Quality Of Physical Infrastructure Research Articles

Association of Online Consumer Reviews of Skilled Nursing Facilities With Patient Rehospitalization Rates

There are areas of skilled nursing facility (SNF) experience of importance to the public that are not currently included in public reporting initiatives on SNF quality. Whether patients, hospitals, and payers can leverage the information available from unsolicited online reviews to reduce avoidable rehospitalizations from SNFs is unknown. To assess the association between rehospitalization rates and online ratings of SNFs; to compare the association of rehospitalization with ratings from a review website vs Medicare Nursing Home Compare (NHC) ratings; and to identify specific topics consistently reported in reviews of SNFs with the highest vs lowest rehospitalization rates using natural language processing. A retrospective cross-sectional study of 1536 SNFs with online reviews on Yelp (a website that allows consumers to rate and review businesses and services, scored on a 1- to 5-star rating scale, with 1 star indicating the lowest rating and 5 stars indicating the highest rating) posted between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2018. The combined data set included 1536 SNFs with 8548 online reviews, NHC ratings, and readmission rates. A mean rating from the review website was calculated through the end of each year. Risk-standardized rehospitalization rates were obtained from NHC. Linear regression was used to measure the association between the rehospitalization rate of a SNF and the online ratings. Natural language processing was used to identify topics associated with reviews of SNFs in the top and bottom quintiles of rehospitalization rates. The 1536 SNFs in the sample had a median of 6 reviews (interquartile range, 3-13 reviews), with a mean (SD) review website rating of 2.7 (1.1). The SNFs with the highest rating on both the review website and NHC had 2.0% lower rehospitalization rates compared with the SNFs with the lowest rating on both websites (21.3%; 95% CI, 20.7%-21.8%; vs 23.3%; 95% CI, 22.7%-24.0%; P = .04). Compared with the NHC ratings alone, review website ratings were associated with an additional 0.4% of the variation in rehospitalization rates across SNFs (adjusted R2 = 0.009 vs adjusted R2 = 0.013; P = .003). Thematic analysis of qualitative comments on the review website for SNFs with high vs low rehospitalization rates identified several areas of importance to the reviewers, such as the quality of physical infrastructure and equipment, staff attitudes and communication with caregivers. Skilled nursing facilities with the best rating on both a review website and NHC had slightly lower rehospitalization rates than SNFs with the best rating on NHC alone. However, there was marked variation in the volume of reviews, and many SNF characteristics were underrepresented. Further refinement of the review process is warranted.

Roads to Prosperity? Determinants of FDI in China and ASEAN

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows remain an important source of external financing for several countries in the Asian region including China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc of economies. Greenfield FDI inflows particularly have facilitated the development of regional production networks and manufacturing supply chains in Asia. While it is well known that these economies have prioritized infrastructural development as a means of developing their manufacturing prowess, to what degree has the quality of physical infrastructure actually influenced FDI inflows coming into the region? By constructing a panel data for China as well as the ASEAN bloc for two decades from 1995 to 2016, we investigate the importance of infrastructure in determining Greenfield FDI inflows into these economies. Our results strongly suggest that roads emerge as the most robust determinant of Greenfield FDI inflows to China and ASEAN.

Spatial Market Integration of Shallot in Indonesia

Shallot is a horticultural commodity which has high economic and strategic values. Unbalanced supply and demand of shallot each province in Indonesia cause trade flows from surplus areas to deficit areas and indicate there is a market integration. This research aimed to analyze spatial market integration of shallot at the producer level in Indonesia. Methods of this research used included Johansen Co-integration, Granger Causality, and Error Correction Model. Results of this research exhibit that there is no complete spatial market integration among shallot producer markets. There are approximately 40 co-integrated pairs of producer markets (44.944%), and the rest of 49 (55.056%) pairs of producer markets are not co-integrated. Based on the causality test, the producer markets such as Central Java, East Java, and West Nusa Tenggara are price-leading markets. Approximately 74 pairs (83,146%) of producer markets are integrated into the short run. Government policy that can be implemented to control price fluctuations at producer level is fairly floor price policy specifically made for three price-leading markets. To improve spatial market integration of shallot in Indonesia, the government needs to make policies such as upgrading quality of physical infrastructure (length of paved roads) and educating human capital (producers) to access market information technology. Keywords: producer market, shallot, spatial market integration, Johansen Co-integration, Granger Causality

“ARE HIGH-TECH CLASSROOM ALWAYS MORE ENGAGING?”: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE ROLE OF LOW-TECH VS. HIGH-TECH CLASSROOM DESIGN ON STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT

