Vilma Maria

2016-01-01

Good leadership is important if you like to have high quality in the results. My experience in the production of the television industry is that conditions for good leadership is insufficient. Therefore, I have tried to get answers for those two questions in my exam report: What are the characteristics of good leadership? What are the prerequisites for good leadership out of production? The method I used is a literature study and observation. I have read a number of books and research studies...

Fourier analysis and boundary value problems

CERN Document Server

Gonzalez-Velasco, Enrique A

1996-01-01

Fourier Analysis and Boundary Value Problems provides a thorough examination of both the theory and applications of partial differential equations and the Fourier and Laplace methods for their solutions. Boundary value problems, including the heat and wave equations, are integrated throughout the book. Written from a historical perspective with extensive biographical coverage of pioneers in the field, the book emphasizes the important role played by partial differential equations in engineering and physics. In addition, the author demonstrates how efforts to deal with these problems have lead to wonderfully significant developments in mathematics.A clear and complete text with more than 500 exercises, Fourier Analysis and Boundary Value Problems is a good introduction and a valuable resource for those in the field.Key Features* Topics are covered from a historical perspective with biographical information on key contributors to the field* The text contains more than 500 exercises* Includes practical applicati...

Value of Information Analysis Applied to the Economic Evaluation of Interventions Aimed at Reducing Juvenile Delinquency: An Illustration.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hester V Eeren

Full Text Available To investigate whether a value of information analysis, commonly applied in health care evaluations, is feasible and meaningful in the field of crime prevention.Interventions aimed at reducing juvenile delinquency are increasingly being evaluated according to their cost-effectiveness. Results of cost-effectiveness models are subject to uncertainty in their cost and effect estimates. Further research can reduce that parameter uncertainty. The value of such further research can be estimated using a value of information analysis, as illustrated in the current study. We built upon an earlier published cost-effectiveness model that demonstrated the comparison of two interventions aimed at reducing juvenile delinquency. Outcomes were presented as costs per criminal activity free year.At a societal willingness-to-pay of €71,700 per criminal activity free year, further research to eliminate parameter uncertainty was valued at €176 million. Therefore, in this illustrative analysis, the value of information analysis determined that society should be willing to spend a maximum of €176 million in reducing decision uncertainty in the cost-effectiveness of the two interventions. Moreover, the results suggest that reducing uncertainty in some specific model parameters might be more valuable than in others.Using a value of information framework to assess the value of conducting further research in the field of crime prevention proved to be feasible. The results were meaningful and can be interpreted according to health care evaluation studies. This analysis can be helpful in justifying additional research funds to further inform the reimbursement decision in regard to interventions for juvenile delinquents.

Can values drive value for sustainable business? : An analyzing and interpreting case study of Konsum Värmland Value-creation

OpenAIRE

Zetterberg, Madeleine

2007-01-01

Abstract Historically, value was believed to be created and embedded in the manufacturing process, implying that companies were the creators of value. Conversely, the notion of value-creation changed during the last decades and has implemented the customer orientation and service centred view. Instead, researchers currently believe that companies only can offer value-propositions, which means that value is to be created by the customers. Services and goods are much about values and identity t...

Intuitive theories of information: beliefs about the value of redundancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Soll, J B

1999-03-01

In many situations, quantity estimates from multiple experts or diagnostic instruments must be collected and combined. Normatively, and all else equal, one should value information sources that are nonredundant, in the sense that correlation in forecast errors should be minimized. Past research on the preference for redundancy has been inconclusive. While some studies have suggested that people correctly place higher value on uncorrelated inputs when collecting estimates, others have shown that people either ignore correlation or, in some cases, even prefer it. The present experiments show that the preference for redundancy depends on one's intuitive theory of information. The most common intuitive theory identified is the Error Tradeoff Model (ETM), which explicitly distinguishes between measurement error and bias. According to ETM, measurement error can only be averaged out by consulting the same source multiple times (normatively false), and bias can only be averaged out by consulting different sources (normatively true). As a result, ETM leads people to prefer redundant estimates when the ratio of measurement error to bias is relatively high. Other participants favored different theories. Some adopted the normative model, while others were reluctant to mathematically average estimates from different sources in any circumstance. In a post hoc analysis, science majors were more likely than others to subscribe to the normative model. While tentative, this result lends insight into how intuitive theories might develop and also has potential ramifications for how statistical concepts such as correlation might best be learned and internalized. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

A Comparative Analysis of the Value of Information in a Continuous Time Market Model with Partial Information: The Cases of Log-Utility and CRRA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaojun Yang

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We study the question what value an agent in a generalized Black-Scholes model with partial information attributes to the complementary information. To do this, we study the utility maximization problems from terminal wealth for the two cases partial information and full information. We assume that the drift term of the risky asset is a dynamic process of general linear type and that the two levels of observation correspond to whether this drift term is observable or not. Applying methods from stochastic filtering theory we derive an analytical tractable formula for the value of information in the case of logarithmic utility. For the case of constant relative risk aversion (CRRA we derive a semianalytical formula, which uses as an input the numerical solution of a system of ODEs. For both cases we present a comparative analysis.

Essays on Information Technology and Value Creation: Corporate Governance, Software Firm Acquisitions, and Entrepreneurial Signaling

Science.gov (United States)

Bandodkar, Nikhil Ramkrishna

2017-01-01

Value creation is often at the core of many organizational activities and is often reflected in the exploration and exploitation of opportunities to foster organizational growth. In modern organizations, information technology (IT) plays a significant role in creating business value and building substantial competitive advantage. While in the…

20 CFR 416.1216 - Exclusion of household goods and personal effects.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... value or as an investment because we do not consider these to be personal effects. Such items can... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Exclusion of household goods and personal... household goods and personal effects. (a) Household goods. (1) We do not count household goods as a resource...

Value of information analysis from a societal perspective: a case study in prevention of major depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohseninejad, Leyla; van Baal, Pieter H M; van den Berg, Matthijs; Buskens, Erik; Feenstra, Talitha

2013-06-01

Productivity losses usually have a considerable impact on cost-effectiveness estimates while their estimated values are often relatively uncertain. Therefore, parameters related to these indirect costs play a role in setting priorities for future research from a societal perspective. Until now, however, value of information analyses have usually applied a health care perspective for economic evaluations. Hence, the effect of productivity losses has rarely been investigated in such analyses. The aim of the current study therefore was to investigate the effects of including or excluding productivity costs in value of information analyses. Expected value of information analysis (EVPI) was performed in cost-effectiveness evaluation of prevention from both societal and health care perspectives, to give us the opportunity to compare different perspectives. Priorities for future research were determined by partial EVPI. The program to prevent major depression in patients with subthreshold depression was opportunistic screening followed by minimal contact psychotherapy. The EVPI indicated that regardless of perspective, further research is potentially worthwhile. Partial EVPI results underlined the importance of productivity losses when a societal perspective was considered. Furthermore, priority setting for future research differed according to perspective. The results illustrated that advise for future research will differ for a health care versus a societal perspective and hence the value of information analysis should be adjusted to the perspective that is relevant for the decision makers involved. The outcomes underlined the need for carefully choosing the suitable perspective for the decision problem at hand. Copyright © 2013 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The added value of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in the production of radiopharmaceuticals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerrits, Edwin; Woerdenbag, Herman; Luurtsema, Geert; de Hooge, Marjolijn; Boersma, Hendrikus

2017-01-01

Manufacturers of medicinal products including radiopharmaceuticals have to follow regulations from their governmental organizations as well as professional societies to ensure built-in quality combined with patient safety issues. This chapter is a concise review of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)

Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES): using GIS to include social values information in ecosystem services assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Sherrouse, B.C.; Semmens, D.J.

2010-01-01

Ecosystem services can be defined in various ways; simply put, they are the benefits provided by nature, which contribute to human well-being. These benefits can range from tangible products such as food and fresh water to cultural services such as recreation and esthetics. As the use of these benefits continues to increase, additional pressures are placed on the natural ecosystems providing them. This makes it all the more important when assessing possible tradeoffs among ecosystem services to consider the human attitudes and preferences that express underlying social values associated with their benefits. While some of these values can be accounted for through economic markets, other values can be more difficult to quantify, and attaching dollar amounts to them may not be very useful in all cases. Regardless of the processes or units used for quantifying such values, the ability to map them across the landscape and relate them to the ecosystem services to which they are attributed is necessary for effective assessments. To address some of the needs associated with quantifying and mapping social values for inclusion in ecosystem services assessments, scientists at the Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC), in collaboration with Colorado State University, have developed a public domain tool, Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES). SolVES is a geographic information system (GIS) application designed to use data from public attitude and preference surveys to assess, map, and quantify social values for ecosystem services. SolVES calculates and maps a 10-point Value Index representing the relative perceived social values of ecosystem services such as recreation and biodiversity for various groups of ecosystem stakeholders. SolVES output can also be used to identify and model relationships between social values and physical characteristics of the underlying landscape. These relationships can then be used to generate predicted Value Index maps for areas

What is a Good Piece of Information Systems Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vendelø, Morten Thanning

2004-01-01

Keywords: Epistemology, field formation, information systems research, paradigms, research fields.......Keywords: Epistemology, field formation, information systems research, paradigms, research fields....

Designing the Monitoring of Water-Related Sustainable Development Goals Based on Value of Information

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, R. S.; Levy, M. A.; de Sherbinin, A. M.; Fischer, A.

2015-12-01

The proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an unprecedented international commitment to collective action and targeted interventions at global, regional, and national scales. Existing monitoring and data infrastructures are inadequate for producing the variety of environmental and socioeconomic information needed to ensure efficient and effective outcomes across the range of interlinked SDGs and targets. The scientific community needs to take a lead in developing new tools and approaches that, at reasonable cost, provide monitoring data of sufficient quality and spatial and temporal coverage to support informed decision making by diverse stakeholders. The expanded SDGs related to water offer the opportunity to explore potential new monitoring approaches and data system architectures in a key sector, building on existing water monitoring capabilities and incorporating new technologies and methods. Since additional investments in monitoring will undoubtedly be limited, it is important to assess carefully the value of information produced by different options and their associated risks and tradeoffs. We review here the existing set of water monitoring systems, known gaps and limitations, stakeholder inputs on data needs, and the potential value of information in light of alternative water sector interventions. Of particular interest are opportunities to share investments in monitoring across sectors and stakeholders (e.g., public and private entities) and to identify where incremental improvements in water monitoring could have significant benefits for other SDGs (e.g., related to health, energy, agriculture, and climate change). Value of information is also driven by the numbers of people affected by decisions or able to take advantage of improved data, which implies the need not only to collect and archive data, but also to invest in making data accessible and usable to diverse and geographically dispersed users.

On the Value of Monitoring Information for the Structural Integrity and Risk Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thöns, Sebastian

2018-01-01

facilitates the assessment of the value of information associated with SHM. The principal approach for the quantification of the value of SHM is formulated by modeling the fundamental decision of performing SHM or not in conjunction with their expected utilities. The expected utilities are calculated....... The calculation of the expected utilities necessitates a comprehensive and rigorous modeling, which is introduced close to the original formulations and for which analysis characteristics and simplifications are described and derived. The framework provides the basis for the optimization of the structural risk......This article introduces an approach and framework for the quantification of the value of structural health monitoring (SHM) in the context of the structural risk and integrity management for systems.The quantification of the value of SHM builds upon the Bayesian decision and utility theory, which...

