bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Administrative Executive Power
Authors: Curtin Deirdre
Published: February 2010

This chapter moves down a layer to the assumed hierarchically inferior ‘administrative executive’ in its various configurations that are sketched in impressionistic fashion. The administrative executive is composed of the civil servants that go to form the public administration and actually implement and execute public policy in practice. These civil servants are found both at the European level itself (mainly in the Commission but also increasingly in other EU institutions) as well as coming from the national level: the hordes of national civil servants and scientific and technical ‘experts’ that participate in one way or another in EU policy-making processes. Part of the administrative executive may form part of the so-called ‘core executive’ although clearly not all.
Chapter 4 Democratic Analysis
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: February 2010

The political studies community in the United Kingdom has traditionally adopted a distinctive and insular approach, in terms of theory and methods, to constitutional research but there is a pressing need to embrace alternative tools of political analysis. This book utilizes Lijphartian political analysis in order to inject a more theoretically driven account of change.
Chapter 6 V2. Cabinets
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: February 2010

Although cabinet government remains closely aligned with minimal‐winning single‐party executives at the national level the situation at the sub‐national level is more complex as formal and informal factors conspire to ensure that coalition government is the norm rather than the exception.
Chapter 9 V5. Interest Groups
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: February 2010

The traditional relationship between Labour government and trade unions shifted during 1997–2007 from the ‘union‐party bonding model’ to a ‘union‐distance model’. The creation of new political spaces and democratic arenas through devolution, however, has increased the number of linkages in the democratic chain, thereby creating new conduits through which interest groups can play a role in the policy‐making process.
Chapter 12 V8. Constitutional Amendment
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: February 2010

Although other countries generally require special majorities, popular referendums or other safeguards to ensure that the constitution remains protected from day‐to‐day partisan manipulation, the constitution of the United Kingdom is notable due to the absence of these auxiliary precautions. New Labour did little to dilute their capacity in terms of constitutional amendment.
Chapter 14 V10. Central Bank Independence
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: February 2010

Throughout the twentieth century the view was taken by consecutive governments that the United Kingdom's constitution was incompatible with the concept of central bank independence. New Labour departed from this position and instead sought to square the circle by granting independence but within the contours of the Westminster Model.
Chapter 16 Democratic Drift
Authors: Flinders Matthew
Published: February 2010

At the end of the first decade of the twenty‐first century democracy in the United Kingdom is drifting. No political party seems able to articulate what constitutional reform is for anymore and in this context stimulating debates about ‘Britishness’, citizenship or a ‘common statement of values’ might, therefore, be regarded as weak and oblique responses to the challenges of constitutional anomie set out in this book.
Chapter 4 Social Justice: A Mirage?
Authors: Plant Raymond
Published: February 2010

It is a central thesis of neo‐liberalism that social justice is an incoherent moral ideal and should play no part in proper identification of the real purposes and scope of the state. Social justice is central to both Social Democracy and Socialism and the critique of social justice is crucial for the neo‐liberal claim to differentiate itself in a categorical way from these other political, social, and economic positions. The chapter looks in detail at the different arguments used by neo‐liberal thinkers to criticize social justice. It is also part of the neo‐liberal position that social justice as a policy aim cannot be made compatible with the idea of the rule of law. The reasons for this are explored in detail.
Chapter 8 Government and Markets
Authors: Plant Raymond
Published: February 2010

This chapter has as its main focus the nature and scope of markets in neo‐liberal thought. The first part of the chapter looks at the critique of economic planning of the economy and of government intervention in the economy more generally developed by neo‐liberal thinkers. The second part of the chapter deals with the issue of whether in a nomocratic order allied to free markets and rational utility maximization can be made to work without some sense of an orientation to the common good or a diffused sense of civic virtue. Such ideas fit rather badly into neo‐liberal perspectives because they look to be more teleocratic, oriented towards some conception of the good rather than a nomocratic order based upon rules. The chapter looks at recent ways in which neo‐liberal have sought to answer this question of what might be called social capital.
Chapter 10 Freedom and Coercion: An Alternative Account
Authors: Plant Raymond
Published: February 2010

In this chapter the neo‐liberal account of freedom and coercion expounded in Chapter 3 is subjected to sustained critical analysis and is found wanting in its own terms. This is crucially important because the neo‐liberal society is supposed to be a society which has freedom as one of, if not, its central constitutive value. Hence, if this concept and the linked idea of coercion cannot be made coherent in the terms which neo‐liberals allow themselves then this puts a very serious question mark against the neo‐liberal project.
Chapter 12 Neo‐liberal Rights: A Wider Perspective
Authors: Plant Raymond
Published: February 2010

