Golden Goose Research Articles

It could be a 'Golden Goose': a qualitative study of views in primary care on an emergency admission risk prediction tool prior to implementation.

BackgroundRising demand for health care has prompted interest in new technologies to support a shift of care from hospital to community and primary care, which may require clinicians to undertake new working practices. A predictive risk stratification tool (Prism) was developed for use in primary care to estimate patients’ risk of an emergency hospital admission. As part of an evaluation of Prism, we aimed to understand what might be needed to bring Prism into effective use by exploring clinicians and practice managers’ attitudes and expectations about using it. We were informed by Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) which examines the work needed to bring an innovation into use.MethodsWe conducted 4 focus groups and 10 interviews with a total of 43 primary care doctors and colleagues from 32 general practices. All were recorded and transcribed. Analysis focussed in particular on the construct of ‘coherence’ within NPT, which examines how people understand an innovation and its purpose.ResultsRespondents were in agreement that Prism was a technological formalisation of existing practice, and that it would function as a support to clinical judgment, rather than replacing it. There was broad consensus about the role it might have in delivering new models of care based on active management, but there were doubts about the scope for making a difference to some patients and about whether Prism could identify at-risk patients not already known to the clinical team. Respondents did not expect using the tool to be onerous, but were concerned about the work which might follow in delivering care. Any potential value would not be of the tool in isolation, but would depend on the availability of support services.ConclusionsPolicy imperatives and the pressure of rising demand meant respondents were open to trying out Prism, despite underlying uncertainty about what difference it could make.Trial registrationControlled Clinical Trials no. ISRCTN55538212.

Astrophysicist wins Golden Goose Award

Astrophysicist wins Golden Goose Award

Oddball Science: Why Studies of Unusual Evolutionary Phenomena Are Crucial

Concerns about the US budget deficit are pushing government research funding toward utilitarian and translational research at the expense of basic science (Hand et al. 2013). Science funding decisions are increasingly at risk of becoming politicized, and reductions in basic science funding are often justified as eliminating wasteful government spending. Indeed, critics have named several government-funded basic research projects as examples of waste (e.g., Fahrenthold 2013). Recent examples include studies on duck penises, shrimp running on a treadmill, robotic squirrels, and snail sex. The criticized programs are typically studies of organisms with unusual morphologies or behaviors that have no obvious application to society. The appeal of such criticism is obvious; at first glance, studies of odd evolutionary topics seem frivolous, even wasteful, especially in tough economic times and when compared with applied science intended to cure disease, develop renewable energy, or improve agriculture. The temptation to argue that the federal government should fund only science with a foreseeable benefit is understandable, especially because guidelines of the National Science Foundation (NSF) require reporting the economic impacts of government-funded research in all fields. Some biology researchers have even suggested—misguidedly, in our opinion—that their field should address the interface between basic and applied science, with a focus on projects that address an applied challenge (Cooke 2011, Aarssen 2013). Furthermore, Aarssen (2013) argued that “university research—with no particular societal benefit in mind— has largely run its course” (p. 417). The problem with this view is that it assumes that human innovation arises in a logical fashion from planned research. History says otherwise: Innovations often arise from unlikely sources. This phenomenon was recognized last year with the establishment of the Golden Goose Awards for projects that may sound odd but that produce significant—usually unforeseen—health or economic benefits (Underwood 2012). Although seeking out projects that are likely to lead to applications may be a good strategy for securing funding, we maintain that reducing our ability to creatively examine unique biological phenomena will ultimately harm not only education and health but also the ability to innovate— a major driver of the global economy. The study of organisms typically centers on evolutionary innovations—the biological structures and phenomena that enable new functions or behaviors. These adaptations are often surprising and may seem bizarre, but they are the product of over 3 billion years of evolution and are often associated with the successful exploitation of new habitats. Studies of these seemingly oddball adaptations have jumpstarted myriad technological applications. They began, however, as basic scientific questions. Here, we highlight some examples that should be useful for anyone defending funding for basic biological research.

Identifying travel and tourism industry clusters: an empirical analysis using macro-economic data

Travel and tourism industry if developed strategically can prove to be the 'golden goose' for any economy contributing to employment, national income, balance of payments and foreign exchange earnings. The successful development of this industry is reliant on several factors viz., tourism openness, government expenditure, infrastructure and skilled resources, etc. The present research identified 20 such macro–economic variables that impact the growth and development of travel and tourism industry and data was collected for 140 countries from various sources. Analysis was done using multivariate technique resulting in the formation of 'four' distinct clusters. The clusters were studied to establish whether these destinations have the potential for the development of travel and tourism industry. This research is an attempt to draw attention of the policy makers towards the overlooked resources of their regions, especially those contributing to development of travel and tourism, which can be utilised for effectively marketing their destinations.

