bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Artificial Intelligence Tool for Optimizing Eligibility Screening for Clinical Trials in a Large Community Cancer Center
Authors: Beck J. Thaddeus , Rammage Melissa , Jackson Gretchen P. , Preininger Anita M. , Dankwa-Mullan Irene , Roebuck M. Christopher , Torres Adam , Holtzen Helen , Coverdill Sadie E. , Williamson M. Paul , Chau Quincy , Rhee Kyu , Vinegra Michael
Published: January 2020

PURPOSE

Less than 5% of patients with cancer enroll in clinical trials, and 1 in 5 trials are stopped for poor accrual. We evaluated an automated clinical trial matching system that uses natural language processing to extract patient and trial characteristics from unstructured sources and machine learning to match patients to clinical trials.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Medical records from 997 patients with breast cancer were assessed for trial eligibility at Highlands Oncology Group between May and August 2016. System and manual attribute extraction and eligibility determinations were compared using the percentage of agreement for 239 patients and 4 trials. Sensitivity and specificity of system-generated eligibility determinations were measured, and the time required for manual review and system-assisted eligibility determinations were compared.

RESULTS

Agreement between system and manual attribute extraction ranged from 64.3% to 94.0%. Agreement between system and manual eligibility determinations was 81%-96%. System eligibility determinations demonstrated specificities between 76% and 99%, with sensitivities between 91% and 95% for 3 trials and 46.7% for the 4th. Manual eligibility screening of 90 patients for 3 trials took 110 minutes; system-assisted eligibility determinations of the same patients for the same trials required 24 minutes.

CONCLUSION

In this study, the clinical trial matching system displayed a promising performance in screening patients with breast cancer for trial eligibility. System-assisted trial eligibility determinations were substantially faster than manual review, and the system reliably excluded ineligible patients for all trials and identified eligible patients for most trials.
Daily Oral Administration of the Novel Androgen 11β-MNTDC Markedly Suppresses Serum Gonadotropins in Healthy Men
Authors: Yuen Fiona , Thirumalai Arthi , Pham Cindy , Swerdloff Ronald S , Anawalt Bradley D , Liu Peter Y , Amory John K , Bremner William J , Dart Clint , Wu Hongsheng , Hull Laura , Blithe Diana L , Long Jill , Wang Christina , Page Stephanie T
Published: January 2020

Background

11β-methyl-19-nortestosterone (11β-MNT) is a modified testosterone (T) with androgenic and progestational activity. A single oral dose of the prodrug, 11β-MNT dodecylcarbonate (11β-MNTDC), was well tolerated in healthy men.

Methods

We conducted a randomized, double-blind study at 2 academic medical centers. 42 healthy men (18–50 years) were randomized to receive oral placebo or 11β-MNTDC, 200 or 400 mg daily, for 28 consecutive days. Primary outcome (safety and tolerability) measures were assessed twice per week. Subjects underwent serial blood sampling over 24 hours on days 1 and 28 to assess secondary outcomes: pharmacokinetics (serum drug concentrations); pharmacodynamics of 11β-MNTDC (serum sex steroids and gonadotropins); and mood and sexual function (via validated questionnaires).

Results

There were no serious adverse events. No participants discontinued because of an adverse event or laboratory test abnormality. 11β-MNTDC resulted in a dose-related increase in serum 11β-MNTDC and 11β-MNT concentrations sustained over 24 hours. Administration of 11β-MNTDC resulted in a marked suppression of serum gonadotropins, T, calculated free T, estradiol, and SHBG over the treatment period (P < 0.01). Adverse effects that may be related to 11β-MNTDC included weight gain, acne, headaches, fatigue, and mild mood changes, with 5 men reporting decreased libido and 3 decreased erectile/ejaculatory function. Serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, weight (~2 kg), hematocrit, and hemoglobin increased and serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol decreased in both 11β-MNTDC groups.

Conclusion

Daily oral 11β-MNTDC for 28 days in healthy men markedly suppressed serum gonadotropin and T concentrations without serious adverse effects. These results warrant further evaluation of 11β-MNTDC as a potential male oral contraceptive.
Effect of Chronic Pancreatitis on Complications and Mortality in DM Patients: A 10-year Nationwide Cohort Study
Authors: Lin Cheng-Heng , Yeh Nai-Cheng , Wang Jhi-Joung , Ho Chung-Han , Her Shwu-Huey , Tsay Wen-Ing , Chien Chih-Chiang
Published: January 2020

Context

Chronic pancreatitis (CP), is a long-term inflammation of the pancreatic parenchyma, and might increase risk of a hyperglycemia crisis or hypoglycemia in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM); however, the relationship has not been previously investigated.

Objective

To investigate the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state (HHS), hypoglycemia, and long-term outcomes in DM patients with CP.

Design

A population-based cohort study.

Setting and Participants

Tapping Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database, we identified 506 DM patients with newly diagnosed CP from 1999 to 2010 and created a control cohort consisting of 5060 age- and sex-matched DM patients without CP from the same time period. We followed those 2 cohorts from the index date to occurrence of outcomes, the date of death or 31 December 2012.