This chapter focuses on the critique of rights when they extend beyond protecting negative liberty as set out in Chapter 5. First of all, if the idea of negative liberty is defective, then so too is a theory of rights, which limits role to the protection of such liberties. Building on the more comprehensive account of liberty set out in Chapter 10 it is argued that there is no justification for arguing that there is a categorical distinction to be drawn between negative rights to protect individuals from the coercion of others including the state and social and economic or positive rights. This claim does not depend solely upon the argument about freedom but is also based upon a critical analysis of other salient ideas which have been used to reject positive rights such as scarcity, the illusory nature of social justice, and the indefiniteness of corresponding obligations in respect of positive rights.
Musical Performance ofIamboi
Authors: Rotstein Andrea
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines ancient evidence for a connection of iambos and music. It suggests that a similar term (iambos) was used for rhythm, melody and poetry, and -iamb- appears in names of musical instruments and melodies. Although the conceptual link is not enough to prove that iambos was in practice a melic genre, it certainly presents the possibility that given the connection of iambos with several aspects of music such as rhythm, musical nomoi, and musical instruments, some iamboi at least, were occasionally sung or performed with musical accompaniment.
Creating the Letter
Authors: Whyman Susan E.
Published: February 2010

This chapter shows how people learned to read and write letters by treating the letter as a material object. Readers observe the step-by step process of writing and reading letters. The use of copybooks and handwriting are linked to national identity, and the value of epistolary manuals is questioned. Children's letters of the Evelyn family are compared with those of three merchant families, and their importance is discussed. They suggest that a more informal type of letter written in the merchant's round hand dominated personal correspondence by 1800.
Letter‐Writing, Reading, and Literary Culture
Authors: Whyman Susan E.
Published: February 2010

This chapter contrasts Jane Johnson's quiet reading and writing with the fast-paced public literary culture of her children — Robert and Barbara — and the patroness of their Bath poetry salon, Anna Miller. Changes in literary practices over the century, from the growth of epistolary fiction to the era of sensibility by the 1790s, are revealed through writings and reading records of Jane Johnson's children. It is suggested that the travelogue, methods of literary criticism, and the language of sentiment were influenced and shaped by letters. As sites of unsupervised reading, independent opinions, and cultural desires, letters had a political impact. Epistolary literacy thus provided a base for a free and active electorate at a time when political participation was still limited.
1 Arma uirumque cano
Authors: Lowrie Michèle
Published: February 2010

Vergil begins the Aeneid with a strong proclamation of song: ‘I sing of arms and the man’. The Sibyl offers an allegory of both the advantages and disadvantages of song that indirectly reflects Vergil's self-definition with regard to his own media. The Sibyl's direct inspiration by god guarantees the validity of her prophecy, but her resistance to violent possession shows that authority comes with a price. This chapter maps the differences between Roman poetic practices in this period and the ideologies attaching to the different media. Analysis is provided of the semantic range of a variety of words having to do with performance and reception (canere, dicere, carmen). Writing and song operate along a continuum, where one extreme sets them in contrast and the other sees them as interrelated aspects of literary representation and its transmission.
4 Horatian Lyric and Metaphorical Truths
Authors: Lowrie Michéle
Published: February 2010

This chapter moves beyond the previous one in attempting to unify aestheticizing and sociological approaches to Horace's language of performance and performativity. The rhetoric of inability in the Epodes and the claims to song in the Odes are strategies of self-authorization that serve different political ends. An analysis of Odes 3. 30 closes the chapter. Although Horace appears to ground his poetic immortality in a book that will live on as a physical object embedded in ritual repetition, in fact, his literary monument (monumentum) surpasses both physical embodiment and the specific occasions of his culture.
7 Elegy
Authors: Lowrie Michèle
Published: February 2010

The traditional softness of the elegiac lover is a self-conscious rhetoric of inability that excuses the poet from the obligations of imperial citizenship. Over time, Roman elegy becomes more interested in defining its political role in terms of the media. Although it would be easy to dichotomize reading in a girl's lap and singing the praises of Caesar, elegy in fact develops a hybrid generic identity. Propertius, who at first shows little interest in specific media ends up staging a performative extravaganza to analyze his capabilities as a praise poet and Ovid moves from a position of mocking self-irony in the Amores, through self-authorization as a scholar in the Fasti, to a final assumption of song in the Metamorphoses, where the epic genre demands greater poetic self-confidence.
9 Beyond Performance Envy
Authors: Lowrie Michèle
Published: February 2010

