The New Zealand productivity puzzle: A paradox or an issue of 'firm governance'

<p>New Zealand’s productivity under-performance, despite its good quality institutions, has remained a puzzling phenomenon. This topic has generated spirited debates among academia and public policy experts seeking to provide an answer to this age-old paradox. Solving ‘The New Zealand Productivity Puzzle’ is not a straightforward proposition. Previous studies in this area attempted to pin down the main determinants behind the extent to which New Zealand’s actual GDP per capita growth has undershot its predicted rates based on policy settings (Barnes et al., 2013). The recent New Zealand Productivity Commission (2014a) report shows the three key determinants accounting for such a gap are New Zealand’s weak international connections, low innovation and low managerial quality. This paper seeks to go further than merely highlighting the determinants (symptoms) of poor productivity performance in New Zealand, to the cause(s) of the problem by asking ‘why’ these key determinants (symptoms) of poor productivity performance occur. The analytical process of piecing together key results and findings (from available data, literature, and empirical studies) enables one to build a richer picture of New Zealand’s relatively poor productivity performance, to better understand the mechanism behind this puzzling phenomenon. The findings unraveled in this paper verify that this phenomenon is not paradoxical but simply an issue of firm/corporate governance. The sort of issues uncovered here is neither one of poor corporate governance in a conventional manner or an issue of managerial competency alone. Rather problems arise largely as a consequence of inappropriate incentives unintentionally generated by a certain ownership structure. This paper discusses how high ownership concentration associated with lower firm performance in New Zealand negatively affects managerial effectiveness by exacerbating the agency costs associated with managerial entrenchment. The paper shows that together New Zealand’s relatively lower managerial competency and managerial effectiveness associated with lower firm performance, can account for New Zealand’s lack of international connections, low innovation and low managerial quality, and thus potentially explain ‘The New Zealand Productivity Puzzle’.</p>

The New Zealand productivity puzzle: A paradox or an issue of 'firm governance'

<p>New Zealand’s productivity under-performance, despite its good quality institutions, has remained a puzzling phenomenon. This topic has generated spirited debates among academia and public policy experts seeking to provide an answer to this age-old paradox. Solving ‘The New Zealand Productivity Puzzle’ is not a straightforward proposition. Previous studies in this area attempted to pin down the main determinants behind the extent to which New Zealand’s actual GDP per capita growth has undershot its predicted rates based on policy settings (Barnes et al., 2013). The recent New Zealand Productivity Commission (2014a) report shows the three key determinants accounting for such a gap are New Zealand’s weak international connections, low innovation and low managerial quality. This paper seeks to go further than merely highlighting the determinants (symptoms) of poor productivity performance in New Zealand, to the cause(s) of the problem by asking ‘why’ these key determinants (symptoms) of poor productivity performance occur. The analytical process of piecing together key results and findings (from available data, literature, and empirical studies) enables one to build a richer picture of New Zealand’s relatively poor productivity performance, to better understand the mechanism behind this puzzling phenomenon. The findings unraveled in this paper verify that this phenomenon is not paradoxical but simply an issue of firm/corporate governance. The sort of issues uncovered here is neither one of poor corporate governance in a conventional manner or an issue of managerial competency alone. Rather problems arise largely as a consequence of inappropriate incentives unintentionally generated by a certain ownership structure. This paper discusses how high ownership concentration associated with lower firm performance in New Zealand negatively affects managerial effectiveness by exacerbating the agency costs associated with managerial entrenchment. The paper shows that together New Zealand’s relatively lower managerial competency and managerial effectiveness associated with lower firm performance, can account for New Zealand’s lack of international connections, low innovation and low managerial quality, and thus potentially explain ‘The New Zealand Productivity Puzzle’.</p>

Types of Skin Grafts

Skin grafting is a useful technique that has been used for a very long time for achieving closure of wounds when it cannot occure in a natural conventional manner. There are different types of grafts according to their origin, thickness and form. There are 3 main types of graftsthat are used to cover wounds: Split-thickness skin grafts, full-thickness skin grafts and composite grafts. Each of them has specific indication and has a unique technique for harvesting. If the graft is not taken care of properly its survival can be compromised and necrosis of the graft can occur. Even though complications may present, skin grafting is still considered a practical approach to repair many type of wounds.

