bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carers and Services: Factors Mediating Service Provision
Authors: Twigg Julia , Atkin Karl
Published: June 2009

The article explores factors mediating the relationship between carers and service provision, exploring the judgements and expectations that lie behind the complex and sometimes seemingly inconsistent pattern of provision for carers. The article which is based on an empirical study teases out a series of factors that structure responses in this area covering: the attitude adopted by the carer to his or her caring role; the views of the cared-for person and other kin; the impact of different relationships, of what we term ‘moral status’, and of the existence or otherwise of a separate future for the cared-for person, as well as more social structural factors such as gender, age, class and race. The significance of these is explored through their impact on the assumptions of both service providers and carers.
Gender, Cash and Informal Care: European Perspectives and Dilemmas
Authors: Ungerson Clare
Published: June 2009

Recent feminist literature on care has suggested that, conceptually, it is better to dissolve the boundaries between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ care when analysing care. This article suggests that there are policy developments taking place, both in Britain and in some of the countries of Europe, which are dissolving the boundaries between formal and informal care, particularly as far as payment for care is concerned. It is argued that, in this case, far from benefit systems being a form of ‘decommodification’ they are actually a form of ‘commodification’ of the caring relationship. The article then explores these empirical developments, considers their gendered nature and genderedimpact, and their possible consequences for the relationship between care-giver and care-recipient.
Quiet Care: Welfare Work and Religious Congregations
Authors: Harris Margaret
Published: June 2009

The potential of non-governmental agencies as providers of welfare services is increasingly recognised but little attention has been given to the welfare-providing role of religious congregations. This article draws on four case studies to describe and analyse the range of congregational welfare activities. Six types of welfare work are distinguished: welfare projects, indirect welfare work, informal care, informal care in an organised framework, mutual aid and social integration. Distinctive features of congregational welfare work are identified. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and considering whether there is scope for expanding the contribution of congregations to the mixed economy of welfare.
The Community Care Changes: Unresolved Tensions in Policy and Issues in Implementation
Authors: Lewis Jane , Bernstock Penny , Bovell Virginia
Published: June 2009

Many of the difficulties of implementing the new community care policy arise from the fact that local authorities are being asked to make substantial changes on a large number of fronts. However, studies to date have tended to concentrate on only single areas of change. This article aims to provide a wide-ranging discussion of the new policy and its implementation, drawing on empirical research for illustration.

The article suggests first that it is important to situate the difficulties local authorities are experiencing in implementing the changes in the context of the unresolved tensions contained within the objectives of the reforms. The problems these issues raise for implementation are then examined in relation to two main areas: care management and assessment, and enabling, drawing on a two-year monitoring project (from mid-1992 to mid-1994) in one shire county, one inner London borough and three outer London boroughs. The article concludes by speculating on what the changes will mean for the future of social service provision.
The Strategy of Equality Revisited
Authors: Powell Martin
Published: June 2009

In 1982 Julian Le Grand in his text,The Strategy of Equalitydelivered the message that ‘almost all public expenditure on the social services in Britain benefits the better off to a greater extent than the poor’. This has been developed into the conventional wisdom, that the welfare state has failed to achieve equality. However, this pessimistic verdict may be challenged on a number of grounds. First, it is debatable to what extent the welfare state was intended to achieve the types of equality defined by Le Grand. Second, it is possible to arrive at a less pessimistic conclusion both by re-examining Le Grand's original evidence and by examining subsequent evidence on the extent of equality achieved by the welfare state. This article examines the pessimistic thesis on both conceptual and empirical grounds, with a specific focus on the National Health Service. It is concluded that reports of the failure of the welfare state may be premature.
The Strategy of Equality Revisited: A Reply
Authors: Le Grand Julian
Published: June 2009

Martin Powell has produced an important critique of some of the arguments put forward in The Strategy of Equality. In doing so, he advances the debate in several significant ways, although not always in the direction that he may have intended.
Water Poverty and Social Policy: A review of issues for research
Authors: Huby Meg
Published: June 2009

Abundant evidence exists to suggest that increasing numbers of people in England and Wales are facing difficulties in paying for water services. The reasons for these difficulties and their consequences are not easy to disentangle yet it is essential to understand them if policies for their alleviation are to be developed in the context of increasing costs of water service provision. This article suggests how social policy research can address the main issues at three levels: first by looking at economic, environmental and political considerations underlying increasing costs, the need for water conservation and changes in charging systems; second, by understanding how ability to pay depends not only on the resulting size of water bills, but also on income levels and access to organisational arrangements to help with payments; and third, by examining the impacts of inability to pay – debt and disconnection – on living standards, health and well-being.
Are New Right Policies Sustainable? ‘Back to Basics’ and Public Choice
Authors: Jordan Bill
Published: June 2009