Horace's literary epistles, contrary to their own written medium, are fascinated with performance. It is not just that the Ars Poetica is a didactic poem on how to write tragedy and Epistles 2.1 focuses mostly on drama in its literary history. Horace is interested in the function of the poet in society. He claims a plenitude for choral lyric and for the archaic poet's role as a founder that is lacking for himself. Although he had already composed the Carmen saeculare by the time of the epistle, he does not line up his own epistolary oeuvre with such plenitude and rather presents the library as a place of refuge for a poet who does not want to be subject to the whims of an audience.
10 De‐ and Re‐contextualization
Authors: Lowrie Michèle
Published: February 2010

Recitation had become a strong venue for poets to reach a public in Augustan Rome. Horace, however, resists this medium on the grounds that it exposed a poet to the exigencies of the rat race. Epistles 1. 19 analyzes its own poet's hypocrisy in wanting to avoid social climbing while reserving his poetry for Augustus' ears.
11 Ovid's Triumphs in Exile: Representation and Power
Authors: Lowrie Michèle
Published: February 2010

Exile provides a situation of extreme separation between author and reader, poet, and addressee. Ovid returns to the semiotic issues he explored in the Heroides in his exile poetry. The triumph in particular is a locus for him to examine the extent to which presence is necessary to performative felicity. He concludes that his imagination is such that he neither needs to witness such a performance nor that it even needs to take place for him to be able to offer an accurate description. His own situation uncannily resembles that of Augustus, whose runs the empire through delegation: both can be present where they are not through representation. Writing and absence have advantages that compensate for his misfortune.
13 Occasion and Monument:The Ara Pacis
Authors: Lowrie Michèle
Published: February 2010

The Ara Pacis is a monument representing a procession. Along with Augustus' Mausoleum, sundial, and ustrinum, it formed part of a dynamic complex on the Campus Martius that united writing with performance, static representation with ritual reenactment. As with much of Augustus poetry, it heralds occasionality while the actual occasion depicted on it is hard to pin down.
5 The Curious Incident of the Guns in the Night Time
Authors: Mclean Iain , Lubbock Tom
Published: February 2010

The Government of Ireland Bill and the Ulster Protestant revolt 1912–14. Bonar Law, Dicey, the Unionist Party, and illegal activity. Curragh ‘mutiny’ 1914. Larne gunrunning 1914.
6 The Contradictions of Professor Dicey
Authors: Mclean Iain
Published: February 2010

Dicey's abandonment of parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law. His partial rediscovery of them 1920.
9 The European Union and Other Supranational Entanglements
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: February 2010

EU membership and parliamentary sovereignty. The Schuman Plan and supranationalism. The United Kingdom's early attempts to join. The 1972 debates. The 1975 referendum. The Single European Act and its incorporation into domestic law. Factortame and the destruction of parliamentary sovereignty.
10 Human Rights
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: February 2010

Creation of the Council of Europe in the shadow of Nuremburg. History of gradual UK incorporation. European Court of Human Rights. Human Rights Act 1998. Human rights and unpopular minorities. Growth of a human rights culture among lawyers; unpopularity with politicians and media. The weak entrenchment of HRA 1998.
13 Established Churches
Authors: McLean Iain
Published: February 2010

Two contradictory Protestant truths. Nature of church establishment in England and Scotland. Its non‐existence in Wales and Northern Ireland. A confused archbishop. Prevalence of religious belief in the United Kingdom since 1851. Religion and social policy: variation in social attitudes between religious and non‐religious people in the United Kingdom. Withdrawal of Prime Minister from appointing bishops 2007: de facto disestablishment? Whether religious representatives have a role in a democratic parliament. Religious pluralism and charitable regulation. The theology of Calvinism from Andrew Melvill to the Percy case. Status of the Church of Scotland Act 1921.
The use of value of information methods in the design and evaluation of clinical trials
Authors: Willan Andrew R.
Published: February 2010

