In the production of tomatoes in greenhouses, a more or less constant number of tomatoes are ready for picking at each harvest time. In the production of bell peppers, however, large fluctuations exist in number of fruits ready to pick. This major problem in bell pepper production is called ‘flushing’: weeks with high yields are alternated by weeks with low yield. This irregular harvest pattern...

This study uses heteroskedastic Tobit and Censored Least Absolute Deviations models to examine the impacts of dairy cow ownership on selected outcomes for a sample of 184 households in coastal Kenya. The outcomes examined include gross household cash income, gross non-agricultural income, consumption of dairy products, time allocated to cattlerelated tasks, number of labourers hired and total w...

QUESTION Does massage relieve pain in the active phase of labour? DESIGN Randomised trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding for some outcomes, and intention-to-treat analysis. PARTICIPANTS 46 women pregnant at ≥ 37 weeks gestation with a single fetus, with spontaneous onset of labour, 4-5cm of cervical dilation, intact ovular membranes, and no use of medication after admission to...

BACKGROUND Enemas are used during labour in obstetric settings with the belief that they reduce puerperal and neonatal infections, shorten labour duration, and make delivery cleaner for attending personnel. However, a systematic review of the literature found insufficient evidence to support the use of enemas. The objective of this RCT was to address an identified knowledge gap by determining t...

This paper presents evidence on gender segregation in employment contracts in 15 EU countries, using micro data from the ECHPS. Women are over-represented in part-time jobs in all countries considered, but while in northern Europe such allocation roughly reflects women’s preferences and their need to combine work with child care, in southern Europe part-time jobs are often involuntary and provi...

In order to consider the importance of efficient and judicious use of available resources, a case study was undertaken to allocate the land under selected crops in command area of Aundha Minor irrigation project, of Maharashtra State, India so as to maximize the net benefit and production. A linear programming allocation model was formulated by considering the four objectives viz. (i) the maxim...

The allocation of UK personal sector wealth across five broad asset categories (net financial wealth, housing (and durable assets) wealth, state pension wealth, private pension wealth, and human capital) is investigated using the FAIDS (financial AIDS) model. Apart from total wealth and returns, additional variables relating to capital market imperfections, and demographic, labour market and cr...