Search

Based on the findings of the research, a number of conclusions have been drawn. Some of those conclusions are as follows: i) Drinking water projects in Nepal are still concerned with meeting only the practical gender needs of community women and men but not with women's strategic gender interests since the water sector at all other levels - international, national, institutional, and project that affect the outcomes of projects at the community level - is gender weak. The NGO sector seems to be relative more gender sensitive than others though it also has to go a long way in order to be truly gender sensitive in its activities. ii) The community level framework of women' strategic gender interests, consisting of five indicators suggested in this research for a gender analysis of impact in the water sector, appears to be useful and relevant. However, the research findings suggest that these five indicators should be split into six to make the framework more realistic, user-friendly and comprehensive. The suggested framework should now include: women's physical presence in project activities, women's participation in decision-making, changes in the traditional gender division of labour, women's access to and control over income, equity in sharing of benefits, and women's increased status leading to new development initiatives. iii) The institutional level framework, consisting of eight indicators suggested in this research to study gender issues at the agency level, is quite useful and relevant. Nonetheless, the research findings suggest that some of these eight indicators should be split to make the framework even more relevant and comprehensive. The suggested framework now includes ten indicators as follows: policy-formulating mechanisms, objectives and strategies, personnel policies, organisational structure, organisational culture and management style, provision of gender training, provision of capital and human resources, sharing of power between women and men staff, role of change agents, and relationships with external agencies. Based on the findings of this research and these conclusions, some action plans have been developed to improve gender sensitivity at all these levels in the drinking water sector.

The rising cost of healthcare in the United States is arguably one of the largest challenges of the next generation. In surgery, the operating room is the most resource dense component of a patient’s care, estimated to cost $37 per minute. While much of this cost is not easily modifiable – such as wages and indirect costs - the supplies used by surgeons are tangible and potentially mutable. Preliminary research suggests significant variation in supply use and associated costs between surgeons, but little is known about surgeons’ knowledge of the cost of instruments, how this knowledge affects instrument preferences, and how use of different instruments impacts patient outcomes. In this dissertation, we first conducted a multi-institutional survey of 83 attending surgeons at 3 academic medical centers in Southern California. We then linked survey data from one medical center to a comprehensive medical record-based administrative dataset that included over 1800 laparoscopic cholecystectomies performed between 2013 and 2018. Our analysis found that there was significant variation in disposable supply costs between surgeons and facilities, even after adjustment for patient case mix. Together, the surgeon and facility explained 34% of the variation in supply costs. Our analysis further suggested that the cornerstone of intraoperative supply costs appears to be the surgeon’s preference card , with every 1 dollar increase in preference card cost associated with a 78 cents increase in actual case cost. Upstream, surgeons who were able to accurately discriminate the cost of common general surgery items may choose cheaper preference cards, but interestingly, passive exposure to instrument costs, such as through cost report cards, does not appear to increase cost knowledge and therefore may have little downstream effect. Finally, surgeons with more expensive preference cards do not appear to improve their patients’ short-term outcomes. Taken together, the results suggest that the most successful efforts to reduce intraoperative supply cost variation will involve an active approach to reducing preference card cost, perhaps through standardization, and that cost reducing efforts may not adversely affect patient outcomes.

KSBio is a private biology and agriculture technology company located in Taian, Shandong Province, China. Established in 2009, KSBio focuses on selling, managing and producing various kinds of laboratory consumables and supplies. The major customers and partners of KSBio include universities, research institutions and biotechnology industries. KSBio has built a stable and cooperative business partnership with China Biologic Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBPO), which is one of the largest non-state-owned fully integrated plasma-based biopharmaceutical companies in China. KSBio also provides high qualified products to universities such as Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Taishan Medical University and Shanodong Institute of Pomology.The main products of KSBio are laboratory consumables and supplies. KSBio has established long-term business relationship with lab consumables providers both in China and in United States. With the help of broad market scope and efficient selling and management, the company’s sales in 2015 has exceeded to more than 2 million dollars, which is the highest amount in the company’s history.In the near future, KSBio aims not only at occupying a large proportion of the market in Shandong Province and China, but also at becoming an international provider and distributor of laboratory consumables and supplies.

This thesis examines the state penitentiaries of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas that became sources of wartime supplies during the Civil War. A shortage of industry in the southwest forced the Confederacy to use all manufactories efficiently. Penitentiary workshops and textile mills supplied a variety of cloth, wood, and iron products, but have received minimal attention in studies of logistics. Penitentiary textile mills became the largest domestic supplier of cloth to Confederate quartermasters, aid societies, citizens, slaves, and indigent families. This study examines how penitentiary workshops converted to wartime production and determines their contribution to the Confederate war effort. The identification of those who produced, purchased, distributed, and used penitentiary goods will enhance our knowledge of overall Confederate supply.

This thesis examines the logistical support of the Australian Army’s operations in the South West Pacific from January 1943 to August 1945. It begins by examining the strategic context. Succeeding chapters then examine various topics, including doctrine, base development, problems of storage and tropic proofing, inland water transport, road construction, air supply, amphibious operations and the support of combat operations. In this thesis I argue that the Australian Army’s logistical acumen and ability steadily grew with each campaign, resulting in a highly effective military organisation that inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Japanese.