This chapter illustrates the use of value of information methods in determining sample size for pediatric clinical trials and for summarizing trial results, underscoring the particular advantage these methods have for rare diseases in pediatrics. Based on incremental net benefit, a model for developing value of information methods is given. Solutions based on decision theory for determining optimal sample size under various assumptions are also presented. There then follows two examples illustrating the methods using data from pediatric trials — the first related to the use of calf lung surfactant in patients with pediatric acute hypoxemic respiratory failure and the second examining postoperative purulent otorrhea. The advantages of value of information methods are summarized in the last section.
Obstacles to the economic evaluation of specialist child and adolescent mental health services
Authors: Byford Sarah
Published: February 2010

Few economic evaluations of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have been carried out and those that exist suffer from design weaknesses. This chapter presents a comprehensive systematic review and quality appraisal of clinical and economic evaluations of non-pharmacological specialist CAMHS in the UK. The chapter also describes the results of a survey of key UK investigators involved in the evaluation of specialist CAMHS to identify the obstacles to high quality clinical evaluations and to determine the impact these obstacles might have on the ability to undertake high quality economic evaluations. It points the way for future improvements in the conduct of health economic research in this field.
Economic evaluations in the management of pediatric asthma
Authors: Campbell Jonathan D. , Sullivan Sean D.
Published: February 2010

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood and the incidence is increasing. This chapter reviews published health economic studies of asthma interventions and medical technology with a focus on pediatric and adolescent populations. It begins with descriptions of the etiology, epidemiology, and management of asthma, followed by the economic burden of illness. A detailed literature review and a quality appraisal are presented, scrutinizing asthma outcome measures, the analytic framework and handling of uncertainty. The discussion evaluates how well the current health economic recommendations in pediatric asthma have been reflected in clinical guidelines and suggests avenues for future improvement.
Economic evaluation of dengue prevention
Authors: Shepard Donald S. , Suaya Jose A.
Published: February 2010

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease which threatens half the world's population. This chapter first briefly examines an existing technology, larviciding, to control the mosquito which transmits dengue. It then presents a detailed examination of a new technology for dengue prevention, a potential dengue vaccine, based on previous work. The economic analysis estimates the health benefits of offering dengue vaccination to annual child cohorts in Southeast Asia (a region that has witnessed the highest incidence), determines the annual cost of that strategy, and projects potential revenues to vaccine producers. The economic analysis is conducted using standard approaches to cost-effectiveness analysis to derive the cost per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted. Finally, the chapter highlights some methodological challenges that are specific to child health.
Evidence-based decision-making in child health: The role of clinical research and economic evaluation
Authors: Currie Gillian , Curtis Sarah , Klassen Terry
Published: February 2010

Health economics plays an important part in the clinical research and knowledge translation phases of the research process, as well as having a role in health care prioritization and accountability. This chapter begins by introducing a conceptual framework which depicts the generation and implementation of research evidence as an iterative process comprising clinical research, knowledge translation, and engagement with key stakeholders. Secondly, key aspects of the generation of evidence through clinical research that impact upon decision-making are highlighted. Pediatric research poses unique challenges distinct from that of adult research and the history and complexities of research in this population are discussed. The third section of the chapter presents the role of economics within decision-making. The chapter concludes with ideas for further strengthening decision-making in child health.
Technology: scientific force or power force?
Authors: Bosanquet Nick
Published: February 2010

Technology is often presented for healthcare as an extraneous variable that can be used to explain the continuing rise in health care costs. The general consensus seems to be that most technology raises total expenditure, either through higher unit costs or through raising the volume of procedures. Recent events seem to have borne out Schwartz's forecast in 1994 that health services were on the brink of a period of rapid technological change and the consensus is that the change has cost a great deal. This chapter explores another model of how technology is determined. The changes in technology that have actually happened have been more diverse than was envisaged in 1994. Alongside the ‘big ticket’ technology projected by Schwartz, a ‘small ticket’ technology has grown up, which is much more available outside large hospitals in clinics, doctor's surgeries, or pharmacies. The rise of small ticket technology opens up a range of very different investment opportunities from those available in the past four decades.
Diffusion of health technologies: evidence from the pharmaceutical sector
Authors: Serra-Sastre Victoria , McGuire Alistair
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses the role of technology diffusion in the area of pharmaceutical treatments. It is an up-to-date literature review of the main determinants of technology diffusion, including a discussion of the social, economic, and institutional constraints that enable pharmaceuticals to reach their targeted market.
The limits and challenges to the economic evaluation of health technologies
Authors: Oliver Adam , Sorenson Corinna
Published: February 2010