Violence against Women

Protesters in Kolkata, India, decry violence against women following the death of a twenty-three-year-old woman who was gang-raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi. Activists in India later criticized U.S. feminists for reproducing colonial discourse in their responses to the attack. When gender-based violence occurs in the Global South, how should feminists in the Global North respond? Sometimes feminists in Europe and the United States say nothing, fearful that their attempts to speak out about gender violence in South Asia, Africa, Latin America, or other formerly colonized regions will reproduce colonial dynamics. At other times they do speak, and their language echoes imperial narratives about needing to "rescue" downtrodden women from "backward" cultural traditions. To move to a more constructive place, we need to foster a transnational analytic of care: one that is not defensive, reactionary, or silencing. We need an analytic of care that is cognizant of the local and global processes that create conditions of vulnerability for women and form the asymmetrical planes in which cross-cultural alliances and solidarity practices must happen. The urgency of our need for more constructive forms of transnational feminist solidarity became particularly apparent in December 2012, when feminists across the globe took to the pen and the streets in response to the gruesome gang rape of a young woman in New Delhi, the capital of India. The twenty-three-year-old woman was returning home after watching the film The Life of Pi with a male friend in a shopping mall in South Delhi. She and her companion that night tried to hail public buses and auto-rickshaws to no avail. Eventually, a private chartered bus stopped to picked them up. There were six men on the bus, including the driver, his younger brother (who posed as the conductor), and four others who worked in various low-skilled jobs in the city and were economic migrants from neighboring states. The bus did not have a permit to be on the roads after-hours; investigations later revealed that the traffic police had been bribed in order for it to pass through security checkpoints. The men on the bus, apparently on a "joyride," beat the young woman and her friend. When the woman and her friend resisted, they dragged her to the back of the bus and took turns raping her. The assault lasted several hours as the bus plowed through the city streets, and involved the insertion of a metal rod into the woman's body, which caused her intestines to spill out. Afterward, the couple was stripped naked and thrown off the bus. The driver tried to run over the woman, but her friend managed to pull her out of the way. Click for larger view A narrow focus on sexual assault can obscure how the structural violence of the global economy is also a central source of women's suffering in the Global South. This photo, Death of Thousand Dreams by Taslima Akhter, captures the final embrace of two workers killed by the April 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh. The young woman's ordeal did not stop there: for nearly half an hour, passersby ignored the pair's cries for help. When the police finally arrived, instead of transporting the woman and her friend immediately to the nearest hospital, they argued over jurisdiction. The woman fought for her life for two weeks and finally succumbed to her injuries in a hospital in Singapore. Even though the government ostensibly flew her to Singapore for better care, many in India were critical of the move as her condition was too fragile--they saw the move as a gesture by the government to dampen the public outrage and massive protests in Delhi and all over India. The men accused of this brutal crime are currently standing trial in a fast-track court. In the face of mounting civil protests, the government set up a committee that brought representatives from diverse constituencies in India to put forth a set of legal and social recommendations to deal with violence and discrimination against women. Even though feminist groups found these recommendations inadequate, indeed a "mockery... Language: en

Capturing the next wave of LNG investment

With global LNG demand expected to double over the next 10–15 years, Australia is witnessing an unprecedented wave of LNG investment, bringing with it enormous economic and community benefits. 50 years since we first drilled for oil on Barrow Island, Chevron is spearheading this growing dominance and now leads the delivery of more than $80 billion investment in world-class Australian natural gas projects. But while the nation has rejoiced in the attraction of this investment, has a second wave started to slip from our grasp? The huge capital cost and complexity of LNG projects requires a stable and predictable investment environment. It’s not enough to have an abundant resource and proximity to established markets. It takes an alignment of stars which can take decades to achieve, if it happens at all. One of the most important elements is ensuring stakeholder groups work together to maintain the conditions necessary to keep the investment pipeline flowing. Industry must invest in innovation and technology to work smarter, more efficiently and more competitively. In a global race for capital, government policy must be conducive to driving up productivity and driving down the high costs that threaten to stifle investment and lure projects away. Everyone needs to be adaptable and realistic to ensure they don’t kill the golden goose. Australia has the potential to be the world leader in LNG production and Perth a global LNG technology centre of excellence. By thinking long-term and smart, we can make it happen.

