Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Performance and Welfare'

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina Veterinária<br>Oestrus intensity in Swedish dairy cattle – Is there a relationship with animal-based welfare parameters? A welfare field study was carried out in a Swedish experimental dairy farm to determine the presence and relevance of relationships between animal welfare-based parameters and fertility in heifers and first parity dairy cows with high genetic potential for milk production. The main hypothesis tested was that strong signalling of oestrus is an indicator of good welfare and that it is related to low avoidance distance, low lameness score and acceptable pregnancy rate. A field trial was initiated to validate a commercially automated progesterone measuring instrument (eProCheck®) designed to ease reproduction management. The studied sample included 68 females, balanced in terms of breed and category (Swedish Red or Swedish Holstein; heifer or cow). The animals were included into the study after oestrus detection and artificial insemination (AI) decision by the personnel at the farm. Oestrus intensity (OI) was determined in parallel by the personnel (NCV_OI) and by the author (OBS_OI). On day 0, defined by AI, progesterone relative level was assessed in blood (and milk - cows). On day 7, avoidance distance (at the feeding rack and inside the stable), body condition, lameness and progesterone level were assessed. On day 20, progesterone level was determined, as well as pregnancy through trans-rectal ultrasonography. Pregnancy was confirmed with trans-rectal palpation by day 50. The NCV_OI and OBS_OI differed, but the last revealed to be higher in heifers than in cows. The overall pregnancy rate (55%) was acceptable, but heifers had a higher performance than cows (70% vs. 37%), being higher oestrus intensity, both NCV_OI and OBS_OI, reflected in a higher pregnancy rate. Standing oestrus (high OBS_OI) had 3.8-fold higher odds of pregnancy, compared to the detection based on secondary oestrus signs. Though, AIs based on secondary signs had acceptable pregnancy rates (45 % in low vs. 46 % in medium OI). Strong oestruses (NCV_OI) had 5.3-fold higher odds of pregnancy than weak and clear ones grouped. Non-lame had 4.8-fold higher odds of pregnancy than lame animals. Avoidance distance means were short (<1m), as a reflex of a good human-animal interaction at the farm. Although OBS_OI tended to correlate negatively with avoidance distance at the feeding rack in primiparous cows, the relationships between OI and avoidance distances were found inconclusive and statistically nonsignificant. Results of preliminary eProCheck® trials seem promising regarding early pregnancy diagnosis, due to high sensitivity with a single test on day 20. Although further testing is required, it is considered a valuable complement for on-farm reproductive management. In conclusion, OI and lameness were associated with pregnancy outcome, confirming the importance of these factors in modern dairy farming, although global animal welfare level was considered acceptable within the studied parameters. Yet, re-evaluation of the prevention programme for lameness is needed to address its high prevalence in primiparous cows.<br>RESUMO - Performance e Bem-estar Animal Intensidade do cio em bovinos de leite na Suécia – Existem relações com os parâmetros de bem-estar baseados no animal? - Foi realizado um estudo de campo numa vacaria experimental de leite na Suécia para determinar a presença e relevância das relações entre parâmetros de bem-estar com base no animal e fertilidade de novilhas e vacas primíparas com alto potencial genético para produção de leite. A principal hipótese testada admite que a sinalização intensa do estro é um bom indicador de bem-estar e que está relacionada com uma curta distância de fuga, um baixo grau de claudicação e uma taxa de gestação aceitável. Foi iniciada a validação de um instrumento comercial de medição automatizada de progesterona (eProCheck®) desenvolvido para facilitar o maneio reprodutivo. A amostra incluiu 68 fêmeas, sem diferenças significativas na proporção de raças e categorias (Vermelha Sueca, Holstein Sueca; novilha, vaca). Os animais foram incluídos no estudo após a detecção de cio e decisão da inseminação artificial (IA) pelo pessoal da vacaria. A intensidade de cio (OI) foi avaliada em paralelo pelo pessoal (NCV_OI) e pelo autor (OBS_OI). No dia 0, definido pela IA, o nível relativo de progesterona foi determinado no sangue (e leite–vacas). No dia 7, foram avaliados a distância de fuga (na manjedoura e dentro do estábulo), condição corporal, grau de claudicação e o nível de progesterona. No dia 20, o nível de progesterona foi determinado, assim como a gestação através de ultrasonografia transrectal. A gestação foi confirmada por palpação trans-rectal cerca do dia 50. Os sistemas de classificação NCV_OI e OBS_OI obtiveram resultados diferentes, tendo o segundo evidenciado OI mais elevada nas novilhas que nas vacas. A taxa de gestação global (55%) foi aceitável, tendo as novilhas maior performance que as vacas (70% vs. 37%), pelo que maior OI, em NCV_OI e OBS_OI, reflectiu-se em maior taxa de gestação. O comportamento de se deixar montar (alta intensidade de cio) correspondeu a 3.8 vezes maior probabilidade de gestação, em comparação com a detecção baseada em sinais secundários. No entanto, as IAs com base em sinais secundários, obtiveram taxa de gestação aceitável (45% baixa vs. 46% média intensidade de cio). Cios intensos (NCV_OI) corresponderam a 5.3 vezes maior probabilidade de gestação que o conjunto dos cios nítidos e fracos. Animais não-claudicantes mostraram 4.8 vezes maior probabilidade de gestação do que animais com claudicação. As distâncias de fuga foram curtas (<1m), como reflexo de uma boa interacção homemanimal na vacaria. Embora a intensidade de cio tenha tido tendência a correlacionar-se negativamente com a distância de fuga na manjedoura em vacas primíparas, as relações entre intensidade de cio e as distâncias de fuga foram consideradas inconclusivas, não sendo estatisticamente significativas. Os resultados dos ensaios preliminares do eProCheck® parecem promissores quanto ao diagnóstico precoce de gestação, devido à alta sensibilidade com um único teste ao dia 20. Ainda que seja necessário continuar a testagem, pode ser uma ferramenta complementar útil no maneio reprodutivo. Finalmente, a taxa de gestação encontrou-se associada à intensidade de cio e ao grau de claudicação, confirmando-se a importância destes factores em explorações de alta produção, embora o bem-estar animal tenha sido considerado aceitável ao nível dos parâmetros estudados. No entanto, é necessária uma reavaliação do programa de prevenção de claudicação, a fim de reduzir a sua alta prevalência nas vacas prímiparas.

Child welfare leaders reflect their organizations' mission and vision and are entrusted to provide support to employees, who in turn provide services to one of the most vulnerable populations, children. Little, however is known about how leaders perceive their roles and responsibilities in terms of providing sufficient supervisory and guidance to child welfare workers in order to support organizational goals. Guided by Houses' path-goal theory, this phenomenological study examined the perceptions of child welfare leaders related to leadership behaviors, strategies to improve administration, work performance, communication, and fostering an inclusive work environment. A sample of 16 participants working as administrators, county directors, and supervisors in the nonprofit sector of a southeastern state completed semi structured open-ended surveys using Survey Gizmo. Data were analyzed via Moustaka's modified vanKaam method. Findings from this study indicated that participants perceived positive experiences with a supportive leadership style that allowed for more alignment to the workgroup by increasing job sharing that created autonomy and accountability. Factors such as coaching to better manage caseloads were believed to improve employee performance and satisfaction. Effective leaders removed barriers that prevented upward mobility, and provided sustainable work practices. The results of this study may impact social change by raising awareness among organizational leaders to recognize the value of employees and provide an inclusive and supportive workplace environment.