This chapter reviews some of the concerns raised against the use of economic evaluation in the decision-making process, from a wide range of disciplinary and stakeholder perspectives. It offers some reflections on the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as a user of health economic evaluation to assess whether health care interventions ought to be made available in the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales.
Knowledge, technology, and demand for online health information
Authors: Costa-Font Joan , Rudisill Caroline , Mossialos Elias
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines the process of knowledge sharing and use of information technologies in health care, drawing upon evidence from the use of the Internet for health purposes in the European Union. The Internet appears as a relatively new information source with the potential to bring efficiency gains and health production benefits. However, little is known about the specific determinants of the search for information, especially under heterogeneous cultural and institutional settings, such as those of European Union member states.
Basic principles
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter reviews the basic results of thermodynamics. It derives the basic formulas of the canonical and grand canonical ensemble from the microcanonical ensemble. It defines the concept of a partition function and free energy, and introduces the notion of phases and ergodic components. It discusses the relation of classical to quantum statistical mechanics, and explains the close relationship of statistical mechanics to quantum field theory.
Reductionism, phenomena and models
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter explains the philosophy of reductionism and contrasts it with the philosophy used to study realistic complex systems. It presents examples of phase diagrams and magnetic phase transitions for real materials. The simplified models, both in the continuum and on the lattice, which will be used to describe these real physical phenomena are given in detail.
Theorems on order
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses Hales proof of Kepler's conjecture for densest packing of hard spheres and recent extensions to hard ellipsoids. It gives the proofs of lack of certain types of order in one and two dimensions. It discusses the proofs of existence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in classical and quantum Heisenberg magnets in three dimensions. Open questions and ‘missing theorems’ are presented.
Ising model spontaneous magnetization and form factors
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter develops and uses the theory of Wiener–Hopf sum equations to derive Szegö's theorem. This theorem is used to compute the spontaneous magnetization of the Ising model. The Wiener–Hopf methods are then used to compute the form factor expansion on the correlation functions and this expansion is used to derive the behaviour of the two-point function at large separations. These expansions give a microscopic description of the critical point and provide the basis of the scaling phenomenology presented in Chapter 4. It is explained how to use symbolic computer computations to discover Fuchsian differential equations for the diagonal correlations.
The eight-vertex and XYZ model
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter derives the matrix TQ functional equation for the eight-vertex model. The Bethe's equation for the eigenvalues of Q is derived from the matrix TQ equation. A numerical study is made of the eigenvalues of Q, and the TQ equation is used to compute the free energy of the eight-vertex model. Results on the excitations, order parameters and correlation functions of the six- and eight-vertex models and the related XYZ spin chain are presented.
Introduction
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

The introduction summarizes the theoretical foundations of the health capability paradigm and distinguishes it from prevailing frameworks, which represent clear deficiencies in thinking and action about health and health care. The theory is rooted in a particular view of the good life —— Aristotelian human flourishing —— that values health intrinsically. An overview presents other components of the health capability paradigm, including incompletely theorized agreements, shortfall inequality, the role of internalized public moral norms in collective choice, and a joint scientific and deliberative approach, with medical necessity and medical appropriateness informing decision-making in a shared health governance framework. Health agency —— the ability to engage with and navigate one's environment and the health care system to meet health needs —— is an integral part of the health capability paradigm.
1 Approaches to Medical and Public Health Ethics
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

This chapter critically reviews the existing frameworks in health ethics, policy and law and frames the author's ideas as a solution to a perplexing problem: the inability of current frameworks to provide adequate health promotion and protection and to solve health-related problems in the real world. These approaches include welfare economics and utilitarianism, communitarianism and liberal communitarianism, egalitarianism (encompassing applications of Rawls's Theory of Justice, Fair Equality of Opportunity and other elements), libertarianism and market based approaches (where the government's role is to protect individual rights, particularly property rights, but not to guarantee a right to health) and democratic procedures. It discusses the deficiencies associated with using these approaches in a theory of health and social justice, drawing on examples such as the Oregon Medicaid experiment. The chapter emphasizes the need for a new integrative approach —— the health capability paradigm —— that establishes health capability and a right to health, guides collective choice and integrates consequentialist and proceduralist aims.
2 Health and Human Flourishing
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

