US Federal Aviation Administration Neighborhood Environmental Survey: Study Design and Survey Methodology

As part of the agency's broader noise research program, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has undertaken a multi-year research effort to quantify the impacts of aircraft noise exposure on communities around commercial service airports in the United States (U.S.). The overall goal of the study was to produce an updated and nationally representative civil aircraft dose-response curve; providing the relationship between annoyance and aircraft noise exposure around U.S. airport communities. To meet this goal, the FAA sponsored a research team to help design and conduct a national survey, known as the Neighborhood Environmental Survey (NES). Residents from households around 20 airports were selected for participation in the survey; the detailed sampling process is covered in another paper. Two survey instruments were administered to adult residents within the NES: a mail questionnaire and a follow-up telephone interview for the mail respondents. The mail survey was administered to samples of individuals in the selected airport communities in six separate "waves" over a 12-month period starting in October 2015. All mail survey respondents were invited to complete a follow-up telephone interview, which asked detailed questions on several areas including respondents' opinions on noise, exposure to aircraft noise, relationship to the airport, concerns about aircraft operations, views on airport community relations, among others. Analysis of the survey responses on annoyance levels and the associated DNL was used to estimate dose-response curves for each individual airport and a national dose-response curve. The national dose-response curve created from the mail questionnaire shows considerably more people are highly annoyed by aircraft noise at a given noise exposure level compared to historical FICON data. This paper provides a detailed discussion of the survey design and methodology. Additional information describing the motivation to conduct the NES and how its findings will help inform ongoing work to address aircraft noise concerns; and the noise methodology are provided in companion papers.

COLLECTING RESIDENT DATA FROM RESIDENTIAL CARE COMMUNITIES USING MAIL QUESTIONNAIRES: A NEW APPROACH

Researchers who collect resident-level data from RCCs face several challenges. Conducting face-to-face, on-site interviews with administrators is costly and presents scheduling difficulties. Contacting administrators by telephone requires multiple attempts. Even when they are reached, they have limited time and might not share resident-level data. To overcome these difficulties, the current survey of Oregon RCCs combines a mail questionnaire with a self-administered sampling tool that allowed communities to select a random sample of their residents (two from each community). Pilot interviews with administrators indicated they were able to select a random sample of their residents easily, quickly, and accurately using this method. The feasibility and validity of this method were further tested by comparing results to community-level aggregate data collected using traditional mail questionnaires from RCCs (n=392). The similarities and differences between resident- and community-level data are discussed within the context of sampling design and mode of data collection from RCCs.

Japanese physicians’ experiences of terminally ill patients voluntarily stopping eating and drinking: a national survey

ObjectivesVoluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) could be regarded as a patients’ own non-treatment decision that hastens death, which involves patients voluntarily forgoing food and liquid until death. The aims of this study were to investigate the experience of home hospice physicians and palliative care specialists who care for patients during VSED in Japan, and their opinions on continuous deep sedation (CDS) as a means to relieve patient symptoms during VSED.Methods219 home hospice physicians and 695 palliative care specialists across Japan were surveyed by mail questionnaire in 2016.ResultsA total of 571 (62%) responses were analysed. A total of 185 (32%) had experience of patients who selected VSED. In response to questions about CDS to provide relief to patients during VSED, the number of physicians who replied that CDS was acceptable was 88 (15%).ConclusionsIn Japan, 32% of physicians surveyed replied that they had experience of caring for patients during VSED in a clinical setting and 15% considered CDS acceptable.

Examining AIS Software and Co-operative Performance in Malaysia

Accounting information systems (AIS) is essential to process business data into useful information. Indeed, empirical evidence suggested that the use of AIS has a positive impact on firm performance. Previous studies were concentrating on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public listed companies leaving a gap in the co-operative literature. Furthermore, the users of different types of AIS software that contribute towards improving the firm performance were not adequately explored. As such, this paper draws on the resource-based view (RBV) to examine the gap issue. Using mail questionnaire survey, data were collected from 120 co-operatives. Findings from this study suggest that commercial and developed-in-house AIS software are mostly used by co-operatives. Also, the findings suggest that co-operatives performance is not associated with the types of AIS software used by the co-operatives. This study provides valuable insights into the implementation of AIS among Malaysian co-operatives, which has received little attention thus far from academic, governmental and professional bodies.

The Implementation of Continuous Improvement (CI) Methodology

This study aims to identify the expected benefits of continuous improvement (CI) implementation, to determine the critical success factors that contribute to CI implementation and to detect the expected problems that impede the implementation of CI programmes at Al-Sindian Paper Mills. The data analysed in this article was collected from a mail questionnaire sent to all staff who worked on a CI (Six Sigma) project at Al-Sindian Paper Mills. The findings of this study indicate that specialised training is necessary for master black and green belts, implementation of the CI requires a quality assurance and also CI approach is not only concerned with selecting a method and forming teams, but extends to covering the enhancement of improvement skills for operators. Finally avenues for future research were provided.

Image Building Strategy on the Example of Selected Polish Regions

The objective of this study was to identify and evaluate image building strategies in selected Polish regions. A mail questionnaire survey was carried out in 2013 in the regions of Pomorze (Pomerania), Pomorze Zachodnie (West Pomerania), Małopolska (Lesser Poland), Podkarpacie (Subcarpathia), Warmia and Mazury (Warmia and Masuria), and Podlasie. The importance of image building strategies is widely recognized by the local authorities, but most strategies are implemented on a short-term or medium-term basis. Image building strategies are often regarded as auxiliary measures that contribute to the achievement of strategic development goals. In the analyzed regions, image building is often reduced to strictly promotional measures. The relevant strategies focus on too many landmarks of regional identity, which detracts from their effectiveness. An absence of regular market surveys and evaluations also contributes to the weakness of regional image building strategies.

The Information Literacy of Undergraduate Students: How Knowledgeable Are They When Entering University?

A summary presentation of the research entitled: Information Literacy: Study of Incoming First-Year Undergraduates in Quebec. This was a bilingual (French – English) survey, with over 3,000 participants returning a mail questionnaire for a response rate of 57%. Findings are presented as well as some aspects of the rather distinctive research design followed.Un résumé de la recherche intitulée : Littératie informationnel : étude sur les étudiants de première année universitaire au Québec est présenté. Il s’agit d’un sondage bilingue (français-anglais) avec plus de 3000 participants ayant retourné un questionnaire par courrier pour un taux de réponse de 57%. Les résultats sont présentés, ainsi que quelques aspects suivis lors de la conception de cette étude plutôt originale.