The British government's social policy reforms of the late 1980s have been quickly followed by political embarrassment over a series of social issues (crime, single parenthood, benefit fraud, truancy, drugs). Its response, ‘back to basics’, is a rather clumsy attempt to provide a readymix morality as the cement of society and increased reliance on enforcement. This article uses one of the new right's most effective weapons – public choice theory – to analyse the outcomes of strategic interactions within these new institutional structures, showing that they are collectively sub-optimal. New policies, announced in 1993, merely worsen the situation by driving up costs. Furthermore, the rising prices of the ‘positional goods’ enjoyed by better-off households suggest that the majority coalition in favour of the new systems may not be sustainable.
Social Policy Digest
Authors: Campling Jo
Published: June 2009

In November, the Secretary of State for Social Security announced that benefits would be uprated in line with inflation in April 1995. However, since 1979, there has been a widening gap between the incomes of poor and wealthier households (94—24/2—1.1). A report from the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) highlights government failure to uprate benefits in line with earnings as contributing to this growing inequality. Figures produced by the Government Statistical Service on the estimated take-up of incomerelated benefits for 1992 claim that more than four out of five of those eligible claim some £9 out of £10 of the available cash. The figures for family credit show a steady increase in take-up from 57 per cent of the caseload in 1988–9 to 66 per cent in 1991–2. Income support figures suggest that the take-up is now between 77 and 87 per cent.
‘Same Race’ Adoption Policy: Anti-racism or Racism?
Authors: Macey Marie
Published: June 2009

This article analyses the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of ‘same race’ (‘black on black’) adoption policy in Britain and the accompanying antagonism to transracial adoption. In order to highlight the assumptions on which current policy and practice are based, it refers toinfantadoption, not to the placement of older children who have already experienced family life in particular class and ethnic locations. The author suggests that current policies, amounting to a virtual ban on transracial adoption in both Britain and the USA, are based on a binary opposition between black and white which denies differences within these categories and similarities across them. She also suggests that this portrayal of black and white people in monolithic terms rests on racist stereotyping and is a distortion of the reality of social relations in contemporary society which marginalises large numbers of people whose origins include both black and white. It draws attention away from crucial questions on adoption in heterogeneous, hierarchical, racially ordered societies and has implications for social relationships in such societies.
Contracts and the Quasi-market in Community Health Services
Authors: Flynn Rob , Pickard Susan , Williams Gareth
Published: June 2009

In the NHS quasi-market, contracts are the crucial mechanism through which purchasers influence providers of health care. Most attention has been given to the commissioning and contracting process in acute hospital services. However, there is another important but neglected sector of health care – community health services (CHS) – in which the specification and implementation of contracts is particularly difficult. In this article, three dimensions of contracting are analysed, illustrated by qualitative evidence from case studies, concerning: the measurement of activity; the estimation of costs and prices; and the monitoring of outcomes and quality. This article argues that community health services are intrinsically problematic within the quasi-market, and suggests that the nature of the services and the system of delivery militate against provider competition. It is argued that CHS have more in common with ‘clans’ and ‘networks’ rather than markets and hierarchies, and that this requires collaborative rather than adversarial relationships between purchasers and providers.
Social Policy Digest
Authors: Campling Jo
Published: June 2009

The class system in England is becoming more entrenched as society increasingly divides between rich and poor and north and south, according to a social atlas published by the School for Advanced Urban Studies (SAUS) at the University of Bristol. (94—24/2—1.1). Britain needs a far-reaching programme of economic and social reforms to avert the damaging consequences of a deepening divide between rich and poor, says the Joseph Rowntree Foundation into Income and Wealth, whose report was published in February. They found that income inequality has grown further and faster during recent years in Britain than in any comparable industrialised country. In July 1994 there were approximately 570,000 Family Credit (FC) recipients. A study from the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) showed that some families entitled to FC do not claim it for a variety of reasons. The number of lone parents receiving FC rose to almost 244,000 in July 1994, a rise of almost 13 per cent since July 1993.
How listening is silenced: A monolingual Taiwanese elder constructs identity through television viewing
Authors: LIN SHUMIN
Published: June 2009

Despite a growing literature on the production and reproduction of linguistic inequality in mass media, we know little about how individuals experience such sociolinguistic marginalization. To fill this gap, this study examines a monolingual Taiwanese elderly woman’s experiences of television viewing. In the context of language shift in Taiwan after 40 years of Mandarin-only policy, language hierarchy persists despite the current policy of multilingualism. Although the subject does not understand the referential meaning of most shows because of language barriers, she recognizes socially indexical meanings about the ranking of languages and how she is positioned and excluded. The unequal participant structure in the dynamic interactions between two overlapping communicative events of television viewing and family discussions of the shows doubly marginalizes her. This study demonstrates how the choice of linguistic code in television programming conveys meaning and structures participation frameworks that engage minority monolingual individuals in dialogic processes of identity construction. (Sociolinguistic marginalization, participation framework, Bakhtin, identity, Taiwan, television)*
Developing personal relationships in care homes: realising the contributions of staff, residents and family members
Authors: WILSON CHRISTINE BROWN , DAVIES SUE , NOLAN MIKE
Published: June 2009