Chapter 1 Over the last decade we have witnessed an improvement in the literature on how to measure and compare the well-being of individuals. While the standard approach in the analysis of individual well-being is based almost exclusively on a material dimension of income, there is a robust evidence that individuals care about non-income dimensions of life which accordingly should be included in such a measure. Nevertheless, even when the non-income dimensions of life are included in the analysis of individual well-being, a majority of studies are predominantly neglecting the notion of individual preferences in order to escape the problem of interpersonal comparisons of well-being. In this chapter we have employed an alternative welfare measure which takes into account income and non-income dimensions of life while at the same time the following measure is sensitive to the individual preferences. This is known as the equivalent income measure. We have compared the equivalent income and income measures over 25 countries of the European Union. The following analysis is done for 2007 and 2011, since these were the only available years that we could use. Our contribution to the literature is reflected in the fact, that to the best of our knowledge, there are no such studies in the literature that compares the well-being with the following two measures for such a large set of countries. Although we found that the welfare rankings across countries change to some extent between the average income and average equivalent income, in spite of that when we ranked countries according to the growth rates of income and equivalent income we observed a substantial change in the country rankings. The following evidence implies that the choice of the welfare metrics is empirically important. The previous results have been broadened by computing the welfare rankings across countries once we raise the concern about the egalitarian principle of justice. We observed that the welfare rankings across countries changed remarkably when we take into account distributional inequalities. The evidence we have found suggest that correlations of disadvantages between life dimensions matter since some countries have sufficiently larger inequalities of equivalent income than inequalities of incomes. The results we have found show that individuals across countries care about material dimension (income) but they also care much about the non-income dimensions. Relatively the most important non-income dimension for almost all countries is health while the least important non-income dimension concerns the (un)employment status. We have identified the worst off individuals according to each welfare measure and we have compared the socio-demographic characteristics of the worst off individuals. We have seen that different well-being measures will identify the worst off individuals with different socio-demographic characteristics. We have also observed that the worst off individuals considerably differ over countries with respect to their average income and non-income dimensions and average socio-demographic characteristics. Finally, we have illustrated the degree of re-ranking between income and equivalent income measures taking into account all individuals of a given country. While we found a similar pattern of re-ranking between income and equivalent income across countries, the degree of re-ranking differs across countries. The pattern that we have observed across all countries indicated that individuals who are income rich can end up as equivalent income poor while the opposite has not been found.<br>Chapter 2 An important role of social and public policies, among others, is to provide employment opportunities and to maintain the initiative of people to work. Yet, the role of these policies should not exclusively be concerned with the improvement of job quantity, such as ensuring the optimal employment rate but likewise these policies should be designed to improve the well-being of workers by enhancing job quality. Although, the precise definition of job quality is lacking in the literature, one can reasonably argue that job quality is a multi-dimensional concept which includes the wage dimension but also non-wage job dimensions such as job autonomy, job security, whether a job is interesting, challenging, whether it offers a good career opportunities, etc. Accepting the idea that a job quality is a multi-dimensional concept leads to the important question of aggregating various job dimensions into an overall index of job quality which can be used as a measure of well-being on the job. Moreover, if we agree on the notion that the preferences of workers over job dimensions should be respected, then we have to find a proper way to weight these various job characteristics such that the construction of weights is consistent with the preference orderings over different jobs. A measure that satisfies the previous two requirements is known in the literature as the equivalent wage measure. In this study we have applied the concept of equivalent wage to a specific sub-population of recent graduates (bachelor, master and doctoral students) who are currently participating in the labour market. In addition to the equivalent wage measure, we have used four other well-being measures which are wage, average preferences objective measure, equal weights objective measure and subjective job satisfaction measure. We have compared the job quality using a large scale survey which includes nineteen countries. We have found that individuals with various personal characteristics have different preferences over wage and non-wage job dimensions. This result underlines the importance of considering the heterogeneity of individual preferences seriously. We have shown that different measures of job quality will result in substantially different ranking of countries. In other words, the evidence we have found points out to the fact that the choice of well-being measure is utterly important for measuring job quality. Since, we have observed a considerable re-ranking of countries between different measures, we were encouraged to provide the evidence on the strength and direction of relationship between the ranking for all pairs of measures. We have found that the rank correlation is positive and statistically significant for almost all pairwise correlations. The lowest correlation has been found between pairs of wage and equal weights objective measure while the highest correlation has been found between subjective job satisfaction and average preferences objective measure. As one important issue in creating a reasonable public policies is to identify those individuals who are not faring well or those who are faring very well, we have decided to identify the individuals at the bottom and top end of the distribution according to different measures of job quality. The results have shown that the overlap of the worst off when we use two measures is lowest for wage and equivalent wage measures while the largest overlap occurs when we use two objective measures. These results should not be surprising since the informational requirements between two objective measures are more alike than the informational requirements between wage and equivalent wage. On the other hand, the largest overlap of the best off individuals for a pair of measures occurs between average preferences and equal weights measures while the overlap is lowest between wage and subjective job satisfaction. We have evaluated the gender differential in job quality across countries by using wage and equivalent wage measures. The evidence we have found indicate that in majority of countries, the average quality of jobs is higher for men than for women if we use the wage measure. While even if we use the equivalent wage measure, the quality of jobs are higher among men in most countries, still we have observed that women are either holding jobs of the same quality or they are even faring better than men in some countries. In addition, we have computed the willingness-to-pay for each non-wage job characteristic and we have compared the gender differences in the willingness-to-pay across and within countries. We have found that across almost all countries, the willingness-to-pay is higher among men, which indicates that they are suffering more not reaching the best possible values of non-wage job characteristics. Finally, we have presented the decomposition the total willingness-to-pay on the contributions attributed to each non-wage job characteristic. We have found that across countries for both men and women, having a good career prospect is relatively the most important non-wage job characteristic while job security is relatively the least important non-wage job characteristic.<br>Chapter 3 In recent decades there has been a growing number of studies that investigated the effects of personal and job characteristics on the subjective well-being on the job. Besides, the empirical findings reveal that workers who are paid on the piece rates exert more effort and earn more than those workers paid an hourly salary. Nevertheless, it is ambiguous what will be the effect of performance paying schemes, since the well-being on the job can increase in wage but it can decrease with higher level of excreted effort. Since the possible effect of performance paying jobs on the well-being of workers stay hidden, we have tackled the following issue in this chapter and we have provided the empirical evidence on these effects. This chapter contributes to the literature on the subjective well-being by providing the casual effects that the performance pay job schemes have on job satisfaction. We approximate the well-being on the job by the subjective job satisfaction reported by individuals. We have used the Korean Labour and Income Panel Survey which allowed us to distinguish between the workers who are paid by performance and those who are paid by fixed rate. In addition, we could exploit the information about the particular type of performance paying scheme that applies to the workers who are paid by performance. Since the personality traits are possibly correlated with the observed and unobserved explanatory variables, we have decided to estimate the job satisfaction regression using the fixed effects estimator. We have shown that workers in the performance pay job schemes have a higher subjective well-being on the job than workers who are using the non-performance pay job schemes. The following result holds true even after we have controlled for the level of earnings, attitudes toward risk and other personal and job related characteristics. This evidence is also confirmed for both men and women. When it comes down to the effect of wage on job satisfaction, we observe that the effect is not apparent as someone might expect. We have found that among all explanatory variables, health has the strongest effect on the well-being on the job. Finally, we have exploited the information on the type of performance pay schemes in order to analyse how different performance pay schemes affect job satisfaction. The results have shown that workers who are employed on the individual, group and company performance pay job schemes are more satisfied on their job than workers who are paid by the fixed amount. The later result remains even after we have controlled for the difference in earnings, personal and job characteristics.

In 2005-06, 24 Canadian and American animal welfare organizations (AWOs) and foundations participated in an in-depth qualitative study to establish which performance criteria best determine the effectiveness of AWOs. Participants' comments resulted in the development of a framework that offers individual donors and foundations a consistent approach to evaluating organizational performance. Termed the PREP Framework, this approach categorizes performance into four key pillars, each with its own components and criteria: 1. Philosophy - the organization's beliefs and values, as reflected in its mandate, position statements, policies and practices; 2. Red Flags - indicators of problems in the organization, such as excessive personnel turnover, disproportionate management salaries, high administration and fundraising costs, lack of peer collaboration, poor financial statements; 3. Efficiencies - financial and operational conduct of the organization, including long term strategic planning, financial credibility and sustainability; and 4. People - abilities of those involved with the organization, including management, volunteers, peers, donors and board members. The study also explored the pros and cons of standardizing performance evaluation and found that many participants felt the sector would benefit from the use of more quantitative and qualitative benchmarks and standards to establish sector norms and trends. In addition, the research examined the sector's familiarity with outcome measurement and found most participants struggled to clearly define outcomes for the sector. This may suggest the sector would also gain from consultation on how to establish objectives within an outcome evaluation framework. Finally, the study investigated how funding strategies of foundations often are at odds with AWO needs and priorities. Participants identified conflicts concerning funding of: 1. short-term vs. long-term projects; 2. innovative vs. proven projects; 3. many, small grants vs. fewer, large grants; 4. new vs. established organizations; 5. emotional appeal vs. practical needs; and 6. no-kill vs. open-admission shelters. Participants provided ideas on where funding could be applied to make the most impact and achieve mutual goals for both AWOs and foundations. The findings and recommendations of this study may enable AWOs to better identify and manage their objectives while enabling donors and foundations to better assess AWO performance and outcomes to improve philanthropic decision-making.<br>Land and Food Systems, Faculty of<br>Graduate

This thesis analyses several aspects of the performance, welfare and reception of immigrants in the UK. The thesis is organised into three parts and contains the introduction and six chapters. In the introduction, we provide the motivation and estabhsh the background for the analysis performed in the thesis. We discuss recent trends in migration in the UK and describe the data sources used for the analysis. In part one we analyse the economic performance of immigrants, and how this is affected by the level of proficiency in the host country language. We also investigate the association between ethnic concentration and language fluency. In chapter two, the effect of language proficiency in English is investigated as a determinant of wages and employment probabihties, taking into account econometric issues such as endogeneity and measurement error. This is followed by chapter three, which investigates the association between immigrants' language proficiency and ethnic context. In part two, chapter four presents an analysis of health inequalities between ethnic minority immigrants and the native population in England. A model of migration decisions is developed that includes health as a determinant of migration. According to this model, if health and income are positively correlated, immigrants are likely to be positively selected in terms of health. This discussion illustrates the problems deriving from the available measures of health. Part two deals with issues of "reception". In chapter five, the impact of immigration on the UK labour market is investigated. We use aggregate information at regional level. The analysis concentrates on employment and wage effects of immigration. Finally, chapter six provides an analysis of the association between ethnic concentration, attitudes of the majority population and the probability of ethnic minorities experiencing racial hostility.