The Golden Goose in the Crosshairs: The Transition to Defined Contribution Pension Plans in the Public Sector: Unintended Consequences

State, county, and local governments are currently facing a myriad of economic issues, based on shrinking tax revenues combined with increased expenditures. of these, the costs related to defined benefit pension plans are one of the most serious issues facing many public employers. Through a comprehensive review of the existing literature, this article examines how the shift from the defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plan has the potential to enhance levels of labor unrest due to changes in union militancy, bargaining skills deficits, intra-organizational conflict, and issues related to economic trade-offs. Besides the capacity for immediate and deleterious ramifications in the collective bargaining process, the transition to the DC pension also presents some potentially negative consequences related to human resource management, including changes in the psychological contract, recruitment strategies, employee turnover, and changes in retirement patterns. Recommendations to improve labor relations and human resource management practices in the DC pension environment are also explored.

Raising the Golden Goose: A Retrospective Analysis of the State's Role in China's Online Game Industry

Through a retrospective account of the evolution of China's online game industry, this article examines the political, economic and cultural factors that have shaped the industry, with an emphasis on formal policy-making. Drawing on the theory of fragmented authoritarianism, this study finds that Chinese online games are deeply shaped by the political environment of the autocratic Chinese system, which features inter-ministerial competition, and intertwined state control and commercial interests. The current Chinese online market is combined with a strong private sector presence and a considerable government role. The Chinese government seems to have achieved its policy goal of helping Chinese companies to dominate the domestic market. However, to some extent the extensive and ambiguous government policy and regulations have restrained innovation. To that end, whether China can accomplish its three-stepped importation–substitution– creation strategy in this highly creative industry remains to be seen and warrants future investigation.

The ‘civil society policy’ of the European Union for promoting democracy in Turkey: golden goose or dead duck?

‘Golden goose’ of European integration for some time now, EU’s civil society policy displays a vivid example during Turkey’s accession. This article queries the impact of this policy in the Turkish context, ultimately showing its limited extent on Turkish civil society organizations (CSOs) and illuminating its real constraints in the Turkish context. Drawing on interviews with CSOs, this article argues that the EU could not accomplish its expected objectives set within its civil society policy in Turkey due to its neo-Tocquevillian conceptualization that overlooks at the constraints on civil society actors and disregards civil society’s political nature and its CSOs’ autonomous character.

Strategic risk: The beanstalk syndrome

Growth can be good — but can also be dangerous. When firms grow with superior products and services, then directors, executives, staff, shareholders, customers, suppliers and the general economy benefit, but delivering on a ‘growth strategy’ is notoriously difficult, as such a strategy often involves committing all of the firm’s resources to achieve growth targets. If such a strategy succeeds, riches can follow but, if not, the outcome can be catastrophic. This paper looks at several examples of large financial institutions that adopted some form of aggressive growth strategy only to have it blow up when the global financial crisis (GFC) hit. All of the banks considered in this paper, in the author’s opinion, had adopted strategies that were built on significantly growing their balance sheets but they failed to manage the risks inherent in these strategies, in particular the need to manage their leverage and their liquidity. Their boards and management were, this paper argues, bedazzled by a type of ‘beanstalk syndrome’, where they believed they could, like the mythical Jack, plant some ‘magic beans’ that would somehow grow into a constant supply of profits. Prudence was abandoned as each firm discovered a ‘golden goose’ that could seemingly produce profits forever. Unlike Jack, however, the beanstalk came crashing down, killing not the giant but the bank itself. This paper argues that these cases illustrate a lack of proper strategic risk management (SRM), or the proactive management of the risks to corporate strategies. It further argues that regulators have a responsibility to ensure that boards of systemically important banks (SIBs) that adopt risky strategies, put in place the necessary risk management policies to ensure that taxpayers do not have to bail the companies out if/when the strategies fail.

A Looming Joblessness Crisis for New Pharmacy Graduates and the Implications It Holds for the Academy

The new millennium ushered in a period of hope and change for the profession of pharmacy. The doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree became the exclusive first professional degree as of 2000, bringing with it expectations for a dramatic expansion of direct patient care roles for pharmacists. Just 1 year later the pharmacy academy began a period of unprecedented growth, fueled by a long-standing shortage of pharmacists and an outstanding job market for new pharmacy graduates, making jobs for PharmD graduates easy to find and causing salaries to spiral upward. As a result, the PharmD degree became a hot commodity, generating a seemingly inexhaustible supply of applicants to colleges and schools of pharmacy. Inevitably, higher education came to see pharmacy as a “golden goose.” But no goose harbors an infinite supply of golden eggs, and the inordinate rate of academic growth that ensued has put the academy at risk, along with its students. Calls for measured academic growth, brought forth in published commentaries in 2005 and 2010, went largely unnoticed.1,2 The house of student delegates of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists even weighed in on the subject in 2012 by approving resolution 2012:2 — Creation, Expansion, or Reductions of Schools and Colleges of Pharmacy Relative to Pharmacist Demand, which called upon current and future schools to evaluate the demand for pharmacists before taking action.3 Remarkably, most leaders of pharmacy organizations and academic institutions remained relatively silent on the matter. This commentary examines the massive increase in the number of pharmacy graduates since 2001 and the vast overestimations, in the author’s opinion, made back in 2001 about the number of pharmacists that would be needed by 2020. It also identifies potential implications of the changing pharmacist job market for the pharmacy academy.