Good Mathematics Teaching from Mexican High School Students' Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez-Sierra, Gustavo

2014-01-01

This paper reports a qualitative research that identifies the characteristics of good mathematics teaching from the perspective of Mexican high school students. For this purpose, the social representations of a good mathematics teacher and a good mathematics class were identified in a group of 67 students. In order to obtain information, a…

Value of information and pricing new healthcare interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Willan, Andrew R; Eckermann, Simon

2012-06-01

Previous application of value-of-information methods to optimal clinical trial design have predominantly taken a societal decision-making perspective, implicitly assuming that healthcare costs are covered through public expenditure and trial research is funded by government or donation-based philanthropic agencies. In this paper, we consider the interaction between interrelated perspectives of a societal decision maker (e.g. the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [NICE] in the UK) charged with the responsibility for approving new health interventions for reimbursement and the company that holds the patent for a new intervention. We establish optimal decision making from societal and company perspectives, allowing for trade-offs between the value and cost of research and the price of the new intervention. Given the current level of evidence, there exists a maximum (threshold) price acceptable to the decision maker. Submission for approval with prices above this threshold will be refused. Given the current level of evidence and the decision maker's threshold price, there exists a minimum (threshold) price acceptable to the company. If the decision maker's threshold price exceeds the company's, then current evidence is sufficient since any price between the thresholds is acceptable to both. On the other hand, if the decision maker's threshold price is lower than the company's, then no price is acceptable to both and the company's optimal strategy is to commission additional research. The methods are illustrated using a recent example from the literature.

What makes a good home-based nocturnal seizure detector? A value sensitive design.

Science.gov (United States)

van Andel, Judith; Leijten, Frans; van Delden, Hans; van Thiel, Ghislaine

2015-01-01

A device for the in-home detection of nocturnal seizures is currently being developed in the Netherlands, to improve care for patients with severe epilepsy. It is recognized that the design of medical technology is not value neutral: perspectives of users and developers are influential in design, and design choices influence these perspectives. However, during development processes, these influences are generally ignored and value-related choices remain implicit and poorly argued for. In the development process of the seizure detector we aimed to take values of all stakeholders into consideration. Therefore, we performed a parallel ethics study, using "value sensitive design." Analysis of stakeholder communication (in meetings and e-mail messages) identified five important values, namely, health, trust, autonomy, accessibility, and reliability. Stakeholders were then asked to give feedback on the choice of these values and how they should be interpreted. In a next step, the values were related to design choices relevant for the device, and then the consequences (risks and benefits) of these choices were investigated. Currently the process of design and testing of the device is still ongoing. The device will be validated in a trial in which the identified consequences of design choices are measured as secondary endpoints. Value sensitive design methodology is feasible for the development of new medical technology and can help designers substantiate the choices in their design.

Correlationally Assessing the Relationship of Information Technology Investments in Electronic Medical Records to Business Value

Science.gov (United States)

Richardson, Daniel J.

2009-01-01

The lag in information exchange and assimilation adoption experienced by modern primary care physicians in the conduct of evidence based medicine may be affecting health care system productivity and patient quality of care. Further, interest in whether or not information technology (IT) investments show an increase in business value has increased…

What do UK doctors in training value in a post? A discrete choice experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cleland, Jennifer; Johnston, Peter; Watson, Verity; Krucien, Nicolas; Skåtun, Diane

2016-02-01

Many individual and job-related factors are known to influence medical careers decision making. Medical trainees' (residents) views of which characteristics of a training post are important to them have been extensively studied but how they trade-off these characteristics is under-researched. Such information is crucial for the development of effective policies to enhance recruitment and retention. Our aim was to investigate the strength of UK foundation doctors' and trainees' preferences for training post characteristics in terms of monetary value. We used an online questionnaire study incorporating a discrete choice experiment (DCE), distributed to foundation programme doctors and doctors in training across all specialty groups within three UK regions, in August-October 2013. The main outcome measures were monetary values for training-post characteristics, based on willingness to forgo and willingness to accept extra income for a change in each job characteristic, calculated from regression coefficients. The questionnaire was answered by 1323 trainees. Good working conditions were the most influential characteristics of a training position. Trainee doctors would need to be compensated by an additional 49.8% above the average earnings within their specialty to move from a post with good working conditions to one with poor working conditions. A training post with limited rather than good opportunities for one's spouse or partner would require compensation of 38.4% above the average earnings within their specialty. Trainees would require compensation of 30.8% above the average earnings within their specialty to move from a desirable to a less desirable locality. These preferences varied only to a limited extent according to individual characteristics. Trainees place most value on good working conditions, good opportunities for their partners and desirable geographical location when making career-related decisions. This intelligence can be used to develop alternative

Are value of information methods ready for prime time? An application to alternative treatment strategies for NSTEMI patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Kent, Seamus; Briggs, Andrew; Eckermann, Simon; Berry, Colin

2013-10-01

The use of value of information methods to inform trial design has been widely advocated but there have been few empirical applications of these methods and there is little evidence they are widely used in decision making. This study considers the usefulness of value of information models in the context of a real clinical decision problem relating to alternative diagnostic strategies for patients with a recent non-ST elevated myocardial infarction. A pretrial economic model is constructed to consider the cost-effectiveness of two competing strategies: coronary angiography alone or in conjunction with fractional flow reserve measurement. A closed-form solution to the expected benefits of information is used with optimal sample size estimated for a range of models reflecting increasingly realistic assumptions and alternative decision contexts. Fractional flow reserve measurement is expected to be cost-effective with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of GBP 1,621, however, there is considerable uncertainty in this estimate and consequently a large expected value to reducing this uncertainty via a trial. The recommended sample size is strongly affected by the reality of the assumptions of the expected value of information (EVI) model and the decision context. Value of information models can provide a simple and flexible approach to clinical trial design and are more consistent with the constraints and objectives of the healthcare system than traditional frequentist approaches. However, the variation in sample size estimates demonstrates that it is essential that appropriate model parameters and decision contexts are used in their application.

GoodWork after 15 Years

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knoop, Hans Henrik

2010-01-01

Hans Henrik Knoop explores ways in which the core ideas of the GoodWork theoretical framework can be related to ongoing issues of import. In particular, he analyzes the ways in which democratic values are at risk when conditions of alignment do not obtain-for example, when the state explicitly...... that are crucial to a democratic polity....

New Thoughts of Customer Value Study

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Hong; Su, Zhuqing

Customer value theory's discovery has established to take customer and even customer value as the center position for research of marketing, which is good progress of marketing theory. However, in the past researches for customer value emphasized customer perceived value, there was no good answer on which customers perceived with what scale. This paper states that customer perceived value is established in value transmission mechanism of its rear, which is based on the role of consumption values. With a market environment's change, and the strength of consumer's sovereignty consciousness, especially when personal consumption is identified and developed to become a mainstream consume culture in nowadays society, the role of the transmission is increasingly in evidence. Studies of consumeption values are to deepen customer value theory.

Teach It, Don’t Preach It: The Differential Effects of Directly-communicated and Self-generated Utility Value Information

Science.gov (United States)

Canning, Elizabeth A.; Harackiewicz, Judith M.

2015-01-01

Social-psychological interventions in education have used a variety of “self-persuasion” or “saying-is-believing” techniques to encourage students to articulate key intervention messages. These techniques are used in combination with more overt strategies, such as the direct communication of messages in order to promote attitude change. However, these different strategies have rarely been systematically compared, particularly in controlled laboratory settings. We focus on one intervention based in expectancy-value theory designed to promote perceptions of utility value in the classroom and test different intervention techniques to promote interest and performance. Across three laboratory studies, we used a mental math learning paradigm in which we varied whether students wrote about utility value for themselves or received different forms of directly-communicated information about the utility value of a novel mental math technique. In Study 1, we examined the difference between directly-communicated and self-generated utility-value information and found that directly-communicated utility-value information undermined performance and interest for individuals who lacked confidence, but that self-generated utility had positive effects. However, Study 2 suggests that these negative effects of directly-communicated utility value can be ameliorated when participants are also given the chance to generate their own examples of utility value, revealing a synergistic effect of directly-communicated and self-generated utility value. In Study 3, we found that individuals who lacked confidence benefited more when everyday examples of utility value were communicated, rather than career and school examples. PMID:26495326

Teach It, Don't Preach It: The Differential Effects of Directly-communicated and Self-generated Utility Value Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Canning, Elizabeth A; Harackiewicz, Judith M

2015-03-01

Social-psychological interventions in education have used a variety of "self-persuasion" or "saying-is-believing" techniques to encourage students to articulate key intervention messages. These techniques are used in combination with more overt strategies, such as the direct communication of messages in order to promote attitude change. However, these different strategies have rarely been systematically compared, particularly in controlled laboratory settings. We focus on one intervention based in expectancy-value theory designed to promote perceptions of utility value in the classroom and test different intervention techniques to promote interest and performance. Across three laboratory studies, we used a mental math learning paradigm in which we varied whether students wrote about utility value for themselves or received different forms of directly-communicated information about the utility value of a novel mental math technique. In Study 1, we examined the difference between directly-communicated and self-generated utility-value information and found that directly-communicated utility-value information undermined performance and interest for individuals who lacked confidence, but that self-generated utility had positive effects. However, Study 2 suggests that these negative effects of directly-communicated utility value can be ameliorated when participants are also given the chance to generate their own examples of utility value, revealing a synergistic effect of directly-communicated and self-generated utility value. In Study 3, we found that individuals who lacked confidence benefited more when everyday examples of utility value were communicated, rather than career and school examples.

Value of information: A roadmap to quantifying the benefit of structural health monitoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Straub, D.; Chatzi, E.; Bismut, E.

2017-01-01

The concept of value of information (VoI) enables quantification of the benefits provided by structural health monitoring (SHM) systems – in principle. Its implementation is challenging, as it requires an explicit modelling of the structural system’s life cycle, in particular of the decisions...... that are taken based on the SHM information. In this paper, we approach the VoI analysis through an influence diagram (ID), which supports the modelling process. We provide a simple example for illustration and discuss challenges associated with real-life implementation....

GOOD GOVERNANCE: NORMATIVE VS. DESCRIPTIVE DIMENSION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ciprian IFTIMOAEI

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The concept of “good governance” was used for the first time in the 1989 World Bank Report – Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth. A Long-Term Perspective Study – and has already made history in international studies, especially after the breakdown of the communist regimes. The governance has to do with authority, decision-making and accountability.The good governance is defined as the capacity of the government to manage a nation’s affaires, to provide economic development, welfare for citizens, and social protection for the poor. In this article,the concept of good governance is analysed according to two main dimensions: the normative dimension which comprises principles, values and norms that are guiding the international community and the governments in the management of policymaking process;the descriptive dimension which refers to the practical aspects of implementing the good governance’s standards as policies, programmes and structural reforms with the aim of solving or ameliorating the problems of developing countries.

On the Value of Structural Health Monitoring Information for the Operation of Wind Parks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thöns, Sebastian; Faber, Michael H.; Val, Dimitri V.

2017-01-01

wind turbine systems and its components is developed accounting for the wind park functionality, i.e. power production, its operation and its cascading damage and failure scenarios. This system model facilitates to quantify the expected benefits and risks throughout the service life accounting......In the present paper, an approach for the quantification of the Value of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Information building upon a framework for infrastructure system utility and decision analysis is developed and applied to the operation of wind parks. The quantification of the value of SHM...... facilitates a benefit and risk informed assessment and optimization of SHM strategies and encompasses models for the infrastructure functionality, the structural constituent and system risks and its management as well as the performance of SHM strategies. A wind park system model incorporating the structural...