This thesis comprises four chapters, in two parts. The first part examines the result of a Swedish payroll tax reduction; first from the perspective of the worker, then from that of the employer. The second half of the thesis concerns subjective well-being, both from an individual and from an aggregate viewpoint. Payroll Taxes and Youth Labor Demand. In 2007, the Swedish payroll tax was reduced substantially for young workers. This paper examines whether targeted payroll tax reductions are effective in raising youth employment. We estimate a small impact, both on employment and on wages. However, the effect differs markedly across ages, with 4–5 times higher impact on 22–23 year-olds compared to 25-year-olds. Additionally, the employment effects are strongly procyclical, approaching zero in the deep recession. We calculate that the estimated cost per created job is more than four times that of directly hiring workers at the average wage. Payroll Taxes and Firm Performance. The Swedish payroll tax reform of 2007 had the effect that firms' average social fees came to depend on the age structure of their employees. This makes it possible to estimate how firms respond to shocks in labor costs. We find a significant, but very small effect on gross investments, and a negative, but not statistically significant, impact on labor productivity. There are no effects on exit rates or profitability. Beyond Income: The Importance for Life Satisfaction of Having Access to a Cash Margin. We study how life satisfaction among adult Swedes is influenced by having access to a cash margin, i.e. a moderate amount of money that could be acquired on short notice either through own savings, by loan from family or friends, or by other means. We find that cash margin is a strong and robust predictor of life satisfaction, also when controlling for individual fixed-effects and socio-economic conditions, including income. This suggests that cash margin captures something beyond wealth. On Aggregating Subjective Well-Being. This paper discusses the assumptions underlying the aggregation of individually measured well-being. Any aggregation method is associated with measurability assumptions regarding the underlying well-being measure, as well as moral philosophical assumptions with respect to how individual well-being is weighted into a composite metric. I compare welfare across a set of countries, under alternative aggregation methods, and find that countries often can be ranked under comparatively weak measurement assumptions, and, equally important, that aggregation methods can be chosen so as to refrain from strong ethical preconceptions.

This study focuses on the topic of CSR and profitability and extends the current literature on the topic by examining the relationship between CSR and profitability from a game theory setting. Specifically, this study implements game modelling and develops two parts of analysis on the topic of CSR and profitability. The goal of part one analysis is to investigate competing CSR firms in comparison with competing non-CSR firms. The part two analysis is to study a CSR firm and a non-CSR firm that compete in the same market in two scenarios. In scenario 1, the CSR firm and its non-CSR counterpart compete for profitability. In scenario 2, the CSR firm is operating to optimize its defined welfare objective; whereas the non-CSR operates for a maximized profit level. The solutions to the models complemented with a detailed analysis reveal that the CSR could actually gain strategic and competitive advantages over its non-CSR counterpart in both defined scenarios. However, this study does not intend to advocate a positive relationship between CSR and profit performance. The positive relationship is qualified, and whether or not the relationship is positive, as this study shows, is dependent on the firm’s tactics.

To prevent the outbreak of pathogenic diseases, the salmonid aquaculture industry relies on the use of vaccines. While traditional, polyvalent, oil-adjuvanted vaccines (AV) are effective, they do not work against all types of pathogens and the vaccination process and vaccine composition can be stressful for individual fish. Continuing advances in technology have led to the development of a new type of pathogen-specific vaccine; a DNA vaccine (DV). While there are many benefits to DVs, including a physiologically less stressful vaccine formulation, a more rapid immune response, and prolonged protection compared to traditional vaccines, the impacts of DVs on the general physiology of fishes, especially when coupled with an AV, are not well understood. To assess these impacts, growth performance, routine metabolic rate (RMR), and immunological responsiveness were examined in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, L.) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Walbaum) following the injection of a DV. When injected alone, the DV did not affect fish performance parameters. When injected concurrently with an AV, there were general differences in growth performance and RMR, and species-specific differences in immune responsiveness. Concurrent injection of a DV with an AV in Atlantic salmon was associated with a transient decrease in specific growth rate. As well, concurrent injection elicited an increase in lysozyme activity, an antigen-specific increase in specific antibody (Ab) production, and a delay in the production of virus-specific neutralizing antibodies (NAb). In rainbow trout, concurrent injection of a DV with an AV led to a temporary increase in RMR, an increase in lysozyme activity, and an earlier seroconversion of NAbs. To determine the impact of stress on the vaccine-induced immune response, Atlantic salmon were injected with supra-physiological levels of cortisol following concurrent vaccine injection. If cortisol was presented after initiation of the immune response, there was suppression of lysozyme activity and no effect on the production of specific Abs. Although the current research shows that DVs are highly beneficial to the aquaculture industry, it highlights the need for species-specific studies, especially when combining the DV with traditional, polyvalent vaccines.

When constructing lineups for suspects with distinctive facial features (e.g., scars, tattoos, piercings), current police guidelines in several countries state that the distinctive suspect must not stand out. To this end, police officers sometimes artificially replicate a suspect’s distinctive feature across the other lineup members (replication); other times, they conceal the feature on the suspect and conceal a similar area on the other members by pixelating the area (pixelation), or covering the area with a solid rectangle (block). Although these three techniques are used frequently, little research has examined their efficacy. This thesis investigates how the lineup techniques for distinctive suspects influence eyewitness identification performance and, in doing so, tests the predictions of a new model of eyewitness decision-making—the diagnostic-feature-detection model (Wixted & Mickes, 2014). The research uses a standard eyewitness identification paradigm and signal detection statistics to examine how replication, pixelation, and block techniques influence identification performance: [1] compared to doing nothing to stop the distinctive suspect from standing out; [2] in young, middle-aged and older adults; and [3] when the culprit does not have the feature during the crime. It also examines [4] how variation in the way the suspect’s feature is replicated influences identification performance. The results converge to suggest that all three lineup techniques currently used by the police to accommodate distinctive suspects are equally effective and, when the culprit has the feature at the time of the crime, all enhance people’s ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects more than doing nothing to prevent a distinctive suspect from standing out. All three lineup techniques enable people of all ages to make highly confident decisions when they are likely to be accurate. These findings align with the predictions of the diagnostic-feature-detection model, which suggests that the model remains a viable theory of eyewitness decision-making.

The human-animal relationship in agriculture has been shown to be an influential factor affecting farm animal behaviour, welfare and productivity. It has been demonstrated that stockperson behaviour is related to animal fear and productivity and stockperson attitudes have been found to be strong predictors of stockperson behaviour. However, other job-related human factors may also be influenced by attitudes, thus affecting stockperson work performance. Inter-relationships between stockperson attitudes and behaviours and other job-related human factors were determined. The effects of human behaviour on the behavioural response of pigs towards humans was further investigated and the role of training to modify job-related factors, such as technical knowledge was examined. Stockperson behaviour was shown to influence the behavioural response of pigs towards humans and behavioural responses of pigs towards humans could be conditioned within 4 weeks of regular handling. Negative behaviour by the stockperson was shown to be the most aversive human-animal interaction, while injection treatments were moderately aversive in comparison. The negative effects of human behaviour and husbandry procedures were not found to be alleviated by positive handling or environmental enrichment. The behavioural response of pigs towards humans was found to be influenced by social learning processes and stimulus generalisation of the behavioural response of pigs to humans was found to be unaffected by location. Other job-related human factors, such as technical knowledge, empathy and job satisfaction were positively related to stockperson attitudes and behaviour. Due to established sequential relationships between stockperson attitudes and behaviour and pig behaviour and productivity, this was viewed as indicative of the effect of these job-related variables on pig behaviour and productivity.