How Not to Kill the Golden Goose: Reconceptualizing accountability environments of third-sector organizations

For third-sector organizations (TSOs) that deliver publicly funded health and community services, accountability practices are predominantly shaped by the imperatives of government funders. However, the ensuing public management accountability regimes can undermine TSO responsiveness to communities, align poorly with imperatives of professional staff, create high transaction costs and threaten TSO sustainability. Public management literature lacks an adequate framework for conceptualizing TSO accountability. We outline a conceptual framework – the ‘triskele’ – for analysing accountability tensions experienced by TSOs that could assist funders and other stakeholders with the difficult task of designing more workable and meaningful accountability regimes for all stakeholders.

Corruption Dynamics: The Golden Goose Effect

Theoretical work on disciplining corrupt agents has emphasized the role of expected future rents—for example, efficiency wages. Yet taken seriously this approach implies that illicit future rents should also deter corruption. We study this “golden goose” effect in the context of a statutory wage increase in India's employment guarantee scheme, comparing official microrecords to original household survey data to measure corruption. We estimate large golden goose effects that reduced the total impact of the wage increase on theft by roughly 64 percent. In short, rent expectations matter. (JEL D73, D82, H83, J41, K42, O17, O21)

Newsmakers

This week's Newsmakers are British astronomer Philip Diamond, who has landed perhaps the biggest job in astronomy: leading the design and construction of the Square Kilometre Array; and the winners of the Golden Goose, Lasker, and Balzan prizes.

Killing The Federal Golden Goose, Bacterial Gender Gap

In one of Aesop’s Fables, a man isn’t content with a goose that lays a single golden egg day after day. He kills the goose in hopes of finding a cache of gold, but alas, he sees nothing inside. Several science and industry organizations want to make sure the U.S. doesn’t kill any future Nobel Prize-winning geese in its current efforts to trim the federal budget. They have created a Golden Goose Award to honor research that was initially viewed as “unusual, odd, or obscure” but has led to important discoveries. “We’ve all seen reports that ridicule odd-sounding research projects as examples of government waste. The Golden Goose Award does the opposite,” Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said in announcing the award. “It recognizes that a valuable federally funded research project may sound funny, but its purpose is no laughing matter.” The award is also a counterpoint to the renowned Golden ...

National media begin to notice the Golden Goose Award

The bipartisan initiative honors seemingly frivolous research that produced big dividends.

Keeping the Golden Goose Alive: Could Alternative Fee Arrangements Reduce the Cost of International Arbitration?

The spiralling cost of conducting international arbitrations has been extensively debated in recent years. Most of the cost of pursuing or defending an international arbitration is attributable to the cost of legal representation. In this article the author considers the use of alternative fee arrangements in international arbitration. The author discusses the use of innovative procurement processes by parties which are intended to drive down the cost of legal services. Although the reason for using such processes is to reduce the cost to the client, the author argues that alternative fee arrangements could result in arbitrations being conducted more efficiently and proactively. Accepting alternative fee arrangements will require law firms to review not only their billing practices, but also to revisit the manner in which they approach the conduct of international arbitrations in order to increase efficiency whilst maintaining profitability.

Plucking the Golden Goose: Higher Royalty Rates on the Oil Sands Generate Significant Increases in Government Revenue

Plucking the Golden Goose: Higher Royalty Rates on the Oil Sands Generate Significant Increases in Government Revenue

Golden geese or white elephants? The paradoxes of world heritage sites and community-based tourism development in Agra, India

This study examines the relationship between World Heritage Sites (WHSs) and local community development in Agra, India. We investigate two interrelated themes: the role of planning in developing the tourism potential of the Taj Mahal and other WHSs in Agra, and the impact of the WHS framework on the development of the city. We analyze the weaknesses of the institutions and agencies responsible for Agra's inability to convert the development potential created by its three WHSs into significant economic, community and infrastructure improvements. The Agra case reveals a set of developmental paradoxes, whereby the restructuring of the tourist industry induced by the designation of WHSs does not lead to proportionate advances in local community development. Several factors were found to be systemic problems, but some recent schemes are worth supporting and expanding. The paradoxes and potential of economic, tourism, and community development in Agra echo those of other developing localities which host WHSs around the world. Following an assessment of problems and challenges, a set of recommendations is directed toward the development of pro-poor, community-based heritage tourism with the aim of informing integrated planning for the community and for heritage and tourism resources in the future.

The silver bullet and the golden goose

A healthy profit.