Informal Learning and Values

Science.gov (United States)

Mans, Minette

2009-01-01

In her book title "Music, Informal Learning and the School," Lucy Green has ineluctably taken teachers to a place where potentially, students can really participate in an interactive pedagogy where student-centeredness is applied in its full sense. For this reason, the author found the potential contribution of the book to music education…

A Review of Methods for Analysis of the Expected Value of Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Heath, Anna; Manolopoulou, Ioanna; Baio, Gianluca

2017-10-01

In recent years, value-of-information analysis has become more widespread in health economic evaluations, specifically as a tool to guide further research and perform probabilistic sensitivity analysis. This is partly due to methodological advancements allowing for the fast computation of a typical summary known as the expected value of partial perfect information (EVPPI). A recent review discussed some approximation methods for calculating the EVPPI, but as the research has been active over the intervening years, that review does not discuss some key estimation methods. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive review of these new methods. We begin by providing the technical details of these computation methods. We then present two case studies in order to compare the estimation performance of these new methods. We conclude that a method based on nonparametric regression offers the best method for calculating the EVPPI in terms of accuracy, computational time, and ease of implementation. This means that the EVPPI can now be used practically in health economic evaluations, especially as all the methods are developed in parallel with R functions and a web app to aid practitioners.

The Good Life: Empowering Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities through Everyday Life Information

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson-Baldauf, Dana

2011-01-01

Although "the good life" is a concept not easily defined or agreed upon, without a doubt it is something people want and strive to achieve. For young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), efforts toward the good life are often hindered by harsh realities and numerous challenges encountered on the road to adulthood. School librarians can play…

Rapid humanitarian assessments and rationality: a value-of-information study from Iraq, 2003-04.

Science.gov (United States)

Benini, Aldo; Conley, Charles

2007-03-01

Rapid assessments are one of the standard informational tools in humanitarian response and are supposed to contribute to rational decision-making.(1) The extent to which the assessment organisation itself behaves rationally, however, is an open question. This can be evaluated against multiple criteria, such as the cost and value of the information it collects and its ability to adapt flexibly design or samples when the survey environment changes unforeseeably. An unusual data constellation from two concurrent recent (2003-04) rapid assessments in northern Iraq permits us to model part of the actual assessment behaviour in terms of geographical, community and prior substantive information attributes. The model correctly predicts the decisions, in 79 per cent of the 2,425 local communities in focus, that data collector teams in the Emergency Mine Action Survey made to visit or not to visit. The analysis demonstrates variably rational behaviour under conditions of insecurity, repeated regrouping and incomplete sampling frames. A pronounced bias towards very small rural settlements is irrational for the overall results, but may be a rational strategy of individual survey workers seeking to prolong their employment. Implications for future assessments are sketched in the areas of tools for urban surveys, greater adaptability, including early feedback from users, and sensibility to value-of-information concepts.

The News Delivery Sequence: Bad News and Good News in Conversational Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Maynard, Douglas W.

1997-01-01

Explores the conditional nature of good and bad news while focusing on three topics: (1) the status of information as news according the participants in a conversation; (2) the valence of this information with regard to its perception as good or bad; and (3) the effect of news on individuals. Notes that good news is privileged over bad news in…

Business Value of Information Technology Service Quality Based on Probabilistic Business-Driven Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaka Sembiring

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The business value of information technology (IT services is often difficult to assess, especially from the point of view of a non-IT manager. This condition could severely impact organizational IT strategic decisions. Various approaches have been proposed to quantify the business value, but some are trapped in technical complexity while others misguide managers into directly and subjectively judging some technical entities outside their domain of expertise. This paper describes a method on how to properly capture both perspectives based on a  probabilistic business-driven model. The proposed model presents a procedure to calculate the business value of IT services. The model also covers IT security services and their business value as an important aspect of IT services that is not covered in previously published researches. The impact of changes in the quality of IT services on business value will also be discussed. A simulation and a case illustration are provided to show the possible application of the proposed model for a simple business process in an enterprise.

Consumer Value Creation in the Consumption of Luxury Goods: A Consumer Perspective

OpenAIRE

Benvie-Ferreiros, Lidia

2008-01-01

The globalisation of the luxury market has presented the industry with an ever expanding and broad range of global consumers that are facilitating significant growth to the industry. In light of the downturn in Western economies, the extension and demand for luxury goods in booming Eastern economies present the luxury industry with a rosy future, estimated to be worth over $450 billion by 2012. The nature of this growth has been down to changing consumption behaviour of consumers; no longer e...

A study on the effect of size and ratio of book value to market value on excessive return

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Stock market plays an important role on demonstrating economy direction and it provides good opportunities for people who wish to purchase a small portion of different firms' shares. In this paper, we propose an empirical study to measure the impact of the market size and the ratio of book value on market value on excessive return. The study gathers the necessary information from some of active stock shares traded on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period of 2010-2011. The proposed model of this paper uses linear regression analysis to investigate the relationship between the excessive return and other factors. The study divides the information into seven equal groups and fits the regression model using ordinary least square technique. The results indicate that there is a negative relationship between size and excessive return and a positive relationship between the ratio of BV/MV and excessive return. Although the results of both tests are positive, we have to be more cautious about what have reported on the second hypothesis.

The Chaschuil region of like corridor of Goods, energy and information; pre hispanic Integration between Puna and the Boston de Flambala

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ratto, Norma; Pla, Rita; Orgaz, Martin; Fuente, Guillermo de la

2001-01-01

In this work the relevance of the chascuil region like corridor of goods of energy circulation are discussed, goods of information from times of the societies agroalfareras until the Inca presence in the region being constituted in one of the multiple roads or circulation routes that integrated the territories of the This with the West, of one and another side of the Andean mountain range of the southern sector of the South American knowledge The NAA is an analytic technique that gathers the basic requirements of sensibility, precision, accuracy and necessary selectivity for the discussion of archaeological problems of origin, contacts, trade exchange and pottery production like likewise to reconstruct the socieconomias Inter. and intra populations of the past

〈査読付論文〉The Necessity to Advance Disclosing Fair Value by the Hierarchy: Evidence from Literature Review about Fair Value Hierarchy Information

OpenAIRE

ZHANG, JIAO

2016-01-01

[Abstract]This paper aims to discuss the necessity to advance disclosing fair value by hierarchy in Japan by reviewing the literature about fair value hierarchy information in the U.S.　In Japan, ASBJ published the Exposure Draft "Accounting Standards on Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure" in 2010 which specifies that the fair value should be reported by hierarchy.　However, it has not published as formal standard until March 2016.　Furthermore, some commenters suggested that the hierarchy an...

Deriving the reference value from the circadian motor active patterns in the "non-dementia" population, compared to the "dementia" population: What is the amount of physical activity conducive to the good circadian rhythm.

Science.gov (United States)

Kodama, Ayuto; Kume, Yu; Tsugaruya, Megumi; Ishikawa, Takashi

2016-01-01

The circadian rhythm in older adults is commonly known to change with a decrease in physical activity. However, the association between circadian rhythm metrics and physical activity remains unclear. The objective of this study was to examine circadian activity patterns in older people with and without dementia and to determine the amount of physical activity conducive to a good circadian measurement. Circadian parameters were collected from 117 older community-dwelling people (66 subjects without dementia and 52 subjects with dementia); the parameters were measured continuously using actigraphy for 7 days. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to determine reference values for the circadian rhythm parameters, consisting of interdaily stability (IS), intradaily variability (IV), and relative amplitude (RA), in older subjects. The ROC curve revealed reference values of 0.55 for IS, 1.10 for IV, and 0.82 for RA. In addition, as a result of the ROC curve in the moderate-to-vigorous physical Activity (MVPA) conducive to the reference value of the Non-parametric Circadian Rhythm Analysis per day, the optimal reference values were 51 minutes for IV and 55 minutes for RA. However, the IS had no classification accuracy. Our results demonstrated the reference values derived from the circadian parameters of older Japanese population with or without dementia. Also, we determined the MVPA conducive to a good circadian rest-active pattern. This reference value for physical activity conducive to a good circadian rhythm might be useful for developing a new index for health promotion in the older community-dwelling population.

CREATING VALUE WITHIN CONSUMPTION CULTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Adrian Gârdan

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The issue of culture consumption is a particular concern within the modern marketing theory. Culture can be seen as representing a body of knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, symbols etc, developed in a certain period of time by a group of individuals, items transmitted with the help of a social learning process to other generations within the group. Thus, the consumption of culture will identify itself with the consumption of any product, service or a combination of them, directly resulted as manifestation of culture, expressions of artistic creativity specific for a certain cultural space. The present paper proposes the analysis of the phenomenon referring to the culture consumption in terms of specific characteristics. The paper reviews the features specific to the modern consumer of culture, the relationship that exists between the individuals’ level of education and the culture consumption and value creation process or augmentation of the intrinsic value of an artistic product as a result of the contribution that the culture consumer can bring himself. The authors highlight the fact that within extremely complex processes which are defining the culture consumption, consumers can assume an active role, becoming on their turn co-participants in the cultural goods and services value creation and transmission. The modern consumer benefits more than ever from the advantages offered by the information technology, being called to respond to major challenges of the postmodernism paradigm in terms of culture consumption. Globalization and other social economic and politic phenomena have profoundly changed the reports between individual and culture, between self and other members of the society, causing synthesis and essential transformations of culture consumption, of culture consumers typologies, and not least of the very forms of artistic expression related to cultural goods and services.

Codes of Good Governance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beck Jørgensen, Torben; Sørensen, Ditte-Lene

2013-01-01

Good governance is a broad concept used by many international organizations to spell out how states or countries should be governed. Definitions vary, but there is a clear core of common public values, such as transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and the rule of law. It is quite likely......, transparency, neutrality, impartiality, effectiveness, accountability, and legality. The normative context of public administration, as expressed in codes, seems to ignore the New Public Management and Reinventing Government reform movements....

The Mixed Instrumental Controller: Using Value of Information to Combine Habitual Choice and Mental Simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni ePezzulo

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Instrumental behavior depends on both goal-directed and habitual mechanisms of choice. Normative views cast these mechanisms in terms of model-free and model-based methods of reinforcement learning, respectively. An influential proposal hypothesizes that model-free and model-based mechanisms coexist and compete in the brain according to their relative uncertainty. In this paper we propose a novel view in which a single Mixed Instrumental Controller produces both goal-directed and habitual behavior by flexibly balancing and combining model-based and model-free computations. The Mixed Instrumental Controller performs a cost-benefits analysis to decide whether to chose an action immediately based on the available "cached" value of actions (linked to model-free mechanisms or to improve value estimation by mentally simulating the expected outcome values (linked to model-based mechanisms. Since mental simulation entails cognitive effort and increases the reward delay, it is activated only when the associated "Value of Information" exceeds its costs. The model proposes a method to compute the Value of Information, based on the uncertainty of action values and on the distance of alternative cached action values. Overall, the model by default chooses on the basis of lighter model-free estimates, and integrates them with costly model-based predictions only when useful. Mental simulation uses a sampling method to produce reward expectancies, which are used to update the cached value of one or more actions; in turn, this updated value is used for the choice. The key predictions of the model are tested in different settings of a double T-maze scenario. Results are discussed in relation with neurobiological evidence on the hippocampus - ventral striatum circuit in rodents, which has been linked to goal-directed spatial navigation.