According to what has emerged from an analysis of the situation of Italian beef cattle, it seems necessary, in a market where competitors and production costs increase, to improve the zootechnical management within the farm highlighting the critical points, and work towards finding solutions and limiting the economic impact on the farm budget. For this purpose during the course of doctorate three studies were conducted with the aim to assess the incidence and the economic impact caused by the onset of health problems (first and second study) and the use of essential oils in order to optimize the immune response and growth performance of beef cattle (third study). The first study focused on methods of Italian beef breeding and health issues in the conditioning phase. We analyzed the impact and incidence of the most common diseases of beef cattle breeding as a consequence of the chosen type of adaptation method of imported bovines: classic or conditioned type (animals that have had a vaccination treatment in the country of origin before departure for Italy). In detail, the two main categories, classic and conditioned adaptation, have been divided into subcategories, to highlight, according to gender, animal weight and percentage of weight loss during transport, the incidence and correlation with health issues that normally involved cattle during the adaptation phase: BRD, joint and gastroenteric disease. The study showed an increased predisposition to respiratory diseases in the group subjected to the conditioning method. This data is correlated to the different environmental microbial component of the herds of origin and to the vaccination plans that are not always compliant and similar to those of the destination countries. The second study discussed in detail the effect of respiratory diseases on growth performance of young bulls. The parameters monitored for the classification of BRD are aligned with the detection methods used in clinical studies following the procedures of good practices required in respect of the animal. To complete the study, weights were recorded at intervals of time in order to verify how breathing problems can affect the increase of average daily weight. The analysis of data during the study, has highlighted how the respiratory disease is likely to affect growth performance especially in the first period of adaptation, lower than 0,350 kg/day compared to those not suffering from respiratory disease, showing a significant impact on IMPG also in the following stages of the production cycle. In conclusion, some considerations have been expressed about medical treatments that are normally used in BRD cases, the costs of treatment and the importance of implementing a specific health management (prophylaxis, metaphylaxis, therapy) for pathogens on the farm. The third study derives from the analysis of the zootechnics and nutrition improvements in the last years. The use of ionophore antibiotics in the food has found great success in containing the losses of energy and protein that characterize the digestion of ruminants. The integration of these molecules in animal food, however, met a growing disapproval from consumers, because of the risk of occurrence of the antibiotic resistance phenomenon due to the presence of residues in animal products. For this reason, their use has been permanently banned from European Union since January 2006 ( 1831/2003/CEE, European Commission, 2003). Scientific researchers conducted in vitro revealed how the integration of the diet with certain types of essential oils can facilitate the modulation of ruminal fermentation and thanks to their targeted antimicrobial action, increase the production of volatile fatty acids, reducing the concentration of ammonia in rumen. The study was conducted to test the effect of the integration of the diet with essential oils of cinnamaldehyde, eugenol and capsaicin, on growth performance and on the immune response of Charolaise cattle. The study have showed that the essential oils have a wide range of beneficial effects on the health of ruminants, having a positive effect on inflammatory processes and on all those diseases in which free radicals are involved. In conclusion, the results emphasize that the BRD is a major health issues in the first phase of breeding with serious repercussions on the productive performance. Furthermore, in addition to specific health management, the integration of the diet with essential oils may decrease the incidence of these problems, improving rumen activity, the immune response and growth performance of beef cattle.

This thesis consists of four self-contained essays on policy rules and macroeconomic behaviour of an emerging market economy, in addition to the introductory first chapter. It examines monetary and fiscal policy performance, develops a small open-economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model and investigates welfare-maximising optimal monetary rules, with reference to the Sri Lankan economy. The second chapter empirically characterises the monetary policy of Sri Lanka using alternative policy reaction functions. The estimation results suggest that the Taylor rule captures the monetary policy reaction characteristics in Sri Lanka more closely than the McCallum rule. The results further implies that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) follows a contemporaneous or backward-looking rule instead of a forward-looking monetary policy rule. The results indicate that the CBSL responds to inflation fairly strongly while stabilising output aggressively. It is also found that the CBSL smoothes out policy action strongly. This suggests that the CBSL implements policy gradually in small steps in the desired direction, without making immediate sharp changes. The third chapter investigates the fiscal policy performance of Sri Lanka in the period subsequent to the implementation of numerical fiscal targets in 2003. It estimates alternative fiscal policy rules widely used in literature including tax difference rules, primary balance rules and Taylor-type fiscal rules for Sri Lanka. I find that the fiscal authority contemporaneously responds to changes in output gap and government expenditure moderately, by changing the tax rate. Moreover, it implies that the fiscal policy in Sri Lanka is procyclical rather than countercyclical. The fourth chapter develops a New Keynesian (NK) small open-economy (SOE) dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. This study is different from most of the other available SOE studies, as it includes an explicit fiscal sector in the model. The model is estimated for Sri Lanka using Bayesian techniques. The dynamics of the model in response to different shocks are examined to understand the relative importance of the business cycle drivers. The properties of the estimated rules are analysed to identify the policy reaction behaviour of the monetary and fiscal authorities. The estimation results suggest that over the sample period, the CBSL conducted moderately strong anti-inflationary monetary policy while paying substantial attention to output stabilisation, however, with negligibly small concerns for exchange rate movements. The findings suggest a high degree of interest rate persistence as well. The findings further imply that the fiscal authority of Sri Lanka changes its policy instrument, the tax rate, only moderately in response to changes in debt level, government expenditure or output. The fifth chapter computes welfare-maximising optimal monetary policy rules for Sri Lanka based on a slightly simplified variant of the DSGE model discussed in the fourth chapter. I calculate second-order accurate solutions to the model, which facilitate welfare computation across various policy rules. I determine optimal monetary policy rules such that the welfare associated with them is as close as possible to the Ramsey optimal allocation. The welfare cost of adopting alternative rules, instead of the optimal, is determined to evaluate the relative importance of the different policy rules. There are several key findings. First, the optimal monetary policy rule suggests an aggressive response to inflation and a moderate response to output-gap. Second, the optimal policy advocates a muted response to exchange rate fluctuations. Third, the welfare gains from interest rate smoothing are significant. Finally, the welfare losses associated with the current realised monetary policy rule for Sri Lanka can be mitigated significantly by responding to inflation more strongly. Finally, the sixth chapter summarises the key findings and concludes the thesis.

This thesis examines the usefulness of voluntary health insurance (VHI) as a lever for improving health system performance. It posits that VHI may further health policy goals if it addresses gaps in statutory coverage, if it does not make those who rely on statutory coverage worse off, and if those who need VHI have access to it. The thesis presents four studies that analyse markets for VHI in the European Union; developments in public policy towards VHI, including the implications of the EUlevel regulatory framework for VHI; the impact of VHI on health system performance; the effects of allowing people to choose between statutory and voluntary health insurance; and VHI’s influence on consumer mobility where insurers compete to offer statutory benefits. The thesis finds that while VHI is critical to financial protection in some countries, it does not always address key gaps in statutory coverage or reach those who need it, and the depth of its coverage has declined over time, even in heavily regulated markets. VHI has a regressive effect on equity in health financing, lowers equity in the use of health services and does not seem to have a positive effect on efficiency, partly because insurers in many countries lack appropriate incentives. What is more, a failure to align incentives across VHI and statutory health insurance can undermine the efficiency of public spending on health. Many of VHI’s negative effects can be attributed to poor policy design. Policy makers can try and ensure VHI contributes to rather than undermines health system performance through the following mechanisms: better understanding of VHI’s interaction with the health system; stronger policy design, focusing on aligning incentives in pursuit of health policy goals and ensuring efficiency in the use of public resources; willingness and capacity to regulate the market to secure financial and consumer protection; and regular monitoring and evaluation.

Broilers can be faced with a several stressful conditions during their production cycle which can have implications for both growth performance and animal welfare. Animal welfare encompasses the physical and mental well-being of animals, assessed from the biological functioning and subjective experience. The aims of this thesis were i) to develop and validate non-invasive means of assessing the welfare of broilers under physiological and episodic heat stress conditions, ii) to investigate the impact of episodic heat stress, physiological stress and light wavelength on the growth performance, physiology and welfare of broiler chickens and, finally, iii) to investigate a novel means of alleviating heat stress in broilers. Endogenous corticosterone measured in the urate sphere was suppressed by dexamethasone administration. In a cognitive bias task, birds offered mealworms injected with corticosterone to mimic chronic stress were pessimistic in their judgement about ambiguous positions. A positive correlation was established between physiological indicators of stress and cognitive bias. Although light wavelength was confounded with light intensity in our study, there was no difference in growth performance and cognitive ability of birds reared in the blue and red light, except for increased activity of birds in red light. Under simulated episodic heat stress, the change in CBT measured from a temperature-ID chip (ΔCBT-chip) and a data logger (ΔCBT-logger) was positively correlated. Significant positive correlations were found between the change in surface body temperature (SBT) under wing (ΔWT) and ΔCBT-chip, and between ΔWT and ΔCBT-logger. Significant positive regression equations relating change in CBT and RR with apparent equivalent temperature (a factor which combines environmental temperature and RH) were also developed. High temperature coupled with high RH aggravated the respiratory rate (RR) of broilers and this was accompanied by suppression of peening behaviour. High heat stress for 3 hours had a greater impact on birds than moderate heat stress for 6 hours. For broilers exposed to moderate heat stress, the provision of additional cup drinkers reduced the rise in CBT and the proportion of time spent in wing drooping behaviour, but enhanced SBTs suggesting increased heat dissipation.

This paper looks at the evolution of urbanization in Zambia. The country has a population of just over 15 million people with about 35% living in urban areas. The population in the urban areas is projected to increase driven by both natural population growth and rural-urban migration. This population growth is expected to put pressure on the provision of services in urban areas. The country has been implementing a decentralization programme that is meant to devolve vital tasks to the local authority. If this happens, the local authorities will have the pressure of ensuring that people in their cities have decent standards of living. The localized city development index will assist local authorities with information to use in assessing their performance. The index adopts the Alkire Foster multidimensional measurement approach.