Personal relationships are an integral part of living, working and visiting in care homes, but little research has made relationships the main focus of enquiry, and there have been few studies of the perspectives of residents, staff and family members. The study reported here sought to redress this neglect. Using a constructivist approach, the nature and types of relationships between residents, staff and family members were explored in three care homes in England using combined methods including participant observation, interviews and focus groups. The data collection and analysis occurred iteratively over 21 months and three types of relationships were identified: ‘pragmatic relationships’ that primarily focus on the instrumental aspects of care; ‘personal and responsive relationships’ that engage more fully with the particular needs of individual residents; and ‘reciprocal relationships’ that recognise the roles of residents, staff and family members in creating a sense of community within the home. This paper explores the contributions made by staff, residents and family members in the development of these relationships. The findings enhance our understanding of the role of inter-personal relationships in care home settings and of the factors that condition them. The implications for developing improved practice in care homes are also considered.
What is technology assessment?
Authors: Banta David
Published: June 2009

Technology is generally defined as “science or knowledge applied to a definite purpose.” Technology assessment has been defined as a form of policy research that examines short- and long-term consequences (for example, societal, economic, ethical, legal) of the application of technology. The goal of technology assessment was said to be to provide policy makers with information on policy alternatives. Health technology assessment (HTA) grew out of this field and was developed in the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). However, the OTA was closed in 1995. The links between technology assessment and health technology assessment were more-or-less lost after the dissolution of OTA, and few workers in the field of HTA seem familiar with the roots of the field in the more general and social-oriented technology assessment.
Office of Technology Assessment health program
Authors: Banta David , Behney Clyde J.
Published: June 2009

The U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) established a health program in 1975. During the next few years, OTA's health program published a series of reports dealing with different aspects of health technology assessment (HTA) in some depth. The key report in this series concerned the efficacy and safety of health technology, which in many ways played a ground-breaking role. It pointed out the pervasive lack of accessible information on efficacy and safety, despite more-than-adequate methods of assessment. It also pointed to many problems that resulted from this lack, and the limited use of such information in clinical practice and policy making. It promoted synthesis of existing literature as a practical method of assessment. Other key reports developed other aspects of HTA, including cost-effectiveness. These reports are generally considered to have shaped the field of HTA at least into the 1990s. OTA also pioneered the use of HTA in determining what preventive services to cover in public healthcare programs.
Nutrient compositions and potential greenhouse gas production in penguin guano, ornithogenic soils and seal colony soils in coastal Antarctica
Authors: Zhu Renbin , Liu Yashu , Ma Erdeng , Sun Jianjun , Xu Hua , Sun Liguang
Published: June 2009

We investigated nutrient composition and the potential for greenhouse gas production in Antarctic penguin guano, ornithogenic soils and seal colony soils through a laboratory incubation experiment. Total organic carbon contents ranged from 0.2–14.7% and total nitrogen contents ranged from 0.05–3.60% across all the samples. Penguin guano and the soils had the δ13Corgvalues of -28.4‰ to -22.8‰ and highly enriched δ15N values (8.28–35.51‰), indicating a rapid N cycling in local ecosystems. The mean CO2and CH4emission rates from penguin guano were significantly higher than those from the soils under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. The CO2-C/TOC rate indicated that the bioavailability of TOC was markedly higher in penguin guano than in the soils. These soils showed higher N2O emission rates under anaerobic conditions, indicating that denitrification may be the major process in N2O emission. The CO2and CH4emissions have a significant correlation with TOC in both penguin guano and the soils. Our results show that marine animal excreta are an important factor determining storage and composition of nutrients in coastal Antarctica, and that they may considerably affect current and future net fluxes of greenhouse gases in this region.
Defining the envelope of linguistic variation: The case of “don't count” forms in the copula analysis of African American Vernacular English
Authors: Blake Renée
Published: June 2009

Ever since Labov, Cohen, Robbins, and Lewis's (1968) pioneering study, it has been commonplace to set aside certain tokens in analyzing variability in the English copula as “don't count” (DC) forms. These cases are most often occurrences of the copula that exhibit categorical behavior (as with the full copula in clause-final position), as well as those that are ambiguous or indeterminate. In this article, I propose a set of copula forms that should be set aside from variable analysis as instances of DC forms to allow for systematic comparisons among studies. I review the major alternative descriptions of DC copula cases in the literature and analyze the behavior of the traditional DC categories. New data are presented to support the exclusion of particular DC cases from analyses of copula variability. Among the conclusions are that [was], [thas], and [is] should be excluded from quantitative analyses of variation in the copula because of their invariant status, and that a number of tokens commonly included (e.g., questions) should be excluded on various grounds.
Remarks on grammatical weight
Authors: Wasow Thomas
Published: June 2009