What is the connection between aesthetics or classroom design and engagement towards courses, teachers and groups? Students spend at least one quarter of their waking hours in schools, most of it in classrooms, which have become a potentially powerful setting for influencing them. Especially in recent years, where marketing classes are often projectbased and students are required to regularly interact in class and participate in group assignments, the role of classrooms and their design is crucial for improving learning and engagement (e.g. Abernethy and Lett III, 2005; Razzouk, Seitz and Rizkallah, 2003). Education research over the past decade has demonstrated that classroom designs have an effect on learning behaviors. Ample evidence suggested that classroom layout, technology and overall design can have a profound effect on student learning (e.g. Cheryan, Ziegler, Plaut and Meltzoff, 2014; Neill and Etheridge, 2008). So far, literature on classroom design and teaching has mainly focused on the relationship between quality of physical infrastructure and student achievement (Cheryan et al., 2014), on flexible learning spaces (Neill and Etheridge, 2008) and on the use of interactive technology (i.e. student response systems or clickers) for improving satisfaction, creative interaction, and achievement (e.g. Eastman, Iyer and Eastman, 2011). Little research has examined the role of classroom design on engagement (Kuh, 2001; Marks, 2000), investigating it primarily in the online or distance learning contexts (Chen, Lambert and Guidry, 2009). Unexplored in previous research is the role that a high vs. low technological classroom design may play in students’ engagement, and more specifically, in the general engagement level experienced by students towards a course, a teacher and a group. This work includes a comparison of two courses taught by the same instructor in a lowtechnology space (traditional class) versus a high-technology space, demonstrating counterintuitively that students perceive a higher engagement in a traditional classroom setting, evaluate the teacher more positively, and like to work in groups more.

Co-designing Urban Living Solutions to Improve Older People\u2019s Mobility and Well-Being

Mobility is a key aspect of active ageing enabling participation and autonomy into later life. Remaining active brings multiple physical but also social benefits leading to higher levels of well-being. With globally increasing levels of urbanisation alongside demographic shifts meaning in many parts of the world this urban population will be older people, the challenge is how cities should evolve to enable so-called active ageing. This paper reports on a co-design study with 117 participants investigating the interaction of existing urban spaces and infrastructure on mobility and well-being for older residents (aged 55 + years) in three cities. A mixed method approach was trialled to identify locations beneficial to subjective well-being and participant-led solutions to urban mobility challenges. Spatial analysis was used to identify key underlying factors in locations and infrastructure that promoted or compromised mobility and well-being for participants. Co-designed solutions were assessed for acceptability or co-benefits amongst a wider cross-section of urban residents (n = 233) using online and face-to-face surveys in each conurbation. Our analysis identified three critical intersecting and interacting thematic problems for urban mobility amongst older people: The quality of physical infrastructure; issues around the delivery, governance and quality of urban systems and services; and the attitudes and behaviors of individuals that older people encounter. This identified complexity reinforces the need for policy responses that may not necessarily involve design or retrofit measures, but instead might challenge perceptions and behaviors of use and access to urban space. Our co-design results further highlight that solutions need to move beyond the generic and placeless, instead embedding specific locally relevant solutions in inherently geographical spaces, populations and processes to ensure they relate to the intricacies of place.

FENOMENA ‘BOSISME LOKAL’ DI ERA DESENTRALISASI: STUDI HEGEMONI POLITIK NUR ALAM DI SULAWESI TENGGARA

This article discusses the emergence of Nur Alam as local bossism in Southeast Sulawesi. He started his career as an entrepreneur in the New Order era. Reform era and decentralization brought Nur Alam in political world by becoming the declarator of Amanat National Party (PAN) in Southeast Sulawesi, then lead the party and elected as a governor. After Nur Alam lead PAN in Southeast Sulawesi, this party has significant vote in the legislative elections in 2004, 2009 and 2014; was able to win the governor election in 2007 and 2012; and won 10 of 12 local election which took place in 2010 to 2013. During his leadership in Southeast Sulawesi, the economic growth was increased, the poverty rate was decreased, even the quality of physical infrastructure. His position as the leader of PAN as well as the governor in Southeast Sulawesi makes Nur Alam has big influence. He becomes stronger economically and more powerful politically because of his success in conquering his political opposition as well as his ability to collaborate with other local political elites. He also began to utilize the weakness of decentralization regulation by preparing his family as heir to the throne of his power. Keywords: local bossism, decentralization, Southeast Sulawesi.

Determinants of Domestic Food Price Differentials: Constraints for Intra-Uganda Trade

The paper estimates the determinants of price differentials across 79 districts in Uganda. In the framework of the law of one price, we examine the hypothesis that the spatial price differentials are at least partly influenced by transportation and other transaction costs, infrastructural constraints, productivity and commodity output shocks and the purchasing power of households. The study notes the wide range of price differences across the country, which to a large extent can be attributed to the interaction between remoteness and the quality of physical infrastructure. The effect of income <em>per capita</em> on price differentials is relatively uniform across commodities. The findings point towards the importance of strengthening the capacities of farmers and their productivity as a means to improve their livelihoods and foster more efficient markets with faster supply responses to changes in prices. The findings further emphasize the significance of spatial dimension and infrastructure conditions in Uganda, suggesting that infrastructural development must be a core area to reduce price differences in the country.

