A Model of Hygiene Practices and Consumption Patterns in the Consumer Phase

A mathematical model is presented, which addresses individual hygiene practices during food preparation and consumption patterns in private homes. Further, the model links food preparers and consumers based on their relationship to household types. For different age and gender groups, the model estimates (i) the probability of ingesting a meal where precautions have not been taken to avoid the transfer of microorganisms from raw food to final meal (a risk meal), exemplified by the event that the cutting board was not washed during food preparation, and (ii) the probability of ingesting a risk meal in a private home, where chicken was the prepared food item (a chicken risk meal). Chicken was included in the model, as chickens are believed to be the major source of human exposure to the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter. Monte Carlo simulations showed that the probability of ingesting a risk meal was highest for young males (aged 18-29 years) and lowest for the elderly above 60 years of age. Children aged 0-4 years had a higher probability of ingesting a risk meal than children aged 5-17 years. This difference between age and gender groups was ascribed to the variations in the hygiene levels of food preparers. By including the probability of ingesting a chicken meal at home, simulations revealed that all age groups, except the group above 60 years of age, had approximately the same probability of ingesting a chicken risk meal, the probability of females being slightly higher than that of males. The simulated results show that the probability of ingesting a chicken risk meal at home does not only depend on the hygiene practices of the persons preparing the food, but also on the consumption patterns of consumers, and the relationship between people preparing and ingesting food. This finding supports the need of including information on consumer behavior and preparation hygiene in the consumer phase of exposure assessments.     

Expanding uses of building information modeling in life-cycle construction projects

BIM is targeted at providing information about the entire building and a complete set of design documents and data stored in an integrated database. In this paper, we study the use of BIM in two life-cycle construction projects in Kuopio, Finland during 2011. The analysis of uses of BIM and their main problems will constitute a foundation for an intervention. We will focus on the following questions: (1) How different partners use the composite BIM model? (2) What are the major contradictions or problems in the BIM use? The preliminary findings reported in this study show that BIM has been adopted quite generally to design use but the old ways of collaboration seem to prevail, especially between designers and between designers and building sites. BIM has provided new means and demands for collaboration but expansive uses of BIM for providing new interactive processes across professional fields have not much come true.     

Discretely Observed Diffusions: Approximation of the Continuous-time Score Function

We discuss parameter estimation for discretely observed, ergodic diffusion processes where the diffusion coefficient does not depend on the parameter. We propose using an approximation of the continuous-time score function as an estimating function. The estimating function can be expressed in simple terms through the drift and the diffusion coefficient and is thus easy to calculate. Simulation studies show that the method performs well.     

The role of trust and contracts in the internationalization of technology-intensive Born Globals

The purpose of this paper is to study the roles of trust and contracts in technology-intensive Born-Global firms (BGs). By definition these firms compete in the area of knowledge and cutting-edge innovation, use external resources, and internationalize at inception or soon thereafter. For entering global markets successfully, these firms typically need partners. However, attracting them requires disclosing critical knowledge, and thus BGs encounter the risk of losing their potential competitive advantage. Their global business environment is very competitive and dynamic, therefore traditional ways of operating may be too time-consuming to manage these risks. Consequently, we argue that for technology-based BGs, the role of trust and contracts are closely intertwined. The paper puts forward three propositions that highlight the roles of trust and contracting for technology-intensive BGs.     

The labor market costs of conflict: closures, foreign workers, and Palestinian employment and earnings

In this paper, we provide a lower bound estimate of the labor market costs of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The conflict is quantified by the number of overseas foreign workers in the Israeli labor market and the frequency of temporary closures of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. IV estimates, which exploit a source of exogenous variation in the number of overseas foreign workers, yield significant negative effects of the conflict on Palestinian employment rates in Israel and monthly earnings. Our cost-of-conflict estimates are also relevant for the literature on the economics of immigration.     

The impact of a respite volunteer ‘buddy’ programme on behavioural and psychological well-being in young carers

Young carers often face a great amount of emotional burden and have high practical and social responsibilities. The role of being a young carer is associated with behavioural, developmental, physical and psychosocial problems that may not only affect the individual in childhood but also in adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a Danish respite volunteer programme called The Buddies for Children and Youngsters Programme on young carers' (n = 49; aged 6–16) social–emotional functioning. A pre–post-design was applied, and data were collected through the parent version of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ), here with an impact supplement at baseline and at the end of the programme (after 4 months). The programme showed a positive impact on emotional symptoms, hyperactivity symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems, prosocial aspects and impact aspects, with mean differences values of −2.50 (p = .000), −0.62 (p = .271), −1.18 (p = .000), −0.74 (p = .008), 0.62 (p = .004) and −0.88 (p = .007), respectively. Furthermore, a large effect was found for the total difficulties score: −5.03 (p = .000). In conclusion, the programme seems promising considering its effect on young carers' social–emotional functioning. However, future research should include comparative studies with a longer duration.