Long, complex phrases tend to come at the ends of clauses; this is called “endweight.” A variety of characterizations of weight have been proposed in the literature, but none has been sufficient to cover the full range of attested cases of end-weight. Corpus data on heavy NP shift, the dative alternation, and particle movement indicate that there are several structural measures of weight that are highly correlated with constituent ordering. Proposed explanations for endweight have been based on parsing considerations, largely ignoring the speaker; but what facilitates parsing does not always help in production. Examination of phenomena where these interests do not coincide indicates that the demands of sentence planning provide a better explanation for end-weight than parsing. Finally, accounts of end-weight cannot be purely structure-based, but must take lexical factors into consideration.
Inherent variability and the obligatory contour principle
Authors: Guy Gregory R. , Boberg Charles
Published: June 2009

English coronal stop deletion is constrained by the preceding segment, so that stops and sibilants favor deletion more than liquids and nonsibilant fricatives. Previous explanations of this constraint (e.g., the sonority hierarchy) have failed to account for the details, but we show that it can be comprehensively treated as a consequence of the obligatory contour principle (OCP). The OCP, introduced to account for a variety of categorical constraints against adjacent identical tones, segments, and so forth, can be generalized as a universal disfavoring of sequences of like features: *[αF] [αF]. Therefore, coronal stop deletion, which targets the set of segments /t, d/ defined by the features [−son, −cont, +cor], is favored when the preceding segment shares any of these features. But this requires adopting the assumption of inherent variability and interpreting the OCP as a probabilistic constraint with cumulative effects (the more shared features, the greater likelihood of deletion). This suggests an attractive theoretical integration of categorical and variable processes in the grammar.
Variation in the use of discourse markers in a language contact situation
Authors: Sankoff Gillian , Thibault Pierrette , Nagy Naomi , Blondeau Hélène , Fonollosa Marie-Odile , Gagnon Lucie
Published: June 2009

Use of discourse markers by 17 speakers of Anglophone Montreal French (AMF) showed great variation in individual repertoires and frequency of use. Only five subjects manifested rates of usage comparable to those of native speakers or to their own LI usage in English. In decreasing order of frequency, the speakers usedtu sais‘y'know’;là‘there’ (the most frequent among L1 Montreal French speakers);bon‘good’,alors‘so’,comme‘like’, andbien‘well’; and the local discourse conjunctionfait que‘so’. The subjects occasionally made use of the English markersyou know, so, like, andwell. Québécois French markers with no English equivalent were used by the speakers who had been exposed to French in their early childhood environment. The one marker that showed influence from English wascomme, apparently calqued on Englishlike. Overall, frequent use of discourse markers correlated only with the speakers' knowledge of French grammar – evidence that a higher frequency of discourse marker use is the hallmark of the fluent speaker. As a feature that is not explicitly taught in school, mastery of the appropriate use of discourse markers is thus particularly revealing of the speakers' integration into the local speech community.
Relativization strategies in Earlier African American Vernacular English
Authors: Tottie Gunnel , Rey Michel
Published: June 2009

This article, which examines the system of relative markers in Early African American English as documented in the Ex-Slave Recordings (Bailey et al., 1991), is intended as a contribution to two areas of research: African American Vernacular English and the system of relativization in English. We found a significantly higher incidence of zero marking in adverbial relatives than in non-adverbial relatives. Among non-adverbial relatives, a variable rule analysis showed that non-humanness of the head as well as the function of the head as subject complement or subject in an existential sentence strongly favored zero relatives, and that prepositional complement heads disfavored zeroes. The lack ofwh-relativesaswell as the frequency of zero subject relatives is interpreted as evidence that African American Vernacular English is a dialect of English.
Negation and the history of African American English
Authors: Howe Darin M.
Published: June 2009

This article describes the use of negation in three corpora representative of early to mid-19th century African American English: the Ex-Slave Recordings (Bailey, Maynor, & Cukor-Avila, 1991), the Samaná Corpus (Poplack & Sankoff, 1981), and the African Nova Scotian English Corpus (Poplack & Tagliamonte, 1991). The specific structures studied are the negative form ain't, negative concord to indefinites and to verbs, negative inversion, and negative postposing. It is found that Early African American English (i) is far more conservative than modern African American Vernacular English; (ii) is generally similar to Southern White Nonstandard English; and (iii) displays no distinct Creole behavior. In other words, our study suggests that the negation system of Early African American English derived directly (i.e., without approximation or creolization) from colonial English, contrary to the findings of Rickford (1977, 1995), Labov (1982), Winford (1992), De Bose and Faraclas (1993), DeBose (1994), and others.
A rural/metropolitan split in the speech of Texas Anglos
Authors: Thomas Erik R.
Published: June 2009