ENT Residents Benefit from a Structured Operation Planning Approach in the Training of Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

Background and Objectives: Preoperative planning utilizing computed tomographies (CT) is of utmost importance in functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Frequently, no uniform documentation and planning structures are available to residents in training. Consequently, overall completeness and quality of operation planning may vary greatly. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of a structured operation planning (SOP) approach on the report quality and user convenience during a 4-day sinus surgery course. Materials and Methods: Fifteen participant were requested to plan a FESS procedure based on a CT scan of the paranasal sinuses that exhibited common pathological features, in a conventional manner, using a free text. Afterwards, the participants reevaluated the same scans by means of a specifically designed structured reporting template. Two experienced ENT surgeons assessed the collected conventional operation planning (COP) and SOP methods independently with regard to time requirements, overall quality, and legibility. User convenience data were collected by utilizing visual analogue scales. Results: A significantly greater time expenditure was associated with SOPs (183 s vs. 297 s, p = 0.0003). Yet, legibility (100% vs. 72%, p < 0.0001) and overall completeness (61.3% vs. 22.7%, p < 0.0001) of SOPs was significantly superior to COPs. Additionally, description of highly relevant variants in anatomy and pathologies were outlined in greater detail. User convenience data delineated a significant preference for SOPs (VAS 7.9 vs. 6.9, p = 0.0185). Conclusions: CT-based planning of FESS procedures by residents in training using a structured approach is more time-consuming while producing a superior report quality in terms of detailedness and readability. Consequently, SOP can be considered as a valuable tool in the process of preoperative evaluations, especially within residency.

Digital Denture Fabrication: A Technical Note

Fabricating a complete denture in a conventional manner may be complicated and difficult. The purpose of this article was to describe the benefits of a fully digital workflow and fabrication procedure of complete dentures based on digital impressions of edentulous jaws. The digital data for the workflow were acquired using an intraoral scanner and were then used to design the denture base and teeth. The resulting data were exported to a 3D printer or a milling machine for denture fabrication.

Topic Modeling for Analyzing Topic Manipulation Skills

There are many ways to communicate with people, the most representative of which is a conversation. A smooth conversation should not only be written in a grammatically appropriate manner, but also deal with the subject of conversation; this is known as language ability. In the past, this ability has been evaluated by language analysis/therapy experts. However, this process is time-consuming and costly. In this study, the researchers developed a Hallym Systematic Analyzer of Korean language to automate the conversation analysis process traditionally conducted by language analysis/treatment experts. However, current morpheme analyzers or parsing analyzers can only evaluate certain elements of a conversation. Therefore, in this paper, we added the ability to analyze the topic manipulation skills (the number of topics and the rate of topic maintenance) using the existing Hallym Systematic Analyzer of Korean language. The purpose of this study was to utilize the topic modeling technique to automatically evaluate topic manipulation skills. By quantitatively evaluating the topic management capabilities that were previously evaluated in a conventional manner, it was possible to automatically analyze language ability in a wider range of aspects. The experimental results show that the automatic analysis methodology presented in this study achieved a very high level of correlation with language analysis/therapy professionals.

The First International Guideline for Oxytocin Safely Decreased Oxytocin Amount During Cesarean Section: A Single-Institution Retrospective Analysis

Purpose: It is routine to administer oxytocin following delivery of the neonate during cesarean section. However, there are many kinds of administration methods. Heesen et al. published an international consensus statement in 2019 on the use of uterotonic agents, including oxytocin during cesarean section [1]. Our institution adapted the guideline-based oxytocin infusion method. We verified the validity of the new approach after one year. Methods: A single-center retrospective study of consecutive patients who underwent cesarean section with a new protocol or the conventional manner from November 2019 to December 2020 was conducted. The primary endpoint was a significant difference in the amount of intraoperative hemorrhage and the total oxytocin amount. Secondary endpoints included differences in the incidence of intraoperative complications. Results: The study included 174 patients: 66 in the new protocol group and 108 in the conventional group. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups for oxytocin amount (new protocol 4.2 [3.2-5.9] vs. conventional 5.0 [5.0-10] IU, p<0.01) with equivalent intraoperative hemorrhages (new protocol 558 [337-963] vs. conventional 683 [484-1012] g, p=0.08). There was no significant difference in the incidence of nausea. Conclusion: The new guideline-based oxytocin administration safely decreased the intraoperative oxytocin amount in our institution.

