100 key research questions for the post‐2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post‐2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non‐governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long‐standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development‐related research priorities of governmental and non‐governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaborations.     

Some Comments on the Validity of EOQ Formula under Inflationary Conditions

In an earlier issue of Decision Sciences, Jesse, Mitra, and Cox [1] examined the impact of inflationary conditions on the economic order quantity (EOQ) formula. Specifically, the authors analyzed the effect of inflation on order quantity decisions by means of a model that takes into account both inflationary trends and time discounting (over an infinite time horizon). In their analysis, the authors utilized two models: Current-dollars model and Constant-dollars model. These models were derived, of course, by setting up a total cost equation in the usual manner then finding the optimum order quantity that minimizes the total cost. Jesse, Mitra, and Cox [1] found that EOQ is approximately the same under both conditions; with or without inflation. However, we disagree with the conclusion drawn by [2] and show that EOQ will be different under inflationary conditions, provided that the inflationary conditions are properly accounted for in the formulation of the total cost model.     

How Sourcing of Interdependent Components Affects Quality in Automotive Supply Chains

In the automotive industry, many firms source key components from different suppliers, even though the components may function interdependently. In this study, we investigate how component level interdependence impacts quality performance and analyze how various operational factors moderate this relation. We synthesize information from several case studies to model the quality challenges faced by an automotive firm. For several sub‐assemblies that go into its products, the firm sourced key components from two different suppliers. The sub‐assemblies would fail whenever a component fails, but due to interdependent operations, failure of one component could cause the failure of the other. The firm found it challenging to improve the suppliers' quality performance as it was difficult to trace the failures to specific components. Our analysis reveals that – (i) the impact of interdependence is governed by the supply chain structure: reducing the interdependence between components improves quality when suppliers provide the components, but reducing interdependence worsens quality when the firm manufactures the entire sub‐assembly; and (ii) the relation between interdependence and quality performance is moderated by factors such as penalties, production costs, and interdependence costs. Additionally, we find that quality performance is lower when the firm outsources the components than when the firm manufactures the entire sub‐assembly. We identify coordinating mechanisms that leverage incentives and penalties to bridge the quality performance gap.     

Investment in Shared Suppliers: Effect of Learning,Spillover, and Competition

We investigate the optimal strategies for firms to invest in their suppliers when the benefits of such investments can spillover to other firms who also source from the same suppliers. We consider two Bayesian firms that can invest in improving the quality of their shared supplier; the firms do not have complete information on the true quality of the supplier, but they update their beliefs based on the supplier's performance. We formulate the problem as an investment game and obtain Markov perfect equilibria characterized by the investment thresholds of both firms. The equilibrium investment strategies of the two firms are characterized by a region of preemption and a region of war of attrition. We also examine how the interplay between spillover, competition, and returns from the investment at shared suppliers affect the investment threshold and the time to the leader's investment, and identify the conditions under which competition delays or hastens the first investment in a shared supplier.     

Sample registration in India

Abstract The Sample Registration Project in India is designed to obtain current estimates of birth and death rates for the whole country. It is being implemented quite rapidly. Rural and urban areas in all states and Union Territories in India will be covered before the close of 1969. Bigger states have 150 sample units in rural areas and 60 to 100 units in urban areas. Essential elements of the project for each unit are: (1) continuous enumeration of births and deaths in respect of usual resident population by a paid part-time local enumerator; (2) a six-month household survey to detect births and deaths which occurred to the usual resident population during the previous six months; and (3) manual matching of all event from enumeration and surveys and field re-check of unmatched events to obtain the 'best' count of real number of events. The results of a full-scale sample in four states and pilot sample in ten states indicate that the crude birth and death rates are around 40 and 18 per 1,000, respectively, for India's rural population. Most of the problems of implementation are operational or administrative rather than statistical. The main problem in the whole project is to maintain control of field operations well enough at each stage to ensure that prescribed instructions and methodology are being followed; particularly in the six-month survey. Experience in India indicates that sample registration techniques are capable of providing reliable birth and death rates in similar conditions in developing countries. However, there are still a number of methodological problems which must be tested as the sample registration evolves.     