This chapter lays the philosophical foundation for the book's theoretical framework, drawing on moral and political philosophy to argue that Aristotle's theory and Sen's capability approach provide the philosophical basis for the special moral importance of health capabilities as a central focal variable for assessing equality and efficiency in health policy. Both take a universal view of humans' capability to flourish as an end of moral and political philosophy and provide an analytical framework for addressing questions of justice and human rights in a way other philosophical schools do not. The capability approach considers human heterogeneity when assessing equality, and uses the capability to achieve valuable functionings as the main variable for evaluation. It also respects the central importance of freedom and reason in enabling humans to make choices. This is a departure from more Rawlsian resource‐based evaluation frameworks that measure equality according to the attainment of tangible rewards such as wealth, income and health care. This chapter highlights the important contributions of these philosophical theories to the author's own thinking, while at the same time recognizes their limitations and demonstrates how the health capability paradigm can address such drawbacks in the specific context of the development, organization, and delivery of health systems and policy.
4 Justice, Capability, and Health Policy
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

This chapter provides a workable operationalization of health capabilities, and seeks a shared standard of health based on the demands of social justice and the right to health in terms of health equity. The health capability paradigm offers a trans‐positional conception of health that reflects the ‘view from everywhere’. This chapter delineates the relationship between health capabilities, health functionings, health needs and health agency, introducing shortfall in equality —— deviations of individuals or groups from a standard —— as a means for judging public policies affecting health. It emphasizes that although many factors influence health, health policy is one of the most important determinants; thus there is need for efficiency in health policy, and for joint clinical and economic solutions to achieve optimal levels of health and reduce inequalities in individuals' capabilities to be healthy. It argues for a differential allocation of resources to mitigate shortfall inequality. It critically analyzes the ethics of the social determinants of health and surveys and responds to criticisms of the capability approach.
5 Grounding the Right to Health
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

This chapter offers a philosophical justification for the elusive ‘right to health’. It provides a framework for health reform efforts and covers the degree to which the right to health is ‘justiciable’ and enforceable as prescribed in international law. The health capability paradigm argues for the right to health as a meaningful and operational right, and recognizes that realizing it requires a commitment to, and internalization of, public moral norms on the part of self and society, in addition to legal instruments for enforcement. This chapter compares positive and negative rights in the Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach case study of the constitutional right to medical self‐defence. The chapter concludes that a right to health cannot be framed in an absolute libertarian framework of wholly individualistic rights against the state, but requires the more positive conceptualization of freedom as human flourishing.
8 Allocating Resources: A Joint Scientific and Deliberative Approach
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

This chapter addresses the question of priority setting for competing needs when resources are scarce. It begins with the broader societal perspective, because fair decisions must balance spending on health with spending elsewhere. Next, it addresses competing claims within the health budget itself. The health capability paradigm involves reasoned consensus on allocating resources, based on scientific and deliberative processes. The paradigm emphasizes a collaborative and participatory approach to decision‐making that reinforces individual health agency, while at the same time evaluating outcomes in terms of their substantive merit. Medical appropriateness and clinical practice guidelines allow creation of evidence‐based, standardized health policy that provides optimal care and a universal benefits package of goods and services that support central health capabilities. The chapter also discusses efficiency concerns, resource allocation and age, setting limits, rationing, and how to address hard cases, such as medical futility and those invoked by the ‘bottomless pit’ objection or differing conceptions of ‘reasonable accommodation’. A framework for combining technical and ethical rationality for resource allocation is developed.
9 Political and Moral Legitimacy: A Normative Theory of Health Policy Decision‐Making
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

Many countries, including the United States, lack consensus about the core ethical principles concerning health and health care, beyond a market‐based approach to resource allocation. This chapter offers a normative theory for analyzing health policy decisions and recognizes that norms need fundamental restructuring to address existing health problems. Substantive normative principles (moral legitimacy) should be introduced into deliberative democratic process (political legitimacy) for a comprehensive, integrative theory of health and social justice. The chapter reviews the role of moral values in motivating citizens' support for public policies, and explores differences between social agreement frameworks such as incompletely theorized agreements (ITAs) and overlapping consensus and more traditional political bargaining models. ITA analysis of the American Clinton health care reform attempts reveals agreement on the mid‐level concept of universal coverage, but disagreement on both high‐ and low‐level principles. The chapter concludes that high‐level principle (e.g. health for all) or low‐level principle (e.g. willingness to pay for other's and future selves' health insurance) agreement, arising from internalization of shared public moral norms, might lead to more stable support for reform.
Study designs
Authors: Borchers James R. , Best Thomas
Published: February 2010