The mixed instrumental controller: using value of information to combine habitual choice and mental simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pezzulo, Giovanni; Rigoli, Francesco; Chersi, Fabian

2013-01-01

Instrumental behavior depends on both goal-directed and habitual mechanisms of choice. Normative views cast these mechanisms in terms of model-free and model-based methods of reinforcement learning, respectively. An influential proposal hypothesizes that model-free and model-based mechanisms coexist and compete in the brain according to their relative uncertainty. In this paper we propose a novel view in which a single Mixed Instrumental Controller produces both goal-directed and habitual behavior by flexibly balancing and combining model-based and model-free computations. The Mixed Instrumental Controller performs a cost-benefits analysis to decide whether to chose an action immediately based on the available "cached" value of actions (linked to model-free mechanisms) or to improve value estimation by mentally simulating the expected outcome values (linked to model-based mechanisms). Since mental simulation entails cognitive effort and increases the reward delay, it is activated only when the associated "Value of Information" exceeds its costs. The model proposes a method to compute the Value of Information, based on the uncertainty of action values and on the distance of alternative cached action values. Overall, the model by default chooses on the basis of lighter model-free estimates, and integrates them with costly model-based predictions only when useful. Mental simulation uses a sampling method to produce reward expectancies, which are used to update the cached value of one or more actions; in turn, this updated value is used for the choice. The key predictions of the model are tested in different settings of a double T-maze scenario. Results are discussed in relation with neurobiological evidence on the hippocampus - ventral striatum circuit in rodents, which has been linked to goal-directed spatial navigation.

Expert elicitation, uncertainty, and the value of information in controlling invasive species

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Fred A.; Smith, Brian J.; Bonneau, Mathieu; Martin, Julien; Romagosa, Christina; Mazzotti, Frank J.; Waddle, J. Hardin; Reed, Robert; Eckles, Jennifer Kettevrlin; Vitt, Laurie J.

2017-01-01

We illustrate the utility of expert elicitation, explicit recognition of uncertainty, and the value of information for directing management and research efforts for invasive species, using tegu lizards (Salvator merianae) in southern Florida as a case study. We posited a post-birth pulse, matrix model in which four age classes of tegus are recognized: hatchlings, 1 year-old, 2 year-olds, and 3 + year-olds. This matrix model was parameterized using a 3-point process to elicit estimates of tegu demographic rates in southern Florida from 10 herpetology experts. We fit statistical distributions for each parameter and for each expert, then drew and pooled a large number of replicate samples from these to form a distribution for each demographic parameter. Using these distributions, as well as the observed correlations among elicited values, we generated a large sample of matrix population models to infer how the tegu population would respond to control efforts. We used the concepts of Pareto efficiency and stochastic dominance to conclude that targeting older age classes at relatively high rates appears to have the best chance of minimizing tegu abundance and control costs. We conclude that expert opinion combined with an explicit consideration of uncertainty can be valuable in conducting an initial assessment of what control strategy, effort, and monetary resources are needed to reduce and eventually eliminate the invader. Scientists, in turn, can use the value of information to focus research in a way that not only increases the efficacy of control, but minimizes costs as well.

Marketing information goods and services in medical libraries and information centers.

Science.gov (United States)

Ashrafi-Rizi, Hasan; Kazempour, Zahra

2012-01-01

Marketing is one of the essential parts of any business corporation in the modern management. One can see the difference between corporations in gaining their goals, considering their marketing methods. Gaining more advantage or acquiring more funds can be of reasons for marketing, but these are not all the reasons. Perhaps the most important reason for marketing is increasing the customer satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to more willingness in payment and using services. Nowadays, due to rapid growth in ICT, changes in budgets, rapid growth in development and use of knowledge, variety of users and their needs, marketing has become an important factor in any library activities. Libraries are now more responsible in this regard, because marketing is now an important tool in improving users' satisfaction in using library services. Hence, marketing is now very important for libraries to survive in the increasing pressures of competitive conditions of the information market. This article is tapping on issues such as information marketing, principles of marketing, marketing techniques, developing markets, and marketing skills. Some recommendations are also presented for marketing in libraries.

Marketing information goods and services in medical libraries and information centers

Science.gov (United States)

Ashrafi-rizi, Hasan; Kazempour, Zahra

2012-01-01

Marketing is one of the essential parts of any business corporation in the modern management. One can see the difference between corporations in gaining their goals, considering their marketing methods. Gaining more advantage or acquiring more funds can be of reasons for marketing, but these are not all the reasons. Perhaps the most important reason for marketing is increasing the customer satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to more willingness in payment and using services. Nowadays, due to rapid growth in ICT, changes in budgets, rapid growth in development and use of knowledge, variety of users and their needs, marketing has become an important factor in any library activities. Libraries are now more responsible in this regard, because marketing is now an important tool in improving users’ satisfaction in using library services. Hence, marketing is now very important for libraries to survive in the increasing pressures of competitive conditions of the information market. This article is tapping on issues such as information marketing, principles of marketing, marketing techniques, developing markets, and marketing skills. Some recommendations are also presented for marketing in libraries. PMID:23555112

Sacrificing information for the greater good

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stensbo-Smidt, Kristoffer; Gieseke, Fabian Cristian; Igel, Christian

2017-01-01

Sky Survey (SDSS). For estimating sSFRs, we demonstrate that our method produces better estimates than traditional spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. For estimating photo-z's, we show that our method produces more accurate photo-z's than the method employed by SDSS. The study highlights......Large-scale surveys make huge amounts of photometric data available. Because of the sheer amount of objects, spectral data cannot be obtained for all of them. Therefore it is important to devise techniques for reliably estimating physical properties of objects from photometric information alone....... These estimates are needed to automatically identify interesting objects worth a follow-up investigation as well as to produce the required data for a statistical analysis of the space covered by a survey. We argue that machine learning techniques are suitable to compute these estimates accurately and efficiently...

Integrative missing value estimation for microarray data.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Jianjun; Li, Haifeng; Waterman, Michael S; Zhou, Xianghong Jasmine

2006-10-12

Missing value estimation is an important preprocessing step in microarray analysis. Although several methods have been developed to solve this problem, their performance is unsatisfactory for datasets with high rates of missing data, high measurement noise, or limited numbers of samples. In fact, more than 80% of the time-series datasets in Stanford Microarray Database contain less than eight samples. We present the integrative Missing Value Estimation method (iMISS) by incorporating information from multiple reference microarray datasets to improve missing value estimation. For each gene with missing data, we derive a consistent neighbor-gene list by taking reference data sets into consideration. To determine whether the given reference data sets are sufficiently informative for integration, we use a submatrix imputation approach. Our experiments showed that iMISS can significantly and consistently improve the accuracy of the state-of-the-art Local Least Square (LLS) imputation algorithm by up to 15% improvement in our benchmark tests. We demonstrated that the order-statistics-based integrative imputation algorithms can achieve significant improvements over the state-of-the-art missing value estimation approaches such as LLS and is especially good for imputing microarray datasets with a limited number of samples, high rates of missing data, or very noisy measurements. With the rapid accumulation of microarray datasets, the performance of our approach can be further improved by incorporating larger and more appropriate reference datasets.

Barriers and enablers to good communication and information-sharing practices in care planning for chronic condition management.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawn, Sharon; Delany, Toni; Sweet, Linda; Battersby, Malcolm; Skinner, Timothy

2015-01-01

Our aim was to document current communication and information-sharing practices and to identify the barriers and enablers to good practices within the context of care planning for chronic condition management. Further aims were to make recommendations about how changes to policy and practice can improve communication and information sharing in primary health care. A mixed-method approach was applied to seek the perspectives of patients and primary health-care workers across Australia. Data was collected via interviews, focus groups, non-participant observations and a national survey. Data analysis was performed using a mix of thematic, discourse and statistical approaches. Central barriers to effective communication and information sharing included fragmented communication, uncertainty around client and interagency consent, and the unacknowledged existence of overlapping care plans. To be most effective, communication and information sharing should be open, two-way and inclusive of all members of health-care teams. It must also only be undertaken with the appropriate participant consent, otherwise this has the potential to cause patients harm. Improvements in care planning as a communication and information-sharing tool may be achieved through practice initiatives that reflect the rhetoric of collaborative person-centred care, which is already supported through existing policy in Australia. General practitioners and other primary care providers should operationalise care planning, and the expectation of collaborative and effective communication of care that underpins it, within their practice with patients and all members of the care team. To assist in meeting these aims, we make several recommendations.

Good Governance According to Islamic Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Ismail Bin Mohamad Yunus

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract The objectives of the professional agencies must embody provisions that promote good governance and embrace values of integrity and accountability and seek support from the public and the government of the day to provide an independent view on all matters. The universal truth is that everything should be done in the public good. Professionals form the backbone of human infrastructure in any economy, politics, social and legal growth. Their contributions through professional performance enhance the good delivery system that facilitates policies making and management for public sector. They provide the skills and talent in balancing the pursuits of maximization of services. The expression “good governance” has been constantly used lately in both public sector as well as private sector in Malaysia. In the context of a private body, it should be within the framework of the statute, which governs the body and also its constitution. In the public sector, it means that the administrators should act professionally and not to abuse or misuse the power or authority given to them. They are regarded as the trustees of the public at large. The scope of this article is on good public governance in the public sector or to be exact, good governmental administration as interpreted by the judiciary especially through its judicial review power and Islamic Perspective based on the principles of Maqasid As Shariah (Objectives of Islamic Law.   Keywords: Good Governance, Public Sector, Malaysian Law, Islamic Perspective, Maqasid As-Shariah.

Is electricity a public good?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salies, Evens; Kiesling, Lynne; Giberson, Michael

2007-04-01

Wholesale electricity markets are increasingly driven by the rules of competition while recent outages in different regions of the world suggest that security of supply is a public good. The objective of this paper is to show that security of supply and more generally, electricity supply has both public and private characteristics. Whilst the public good characteristic explains why some producers may prefer to free ride on others' investments to maintain reliability, the private good aspect of reliability shows that agents may have a variety of preferences for reliability. Then by relying on the concept of Pareto-relevant externality, the paper explores the private aspect of reliability for the prospect of creating and selling reliability as a differentiated product complementary to bulk power markets. Finally, policy recommendations are derived that aim to enhance information content in the network. Initially published in 'Revue de l'OFCE' No. 101

Influence of the Good-Practice Principles and Codes in the Corporate Governance upon the Quality of the Financial-Accounting Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela Niculae

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This hereby works tries to identify the principles regarding the corporate governance and analyze the way in which such corporate governance templates influence the qualitative characteristics of the financial information. The execution of the governance means the obligation to implement the processes and structures corresponding to the management and the administration of the business and company’s operations, to provide their good operation. The final scope of the good corporate governance is to provide the efficiency, credibility and reliability of the organization. Solid governance means the settlement of certain fundamental principles defining the relationships between different actors clearly tracks the responsibilities and provides a correct operation of the decision making processes. Starting from the statement according to which the transparency and the quality of the corporate governance system are two concepts coexisting and relating intensively, associations among the characteristics of the shareholding and the information transparency level can be identified in the activity of the public interest entities. The relationships with the current or future investors, with the financers, with the investment analysts, with the media are of great importance for the accomplishment of the scopes related to the image and credibility of the public interest entity and mean a correct and fluent communication.

Good information cuts medical risk of travel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clyde, J.D.