The migration of people to the Sunbelt in the United States constitutes a major demographic shift, but has received little attention from language variationists. In Texas, this migration has led to a split of the Anglo population of the state into two dialects, a rural dialect and a metropolitan dialect. Evidence from a random-sample survey of Texas and from a systematic set of surveys of high schools in the state shows that young rural Anglos preserve two stereotypical features of the Texas accent, monophthongal /ai/, as innight, and lowered onsets of /e/, as inday, while young Anglos from metropolitan centers lack these features. This difference, which is absent among middle-aged and older native Texan Anglos, appears to have resulted from the fact that in-migration from other parts of the country is concentrated in metropolitan centers, especially suburbs.
Null pronoun variation in Mexican-descent children's narrative discourse
Authors: Bayley Robert , Pease-Alvarez Lucinda
Published: June 2009

In Spanish, subject pronouns may be realized phonetically or as null. Previous research on a wide range of dialects has established a rich patterning of constraints on this variation, with switch reference as the first order linguistic constraint. Recently, however, Paredes Silva (1993), in a study of written Brazilian Portuguese, suggested a more fine-grained analysis of null subject pronoun variation based on a model of discourse connectedness. This study tests Paredes Silva's model on the oral and written Spanish narratives of northern California Mexican-descent preadolescents. Results of multivariate analysis indicate that discourse connectedness provides a more fine-grained account of pronoun variation in the Spanish of these children than switch reference. The study also considers the effect of morphological ambiguity. We suggest that tense and aspect features provide a better explanation for the higher incidence of overt pronouns with imperfect, conditional, and subjunctive verb forms than the functional compensation hypothesis. Finally, we examine pronoun variation across immigrant generations. The results indicate that children with the greatest depth of ties to the United States are less likely to use overt pronouns than children born in Mexico.
A Laughing Matter? Marital Discord and Gender Control in Seventeenth-Century England
Authors: Foyster Elizabeth
Published: June 2009

For the vast majority of men and women in seventeenth-century England the act of marriage created an indissoluble union and represented a life long commitment. Legal divorce was a lengthy and costly procedure which discriminated against women, and informal separations or desertions were socially frowned upon and often economically disadvantageous. So marital discord had to be overcome before it deteriorated into a situation of marriage breakdown. Elaborate ways of restoring and maintaining marital harmony were established through use of the cucking stool and ‘charivari’. By these means, public attention was focused upon behaviour which caused discord: the scolding wife was punished and the husband who was a cuckold or had been beaten by his wife, humiliated. Meanwhile, conduct books proffered advice to couples on how to avoid such marital discontent and its consequences.
The role of the speaker in language obsolescence: the case of Breton in Plougastel-Daoulas, Brittany
Authors: Jones Mari C.
Published: June 2009

This paper examines the phenomenon of language obsolescence by focusing on a large sample of Breton-speakers and non-Breton-speakers within thecommuneof Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistere. As well as considering matters such as the ability to understand Breton, the opportunities to speak it and so forth, the study also investigates linguistic preference, inter-generational transmission and attitudes towards language planning in an attempt to determine the extent to which the speakers themselves may be considered as catalysts in the process of language death.
Variabilité, variation, variété: le français d'Europe
Authors: Gadet Françoise
Published: June 2009

Avec pour point de départ le fonctionnement de la variation dans le français d'Europe, et son ancrage dans l'histoire et dans les sociétés contemporaines, cet article est organisé en deux parties: 1) une présentation bibliographique raisonnée de travaux qui, faisant ou non appel au concept de variation, décrivent des phénomènes variables du français contemporain qui se voient investis dans des associations régionales, sociales ou stylistiques; 2) une réflexion critique, qui déborde nécessairement la sociolinguistique du français, sur l'intérêt et les limites de la notion de variation pour saisir les dimensions de variabilité et d'hétérogénéité dans une langue.
Segregation of artisans in early medieval India: Mohammad Habib's thesis reconsidered
Authors: Thakur Renu
Published: June 2009

The view propounded vigorously by Mohammad Habib that workers, artisans and craftsmen were not allowed to live within the city walls prior to the establishment of Turkish rule in India is examined. On the basis of primary archaeological sources, especially excavation reports and epigraphic data, this paper argues that diverse occupational groups, whose services were essential for the growth and development of towns, lived within the city precincts. Manufacturers and merchants both worked and lived together in the same town. The segregation theory, therefore, is rejected.
Democracy in Cincinnati: civic virtue and three generations of urban historians
Authors: Fairfield John D.
Published: June 2009