Within epidemiological research there are a number of study designs that can be used to answer the research question. All of these designs have pros and cons, as well as do's and don'ts. This chapter provides a clear overview of the different study designs available, and the pitfalls, as well as strengths and weaknesses. It shows how to match the proper study design to research questions, and also how to judge the study design used in other studies.
Probability
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter defines some basic concepts in probability theory. It begins by stating that the probability of occurrence of a particular event, taken from a finite set of possible events, is zero if that event is impossible, is one if that event is certain, and takes a value somewhere in between zero and one if that event is possible but not certain. It considers two different types of probability distribution: discrete and continuous. Variance, linear transformation, independent variables, and binomial distribution are also discussed.
The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter shows that the Boltzmann distribution applied to gases gives rise to a speed distribution known as the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. It shows how this can be measured experimentally.
Transport properties in gases
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter describes how a gas can transport momentum, energy, or particles from one place to another. It considers non-equilibrium situations, but still in the steady state, i.e., so that the system parameters are time-independent, but the surroundings will be time-dependent. The phenomena examined are called transport properties and the following are considered: (i) viscosity, which is the transport of momentum; (ii) thermal conductivity, which is the transport of heat; and (iii) diffusion, which is the transport of particles.
Thermodynamic potentials
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

The internal energy U of a system is a function of state, which means that a system undergoes the same change in U when we move it from one equilibrium state to another, irrespective of which route we take through parameter space. This makes U a very useful quantity, though not a uniquely useful quantity. In fact, we can make a number of other functions of state, simply by adding to U various other combinations of the functions of state p, V , T, and S in such a way as to give the resulting quantity the dimensions of energy. These new functions of state are called thermodynamic potentials. Most thermodynamic potentials that one could pick are really not very useful but three of them are extremely useful and are given special symbols: H = U + pV, F = U - TS, and G = U + pV - TS. This chapter explores why these three quantities are so useful.
Equipartition of energy
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter presents the equipartition theorem, a principle that states that the internal energy of a classical system composed of a large number of particles in thermal equilibrium will distribute itself evenly among each of the quadratic degrees of freedom accessible to the particles of the system. The first section motivates and proves this theorem, and then applies it to various physical situations presented in the chapter, demonstrating that it provides a rapid and straightforward method for deriving heat capacities. The chapter then critically examines the assumptions made in the derivation of the equipartition theorem.
Relativistic gases
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter repeats the derivation of the partition function for a gas, and hence of the other thermodynamic properties that can be obtained from it, but this time includes relativistic effects. It shows that this leads to some subtle changes in these properties which have profound consequences. It first reviews the full relativistic dispersion relation for particles with non-zero mass and then derives the partition function for ultrarelativistic particles.
Phase transitions
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter focuses on phase transitions, discussing latent heat and deriving the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. It discusses the criteria for stability and metastability, and derives the Gibbs phase rule. It introduces colligative properties and classifies the different types of phase transition.
Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines the effect that exchange symmetry has on the quantum wave functions of collections of identical particles. This allows the introduction of bosons and fermions, which can be used to describe the Bose-Einstein distribution and Fermi-Dirac distribution, respectively.
Quantum gases and condensates
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

Exchange symmetry affects the occupation of allowed states in quantum gases. If the density of the gas is very low, we can ignore this and forget about exchange symmetry; this is what we do for gases at room temperature. But if the density is high, the effects of exchange symmetry become very important and it really starts to matter whether the particles you are considering are fermions or bosons. This chapter considers quantum gases in detail. It considers non-interacting fermion and boson gases, and discusses Bose-Einstein condensation.
Sound waves
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter describes sound waves and shows that these are adiabatic. It derives an expression for the speed of sound in a fluid.
Shock waves
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

Shock waves occur when a disturbance is propagating through a medium faster than the sound speed of the medium. This chapter considers the nature of shocks in gases and the thermodynamic properties of the gas on either side of such a shock. It defines the Mach number and derives the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions, which allow the study of changes in density and pressure at a shock front.
Bringing Light to the Shadows and Shadows to the Light: Risk, Risk Management, and Risk Communication
Authors: Fischbacher-Smith Denis , Irwin Alan , Fischbacher-Smith Moira
Published: February 2010