1996-01-01

Today the oil industry is seeking exploration, production, and business opportunities around the globe. A result is that its employees are traveling more and visiting distant and remote locations. This travel significantly increases the level of their exposure to illness and accident. This paper discusses the information needs for oil company personnel which will be visiting foreign countries. It describes the medical preparation, immunizations, sanitary conditions, medical facilities, auto accidents, and other hazards which should be known about

Representing sentence information

Science.gov (United States)

Perkins, Walton A., III

1991-03-01

This paper describes a computer-oriented representation for sentence information. Whereas many Artificial Intelligence (AI) natural language systems start with a syntactic parse of a sentence into the linguist's components: noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc., we argue that it is better to parse the input sentence into 'meaning' components: attribute, attribute value, object class, object instance, and relation. AI systems need a representation that will allow rapid storage and retrieval of information and convenient reasoning with that information. The attribute-of-object representation has proven useful for handling information in relational databases (which are well known for their efficiency in storage and retrieval) and for reasoning in knowledge- based systems. On the other hand, the linguist's syntactic representation of the works in sentences has not been shown to be useful for information handling and reasoning. We think it is an unnecessary and misleading intermediate form. Our sentence representation is semantic based in terms of attribute, attribute value, object class, object instance, and relation. Every sentence is segmented into one or more components with the form: 'attribute' of 'object' 'relation' 'attribute value'. Using only one format for all information gives the system simplicity and good performance as a RISC architecture does for hardware. The attribute-of-object representation is not new; it is used extensively in relational databases and knowledge-based systems. However, we will show that it can be used as a meaning representation for natural language sentences with minor extensions. In this paper we describe how a computer system can parse English sentences into this representation and generate English sentences from this representation. Much of this has been tested with computer implementation.

Dynamic Interplay of Value and Sensory Information in High-Speed Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Afacan-Seref, Kivilcim; Steinemann, Natalie A; Blangero, Annabelle; Kelly, Simon P

2018-03-05

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively [1-6], but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases are affected by starting the integrator closer to the more valuable bound. Here, we show significant departures from this account for humans making rapid sensory-instructed action choices. Behavior was best explained by a simple model in which the evidence representation-and hence, rate of accumulation-is itself biased by value and is non-stationary, increasing over the short decision time frame. Because the value bias initially dominates, the model uniquely predicts a dynamic "turn-around" effect on low-value cues, where the accumulator first launches toward the incorrect action but is then re-routed to the correct one. This was clearly exhibited in electrophysiological signals reflecting motor preparation and evidence accumulation. Finally, we construct an extended model that implements this dynamic effect through plausible sensory neural response modulations and demonstrate the correspondence between decision signal dynamics simulated from a behavioral fit of that model and the empirical decision signals. Our findings suggest that value and sensory information can exert simultaneous and dynamically countervailing influences on the trajectory of the accumulation-to-bound process, driving rapid, sensory-guided actions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An International Perspective on Value Learning in the Kindergarten--Exemplified by the Value Forgiveness

Science.gov (United States)

Gunnestad, Arve; Mørreaunet, Sissel; Onyango, Silas

2015-01-01

This article highlights value learning in kindergartens exemplified by the value of forgiveness. Values are basic ideas on human behaviour and they function as a compass that helps children to make choices and priorities in their lives, to choose between good or bad, right or wrong. Value learning is an important part of the educational work in a…

PERLINDUNGAN PEMODAL REKSADANA MELALUI GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNMENT (STUDI KASUS BANK GLOBAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agam Sulaksono

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The capital market is a place of meeting sellers and buyers to trade securities such as stocks and bonds as a source of economic value of mutual funds. So that the value of mutual fund securities of the Investment Manager is high then the effect should be good in this case the issuer is required on an ongoing basis to spur business with the better through the application of the principles of good corporate governance.

Accountability as a Differentiated Value in Supranational Governance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martinsen, Dorte Sindbjerg; Beck Jørgensen, Torben

2010-01-01

Accountability differs in its meaning, scope, and impact. Consequently, its expression as a value and an instrument of “good governance” differs across time within and between organizations. Through the prism of theories on public values, this article examines accountability as a value....... It is argued that organizational characteristics of the European Commission condition value implementation. The article finds that although accountability appears as the “good value per se,” its applied period is brief and its status is contradicted by conflicting values....

Value Informed Conception, Design, Implementation and Operation of Education and Teaching Activities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Michael Havbro Faber; Nielsen, Linda

2017-01-01

In the present paper we take basis in the basic postulate that the objective of education and teaching is value creation. With this setout we take up two implications, namely: i) decision analysis is the logical choice of management framework for conceiving, designing, implementing and operating ...... (CDIO) education and teaching activities and ii) a thorough, transparent and continuously informed discourse is necessary among all stakeholders to education on what this “value” actually is....

Value of information analysis for groundwater quality monitoring network design Case study: Eocene Aquifer, Palestine

Science.gov (United States)

Khader, A.; McKee, M.

2010-12-01

Value of information (VOI) analysis evaluates the benefit of collecting additional information to reduce or eliminate uncertainty in a specific decision-making context. It makes explicit any expected potential losses from errors in decision making due to uncertainty and identifies the “best” information collection strategy as one that leads to the greatest expected net benefit to the decision-maker. This study investigates the willingness to pay for groundwater quality monitoring in the Eocene Aquifer, Palestine, which is an unconfined aquifer located in the northern part of the West Bank. The aquifer is being used by 128,000 Palestinians to fulfill domestic and agricultural demands. The study takes into account the consequences of pollution and the options the decision maker might face. Since nitrate is the major pollutant in the aquifer, the consequences of nitrate pollution were analyzed, which mainly consists of the possibility of methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome). In this case, the value of monitoring was compared to the costs of treating for methemoglobinemia or the costs of other options like water treatment, using bottled water or importing water from outside the aquifer. And finally, an optimal monitoring network that takes into account the uncertainties in recharge (climate), aquifer properties (hydraulic conductivity), pollutant chemical reaction (decay factor), and the value of monitoring is designed by utilizing a sparse Bayesian modeling algorithm called a relevance vector machine.

Value-based recruitment in midwifery: do the values align with what women say is important to them?

Science.gov (United States)

Callwood, Alison; Cooke, Debbie; Allan, Helen

2016-10-01

The aim of this study was to discuss theoretical conceptualization and definition of values and value-based recruitment in the context of women's views about what they would like from their midwife. Value-based recruitment received headline status in the UK government's response to pervasive deficiencies in compassionate care identified in the health service. Core values which aim to inform service user's experience are defined in the National Health Service Constitution but clarity about whether these encompass all that women say is important to them is needed. Discussion paper. A literature search included published papers written in English relating to values, VBR and women's views of a 'good' midwife with no date limiters. Definitions of values and value-based recruitment are examined. Congruence is explored between what women say is important to them and key government and professional regulatory documentation. The importance of a 'sustainable emotional' dimension in the midwife-mother relationship is suggested. Inconsistencies are identified between women's views, government, professional documentation and what women say they want. An omission of any reference to emotions or emotionality in value-based recruitment policy, professional recruitment and selection guidance documentation is identified. A review of key professional documentation, in relation to selection for 'values', is proposed. We argue for clarity and revision so that values embedded in value-based recruitment are consistent with health service users' views. An enhancement of the 'values' in the value-based recruitment framework is recommended to include the emotionality that women state is a fundamental part of their relationship with their midwife. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Relevance between the degree of industrial competition and fair value information: Study on the listed companies in China

OpenAIRE

Xuemin Zhuang; Yonggen Luo

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to study whether there exists natural relationship between fair value and corporate external market. A series of special phenomenon in the application of fair value arouses our research interests, which present evidences on how competition affects the correlation of fair value information. Design/methodology/approach: this thesis chooses fair value changes gains and losses and calculate the ratio of DFVPSit as the alternative variable of the fair value....

Value and power in economics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Josifidis Kosta

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In this article we rethink the field of value in economic theory. First, we prove that the transhistorical and nominalist approaches show different weaknesses and can not account for the constitutive dimensions of value. Within this context, we demonstrate why value emerged in the first place and what epistemological dimensions it provided and enabled for economic reflexivity. In addition, we demonstrate that it is impossible to understand inherent value as an immanent property of goods in economic transactions and we critique the approach that renders value to the theory of price. Economic relations reflect value-related aspects without which the relations could not be understood. We then analyze the interrelations between power and value, proving the constitutive dimension of power in understanding value, demonstrated in selected examples. We treat power as a constellation in which economic agents act on other subjects to provoke certain activity. Power may occur only where the behaviour of subjects is not entirely determined. Finally, one additional selected example shows the range of this theory of power in terms of positional goods.

Model averaging in the presence of structural uncertainty about treatment effects: influence on treatment decision and expected value of information.

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Malcolm J; Welton, Nicky J; Briggs, Andrew H; Ades, A E

2011-01-01

Standard approaches to estimation of Markov models with data from randomized controlled trials tend either to make a judgment about which transition(s) treatments act on, or they assume that treatment has a separate effect on every transition. An alternative is to fit a series of models that assume that treatment acts on specific transitions. Investigators can then choose among alternative models using goodness-of-fit statistics. However, structural uncertainty about any chosen parameterization will remain and this may have implications for the resulting decision and the need for further research. We describe a Bayesian approach to model estimation, and model selection. Structural uncertainty about which parameterization to use is accounted for using model averaging and we developed a formula for calculating the expected value of perfect information (EVPI) in averaged models. Marginal posterior distributions are generated for each of the cost-effectiveness parameters using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation in WinBUGS, or Monte-Carlo simulation in Excel (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA). We illustrate the approach with an example of treatments for asthma using aggregate-level data from a connected network of four treatments compared in three pair-wise randomized controlled trials. The standard errors of incremental net benefit using structured models is reduced by up to eight- or ninefold compared to the unstructured models, and the expected loss attaching to decision uncertainty by factors of several hundreds. Model averaging had considerable influence on the EVPI. Alternative structural assumptions can alter the treatment decision and have an overwhelming effect on model uncertainty and expected value of information. Structural uncertainty can be accounted for by model averaging, and the EVPI can be calculated for averaged models. Copyright © 2011 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights

Information and Communication Technology and Cultural Change How ICT Changes Self-Construal and Values

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hansen, Nina; Postmes, Tom; van der Vinne, Nikita; van Thiel, Wendy

2012-01-01

This paper studies whether and how information and communication technology (ICT) changes self-construal and cultural values in a developing country. Ethiopian children were given laptops in the context of an ICT for development scheme. We compared children who used laptops (n = 69) with a control

THE FAIR VALUE – REPRESENTATION OF THE MARKET VALUE IN ACCOUNTING. TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES IN ROMANIAN ACCOUNTING PRACTICE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marinela-Daniela Manea

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The market value, as a method of measuring the right value, also provides the highest objectivity due to the fact that it is based on information exterior to the entity, impossible to influence in anyway. For the fair value of a product to be equivalent to the market value, a prerequisite needs to be followed: the market must be perfect, namely organized and active. In this case, the evaluation’s type is mark et to market. In certain fields, the active’s market existence is clearly difficult (for instance for the derived products or specialized, unique assets etc. In such situations – imperfect market – we will valorize that specific good by calculating its fair value by using an evaluation technique, an alternative technique in the absence of a price set by the market. There are two possible approaches: the first one belongs to the analogy method; the second approach belongs to valuing an asset using the modeling technique also known as market to model. The method of determining the value of an asset by analogy or similarity is theoretically valid, but in practice this is difficult, since the notion of similar characteristics is often difficult to establish and prove. This article proposes a valuation of the market value concept based on Romanian realities - legal, accounting practices in that area,and taking into account the existing fiscal limitations.