<p> There is substantial cost in the hiring and training of a correctional officer, with a high rate of turnover compounding these costs. While pre-employment psychological screening is suggested as one method to prevent these losses, mandates to screen are not as common in corrections as they are in law enforcement. Further, minimal research has examined the validity of psychological testing in correctional officers. This dissertation examined pre-employment psychological screening for 421 correctional officers hired by one of three upstate New York sheriff's departments. Assessments were conducted by Public Safety Psychology, PLLC from March, 1997 to June, 2012. T scores and risk estimates from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), DQ admission and problem points from the Personal History Questionnaire (PHQ) and Psychological History Questionnaire (PsyQ) and the psychologist's recommendation were used as predictors of supervisor rating and job status. Utilizing logistic regression and controlling for agency of hire, high ratings by the psychologist, high scores on PAR-H and low scores on BOR-S from the PAI were associated with satisfactory supervisor ratings. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that being non-White, having a lower rating by the psychologist, higher To and Ai scores and lower So scores from the CPI, and more General problem points on the PsyQ were predictive of officers who were fired compared to being currently employed. Furthermore, previous law enforcement experience, being younger, lower Gi, So and Wo scores on the CPI, higher To and Sc scores on the CPI, and lower probability of substance abuse issues as based on the PAI and PHQ were predictive of officers quitting rather than staying on the job. Limitations and future directions are discussed.</p>

This thesis is concerned with the statistical adjustment of survey-based indicators to account for unobserved and observed sources of heterogeneity. Recent years have seen a growth in the use of survey-based indicators to measure performance, but questions have been raised over their legitimacy due to high levels of nonresponse, particularly among certain groups, and the influence of factors unrelated to organisational performance, which complicate their interpretation. In light of this, this thesis uses a range of methods that go beyond those ordinarily applied to performance assessment, to explore the role that nonresponse and factors unrelated to performance, i.e. case-mix, have on indicators. The empirical analysis focuses on the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) indicators drawn from the English Adult Social Care Survey. The core concerns of this thesis are whether (i) nonresponse and (ii) adjusting for factors beyond the control of organisations affects the interpretation of indicator scores. Nonresponse has a limited effect on inferences about performance, but conclusions depend on the method used to explore the effects of nonresponse, the level of nonresponse, the importance of unobserved factors and the value placed on accuracy over intelligibility of indicators. Adjustment for case-mix has an important effect on the interpretation of indicators, but the adjustment method used was less critical for inference, at least where the aim is to compare organisations. This thesis suggests that the accuracy of some of the ASCOF indicators would be improved by adjusting for case-mix and, possibly, for nonresponse. It is important for future studies to explore the effect of nonresponse on indicators. Policymakers may also wish to consider amending the survey design to improve its representativeness of the adult social care population. Future studies of survey-based performance indicators would benefit from using a wider range of methods similar to those applied here.

La castració de vedells ha estat proposada com a mètode de millora de la qualitat de la canal i de la carn. Tot i això, la preocupació pel benestar animal, el control del dolor que pugui estar associat i el seu impacte en els paràmetres productius i la qualitat de la carn dels vedells, posen de manifest la necessitat de que sigui revisada. Del primer capítol d’aquesta tesis es pot concloure que tot i que el creixement dels vedells castrats es veu afectat i que alguns paràmetres comportamentals són alterats durant les primeres dues setmanes post castració, la tècnica no està no compromet totalment el benestar dels animals, quan s’utilitza anestesia i analgèsia. El segon estudi (Capítol IV) conclou que la castració a edats prepuberals perjudica el pes de la canal i la conformació dels vedells Holstein i que per tant, caldria sacrificar els animals als 14 mesos d’edat; a més, la castració quirúrgica de vedells Holstein als 8 mesos d’edat no és una bona estratègia quan es combina amb la reducció d’edat de sacrifici, ja que en el moment del sacrifici (10 mesos d’edat) aquests animals no estan recuperats de les seqüeles de la castració. Una alternativa a la castració física es la vacuna contra la hormona alliberadora de gonadotropina (GnRH). Donat que a dia d’avui, no hi ha estudis que correlacionin indicadors de benestar amb la vacuna contra GnRH, es va estudiar el benestar en la immunocastració en un tercer estudi (Capítol V), on es conclou que la immunocastració pot ser una alternativa per millorar el benestar respecte a la castració física tradicional. Finalment, en un quart estudi (Capítol VI) es demostra que els animals vacunats als 7 mesos d’edat amb la vacuna contra la GnRH, amb un interval de 4 setmanes entre vacunacions, millora els paràmetres productius respecte els vedells castrats físicament, i que la immunocastració és una alternativa que permet assolir la mateixa qualitat de carn que els vedells castrats pel mètode tradicional.<br>Castration of bulls has been proposed as a method to improve carcass and meat quality. However, concern regarding animal welfare and pain control with this management procedure and its impact on animal performance and meat quality of bulls fed high-concentrate diets still needs to be addressed. From the first Chapter (III) of this Thesis it can be concluded that despite growth was reduced and some behavior traits were altered during the first 2 wk after castration, ring-castrating calves at 3 mo using analgesia and anesthesia could be considered as a method that controls pain and does not greatly compromise animal welfare. A second study was conducted (Chapter IV) to evaluate the hypotheses that reducing slaughter age of these pre-pubertal castrated steers could be an alternative to improve feed efficiency without compromising carcass and meat quality. From this study it was concluded that pre-puberty castration impairs carcass weight and conformation of Holstein animals if slaughter age is not delayed until 14 mo of age, and that surgical castration of Holstein animals performed at 8 mo of age is not a good strategy when combined with reduced slaughter ages, as carcass and meat quality at 10 mo of age were impaired because animals had not fully recovered from castration sequels. One alternative to physical castration is active immunization against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). To date, there were no published studies evaluating an anti-GnRH vaccine on behavioral or physiological indicators of calf welfare, so third study was conducted (Chapter V) and conclusions were that immunocastration may be a welfare friendly alternative to traditional physical castration methods in beef calves. Finally, the fourth study of this Thesis (Chapter VI) concluded that vaccinating Holstein bulls of 7 mo of age with an anti-GnRH vaccine with a 4 wk interval improved performance compared with physically castrated bulls, and immunocastration is an alternative to achieve the same meat quality as physically castrated male cattle.

Ever since the late 1950s, one of the main objectives of child protection policies in the United States has been to reduce the amount of time children spend in out-of-home care. For nearly four decades, policymakers have sought to achieve this goal primarily by providing various types of services to help children reunify with their parents more quickly. However, in recent years a new approach has emerged which emphasises the use of quantitative targets to expedite exits from care, even when this entails terminating parental rights or pursuing alternatives to family reunification such as child adoption. Since then, states have adopted very different policy approaches to promote timely exits from out-of-home care. Yet relatively few comparative studies have been undertaken to examine which approaches have yielded better outcomes. Further, the evidence base on whether some approaches may be associated with negative distortionary effects, particularly with regard to permanency outcomes, remains limited. In this research, I focus on performance-based contracting (PBC); a type of policy approach which links compensation of child welfare agencies to the achievement of specific quantitative targets. My analysis focuses on four states: two that have employed PBC to reduce the amount of time children spend in care—Illinois and North Carolina—and two that have not—New Jersey and Washington state, using multi-year, multi-state entry cohorts based on the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). I find that PBC states recorded greater improvements in the timeliness of permanency outcomes compared to states that do not employ PBC during the period considered. I also find that compositional effects related to the race of children entering care and the type of placement setting chosen, in combination with other influences including secular trends, may play a part in shaping this outcome for particular groups. I am, however, unable to conclude whether these outcomes are the result of PBC alone or a combination of other factors, which I am not able to capture or control for with the data utilised. Further, my analysis cannot conclusively determine whether some of these outcomes might be accompanied by various distortionary effects, including “cherry picking” or other types of gaming. My research, however, does cast doubt on some of the “mechanisms” through which changes in the timeliness in permanency outcomes are achieved as well as raises the need for a more nuanced and complex theoretical framework to explain how PBC might shape the timeliness of permanency outcomes.

Transportation of swine is an emerging welfare issue, especially for piglets weaned and then immediately transported. Weaned pigs fed starter diets containing SDPP display improved growth performance. The objective of this study was to determine effects of pre-weaning SDPP on indicators of health, welfare, and performance in transported weaned pigs. Pigs were assigned to treatments: I. SDPP + transport, II. Water + transport, III. SDPP + no transport, or IV. Water + no transport. Pigs received their gavage twice daily for 5 d prior to weaning. Pigs were weaned and either transported or moved directly to the wean-to-finish barn. Rectal temperatures and blood samples were obtained at weaning and after relocation. Body weight was determined on d 1, at weaning, after relocation, and at weekly intervals for 5 wk thereafter. Blood chemistry profiles and serum cortisol concentrations were also determined. Rectal temperature and potassium increased and calcium decreased after groups I and II were transported. Glucose was lowest in group II. Total protein was greater in group I compared to group III. Albumin was greatest in group I compared to all other groups. Sodium was greatest in group II compared to all other groups. Anion gap was greatest in group II compared to group IV. Cortisol, phosphorus, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and chloride, were greater in groups I and II after transportation. In summary, transportation impacted several physiological indicators of health and well-being in weaned pigs, and providing SDPP prior to weaning prevented transportation-induced changes in sodium, glucose, and anion gap levels.<br>Master of Science

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctorate of Clinical Psychology (Clin.Psy.D.) at the University of Birmingham. It comprises two volumes, a research component and a clinical component. Volume I comprises three sections, a systematic literature review paper, empirical paper and a public dissemination document. The literature review examines the literature for a link between staff stress and burnout on their job performance within learning disabilities services in the UK. The empirical paper follows on from the literature review and investigates whether there is a relationship between service users’ challenging behaviour, burnout and job performance of staff within these services. Finally, there is a public dissemination briefing paper provides an executive summary of the empirical paper. Volume II includes, five Clinical Practice Reports (CPR), four written and one oral presentation, describing work completed while on clinical placements for adult, child, learning disability, physical and mental health opportunities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.<br>Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in the Department of Social Work." Discipline: Social Work; Department/School: Social Work.