The core premise of this chapter is that the manner in which risk-based information is constructed, tested, communicated, and validated is a multidimensional and multi-channel process. The ‘shadows’ presented within risk debates are invariably not controlled by any group, and no single group has the ability to bring the requisite amount of illumination to the debates to ‘prove’ a particular outcome. Thus, there is an indeterminate policy position in which debates range and a ‘solution’ is not made available by science, or where the ‘error cost’ of decisions is considerable. One way of capturing this new understanding of risk and risk communication is by reflecting a little on the last three decades of institutional action, practical experience, and academic investigation of these issues. This chapter makes a modest attempt at this task, starting with some of the ‘classic’ accounts of the 1970s (specifically Rowe's attempt to schematize the processes of risk assessment) and by presenting a tentative list of some of the developments in our awareness of risk, risk management, and risk communication since that time.
The Role of the Media in Public Health Crises: Perspectives from the UK and Europe
Authors: Pennington Hugh
Published: February 2010

This chapter presents a series of case studies of the role of the media in public health crises. The case studies illustrate factors that drive media interest in public health stories. They show how they are told in newspapers and on radio and television. They also demonstrate that microbes attract the media because they have particular properties.
Where Do We Go From Here? The Evacuation of City Centres and the Communication of Public Health Risk From Extreme Threats
Authors: Fischbacher-Smith Denis , Fischbacher-Smith Moira , BaMaung David
Published: February 2010

Several elements of terrorist attacks fall within the remit of public health medicine, including mass casualties requiring treatment, information regarding hazard exposure, maintenance of medical supplies to deal with damaging agents, and the raising of awareness in the event of attack. The use of chemical and biological agents, and radiological/dirty weapons has obvious implications for public health. Even more conventional forms of explosive have considerable public health implications, especially when combined with suicide terrorism, and in some countries they are already seen as a significant public health issue. Whilst debate remains about the nature and scale of the terrorist threat, there has been increased interest in the relationships between these threats and the public health response. Interest also exists around risk communication and the potential for public health practitioners to draw on their health promotion experiences in developing policy. This chapter explores these issues, examining the relationship between the nature of the city as the ‘space’ within which threats occur and the population at risk lives and works, and considering types of terrorist threat and how they are shaped by the city space. It emphasizes the structural elements of the city, showing that as a city's structure and pattern of interactions contributes to the threat of disease and the manner in which disease spreads amongst the population at risk, so too the interaction between the city and those who occupy it will shape the terrorist threat and determine how the threat unfolds. The city also shapes the potential for public health interventions around terrorism as it does around disease.
Radiation in London: Managing Risk Communication in the Litvinenko Affair
Authors: Troop Pat , Dittner Anton
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses risk communication during the incident involving Alexander Litvinenko, who died on 23 November 2006 from a massive dose of Polonium-210 (Po-210). The primary responsibility for managing and communicating the public health risk fell to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). The Agency had been established in 2003 to bring together a range of skills and knowledge in infectious diseases, chemical and radiation hazards, and emergency response, and included specialist centres and a national network of frontline staff. The HPA had emergency plans in place, but not surprisingly did not have a ‘polonium plan’, and fell back onto basic principles in its response.
CJD: Risk Communication in a Healthcare Setting
Authors: Pryer David , Hewitt Patricia
Published: February 2010

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an incurable and ultimately fatal degenerative neurological disease. Sporadic (or ‘classical’) CJD appears across the globe, though fortunately it is very rare. In March 1996, researchers in the UK first reported a variant of the disease, vCJD. Unlike sporadic CJD, younger people were affected, and the research suggested that infection had resulted from exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy — BSE, or ‘mad cow disease’ — in cattle. This discovery followed repeated and fervent denials by government that BSE posed any conceivable risk to human health. Not surprisingly, vCJD has created a new theatre of interest in risk communication. This chapter presents a short historical summary to understand why this is so. It then considers the role of the CJD Incidents Panel in helping to manage the consequences of vCJD, and in communicating both to individuals and to wider audiences.
Changes to Food Risk Management and Communication
Authors: Davies Sue
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses changes in food risk management and communication. In the aftermath of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and a series of food poisoning outbreaks, a new UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) was created with a clear remit to put consumers first and to operate openly and transparently. Wide-ranging reform at European level has also seen the separation of risk assessment and communication from the political aspects of risk management, through to the creation of a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). New principles for analysing and handling food risks have been adopted to guide decisions at a global level, through the United Nation's body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Central to these across-the-board changes has been a much greater focus on risk communication. Although there have been differences in approach and level of ambition, at the heart of the new approaches has been far greater emphasis on transparent and inclusive decision making.