45 CFR 170.460 - Good standing as an ONC-ATCB.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

....460 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS, IMPLEMENTATION SPECIFICATIONS, AND CERTIFICATION CRITERIA AND CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS FOR HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Temporary Certification Program for HIT § 170.460 Good standing...

Cost-Effectiveness and Value of Information Analysis of Brief Interventions to Promote Physical Activity in Primary Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Gc, Vijay Singh; Suhrcke, Marc; Hardeman, Wendy; Sutton, Stephen; Wilson, Edward C F

2018-01-01

Brief interventions (BIs) delivered in primary care have shown potential to increase physical activity levels and may be cost-effective, at least in the short-term, when compared with usual care. Nevertheless, there is limited evidence on their longer term costs and health benefits. To estimate the cost-effectiveness of BIs to promote physical activity in primary care and to guide future research priorities using value of information analysis. A decision model was used to compare the cost-effectiveness of three classes of BIs that have been used, or could be used, to promote physical activity in primary care: 1) pedometer interventions, 2) advice/counseling on physical activity, and (3) action planning interventions. Published risk equations and data from the available literature or routine data sources were used to inform model parameters. Uncertainty was investigated with probabilistic sensitivity analysis, and value of information analysis was conducted to estimate the value of undertaking further research. In the base-case, pedometer interventions yielded the highest expected net benefit at a willingness to pay of £20,000 per quality-adjusted life-year. There was, however, a great deal of decision uncertainty: the expected value of perfect information surrounding the decision problem for the National Health Service Health Check population was estimated at £1.85 billion. Our analysis suggests that the use of pedometer BIs is the most cost-effective strategy to promote physical activity in primary care, and that there is potential value in further research into the cost-effectiveness of brief (i.e., <30 minutes) and very brief (i.e., <5 minutes) pedometer interventions in this setting. Copyright © 2018 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ACCOUNTING - A SOURCE OF INFORMATION WITHIN THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

BUŞAN GABRIELA

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Accounting information system is a complex system of registration and processing of goods movement, the reflection of the rights and obligations with economic value; it is necessary and indispensable to the economy. Through its own system of concepts and procedures, accounting is the only discipline that can provide information that form the basis of the assessment of an organization by a wide category of users. Those in need of information for the purpose of making accounting decisions on allocating economic resources efficiently and effectively.

Information and informatics in a geological survey - the good, the bad and the ugly

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, I.

2008-12-01

cured by investing in hardware and software; it is the geoscience data content (its availability, quality and consistency) that is in greater need of investment. Second, to achieve the full synergies and benefits information management and informatics must be planned into all domains of the Survey and all project phases - acquisition, processing, analysis, dissemination and storage. Adequate investment in front office applications and services to communicate and deliver geoscience to all our stakeholders (eg virtualisation and visualisation) is essential. Without it back office work, however, worthy, is of limited value. Finally, the widely accepted truth is that the real challenge in introducing professional information management and informatics is not technical or scientific, but cultural and managerial. Unless you can sensitively and positively change the work patterns and culture of Survey geoscientists a sustainable outcome will remain beyond reach. Of course to change the work pattern and culture of the geoscientists you must first ensure that the most senior management of the organisation embrace the change wholeheartedly; now there's a challenge! Using examples and experience from the evolution on information management and informatics in the British Geological Survey over the last decade this presentation will explore the issues above.

Norming a VALUE rubric to assess graduate information literacy skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Turbow, David J; Evener, Julie

2016-07-01

The study evaluated whether a modified version of the information literacy Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubric would be useful for assessing the information literacy skills of graduate health sciences students. Through facilitated calibration workshops, an interdepartmental six-person team of librarians and faculty engaged in guided discussion about the meaning of the rubric criteria. They applied the rubric to score student work for a peer-review essay assignment in the "Information Literacy for Evidence-Based Practice" course. To determine inter-rater reliability, the raters participated in a follow-up exercise in which they independently applied the rubric to ten samples of work from a research project in the doctor of physical therapy program: the patient case report assignment. For the peer-review essay, a high level of consistency in scoring was achieved for the second workshop, with statistically significant intra-class correlation coefficients above 0.8 for 3 criteria: "Determine the extent of evidence needed," "Use evidence effectively to accomplish a specific purpose," and "Access the needed evidence." Participants concurred that the essay prompt and rubric criteria adequately discriminated the quality of student work for the peer-review essay assignment. When raters independently scored the patient case report assignment, inter-rater agreement was low and statistically insignificant for all rubric criteria (kappa=-0.16, p>0.05-kappa=0.12, p>0.05). While the peer-review essay assignment lent itself well to rubric calibration, scorers had a difficult time with the patient case report. Lack of familiarity among some raters with the specifics of the patient case report assignment and subject matter might have accounted for low inter-rater reliability. When norming, it is important to hold conversations about search strategies and expectations of performance. Overall, the authors found the rubric to be appropriate for

Integrative missing value estimation for microarray data

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Zhou Xianghong

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Missing value estimation is an important preprocessing step in microarray analysis. Although several methods have been developed to solve this problem, their performance is unsatisfactory for datasets with high rates of missing data, high measurement noise, or limited numbers of samples. In fact, more than 80% of the time-series datasets in Stanford Microarray Database contain less than eight samples. Results We present the integrative Missing Value Estimation method (iMISS by incorporating information from multiple reference microarray datasets to improve missing value estimation. For each gene with missing data, we derive a consistent neighbor-gene list by taking reference data sets into consideration. To determine whether the given reference data sets are sufficiently informative for integration, we use a submatrix imputation approach. Our experiments showed that iMISS can significantly and consistently improve the accuracy of the state-of-the-art Local Least Square (LLS imputation algorithm by up to 15% improvement in our benchmark tests. Conclusion We demonstrated that the order-statistics-based integrative imputation algorithms can achieve significant improvements over the state-of-the-art missing value estimation approaches such as LLS and is especially good for imputing microarray datasets with a limited number of samples, high rates of missing data, or very noisy measurements. With the rapid accumulation of microarray datasets, the performance of our approach can be further improved by incorporating larger and more appropriate reference datasets.

Valued Information at the Right Time (VIRT) and the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) - A Win/Win Proposition

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Acevedo, Rafael A

2006-01-01

In this thesis I examine the theory of Valued Information at the Right Time (VIRT) and the benefits its implementation can provide to the Navy's best example of accurate information-sharing, the Cooperative Engagement Capability...

Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying value-based decision-making: from core values to economic value.

Science.gov (United States)

Brosch, Tobias; Sander, David

2013-01-01

VALUE PLAYS A CENTRAL ROLE IN PRACTICALLY EVERY ASPECT OF HUMAN LIFE THAT REQUIRES A DECISION: whether we choose between different consumer goods, whether we decide which person we marry or which political candidate gets our vote, we choose the option that has more value to us. Over the last decade, neuroeconomic research has mapped the neural substrates of economic value, revealing that activation in brain regions such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), ventral striatum or posterior cingulate cortex reflects how much an individual values an option and which of several options he/she will choose. However, while great progress has been made exploring the mechanisms underlying concrete decisions, neuroeconomic research has been less concerned with the questions of why people value what they value, and why different people value different things. Social psychologists and sociologists have long been interested in core values, motivational constructs that are intrinsically linked to the self-schema and are used to guide actions and decisions across different situations and different time points. Core value may thus be an important determinant of individual differences in economic value computation and decision-making. Based on a review of recent neuroimaging studies investigating the neural representation of core values and their interactions with neural systems representing economic value, we outline a common framework that integrates the core value concept and neuroeconomic research on value-based decision-making.

Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying value-based decision-making: from core values to economic value

Science.gov (United States)

Brosch, Tobias; Sander, David

2013-01-01

Value plays a central role in practically every aspect of human life that requires a decision: whether we choose between different consumer goods, whether we decide which person we marry or which political candidate gets our vote, we choose the option that has more value to us. Over the last decade, neuroeconomic research has mapped the neural substrates of economic value, revealing that activation in brain regions such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), ventral striatum or posterior cingulate cortex reflects how much an individual values an option and which of several options he/she will choose. However, while great progress has been made exploring the mechanisms underlying concrete decisions, neuroeconomic research has been less concerned with the questions of why people value what they value, and why different people value different things. Social psychologists and sociologists have long been interested in core values, motivational constructs that are intrinsically linked to the self-schema and are used to guide actions and decisions across different situations and different time points. Core value may thus be an important determinant of individual differences in economic value computation and decision-making. Based on a review of recent neuroimaging studies investigating the neural representation of core values and their interactions with neural systems representing economic value, we outline a common framework that integrates the core value concept and neuroeconomic research on value-based decision-making. PMID:23898252

Skew information in the XY model with staggered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qiu, Liang, E-mail: lqiu@cumt.edu.cn [School of Physics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116 (China); Quan, Dongxiao [State Key Laboratory of Integrated Services Networks, Xidian University, Xi' an, Shaanxi 710071 (China); Pan, Fei; Liu, Zhi [School of Physics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116 (China)

2017-06-01

We study the performance of the lower bound of skew information in the vicinity of transition point for the anisotropic spin-1/2 XY chain with staggered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction by use of quantum renormalization-group method. For a fixed value of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, there are two saturated values for the lower bound of skew information corresponding to the spin-fluid and Néel phases, respectively. The scaling exponent of the lower bound of skew information closely relates to the correlation length of the model and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction shifts the factorization point. Our results show that the lower bound of skew information can be a good candidate to detect the critical point of XY spin chain with staggered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.

Quantifying the Value of Perfect Information in Emergency Vaccination Campaigns.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naomi V Bradbury

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in non-endemic countries can lead to large economic costs and livestock losses but the use of vaccination has been contentious, partly due to uncertainty about emergency FMD vaccination. Value of information methods can be applied to disease outbreak problems such as FMD in order to investigate the performance improvement from resolving uncertainties. Here we calculate the expected value of resolving uncertainty about vaccine efficacy, time delay to immunity after vaccination and daily vaccination capacity for a hypothetical FMD outbreak in the UK. If it were possible to resolve all uncertainty prior to the introduction of control, we could expect savings of £55 million in outbreak cost, 221,900 livestock culled and 4.3 days of outbreak duration. All vaccination strategies were found to be preferable to a culling only strategy. However, the optimal vaccination radius was found to be highly dependent upon vaccination capacity for all management objectives. We calculate that by resolving the uncertainty surrounding vaccination capacity we would expect to return over 85% of the above savings, regardless of management objective. It may be possible to resolve uncertainty about daily vaccination capacity before an outbreak, and this would enable decision makers to select the optimal control action via careful contingency planning.

News Values and the Vividness of Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennamer, J. David

Most journalism textbooks begin with lists of what have been called "news values." These are criteria to be used to judge the newsworthiness of issues, events, and persons. The list of news values that most journalists have memorized can be replaced with a single concept--vividness. Vividness is a characteristic of the information…

The international regulation of Informal Value Transfer Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anand Ajay Shah

2007-12-01

Full Text Available After the 11th September 2001 attacks on the United States international attention quickly focused on the sources and methods of terrorist financing. Among the methods terrorists and other criminal actors use to transfer funds are Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS which operate either outside the formal financial sector, or through use of the formal financial sector, but without leaving a full record of the transaction. Though the vast majority of funds moved through IVTS are the earnings of migrant workers and immigrant communities, the lack of uniform worldwide regulation of IVTS provides ample opportunity for abuse and misuse. The international community primarily responded to IVTS concerns through the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, which issued a series of recommendations and best practices for states in regulating IVTS operations. While these recommendations are a secure beginning to regulation of IVTS operating within ethnic communities, they fail to address the more modern forms of IVTS that have come about in the post-Cold War globalised world. Comprehensive recommendations governing all types of IVTS, as well as concerted international cooperation and coordination are necessary to address this global phenomenon.