The tension between civic virtue and self-interest has been a central theme of three generations of American urban historians. Indeed these historians have played an important role in the struggle to build America's civic culture. Critically examining their cities in light of American ideals, they have embraced the responsibilities of citizenship and kept alive the spirit of civic virtue. This essay examines democracy in Cincinnati through the work of these urban historians and argues that Americans have dispensed with civic virtue at their own peril. The democratization of the republican ideal of citizenship remains the great, unfinished task of American civilization.
Effect of different activation modes on DNA integrity of porcine M II oocytes maturedin vitro
Authors: Novotná Bozena , Petr Jaroslav , Sedmíková Marketa , Kratochvilová Jana , Jílek Frantisek
Published: June 2009

The effect of different activation protocols on DNA integrity of porcine oocytes maturedin vitrowas analysed using the comet assay. The oocytes from ovaries of slaughtered gilts were cultured for 48 h in modified M199 medium. They were then freed of cumulus cells and treated continuously or intermittently with a nitric oxide (NO) donor for 6 h. Standard activation with calcium ions (Ca2+) and culture without any treatment served as positive and negative controls, respectively. The activation was assessed according to the formation of pronuclei. Exposure of oocytes to Ca2+was associated with high activation efficiency, but decreased DNA integrity. The opposite, i.e. low activation efficiency but high DNA integrity was observed after continuous exposure to NO. Intermittent action of NO increased the activation rate, while the values of DNA damage remained at low levels. Our data suggest that an increased DNA instability could be the main reason compromising the further embryonic development of oocytes activated by the standard protocol. The intermittent treatment with NO thus represents a promising step to optimization of parthenogenetic activation of pig oocytes.
Is a routine chest X-ray indicated before discharge following paediatric cardiac surgery?
Authors: Bosse Kerstin , Krasemann Thomas
Published: June 2009

In many paediatric cardiosurgical units, a chest X-ray is routinely performed before discharge. We sought to evaluate the clinical impact of such routine radiographs in the management of children after cardiac surgery.

Of 100 consecutive children, a chest X-ray was performed in 71 prior to discharge. Of these, 38 were clinically indicated, while 33 were performed as a routine. Therapeutic changes were instituted on the basis of the X-ray in 4 patients, in all of whom the imaging had been clinically indicated. No therapeutic changes followed those radiographs performed on a routine basis.

Conclusion: Routine chest radiographs can be omitted prior to discharging patients after paediatric heart surgery.
Experience in a single centre with percutaneous aortic valvoplasty in children, including those with associated cardiovascular lesions
Authors: Crespo David , Miró Joaquim , Vobecky Suzanne J , Poirier Nancy , Lapierre Chantal , Zhao Naicheng NZ , Dahdah Nagib
Published: June 2009

Background

We report the experience in a single institution with balloon aortic valvoplasty for congenital aortic stenosis. Unlike most other reported series, we included patients with associated lesions involving the left side of the heart.

Methods

Between November, 1986, and November, 2006, we performed 161 interventions on 143 patients, of whom 33 were neonates, 33 infants, and 77 children, just over one-quarter (28.6%) having associated lesions.

Results

The overall reduction in peak-to-peak gradient of 60 ± 24% (p < 0.01), was more effective in primary versus secondary intervention (63 ± 24% versus 47 ± 23%; p < 0.03), and in those with fused bifoliate as opposed to truly bifoliate valves (66 ± 17% versus 53 ± 30%; p = 0.01). Patients with associated lesions were younger (40.89 ± 60.92 months versus 81.9 ± 72.9 months; p = 0.001), and were less likely to achieve a final pressure gradient of less than 20 mmHg (35.0% versus 61.2%; p < 0.01). Overall mortality was higher in cases with associated lesions (27.5% versus 1.9%; p < 0.0001) but not catheter-related death (2.5% versus 1.9%; p = 1.0). Reintervention was more frequently required in infants (p = 0.02) but not in cases with associated lesions (p = 0.35).