Examining the Effective Variables on Classification of School's Success through PISA 2012 Turkey Data

Article History: Received 08.10.2015 Received in revised form 21.12.2015 Accepted 09.01.2016 Available online 13.03.2016 The objective of this study was to determine variables such as “ability grouping”, “extracurricular activities at school”, “quality of physical infrastructure”, “quality of schools’ educational resources”, “student-teacher ratio”, “students’ and teachers’ related factors affecting Learning Hindrance”, “teacher participation”, “class and school size” which can be classified in the success of the school. The population of the study which was designed via relational survey method includes schools to which 15 year old students enroll. The study was implemented in 149 primary schools that participated in PISA 2012. School questionnaire and students’ achievement test were used as instruments to collect data. Analysis of data was examined via logistic regression analysis. According to obtained in the logistic regression correct classification is determined as a percentage of 83.2%. As a result of study, extracurricular activities at school, quality of schools’ educational resources and “students’ related factors affecting learning hindrance was concluded to have a significant value on the probability of school success. © 2016 IOJES. All rights reserved

Microeconomic consequences and macroeconomic causes of foreign direct investment in southern African economies

The authors use a new data set on firms in 13 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and comparators from other regions to identify the benefits and determinants of FDI in this region. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has facilitated local development in the SADC. Foreign-owned firms perform better than domestic firms, are larger, and locate in richer and better-governed countries and in countries with more competitive financial intermediaries. They are also more likely to export than domestic firms and evidence suggests that they might have positive spillover effects on domestic firms. Based on a standard empirical model, the SADC is attracting the inward FDI per capita that the region's level of income would predict. But this means that there are less capital inflows per capita to the region than there are to wealthier parts of the developing world. Moreover, the SADC is attracting less FDI than comparators for reasons that are possibly more fundamental than current income, namely, countries’ past growth record, demographic structure and the quality of physical infrastructure. Interestingly, inward FDI is less sensitive to variation in income within the SADC than in other parts of the world, but is more responsive to changes in country's openness to trade.

Trends, Patters and Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in China

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has played a pivotal role in the transformation of the Chinese economy. It is the largest host of FDI among the developing world, attracting over one-third of total world investment. China’s success in attracting FDI appears to have been linked with its large domestic market, openness, quality of physical infrastructure and lower wage rates. While China remains an attractive location for foreign investors, our findings point to the need to remove the bias against private sector by privatizing state-owned enterprises to facilitate foreign investment.

Views of health service providers on obstacles to tuberculosis control in Ghana

BackgroundAlthough Ghana does not fall into the category of those countries which have a high burden of tuberculosis (TB), the disease does present considerable economic and health limitations to individuals infected with, and affected by, the disease, as well as to the health system in general. Despite this fact, insufficient studies have been done on the key barriers to controlling the disease. This paper presents results from an exploratory study on the constraints of controlling TB in Ghana based on the opinions of health service providers.MethodsIn-depth interviews were conducted with frontline health workers involved in TB control in the country. Participants were purposively selected from a pool of national and regional, and district and facility level coordinators of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP). One key informant was also selected from an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) involved in TB-related activities in Ghana. Observations were utilised to complement the study. Data were analysed inductively.ResultsRespondents identified the following as being constraints to TB control: clinical complication, bottlenecks in funding administration, quality of physical infrastructure, competition for attention and funding, unsatisfactory coordination between TB and HIV control programmes, a poor public-private partnership, and weak monitoring and evaluation of interventions.ConclusionsThis paper provides evidence of some key barriers to TB control. The barriers, as reported, were generally health system-based. Although this list of barriers is not exhaustive, it would be useful to take them into account when planning for TB control, thus adopting a more rounded approach to TB management in the country. As well as that, further studies should be done to explore patients’ views on health service-related barriers to TB control.

Spatial Determinants of Entrepreneurship in India

We analyze the spatial determinants of entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. Among general district traits, quality of physical infrastructure and workforce education are the strongest predictors of entry, with labor laws and household banking quality also playing important roles. Looking at the district-industry level, we find extensive evidence of agglomeration economies among manufacturing industries. In particular, supportive incumbent industrial structures for input and output markets are strongly linked to higher establishment entry rates. We also find substantial evidence for the Chinitz effect where small local incumbent suppliers encourage entry. The importance of agglomeration economies for entry hold when considering changes in India's incumbent industry structures from 1989, determined before large-scale deregulation began, to 2005.

Rough road to the market: Constrained biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship in Nigeria and Ghana

AbstractThe paper analyses collaborative learning in knowledge generation in biotechnology in two very late follower economies, namely, Nigeria and Ghana in order to compare the innovation and entrepreneurship experiences they present. We suggest that the quality of physical infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure (including appropriate human skills), in addition to institutions and incentives for innovation contribute in large part to observed processes of innovation success. Regardless of whether the initiating step is the incremental design or laboratory‐based R&D stage, these factors are critical determinants of commercialisation. We use empirical data from the public sector institutions collected through field level surveys to substantiate these results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.