Quantifying the Economic Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing Proppant Selection in Light of Occupational Exposure Risk and Functional Requirements

Selection of an effective and economic proppant material for hydraulic fracturing is an important design choice to optimize the production of oil and natural gas. Proppants are made of silica (quartz sand), alumina, resin-coated silica, ceramics, and others. These materials can be toxic to varying degrees and lead to health problems in the employees handling them primarily due to inhalation exposure. Proppants are selected based on grain size, shape, strength, and cost. Current use is dominated by crystalline silica—the proppant that also has the greatest hazard as an inhalation toxin. Existing research describes the effect of silica on human health, but little research has been done to determine the risk-reduction and social-cost-effectiveness associated with using alternative proppants in light of the health risks. This study quantifies the relative risks or benefits to human health by the use of these proppants through an economic analysis considering the health-related economic impact and its technical attributes. Results show that the use of each ton of silica proppant results in $123 of external costs from fatalities and nonfatal illness arising due to exposure to silica for a crew handing 60,000 tons of proppants. If these health-related externalities were incorporated into the cost, silica proppant could be economically replaced by less harmful, more expensive alternatives for hydraulic fracturing crews handling less than 60,000 tons of proppant each year.     

Areal Interpolation of Population Counts Using Pre-classified Land Cover Data

The need to combine spatial data representing sociodemographic information across incompatible spatial units is a common problem for demographers. A particular concern is computing small area trends when aggregation zone boundaries change during the trend interval. To that end, this study provides an example of dasymetric areal interpolation using the pre-classified land cover data available through the US Geological Survey’s National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) program. Areal interpolation of population estimates is preferable to traditional reaggregation techniques, and the use of land cover data as a weighting factor in interpolated estimation has been shown in earlier studies to be highly accurate. In this study, the NLCD data set performs well and, because it requires no classification, it compares favorably with other land cover data sets for areal interpolation when considered on the basis of accuracy, precision and ease of use.     

To what extent are the indigenous women of Jharkhand,India living in disadvantageous conditions: findings from India's National Family Health Survey 1

Indigenous populations are the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in India, constituting 8.2% of India's total population, four times larger than the total population of Australia. The state of Jharkhand accounts for 27.7% of the total indigenous population of India. This paper compares the health and socio-economic and demographic indicators among indigenous and non-indigenous women in Jharkhand in terms of ‘disadvantage ratio’, by exploring the data of 1614 ever-married women (women who are currently married or who have been married at some point in their lives) from India's second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), conducted during 1998–99. The study revealed that the indigenous women of Jharkhand were highly disadvantaged in terms of socio-demographic, family planning, and important aspects of maternal health and nutrition compared to non-indigenous women. They were not only disadvantaged within the state in different parameters, but also across the indigenous female population of India as a whole. The findings call for urgent implementation of special health care strategies for reducing health and socio-economic/demographic disparities among the indigenous population of Jharkhand. ¹This paper was presented at the PAA Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, USA during April 29–May 2. This paper is part of the thematic cluster Global Health Beyond 2015 - more papers from this cluster can be found at http://www.globalhealthaction.netView all notes     

REDUCED RESIDUE CLASSES CYCLIC PBIB DESIGNS

A new general class of m-class cyclic association scheme is defined for v treatments, where v is a composite number. A simple method of construction of PBIB designs having this association scheme using more than one initial block and some methods using only one initial block are proposed. A complete analysis of this type of PBIB designs is given. Also given is a list of 39 useful PBIB designs of this type having v≤15 and r≤10 and having only three associate classes together with their efficiency factors for all types of comparisons and over all efficiency factors.     

Methodological Comparisons Between CATI Event History Calendar and Standardized Conventional Questionnaire Instruments

Six hundred and twenty-six participants from the Panel Studyof Income Dynamics (PSID) were interviewed via telephone retrospectivelyabout life course events by either computer-assisted (CATI)event history calendar (EHC) or standardized CATI conventionalquestionnaire (CQ) methods, randomly assigned. Experimentalretrospective reports, for a reference period up to 30 years,were validated against reports provided annually from the PSIDcore interviews. Data quality outcome measures included variablesassociated with marriage, cohabitation, employment, unemployment,residential changes, and cigarette smoking. The EHC providedhigher quality retrospective reports for cohabitation, employment,unemployment, and smoking histories; the CQ provided betterdata quality for marriage history, although what variable wasbeing measured, instead of which method was being used, hadthe biggest impact on differences in data quality. Both EHCand CQ interviews lasted on average around one hour, with theEHC interviews being on average 10 percent longer. Interviewerspreferred the EHC interviews. In both EHC and CQ conditions,respondents generally enjoyed the interviews, and did not findquestions difficult. The costs and benefits of both EHC andCQ methods in the collection of life course retrospective reportsare discussed. Received for publication December 19, 2005. Revision received September 25, 2007. Accepted for publication September 25, 2007.