Conclusions

Balloon valvoplasty is a safe and effective method for the treatment of congenital aortic stenosis. Prior surgery to the aortic valve, reintervention, associated cardiovascular lesions, and the anatomy of the valve predict a less effective reduction in the gradient. Major complications and catheterization-related death are mainly secondary to very young age, but not to associated cardiac lesions.
Policy Implications of W. S. Jevons's Economic Theory
Authors: Bowman Rhead S.
Published: June 2009

Historians of economic thought typically have seen little or no connection between William Stanley Jevons's economic theory and policy issues. Wesley C. Mitchell, for example, suggested that Jevons had little interest in politics and was uncertain on the questions of the day. He was “basically interested in the subject [of economics] as a science and not as a means of bettering economic organization” (Mitchell 1969, pp. 31, 101-2). Mitchell's comments are curious in view of Jevons's extensive writings on public issues. His book, The State in Relation to Labour (1882), is considered a classic on the subject of policy and a rationalization for interventionist government. Jevons's pronouncement that “we can lay down no hard and fast rules, but must treat every case upon its merits” may well have marked the end of the “liberal era of principles,” according to F. A. Hayek (Hutchison 1978, pp. 100-101). Certainly Jevons intended as much.
Was Fisher a Practicing Quantity Theorist?
Authors: Steindl Frank G.
Published: June 2009

The equation of exchange is identified with the name Irving Fisher. Although it is not the quantity theory, a point often made by him, it is the core organizing ingredient for his subsequent quantity theoretic analyses. It has in fact been argued that the quantity theory was central to Fisher's work, that “his fundamental premise and basis for all other analysis and policy prescription was this: money matters and matters most, [that he indeed was] the first of the modern ‘monetarists’” (Allen 1977, p. 563).
Origins and Development of the Trend Toward Value-Free Economics
Authors: Drakopoulos S. A.
Published: June 2009

The idea of value-free economics is an old methodological issue. It has given rise to one of the most important controversies in the history of economic thought. The discussion was important because it had to do with the scientific nature of economics. One can still find a significant number of methodological works (e.g. Coddington 1972, Gordon 1977, Samuels 1977, Sugden 1981, Colander 1994) which echo this old controversy. Most economists today, though, would agree that the claim of an economic theory free from values is essential in establishing the scientific nature of the discipline. A positive, value-free economics, in the sense of not relying on any particular set of value judgments or on any philosophical or psychological framework, is generally seen as the ideal. This approach has crucially influenced important branches of economics such as microeconomic theory. The current established position was a product of a historical process which played a significant role in the formation of the body of economic theory. Furthermore, the idea of what is value-free economics has changed since its first introduction as a scientific ideal. The nature of this change is also important for understanding the present conception of the scientific character of economics.
A Reassessment of Scholastic Monetary Theory
Authors: Niehans Jürg
Published: June 2009

During the sixteenth century, successive waves of gold and silver reached Spain from America and then rolled across Europe to the North and East. Contemporaries made two observations. First, the inflow of bullion was associated with inflation. Second, a given amount of money in a country with relatively low prices tended to exchange for a larger amount of money in a country with relatively high prices. The scholastic doctors in Salamanca who interpreted these observations are traditionally credited with two modern insights, namely the quantity theory of money, and the principle of purchasing-power parity.
Launhardt's Model of Exchange
Authors: Creedy John
Published: June 2009

This paper explores C. F. W. Launhardt's (1885) model of exchange and his associated welfare analysis. Launhardt's analysis, starting from the exchange models of W. S. Jevons and Leon Walras, is noteworthy for his derivation from explicit utility functions of algebraic forms of general equilibrium supply and demand curves expressed as functions of relative prices. Whereas Jevons and Walras concentrated on the pricetaking equilibrium properties of their exchange models, Launhardt explored a process of disequilibrium trading in which successive trades take place at the “short end” of the market, that is, the minimum of supply and demand at a price. His main concern was, however, to examine the welfare aspects of exchange, comparing the gains from trade under competitive and monopolistic behavior. Launhardt has been criticized for suggesting that aggregate utility, and thus the aggregate gain from trade, is maximized at the price-taking equilibrium (see for example, Wicksell 1954, p. 76, n. 2; 1934, p. 81, n. 1). He nevertheless showed that a process of disequilibrium trading, in which the price initially favors the relatively poorer individual, can improve the aggregate gains from trade as compared with the equilibrium with no disequilibrium transactions, subsequently called a price-taking equilibrium.
John Bates Clark's Transformation
Authors: Henry John F.
Published: June 2009

The standard view on John Bates Clark is that hisThe Philosophy of Wealth(hereafterPhilosophy) written in 1886, was simply a reproduction of articles originally appearing inThe New Englander(hereafterTNE), the journal that eventually evolved intoThe Yale Review. This view also holds thatPhilosophyrepresents Clark's so-called (Christian) socialist period that he abandoned sometime after 1886, and that he then began the process of development that resulted in his marginal productivity theory of distribution and a more generally conservative or precapitalist position.
McCulloch on Hidden Actions, Hidden Information and Piece Work
Authors: Milgate Murray
Published: June 2009