Die Arbeit zielt darauf ab, ein tieferes Verständnis darüber zu schaffen, wodurch die Verwendung von Performance-Informationen in der öffentlichen Verwaltung bestimmt wird. Ausgehend von einer Literaturrecherche zu den wichtigsten theoretischen Erklärungen für die Verwendung von Performance-Informationen wird ein Analyseraster entwickelt, anhand dessen der Grad der Informationsverwendung in der Verwaltung operationalisiert wird. Anschließend wird eine Fallstudie über die Berliner Sozialhilfeverwaltung durchgeführt. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass verschiedene Verwaltungsakteure desselben Politikbereichs heterogene Präferenzen besitzen und sich folglich auch ihre Erwartungen an Performance-Informationen unterscheiden: Da beispielsweise die Sozialämter in den Berliner Bezirken hauptsächlich im „operativen Tagesgeschäft“ involviert sind, richtet sich ihr Hauptaugenmerk auf Kennzahlen, die diese Perspektive abdecken. Demgegenüber liegt etwa auf der Landesseite das Augenmerkt der Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen mehr auf den Kosteninformationen, da hier die Steuerung über die Globalsummenzuweisung an die Bezirke erfolgt. Es lassen sich verschiedene Indizien finden, um die Verwendung dieser Daten erklären zu können. Es wird festgestellt, dass der Schwerpunkt bislang eindimensional auf den Finanzdaten liegt. Die Verwendung lässt sich vor allem durch die subjektive politische Brisanz bestimmter Daten sowie durch die Einstellung der Führungskräfte gegenüber einer performance-basierten Steuerungsphilosophie erklären.<br>While there is a vast number of (often prescriptive) literature on the organization of performance management systems and the potential perils and pitfalls, little is known about how performance management is actually “lived” in the context of the German public administration. This contribution sheds light on the question how performance information is used in the social welfare administration of the German capital city of Berlin. After narrowing down the most important terms and concepts, a literature review on theoretical aspects on performance information use is carried out in order to develop an analytical framework. Afterwards, performance information use is illustrated with a case study whereby a triangulation of methods (analysis of official documents and expert interviews) is applied. The findings are that first and foremost financial information is used. It depends on the administrative level (central financial administration, central social administration and administration in the city districts) which kind of performance information actually is used most often. A further result is that the variance in the use of performance information can be explained best with the factor of available knowledge – both on professional and on technical side. Due to the severe financial situation Berlin is facing and because of an overrepresentation of cost accountants with a background in business studies, a chance for policy change is seen only to a very limited extent.

A growing consumer awareness of food quality, based on high degree of safety, adequate nutritional value, sustainable production, eco-environmental attention, animal welfare and use of raw materials, has facilitated the spread of the "organic production". Organic aquaculture has lagged behind the organic agriculture sector in terms of quantities and diversity of certified organic products because of the absence of detailed accepted standards and criteria until recently. The main challenges for organic aquaculture are to improve the coordination between production and market and to achieve an appropriate framework to drive further development. In organically cultured fish, differences in feeds and nutrition compared to conventional systems are likely to result in differences in the quality of the flesh, and this is a significant factor in consumer choice. The present study aims at evaluating the growing performances, IGF-I and IGF-II levels, oxidative stress and contaminant markers in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) fed with organic and conventional diet in field conditions. Growing performances and condition factors showed a positive growing trend in both groups, as evidenced by molecular analyses. IGF-I and IGF-II showed similar levels throughout the whole experimental period confirming their role during growth. A greater productivity in conventional fed fish compared to the organic ones was observed. The higher productivity was likely due to diet composition, since differences were significantly mitigated during starvation period. Fillet analysis of organic sea bass showed a higher content in MUFA and lower in PUFAs n-6 indicating that diets with a content in fatty acids closer to that of wild fish reflect the same fatty acid profile of the flesh. On the other hand, the considered oxidative stress and contaminant markers did not show any significant differences among groups.<br>La crescente domanda di prodotti alimentari ottenuti da agricoltura biologica in questi ultimi anni è verosimilmente l’espressione di una aumentata consapevolezza del consumatore che sempre più spesso ricerca alimenti di qualità. La qualità del prodotto alimentare derivante da produzioni biologiche non si basa soltanto sul concetto tradizionale di salubrità e di valore nutrizionale del prodotto stesso, ma anche sul concetto globale di sostenibilità e salvaguardia ambientale. L'agricoltura biologica infatti è un metodo di produzione che rispetta il benessere umano e animale e difende la biodiversità ambientale e culturale dei territori proponendo un modello di sviluppo sostenibile volto a salvaguardare ambiente e territorio e valorizzare la qualità delle risorse delle comunità locali. Questo studio di campo si prefigge di confrontare le performances di crescita e il benessere in branzini (Dicentrarchus labrax) alimentati con dieta convenzionale rispetto a branzini alimentati con dieta certificata biologica attraverso un approccio immunoistochimico e biomolecolare valutando i fattori di crescita (IGF-I e IGF-II), parametri dello stress ossidativo e di contaminazione ambientale. Le performances di crescita e i parametri biometrici hanno dimostrato un trend di crescita positivo in entrambi i sistemi di allevamento, come confermato anche dalla quantificazione dei fattori di crescita. I fattori di crescita hanno evidenziato livelli similari in entrambi i gruppi e durante tutto il periodo sperimentale confermando il loro ruolo determinante nella crescita corporea. Il gruppo alimentato con la dieta convenzionale ha mostrato una produttività più elevata rispetto al gruppo biologico. La più elevata produttività registrata a carico del gruppo convenzionale è verosimilmente determinata dalle differenze nella composizione della dieta, considerato che tali differenze venivano mitigate durante i periodi di digiuno. L’analisi del filetto ha evidenziato un più alto contenuto in acidi grassi monoinsaturi e un più basso contenuto in acidi grassi polinsaturi (n- 6) a carico dei filetti biologici Questo dato sta ad indicare che la dieta biologica caratterizzata da un contenuto in acidi grassi più vicino a quello del pesce pescato probabilmente influisce sul profilo degli acidi grassi delle carni di pesce. Per contro, i markers di stress ossidativo e contaminazione ambientali considerati in questo studio di campo non hanno dimostrato alcuna differenza significativa tra i due gruppi.

The focus of this thesis is the application of data envelopment analysis to understand and evaluate the performance of diverse animal welfare organizations across the United States. The results include identification of the most efficient animal welfare organizations, at least among those that post statistics on their operations, and a discussion of various partnerships that may improve the performance of the more inefficient organizations. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are 4000 - 6000 independently-run animal shelters across the United States, with an estimated 6-8 million companion animals entering them each year. Unfortunately, more than half of these animals are euthanized. The methods shared in this research illustrate how data envelopment analysis may help shelters improve these statistics through evaluation and cooperation. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is based on the principle that the efficiency of an organization depends on its ability to transform its inputs into the desired outputs. The result of a DEA model is a single measure that summarizes the relative efficiency of each decision making unit (DMU) when compared with similar organizations. The DEA linear program defines an efficiency frontier with the most efficient animal shelters that are put into the model that "envelops" the other DMUs. Individual efficiency scores are calculated by determining how close each DMU is to reaching the frontier. The results shared in this research focus on the performance of 15 animal shelters. Lack of standardized data regarding individual animal shelter performance limited the ability to review a larger number of shelters and provide more robust results. Various programs are in place within the United States to improve the collection and availability of individual shelter performance. Specifically, the Asilomar Accords provide a strong framework for doing this and could significantly reduce euthanasia of companion animals if more shelters would adopt the practice of collecting and reporting their data in this format. It is demonstrated in this research that combining performance data with financial data within the data envelopment analysis technique can be powerful in helping shelters identify how to better deliver results. The addition of data from other organizations will make the results even more robust and useful for each shelter involved.<br>M.S.<br>Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems<br>Engineering and Computer Science<br>Industrial Engineering MS

In response to the passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and its lead cash assistance program Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), states have taken unique and divergent approaches to welfare policy implementation. One popular approach to workfare delivery, known as privatization, involves contracting with non-profit and for-profit entities operating within the private sector. The General Accounting Office reports that nearly every state is privatizing TANF services to some degree through third-party contracts, but very little is understood about why variation in contracting exists and the ramifications for the program outcomes of welfare recipients. This dissertation initially explores the possible factors that influence welfare privatization decisions. Ordinary least squares regression estimations suggest that contracting patterns are significantly associated with levels of fiscal capacity, urbanization, African American caseloads, and non-profit presence. Secondly, this dissertation examines the potential ramifications of privatization on the TANF program outputs and outcomes of individual welfare clients. After exploring state-level patterns in privatization and performance, I estimate multilevel models that simultaneously incorporate both individual-level and contextual-level variables providing the discipline with the clearest picture of how welfare clients are fairing under various administrative environments. The results of the multi-level analysis favor the null hypothesis as the majority of privatization coefficients are statistically insignificant, indicating minimal direct ownership effects on the quality of TANF outcomes. That being said, there is inconsistent yet persistent evidence emerging from both the state-level and multi-level analyses suggesting that non-profit welfare delivery induces superior TANF work participation rates and employment outcomes. Privatizing welfare provision is not a panacea in that TANF outcomes are seldom improved under profit-seeking or non-profit arrangements, but an unwavering commitment to social missions and assisting the poor could put non-profits in a relatively superior position to transform welfare recipients into self-sufficient, fully employed members of society.