Influence of Antenatal Care on the Haematocrit Value of Pregnant ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Context: Antenatal care is generally believed to influence the outcome of any pregnancy. Haematocrit values are important in the assessment of anaemia in pregnancy. A good antenatal care is expected to be associated with good haematocrit values, prevent anaemia in pregnancy, and result in an overall good pregnancy ...

Business Climate and Good Governance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Besmira Manaj

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This paper consists of three factors, namely: Good Governance, Business Climate and Corruption. How they affect the development product of Albania, not only as a concept, and a principle but mostly as a sensitive aspect in the integration process. There are some interpretations of this concept, but I intend to analyze the key factors and actors, their cooperation and concrete production in society. Improving governance is necessary to have an integrated long term strategy based upon a continuous cooperation between institutions and citizens. But in developing countries like Albania there are some important questions such as: How can we measure the improvement of Good Governance through policies? Has Good Governance indicated an effective way for the sustainable development? (Meisel, 2008, 6. These question give us the orientation to reflect about the process of development, social economic political behavior and how this multidimensional is transformed in product of good governance. The business cycle is strongly connected with many aspects of political-, social-, juridical aspects and good governance. Despite attempts to draft law regulations, the level of corruption and informality in Albania continues to be a major obstacle. The credibility level in the implementation of law is an indicator that affects democratization and institutional integration. At present, different reports of international institutions, define Albania as the country with the highest level of Corruption in the Balkans, which is a key factor influencing business. The ways with

Managers' duty to maintain good workplace communications skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Timmins, Fiona

2011-06-01

Communication is a fundamental element of care at every level of nursing practice. It is important, therefore, for nurse managers to create environments that promote and encourage good communication, and help nurses to develop their communication skills formally and informally. This article discusses the effects of communication on the quality of care. It examines nurses' professional duty to maintain good communication skills and how managers can help them do this. It also discusses nurse managers' communication skills in the context of leadership style, conflict resolution and self-awareness. Finally, it considers the notion of shared governance as good practice.

GOOD INTENTION ON ELECTRONIC CONTRACT THROUGH E-COMMERCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ari Purwadi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Electronic contract (e-contract is a contract that vulnerable to the emersion of problems because the contract happened between absence persons. This problem can be avoided if businessman who included in the electronic commerce using principle of good intention. According to the Information and Electronic Transactions Act declare that good intention shall be given during the transaction taking place, it must be interpreted both in the pre-transaction stage, transaction stage, and post-transaction phase. Thus, in order to protect consumer, it's good intention should be exist in every phase of consumer transaction.

Prefrontal and striatal activity related to values of objects and locations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soyoun eKim

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The value of an object acquired by a particular action often determines the motivation to produce that action. Previous studies found neural signals related to the values of different objects or goods in the orbitofrontal cortex, while the values of outcomes expected from different actions are broadly represented in multiple brain areas implicated in movement planning. However, how the brain combines the values associated with various objects and the information about their locations is not known. In this study, we tested whether the neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC and striatum in rhesus monkeys might contribute to translating the value signals between multiple frames of reference. Monkeys were trained to perform an oculomotor intertemporal choice in which the color of a saccade target and the number of its surrounding dots signaled the magnitude of reward and its delay, respectively. In both DLPFC and striatum, temporally discounted values associated with specific target colors and locations were encoded by partially overlapping populations of neurons. In the DLPFC, the information about reward delays and temporally discounted values of rewards available from specific target locations emerged earlier than the corresponding signals for target colors. Similar results were reproduced by a simple network model built to compute temporally discounted values of rewards in different locations. Therefore, DLPFC might play an important role in estimating the values of different actions by combining the previously learned values of objects and their present locations.

Value of informed consent in surgical orthodontics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brons, S.; Becking, A.G.; Tuinzing, D.B.

2009-01-01

PURPOSE: Informed consent forms an important part of treatment, especially in the case of elective treatment. The aim of this survey was to establish how much patients can recall of the information given during an informed consent interview before orthognathic surgery. During the consultation,

Value of informed consent in surgical orthodontics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brons, S.; Becking, A.G.; Tuinzing, D.B.

2009-01-01

Purpose: Informed consent forms an important part of treatment, especially in the case of elective treatment. The aim of this survey was to establish how much patients can recall of the information given during an informed consent interview before orthognathic surgery. During the consultation,

Value of informed consent in surgical orthodontics.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brons, S.; Becking, A.G.; Tuinzing, D.B.

2009-01-01

PURPOSE: Informed consent forms an important part of treatment, especially in the case of elective treatment. The aim of this survey was to establish how much patients can recall of the information given during an informed consent interview before orthognathic surgery. During the consultation,

Value of informed consent in surgical orthodontics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brons, Sander; Becking, Alfred G.; Tuinzing, D. Bram

2009-01-01

Informed consent forms an important part of treatment, especially in the case of elective treatment. The aim of this survey was to establish how much patients can recall of the information given during an informed consent interview before orthognathic surgery. During the consultation, attention was

Comparative analysis on the probability of being a good payer

Science.gov (United States)

Mihova, V.; Pavlov, V.

2017-10-01

Credit risk assessment is crucial for the bank industry. The current practice uses various approaches for the calculation of credit risk. The core of these approaches is the use of multiple regression models, applied in order to assess the risk associated with the approval of people applying for certain products (loans, credit cards, etc.). Based on data from the past, these models try to predict what will happen in the future. Different data requires different type of models. This work studies the causal link between the conduct of an applicant upon payment of the loan and the data that he completed at the time of application. A database of 100 borrowers from a commercial bank is used for the purposes of the study. The available data includes information from the time of application and credit history while paying off the loan. Customers are divided into two groups, based on the credit history: Good and Bad payers. Linear and logistic regression are applied in parallel to the data in order to estimate the probability of being good for new borrowers. A variable, which contains value of 1 for Good borrowers and value of 0 for Bad candidates, is modeled as a dependent variable. To decide which of the variables listed in the database should be used in the modelling process (as independent variables), a correlation analysis is made. Due to the results of it, several combinations of independent variables are tested as initial models - both with linear and logistic regression. The best linear and logistic models are obtained after initial transformation of the data and following a set of standard and robust statistical criteria. A comparative analysis between the two final models is made and scorecards are obtained from both models to assess new customers at the time of application. A cut-off level of points, bellow which to reject the applications and above it - to accept them, has been suggested for both the models, applying the strategy to keep the same Accept Rate as

Information as a Measure of Model Skill

Science.gov (United States)

Roulston, M. S.; Smith, L. A.

2002-12-01

Physicist Paul Davies has suggested that rather than the quest for laws that approximate ever more closely to "truth", science should be regarded as the quest for compressibility. The goodness of a model can be judged by the degree to which it allows us to compress data describing the real world. The "logarithmic scoring rule" is a method for evaluating probabilistic predictions of reality that turns this philosophical position into a practical means of model evaluation. This scoring rule measures the information deficit or "ignorance" of someone in possession of the prediction. A more applied viewpoint is that the goodness of a model is determined by its value to a user who must make decisions based upon its predictions. Any form of decision making under uncertainty can be reduced to a gambling scenario. Kelly showed that the value of a probabilistic prediction to a gambler pursuing the maximum return on their bets depends on their "ignorance", as determined from the logarithmic scoring rule, thus demonstrating a one-to-one correspondence between data compression and gambling returns. Thus information theory provides a way to think about model evaluation, that is both philosophically satisfying and practically oriented. P.C.W. Davies, in "Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information", Proceedings of the Santa Fe Institute, Addison-Wesley 1990 J. Kelly, Bell Sys. Tech. Journal, 35, 916-926, 1956.

Cultural competence: reflections on patient autonomy and patient good.

Science.gov (United States)

Leever, Martin G

2011-07-01

Terms such as 'cultural competence' and 'transcultural nursing' have comfortably taken their place in the lexicon of health care. Their high profile is a reflection of the diversity of western societies and health care's commitment to provide care that is responsive to the values and beliefs of all who require treatment. However, the relationship between cultural competence and familiar ethical concepts such as patient autonomy has been an uneasy one. This article explores the moral foundations of cultural competence, ultimately locating them in patient autonomy and patient good. The discussion of patient good raises questions about the moral relevance of a value's rootedness in a particular culture. I argue that the moral justification for honoring cultural values has more to do with the fact that patients are strongly committed to them than it does with their cultural rootedness. Finally, I suggest an organizational approach to cultural competence that emphasizes overall organizational preparedness.

A Conjugate Gradient Algorithm with Function Value Information and N-Step Quadratic Convergence for Unconstrained Optimization.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiangrong Li

Full Text Available It is generally acknowledged that the conjugate gradient (CG method achieves global convergence--with at most a linear convergence rate--because CG formulas are generated by linear approximations of the objective functions. The quadratically convergent results are very limited. We introduce a new PRP method in which the restart strategy is also used. Moreover, the method we developed includes not only n-step quadratic convergence but also both the function value information and gradient value information. In this paper, we will show that the new PRP method (with either the Armijo line search or the Wolfe line search is both linearly and quadratically convergent. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the new PRP algorithm is competitive with the normal CG method.

A Conjugate Gradient Algorithm with Function Value Information and N-Step Quadratic Convergence for Unconstrained Optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiangrong; Zhao, Xupei; Duan, Xiabin; Wang, Xiaoliang

2015-01-01

It is generally acknowledged that the conjugate gradient (CG) method achieves global convergence--with at most a linear convergence rate--because CG formulas are generated by linear approximations of the objective functions. The quadratically convergent results are very limited. We introduce a new PRP method in which the restart strategy is also used. Moreover, the method we developed includes not only n-step quadratic convergence but also both the function value information and gradient value information. In this paper, we will show that the new PRP method (with either the Armijo line search or the Wolfe line search) is both linearly and quadratically convergent. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the new PRP algorithm is competitive with the normal CG method.

Integration of multiple determinants in the neuronal computation of economic values.

Science.gov (United States)

Raghuraman, Anantha P; Padoa-Schioppa, Camillo

2014-08-27

Economic goods may vary on multiple dimensions (determinants). A central conjecture in decision neuroscience is that choices between goods are made by comparing subjective values computed through the integration of all relevant determinants. Previous work identified three groups of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of monkeys engaged in economic choices: (1) offer value cells, which encode the value of individual offers; (2) chosen value cells, which encode the value of the chosen good; and (3) chosen juice cells, which encode the identity of the chosen good. In principle, these populations could be sufficient to generate a decision. Critically, previous work did not assess whether offer value cells (the putative input to the decision) indeed encode subjective values as opposed to physical properties of the goods, and/or whether offer value cells integrate multiple determinants. To address these issues, we recorded from the OFC while monkeys chose between risky outcomes. Confirming previous observations, three populations of neurons encoded the value of individual offers, the value of the chosen option, and the value-independent choice outcome. The activity of both offer value cells and chosen value cells encoded values defined by the integration of juice quantity and probability. Furthermore, both populations reflected the subjective risk attitude of the animals. We also found additional groups of neurons encoding the risk associated with a particular option, the risky nature of the chosen option, and whether the trial outcome was positive or negative. These results provide substantial support for the conjecture described above and for the involvement of OFC in good-based decisions. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3311583-21$15.00/0.