A low cost SSVEP-EEG based human-computer-interaction system for completely locked-in patients

Human computer interaction (HCI) for completely locked-in patients is a very difficult task. Nowadays, information technology (IT) is becoming an essential part of human life. Patients with completely locked-in state are generally unable to facilitate themselves by these useful technological advancements. Hence, they cannot use modern IT gadgets and applications throughout the lifespan after disability. Advancements in brain computer interface (BCI) enable operating IT devices using brain signals specifically when a person is unable to interact with the devices in conventional manner due to cognitive motor disability. However, existing state-of-the-art application specific BCI devices are comparatively too expensive. This paper presents a research and development work that aims to design and develop a low-cost general purpose HCI system that can be used to operate computers and a general purpose control panel through brain signals. The system is based on steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP). In proposed system, these electrical signals are obtained in response of a number of different flickering lights of different frequencies through electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes and an open source BCI hardware. Successful trails conducted on healthy participants suggest that severely paralyzed subjects can operate a computer or control panel as an alternative to conventional HCI device.

From Lab to Zoom: Adapting Training Study Methodologies to Remote Conditions

Training studies extend developmental research beyond single-session lab tasks by evaluating how particular experiences influence developmental changes over time. This methodology is highly interactive and typically requires experimenters to have easy, in-person access to large groups of children. When constraints were placed on in-person data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic, administering this study format in the conventional manner became unfeasible. To implement this type of research under these new circumstances, we devised an alternative approach that enabled us to conduct a live, multi-session training study using a diverse array of activities through an online interface, a task necessitating creative problem solving, since most existing remote methodologies either rely on unsupervised methods or have been limited to single sessions and restricted to a limited number of tasks. The current paper describes the technological and practical adaptations implemented in our online training study of 118 4- and 5-year-old children from a geographically diverse sample. An experimenter interacted with the children once a week for 5 weeks over Zoom. The first and final sessions were dedicated to collecting baseline and post-test measures, while the intermediate 3 weeks were structured as a training designed to teach children specific spatial-cognitive and visuo-motor integration skills. The assessments and training contained image-filled spatial tasks that experimenters shared on their screen, a series of hands-on activities that children completed on their own device and on paper while following experimenters’ on-screen demonstrations, and tasks requiring verbal indicators from the parent about their child’s response. The remote nature of the study presented a unique set of benefits and limitations that has the potential to inform future virtual child research, as our study used remote behavioral methods to test spatial and visuo-motor integration skills that have typically only been assessed in lab settings. Results are discussed in relation to in-lab studies to establish the viability of testing these skills virtually. As our design entailed continual management of communication issues among researchers, parents, and child participants, strategies for streamlined researcher training, diverse online recruitment, and stimuli creation are also discussed.

Bond Strength of Orthodontic Brackets to Temporary Crowns: In Vitro Effects of Surface Treatment

Background. The number of patients seeking orthodontic treatment has been consistently increasing. During orthodontic treatment, it is recommended to place the provisional restoration and to delay the final restoration until completion of orthodontic treatment. Recurrent bracket debonding necessitates orthodontists to prepare the bonding area with special measures. Objective. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different grit sizes of diamond burs and sandblasting surface treatment on the shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets to provisional crowns. Materials and Methods. A total of 75 discs were fabricated from a bisacrylic composite and divided into 5 groups (n = 15) according to surface treatment by black, blue, and green diamond burs and sandblasting in addition to a control group. Metal orthodontic brackets were bonded to discs in a standardized conventional manner. All specimens were subjected to thermocycling with 5000 cycles of alternating 5°C and 55°C waterbaths. The shear bond strength test was performed using a universal testing machine. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyze the surface treatment effect and features of debonded surfaces. The amount of composite resin left on the specimen surfaces was analyzed and classified with the adhesive remnant index. One-way ANOVA was performed at α = 0.05. Results. The shear bond strength of specimens treated with sandblasting was significantly higher than that of the control group under thermal aging conditions ( p = 0.022 ), as well as blue burs ( p = 0.001 ), while no significant differences were found between different grit diamond burs and the controls ( p > 0.05 ). Conclusion. Under thermocycling conditions, sandblasting of provisional crowns increases the bond strength of orthodontic brackets.