This thesis examines the nature of ‘gaming’ in the police service and the extent to which it distorts policing priorities and performance measures. Performance Management, which formed an integral part of New Public Management, was introduced gradually to the police service in England and Wales during the 1990s. The Police and Magistrates Court Act 1994 gave Chief Officers of Police greater freedom on how they spent their budget allocation but there was an expectation that this would result in increased efficiency and improved performance. The Police Reform Act 2002 continued this trend by empowering the Home Secretary to set annual performance targets which the Police Service was expected to deliver. Performance management systems provided the means by which efficiency could be measured thus enabling central government to exert pressure on police forces to improve performance in the areas prioritised. However, for such improvements to be real, not just illusory, it was necessary to ensure the dysfunctional effects of ‘gaming’ behaviour were guarded against. Controlling such behaviour presents a challenge for those responsible for the regulation and governance of the service. This thesis examines the impact of Performance Management on ‘gaming’ behaviour and vice versa within the police service. It identifies and presents evidence on the nature and extent of ‘gaming’ and its impact on police behaviour. The limited effectiveness of the regulatory bodies in addressing ‘gaming’ are also reviewed and inadequacies, both strategic and operational, identified.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-12-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:06:24Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_jdt_dr_jabo.pdf: 787024 bytes, checksum: 1e0575de89bc0cc6b34aa22da12b8ee9 (MD5)<br>Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)<br>Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)<br>Foram realizados 5 experimentos para averiguar a influência da Passiflora alata como modulador de estresse e seus efeitos no tempo de imobilidade tônica (TIT), intensidade de ferimentos (IF) e comportamento nas fases de recria e postura de codornas submetidas a diferentes programas de debicagem, densidades de criação, enriquecimento ambiental, fertilidade e proporção de machos e fêmeas. No experimento I distribuiu-se as aves em esquema fatorial 4 (não debicadas, uma debicagem aos 18 e 30 dias e duas debicagens aos 18 e 30 dias) X 2 (sem e com 500 mg de P. alata/kg de ração), com 6 repetições e 8 aves por parcela. No experimento II distribuiu-se as aves em esquema fatorial 5 (12, 11, 10, 9 e 8 aves/gaiola) X 2 (sem e com 500 mg de P. alata), com 6 repetições. No experimento III distribuiu-se as aves em esquema fatorial 2 (com e sem enriquecimento ambiental) X 2 (sem e com 500 mg de P. alata), com 6 repetições e 8 aves por gaiola. No experimento IV distribuiu-se 120 fêmeas e 40 machos, em delineamento inteiramente ao acaso, acasalados na proporção de um macho para cada três fêmeas e, submetidas a dois tratamentos (sem e com 500 mg de P. alata) com 20 repetições. No V experimento distribuiu-se 140 fêmeas e 40 machos, em esquema fatorial 4 (proporção entre fêmeas e machos de 2, 3, 4 e 5 para 1) X 2 (sem e com 500 mg de P. alata), com 5 repetições. Conclui-se que a passiflora ameniza o estresse nas fases de recria e postura, melhora a produção de ovos, a conversão alimentar, a fertilidade e eclosão de ovos. A debicagem influencia negativamente a produção de ovos e a viabilidade das aves e aumenta o estresse. A alta densidade de criação piora o desempenho e eleva o estresse das aves. O enriquecimento das gaiolas diminui o TIT e a IF, sem influenciar no desempenho. A proporção de 2 e 3 fêmeas:macho resulta em maior fertilidade e eclosão de ovos, além de diminuir o estresse<br>Five studies were conducted with the objective of investigating the influence of Passiflora alata as a modulator of stress and their effects on tonic immobility time (TIT), intensity of injuries (II) and the behavior in the rearing and laying periods of quails submitted to different programs for beak-trimming, different densities, environmental enrichment, fertility and proportion of male and female. In the first trial was distributed quails in a factorial 4 (no beak-trimming, one beak-trimming at 18 and 30 days and two beak-trimming at 18 and 30 days) X 2 (without and with 500 mg of P. alata/kg diet), with 6 replicates of 8 quails per cages. In study II was distributed quails in a factorial 5 (12, 11, 10, 9 and 8 quails/cage) X 2 (without and with 500 mg of P. alata/kg diet), with 6 replications. In study III was distributed quails in a factorial 2 (with and without environmental enrichment) X 2 (without and with 500 mg of P. alata/kg diet), with 6 replicates of 8 quails per cage. In study IV used 120 females and 40 males in a completely random mating at a ratio of one male for every three females and subjected to 2 treatments (without and with 500 mg of P. alata/kg diet) with 20 repetitions. In study V used 140 females and 40 males were distributed in a factorial 4 (ratio of female and male 2, 3, 4 and 5 to 1) X 2 (without and with 500 mg P. alata/kg diet), with 5 repetitions. It concludes that the passionflower decreased the stress in the rearing and laying periods, improved egg production, feed conversion, fertility and hatching of eggs. The beak-trimming negatively influenced egg production and viability of quails, increasing the stress in these birds. The high density of housing worsened performance and increased stress compromising bird welfare. The enrichment cages decreased the TIT and intensity of injury, without influencing the performance of quails. The proportion of 2 and 3 ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Castração, descorna e amochamento são práticas de manejo dolorosas, mas realizadas em bovinos de corte. Resultados experimentais sugerem que a dor pode ser reduzida. Contudo, as evidências são contraditórias. Objetivou-se avaliar o efeito desses três procedimentos em indicadores de bem-estar em bovinos de corte com o uso da revisão sistemática e meta-análise (MA). A pesquisa foi realizada em cinco bases de dados eletrônicas e em anais de congressos, além do contato eletrônico com pesquisadores da área. O principal critério de inclusão foram estudos completos ou não randomizados em bovinos de corte com até um ano de idade, submetidos ou a castração ou a descorna ou ao amochamento, que avaliassem concentração de cortisol e/ou ganho médio diário de peso (GMD) e/ou vocalização. Foi realizada MA para efeitos randomizados para cada procedimento e indicador separadamente com as médias dos grupos controle e tratado. Não foram obtidos dados para a realização da MA sobre amochamento. Um total de 23 estudos, representando 156 ensaios e 1.617 animais foram incluídos na MA para castração; na MA para descorna foram setes estudos, 169 ensaios e 287 animais. Observou-se heterogeneidade entre os estudos para os três indicadores avaliados. Independente do grupo controle, não houve efeito significativo no nível de cortisol em animais castrados sem uso de anestésico ou analgésico. O GMD foi superior para animais castrados de forma cirúrgica (P=0.010; MD=0.231 g/dia) e não cirúrgica (P=0.002; MD=0.883 g/dia) em relação aos não castrados. Nos animais não descornados, a concentração de cortisol foi inferior em 0.767 e 0.680 nmol/L, 30 (P=0.000) e 120 min (P=0.023) pós-intervenção, respectivamente, em relação aos descornados por amputação. A anestesia local reduziu os níveis de cortisol 30 min após a descorna mecânica. Animais não descornados tenderam a vocalizar menos (P=0.081; MD=-0.929) que os descornados. Foi observado viés de publicação (cortisol na castração e GMD na descorna), indicando que estudos com amostras pequenas e não significativos são menos propensos a serem publicados que estudos similares e significativos. Ficou evidente a necessidade de pesquisas sobre estratégias para minimizar o estresse e a dor experimentada pelos bovinos durante e após a castração e a descorna, além da busca por indicadores comportamentais e fisiológicos menos invasivos.<br>Castration, dehorning and disbudding are painful practices, although conducted in beef cattle. Despite researches suggest that pain can be reduced, the evidences are not conclusive. We aimed to assess the effects of those three procedures in beef cattle on welfare indicators by systematic review-meta-analysis (MA) approach. We searched on five electronic databases and conference proceedings, as well as we electronically contacted experts. The main inclusion criteria were complete and non-randomized studies using beef cattle until one year of age, undergoing castration or dehorning or disbudding that reported cortisol concentration or average daily weight gain (ADG) or vocalization as the outcome. Random effect MA was conducted for each procedure and indicator separately with the mean of control and treated group. There are no data available to analyse dibudding using MA procedure. A total 23 studies, with 156 trials and 1,617 animals was included in the MA for castration; MA for dehorning included seven studies, 69 trials and 287 animals. Significant heterogeneity between studies was observed for all evaluated outcome. Regardless the control group, there was no significant changes on cortisol when castration was performed without anaesthetic or analgesic cover. The ADG showed an increase of 0.883 g/day and 0.231 g/day for non-surgical (P=0.002) and surgical castration (P=0.010), respectively, compared a non-castrated group. Non-dehorned animals showed lower cortisol concentration of 0.767 and 0.680 nmol/L, 30 (P=0.000) and 120 (P=0.023) min after intervention, respectively, when compared with amputation dehorning group. Local anaesthesia reduced increases in cortisol concentration 30 min after dehorned by amputation. Non-dehorned cattle had a marginal significant (P=0.081; MD=-0.929) decrease in the number of vocalization than in dehorned by amputation. Publication bias was observed (cortisol in castration analysis; ADG in dehorning analysis), indicating that small size studies reporting non-significant results were less likely to be published than similar studies that found a significant effect. Researches about effective strategies to alleviate the stress and pain experienced by castrated and dehorned cattle are necessary, as well as validate less invasive physiological measures and behavioural indicators.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar um programa de suplementação de luz no desenvolvimento, desempenho e comportamento de bezerros em aleitamento e o uso da câmera termográfica como método para avaliação de variáveis fisiológicas por método não invasivo. O experimento foi realizado na Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios - APTA, em Ribeirão Preto, SP. Foram utilizados 20 bezerros Jersey e mestiços da raça, divididos em dois tratamentos, com e sem programa de suplementação de luz artificial. O programa de suplementação de luz artificial consistiu em 6 h de luz artificial (das 00:00 as 6:00 h), completando 18 horas de luz por dia. Foram avaliadas as características fisiológicas dos animais: frequência respiratória (FR), temperatura da superfície do pelame (TSP), temperatura auricular (TA), temperatura caudal (TC) e temperatura retal (TR). A ingestão de ração e água também foi estudada. Avaliou-se também o desenvolvimento dos animais através dos ganhos médios diários de peso (GPMD), de altura, de comprimento e de perímetro torácico (PT). Foi estudado o comportamento social e ingestivo dos animais. E por fim, através de cinco coletas de dados em dias de alta entalpia, onde os dados foram registrados em quatro horários (18:00, 00:00, 06:00 e 12:00 h). Foram registradas as seguintes variáveis fisiológicas: TSP e TC, TA, e TR (método convencional). As fotos termográficas foram registradas com uma câmera termográfica, nos mesmos dias e horários de registros das variáveis fisiológicas pelo método convencional. As variáveis fisiológicas não apresentaram diferença significativa entre os tratamentos (P>0,0001), porém apresentaram diferença entre os horários de coleta, sendo que as maiores temperaturas foram encontradas na coleta das 12 h. O consumo de água e ração no experimento não teve variação significativa (P>0.01). Nos dias de alta entalpia a ingestão de água variou somente para o período de 31 a 75 dias de idade dos animais. O desenvolvimento dos animais mostrou diferença quando foram submetidos ao programa de suplementação de luz. O GPMD e o PT dos animais foi maior (P<0,001) para o tratamento sem luz, a altura foi influenciada (P=0,008) pela idade dos animais e o comprimento variou de acordo com o tratamento (P=0,006) e a idade (P=0,001). O programa de suplementação de luz não mostra diferenças nas variáveis fisiológicas e no consumo de alimento de bezerros em aleitamento, e o desenvolvimento dos animais é prejudicado nesta fase. O comportamento social dos animais não sofreu efeito significativo (P>0,05) do tratamento de luz, porém os períodos do dia dividido de seis em seis horas, influenciou a comportamento dos animais. As atividades de ócio e dormindo são as mais frequentes na criação de bezerros em aleitamento. O comportamento ingestivo é alterado pela presença de luz e pelo período do dia, sendo que os animais mostram maior consumo de água e ração quando não são submetidos a luz artificial. Os valores obtidos pelos dois métodos de colheita de dados foram correlacionados. Contudo, é possível relacionar fotos termográficas de bezerros em aleitamento com o método convencional de registro de temperaturas corporais. Para este trabalho, utilizou-se a temperatura auricular, na qual foi apresentada uma regressão para obter as demais temperaturas corporais do animal.<br>This study aimed to evaluate a light supplementation program on the development, performance and behavior of suckling calves and the use of thermographic camera as an evaluation method of physiological variables by a non-invasive method. The experiment was conducted in Sao Paulo Agency of Agribusiness Technology - APTA, in Ribeirao Preto, SP, Brazil. Were used 20 Jersey and crossbred calves, divided in two treatments, with and without artificial light supplementation. The light supplementation program consisted on 6 hours of artificial light (from 00:00 to 6:00 h), completing 18 hours of light per day. Were evaluated the physiological characteristics of the animals: respiratory frequency (RF), coat surface temperature (CST), ear temperature (ET), tail temperature (TT) e rectal temperature (RT). The ingestion of food and water was also considered. Was also evaluated the development of the animals through the daily average weight gain (BG), height, length and thoracic girth (TG). It was also evaluated the social and ingestive behavior of the animals. The experiment consisted of collecting data on five days of high enthalpy, where the data were recorded at four times (18, 00, 06 and 12 hours). It recorded the following physiological variables: coat surface temperature (CST) and flow temperature (FT) with infrared thermometer, ear temperature (ET) with digital ear thermometer, and rectal temperature (RT) with digital thermometer (conventional method). The thermography images were recorded with a thermography camera, on the same days and hours of record of physiological variables by the conventional method. Physiological variables showed no signicant difference between treatments (P>0,0001), but differ between the collection times, and the highest temperatures were found in the collection of 12 h. The water and food intake in the experimente did not change significantly (P>0.01). In the days of high water intake varied only for the period from 31 to 75 days old animals. The development of the animals showed a difference when they were submitted to the program of supplemental ligth. The ABW and TG of the animals was higher (P<0,001) for the treatment without light, and was also influenced (P=0,008)bye the age and length of the animals varied according to treatment (P=0,006) and age (P=0,001). The programo f supplementary light shows no diferences in physiological parameters, feed intake of suckling calves, and development of animals is impaired at this stage. The social behavior of animals was not affected (P>0,05) of the light treatment but the periods of the divided every six hours, influenced the behavior of animals. The leisure and sleeping activities are the most frequente in the creation of suckling calves. Feeding behavior is altered by the presence of light and time of day, and the animals show higher consumption of water and food when they are not subjected to artificial light. The values obtained by two methods of data collection were correlated. It is possible to relate thermography pictures of suckling calves on the conventional method if recording body temperatures. For this work we use the ear temperature, which was presented in a regression to obtain the rest of the animal body temperatures.