In a little book entitled A Treatise on the Circumstances which Determine the Rate of Wages and the Condition of the Labouring Classes (1826), remembered principally for its formulation of the wages-fund doctrine, John Ramsay McCulloch set out some of the essential ingredients of certain popular contemporary approaches to the theory of labor contracts which accord priority to informational asymmetries surrounding the purchase and sale of labor. In view of the widely held opinion that this approach to the analysis of labor contracts constitutes a significant theoretical step forward, the details of McCulloch's argument, together with the manner in which that argument prefigures recent claims as to the causes and consequences of hidden actions and hidden information in labor markets, is worth recovering.
Mechanical Inertia and Economic Dynamics: Pareto on Business Cycles
Authors: Boianovsky Mauro , Tarascio Vincent J.
Published: June 2009

In the second volume of his Cours, published a hundred years ago, Vilfredo Pareto (1897, section 928) put forward what was probably the first mathematical model of the business cycle. Apart from Knut Wicksell's (1899) review of Pareto's book and Jess Benhabib's (1979) short article (partly based on Wicksell's comments), Pareto's model has gone unnoticed. According to the view advanced by Pareto in the 1890s, concepts from physics are essential, not only in the realm of static equilibrium, but also in the investigation of economic dynamics. The model follows a new presentation by Pareto of his equations of general equilibrium, where he attempted to take into account the influence of “inertia” (habit) by applying d'Alembert's principle of mechanics. He concludes that the solution to the consumption equations has a cyclical pattern and uses that to explain business cycles as oscillations in aggregate production driven by changes in consumption.
Does Scholarship in the History of Economics Have a Useful Future?
Authors: Barber William J.
Published: June 2009

Presidential addresses tend to fall into one of two broad categories. Category I speeches-which I shall refer to as the pastoral style speak to the condition of our sub-discipline. Their central themes typically survey the state of the art offer commentary on promising further directions for fruitful research, and provide arguments useful in justifying our existence to skeptics who doubt the utility of studying the works of dead economists.
The Dynamic Nature of Comparative Advantage and of the Gains From Trade in Classical Economics
Authors: Maneschi Andrea
Published: June 2009

The London Economist of June 14, 1997, carried an article by Jeffrey Sachs (1997) entitled “The Limits of Convergence: Nature, Nurture and Growth,” which explores the relationship between geography, economic policies and institutions, and economic growth on the basis of recent econometric work. Four principal groups of factors were found to account for the sizable difference in per capita income growth between the South-East Asian countries and other less successful developing countries: initial economic conditions (such as the income gap separating poor countries from rich ones), policy variables, demographic factors, and resources and geography. One of the most significant conclusions (Sachs, 1997, p. 20) is that “openness was decisive for rapid growth. Open economies grew 1.2 percentage points per year faster than closed economies, controlling for everything else.”
Smith's Uniform “Toil and Trouble”: A “Vain Subtlety?”
Authors: Hueckel Glenn
Published: June 2009

The subject of this essay is best introduced by two statements written many years apart. One is by J. S. Mill:

[Adam Smith] speaks as if labour were intrinsically the most proper measure of value, on the ground that one day's ordinary muscular exertion of one man, may be looked upon as always, to him, the same amount of effort or sacrifice. But this proposition, whether in itself admissible or not, discards the idea of exchange value altogether, substituting a totally different idea, more analogous to value in use. If a day's labour will purchase in America twice as much of ordinary consumable articles as in England, it seems a vain subtlety to insist on saying that labour is of the same value in both countries, and that it is the value of the other things which is different. Labour, in this case, may be correctly said to be twice as valuable, both in the market and to the labourer himself, in America as in England (Mill, 1909, p. 567).
The Role of Numeracy in the History of Economic Analysis
Authors: Rima Ingrid H.
Published: June 2009

The popular view among many contemporary economists is that our predecessors were literate but not numerate. Their myopia is curious to those who have the benefit of greater historical perspective. Many early practitioners of political economy can be credited with recognizing that, by their very nature, the problems in which they were interested required them to measure, quantify and enumerate. From the seventeenth century onwards, inquiring minds had already learned to distrust information and ideas that derived from the then traditional qualitative approach to science, which described the sensations associated with objects and events. William Petty'sPolitical Arithmeticis a case in point; it aimed not simply to record and describe reality in terms of
A Comment on Philip Mirowski's Analysis of Utility Theory
Authors: Mouchot Claude
Published: June 2009

In chapter 5 of his book More Heat Than Light (1989), Philip Mirowski mentions that the first neoclassical (W. S. Jevons, Leon Walras, Vilfredo Pareto, and Irving Fisher, but with the notable exception of Carl Menger) all referred to the analogy between their formulations and those of the physics of their day. Then he asserts, going beyond their statements on this matter, that the early neoclassical model was purely an analogical transposition of the model of the field theory of physics of the 1860s, which he calls “protoenergetics.” The latter implies a subject matter that is a mechanics of equilibrium and of reversible phenomena, and in which there is no question of the appearance of the notion of entropy.