Ventilation, good indoor air quality and rational use of energy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clausen, Geo; Fernandes, E. D. O.; DeGids, W.

2003-01-01

The aim of this report is to provide information and advice to policy and decission makers, researchers, architects, designers, and manufacturers on strategies for achieving a good balance between good indoor air quality (IAQ) and the rational use of Energy in buildings, available guidelines...

Piracy and Product Differentiation in the Market of Digital Goods

OpenAIRE

Alvisi Matteo; Argentesi Elena; Carbonara Emanuela

2003-01-01

We analyse how piracy affects the choice of quality of a monopolist producing a digital good. A digital good is a special kind of information good, for example a music CD, a DVD or an electronic magazine available online. An important feature of digital goods is that they can be copied without a decline in the copy's quality. We define piracy as both the production and the sale of illegal copies and the practice of file sharing through the Internet. Recently, the introduction of fast Internet...

Attenuating initial beliefs: increasing the acceptance of anthropogenic climate change information by reflecting on values.

Science.gov (United States)

van Prooijen, Anne-Marie; Sparks, Paul

2014-05-01

Anthropogenic climate change information tends to be interpreted against the backdrop of initial environmental beliefs, which can lead to some people being resistant toward the information. In this article (N = 88), we examined whether self-affirmation via reflection on personally important values could attenuate the impact of initial beliefs on the acceptance of anthropogenic climate change evidence. Our findings showed that initial beliefs about the human impact on ecological stability influenced the acceptance of information only among nonaffirmed participants. Self-affirmed participants who were initially resistant toward the information showed stronger beliefs in the existence of climate change risks and greater acknowledgment that individual efficacy has a role to play in reducing climate change risks than did their nonaffirmed counterparts. © 2013 Society for Risk Analysis.

SWOC ANALYSIS OF GOODS AND SERVICES TAX (GST): IMPLEMENTATION IN INDIA

OpenAIRE

Raghavendra Holla

2016-01-01

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a type of indirect tax and it is one of biggest reform in Indian tax structure. The Goods and Service Tax Bill or GST Bill, officially known as The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014. 16 years wait is almost finished when Rajya Sabha and Lokh Sabha passed ’The Goods and Service Tax Bill’ in the month of August, 2017. Good and Service tax is also known as ‘National Value Added Tax’. India is a developing country; the main source fo...

Cost-effectiveness analysis alongside clinical trials II-An ISPOR Good Research Practices Task Force report.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramsey, Scott D; Willke, Richard J; Glick, Henry; Reed, Shelby D; Augustovski, Federico; Jonsson, Bengt; Briggs, Andrew; Sullivan, Sean D

2015-03-01

Clinical trials evaluating medicines, medical devices, and procedures now commonly assess the economic value of these interventions. The growing number of prospective clinical/economic trials reflects both widespread interest in economic information for new technologies and the regulatory and reimbursement requirements of many countries that now consider evidence of economic value along with clinical efficacy. As decision makers increasingly demand evidence of economic value for health care interventions, conducting high-quality economic analyses alongside clinical studies is desirable because they broaden the scope of information available on a particular intervention, and can efficiently provide timely information with high internal and, when designed and analyzed properly, reasonable external validity. In 2005, ISPOR published the Good Research Practices for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Alongside Clinical Trials: The ISPOR RCT-CEA Task Force report. ISPOR initiated an update of the report in 2014 to include the methodological developments over the last 9 years. This report provides updated recommendations reflecting advances in several areas related to trial design, selecting data elements, database design and management, analysis, and reporting of results. Task force members note that trials should be designed to evaluate effectiveness (rather than efficacy) when possible, should include clinical outcome measures, and should obtain health resource use and health state utilities directly from study subjects. Collection of economic data should be fully integrated into the study. An incremental analysis should be conducted with an intention-to-treat approach, complemented by relevant subgroup analyses. Uncertainty should be characterized. Articles should adhere to established standards for reporting results of cost-effectiveness analyses. Economic studies alongside trials are complementary to other evaluations (e.g., modeling studies) as information for decision

Uncertainty, robustness, and the value of information in managing a population of northern bobwhites

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Fred A.; Hagan, Greg; Palmer, William E.; Kemmerer, Michael

2014-01-01

The abundance of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) has decreased throughout their range. Managers often respond by considering improvements in harvest and habitat management practices, but this can be challenging if substantial uncertainty exists concerning the cause(s) of the decline. We were interested in how application of decision science could be used to help managers on a large, public management area in southwestern Florida where the bobwhite is a featured species and where abundance has severely declined. We conducted a workshop with managers and scientists to elicit management objectives, alternative hypotheses concerning population limitation in bobwhites, potential management actions, and predicted management outcomes. Using standard and robust approaches to decision making, we determined that improved water management and perhaps some changes in hunting practices would be expected to produce the best management outcomes in the face of uncertainty about what is limiting bobwhite abundance. We used a criterion called the expected value of perfect information to determine that a robust management strategy may perform nearly as well as an optimal management strategy (i.e., a strategy that is expected to perform best, given the relative importance of different management objectives) with all uncertainty resolved. We used the expected value of partial information to determine that management performance could be increased most by eliminating uncertainty over excessive-harvest and human-disturbance hypotheses. Beyond learning about the factors limiting bobwhites, adoption of a dynamic management strategy, which recognizes temporal changes in resource and environmental conditions, might produce the greatest management benefit. Our research demonstrates that robust approaches to decision making, combined with estimates of the value of information, can offer considerable insight into preferred management approaches when great uncertainty exists about

Value of Information Web Application

Science.gov (United States)

2015-04-01

their understanding of VoI attributes (source reliable, information content, and latency). The VoI web application emulates many features of a...only when using the Firefox web browser on those computers (Internet Explorer was not viable due to unchangeable user settings). During testing, the

Assessing the Value of Information for Identifying Optimal Floodplain Management Portfolios

Science.gov (United States)

Read, L.; Bates, M.; Hui, R.; Lund, J. R.

2014-12-01

Floodplain management is a complex portfolio problem that can be analyzed from an integrated perspective incorporating traditionally structural and nonstructural options. One method to identify effective strategies for preparing, responding to, and recovering from floods is to optimize for a portfolio of temporary (emergency) and permanent floodplain management options. A risk-based optimization approach to this problem assigns probabilities to specific flood events and calculates the associated expected damages. This approach is currently limited by: (1) the assumption of perfect flood forecast information, i.e. implementing temporary management activities according to the actual flood event may differ from optimizing based on forecasted information and (2) the inability to assess system resilience across a range of possible future events (risk-centric approach). Resilience is defined here as the ability of a system to absorb and recover from a severe disturbance or extreme event. In our analysis, resilience is a system property that requires integration of physical, social, and information domains. This work employs a 3-stage linear program to identify the optimal mix of floodplain management options using conditional probabilities to represent perfect and imperfect flood stages (forecast vs. actual events). We assess the value of information in terms of minimizing damage costs for two theoretical cases - urban and rural systems. We use portfolio analysis to explore how the set of optimal management options differs depending on whether the goal is for the system to be risk-adverse to a specified event or resilient over a range of events.

Attractive Women Want it All: Good Genes, Economic Investment, Parenting Proclivities, and Emotional Commitment1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David M. Buss

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The current research tests the hypothesis that women have an evolved mate value calibration adaptation that functions to raise or lower their standards in a long-term mate according to their own mate value. A woman's physical attractiveness is a cardinal component of women's mate value. We correlated observer-assessed physical attractiveness (face, body, and overall with expressed preferences for four clusters of mate characteristics (N = 214: (1 hypothesized good-gene indicators (e.g., masculinity, sexiness; (2 hypothesized good investment indicators (e.g., potential income; (3 good parenting indicators (e.g., desire for home and children, and (4 good partner indicators (e.g., being a loving partner. Results supported the hypothesis that high mate value women, as indexed by observer-judged physical attractiveness, expressed elevated standards for all four clusters of mate characteristics. Discussion focuses on potential design features of the hypothesized mate-value calibration adaptation, and suggests an important modification of the trade-off model of women's mating. A minority of women—notably those low in mate value who are able to escape male mate guarding and the manifold costs of an exposed infidelity—will pursue a mixed mating strategy, obtaining investment from one man and good genes from an extra-pair copulation partner (as the trade-off model predicts. Since the vast majority of women secure genes and direct benefits from the same man, however, most women will attempt to secure the best combination of all desired qualities from the same man.

Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Value-Based Decision-Making: From Core Values to Economic Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tobias eBrosch

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Value plays a central role in practically every aspect of human life that requires a decision: whether we choose between different consumer goods, whether we decide which person we marry or which political candidate gets our vote, we choose the option that has more value to us. Over the last decade, neuroeconomic research has mapped the neural substrates of economic value, revealing that activation in brain regions such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC, ventral striatum or posterior cingulate cortex reflects how much an individual values an option and which of several options he/she will choose. However, while great progress has been made exploring the mechanisms underlying concrete decisions, neuroeconomic research has been less concerned with the questions of why people value what they value, and why different people value different things. Social psychologists and sociologists have long been interested in core values, motivational constructs that are intrinsically linked to the self-schema and are used to guide actions and decisions across different situations and different time points. Core value may thus be an important determinant of individual differences in economic value computation and decision-making. Based on a review of recent neuroimaging studies investigating the neural representation of core values and their interactions with neural systems representing economic value, we outline a common framework that integrates the core value concept and neuroeconomic research on value-based decision-making.

Relying on Your Own Best Judgment: Imputing Values to Missing Information in Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Richard D.; And Others

Processes involved in making estimates of the value of missing information that could help in a decision making process were studied. Hypothetical purchases of ground beef were selected for the study as such purchases have the desirable property of quantifying both the price and quality. A total of 150 students at the University of Iowa rated the…

Network public goods with asymmetric information about cooperation preferences and network degree

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, Jacob; van Assen, Marcus

2013-01-01

We propose a game theoretical model of one-shot network public goods formalizing the 'closure argument' that cooperation is more frequent in denser groups or networks. Equilibrium analyses show that (i) an 'inefficiency problem' exists: players all preferring mutual cooperation need not all

Good end-of-life care according to patients and their GPs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Borgsteede, Sander D.; Graafland-Riedstra, Corrie; Deliens, Luc; Francke, Anneke L.; van Eijk, Jacques ThM; Willems, Dick L.

2006-01-01

BACKGROUND: Most patients prefer to die at home, where a GP provides end-of-life care. A few previous studies have been directed at the GPs' values on good end-of-life care, yet no study combined values of patients and their own GP. AIM: To explore the aspects valued by both patients and GPs in

Good end-of-life care according to patients and their GPs.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Borgsteede, S.D.; Graafland-Riedstra, C.; Deliens, L.; Francke, A.L.; Eijk, J.T.M. van; Willems, D.L.

2006-01-01

Background: Most patients prefer to die at home, where a GP provides end-of-life care. A few previous studies have been directed at the GPs' values on good end-of-life care, yet no study combined values of patients and their own GP. Aim: To explore the aspects valued by both patients and GPs in

49 CFR 214.503 - Good-faith challenges; procedures for notification and resolution.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Good-faith challenges; procedures for notification... Roadway Maintenance Machines and Hi-Rail Vehicles § 214.503 Good-faith challenges; procedures for... vehicle shall inform the employer whenever the employee makes a good-faith determination that the machine...