A comprehensive and attractive training package in CD ROM format was developed for pig industry personnel. The package was divided into various modules and the funding mechanism allowed 8,000 copies to be produced and provided free of charge to pig industry personnel. Uptake of the package was both rapid and widely spread. The package was subjected to a comprehensive evaluation in a series of research and development studies with both industry personnel and University Degree students. It is concluded that the results of the evaluation of the CD ROM package, the inadequacies of the current framework and the subsequent industry developments indicate that this CD ROM package has great potential to form the foundation stone of future education and training within the UK agricultural industry.

碩士<br>世新大學<br>行政管理學研究所(含博、碩專班)<br>97<br>Non-profit organizations performance assessment is an important concept for management, in addition to single organization performance measurement, such as foundation or association. However, many non-profit organizations become formal league or informal alliance, representing external members with the government interaction, integrating with resources and members opinions. In additional, internal member can learn from each other or access to public information. Therefore, how to build league of non-profit organizations performance evaluation system has become the operation of maintaining the alliance and interorganizational cooperation, especially formal league. In research methods, through document analysis to explore the theoretical level from the non-profit organizations to build alliances for the performance indicators, on the other hand by depth interviews that the alliance members and secretariat offer the construction of performance indicators and measurement views. The research found, first of all, constructing the league of performance indicators is divided into: (a) in the internal operation process level: include trust, norms, leadership, executive level, decision-making process and financial dimensions and a total of twenty-three indicators; (b) the functional level: includes representatives, initiatives and member service dimensions and a total of nine indicators; (c) members of effectiveness level: contains information, interaction and learning dimensions, and a total of four indicators. Second, organization regulations indicator, executive dimension, leadership dimension, financial aspect, the initiative dimension of view are differences. Finally, the internal operation of a single non-profit organization and league are focused on board members of governance, human resources management and financial accountability. It is worth noting that the league is more than a single organization focused on o social capital elements, including norms and trust; in the organizational function, the league influence the main decision-making of public policy, it has a political function, and a single organization to emphasize social function, such as the direct public services; the members of effectiveness, the group members to participate in the league, hoping to obtain information about government or organizational learning, and a single organization to serve the general public is the main, so pay attention to public participation activities, activities to reach the goal rate, the number of activities and an average cost of services to people indicators.