Main Outcome Measures

DKA, HHS, hypoglycemia and mortality.

Results

DM patients with CP, who were predominantly male (88%) and younger (60% < 45 years old), had a 9.5-, 5.0-, and 3.0-fold higher risk for DKA (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.51–13.91), HHS (95% CI: 2.85–8.62), and hypoglycemia (95% CI: 2.23–4.08), respectively. They also had lower 1-, 5-, and 10-year cumulative survival rates (98.4% vs 99.0%, 87.7% vs 96.6%, and 78.7% vs 93.6%, respectively) (log-rank test: P < .001), and a 2.43-fold higher risk for death (HR: 2.43, 95% CI: 1.82–3.27).

Conclusions

In Taiwan, DM patients with CP have a higher incidence of DKA, HHS, hypoglycemia, and mortality. More attention is needed for preventing hyperglycemia crisis and hypoglycemia prevention in this population.
C-Type Natriuretic Peptide Restores Growth Impairment Under Enzyme Replacement in Mice With Mucopolysaccharidosis VII
Authors: Yamashita Takafumi , Fujii Toshihito , Yamauchi Ichiro , Ueda Yohei , Hirota Keisho , Kanai Yugo , Yasoda Akihiro , Inagaki Nobuya
Published: January 2020

Growth impairment in mucopolysaccharidoses (MPSs) is an unresolved issue as it is resistant to enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and growth hormone therapy. C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) is a promising agent that has growth-promoting effects. Here we investigate the effects of CNP on growth impairment of MPSs using Gusbmps-2J mice, a model for MPS type VII, with combination therapy of CNP and ERT by hydrodynamic gene delivery. Although monotherapies were not sufficient to restore short statures of treated mice, combination therapy resulted in successful restoration. The synergistic effects of CNP and ERT were not only observed in skeletal growth but also in growth plates. ERT reduced cell swelling in the resting zone and increased cell number by accelerating proliferation or inhibiting apoptosis. CNP thickened the proliferative and hypertrophic zones. Regarding changes in the bone, ERT restored bone sclerosis through decreased bone formation and increased bone resorption, and CNP did not adversely affect this process. In addition, improvement of joint deformation by ERT was suggested by analyses of joint spaces and articular cartilage. CNP additively provided restoration of the short stature of MPS VII mice in combination with ERT, which improved abnormalities of growth plates and bone metabolism.
Literature as Thought and Thought as Literature
Authors: Simons Oliver
Published: January 2020

Paul North’s The Yield: Kafka’s Atheological Reformation is one of the few books to have analyzed Kafka’s so-called Zürau Aphorisms, a collection of short texts from 1917–1918. North reads these notations as “reflections” in the tradition of ontological philosophy, “thoughts” in the style of Blaise Pascal’s Pensées, or a theoretical treatise. By referring to Kafka’s notations as “thoughts before” they are tamed, North suggests that they must be distinguished from all literary forms and that their “real story” cannot be reduced to a specific genre or mode of representation, let alone an epoch in the history of literature. This review is an attempt to respond to North from precisely this point of view: the perspective of literary criticism. It suggests that Kafka’s notations might indeed be part of a longer tradition of aphorisms, a genre that has often been conceived as a philosophical form of writing.
The Social Disappeared: Genealogy, Global Circulations, and (Possible) Uses of a Category for the Bad Life
Authors: Gatti Gabriel
Published: January 2020

Building on conclusions drawn from research conducted in Latin America and Europe, this text develops an argument in two movements. In the first movement, it traces the genealogy of the international circulation of the categories disappeared and forced disappearance of persons and explores possible reasons that explain its current success, as these categories are used for thinking about, managing, and inhabiting situations of extreme precariousness, but which are nonetheless very different from the original cases of forced disappearance. The second movement involves developing a concept with aspirations of becoming a tool for thinking about the bad life: the concept of social disappeared. The author argues that it is feasible to turn the categories of disappeared and disappearance into tools for understanding a universe filled with places that are outside the norm, places of dislocated identities, of sufferers, of escapees, of abandonment, of waste, of pariahs, of precarious individuals, of the vulnerable. Can the social disappeared be an explanans for the bad life?
Power, Privilege, and the (Extrajudicial) Punishment of Rape in Brazil
Authors: Drybread K.
Published: January 2020

When suspected rapists are detained in Brazil, they are frequently subject to brutal punishments: sodomy, torture, or summary execution. This article examines the competing logics of gender and justice that intersect in Brazilian prisons as authorities sometimes attempt to protect, and inmates almost always endeavor to punish, men who have been put behind bars in cases involving rape. Drawing on years of fieldwork conducted in multiple courtrooms and prisons in a small state in northeastern Brazil, the article describes the strategies of concealment prison administrators and court officials use—or deliberately fail to use—to shield prisoners from being identified as rapists. At the same time, the essay documents the brutal ways that inmates punish peers who have been revealed as perpetrators of sexual assault. Ultimately, the article argues that power in Brazil’s male prisons, like power in Brazilian society more broadly, cannot be understood without considering who has the authority to define and to punish acts of sexual violence.
Small Steps in Fitness, Major Leaps in Health for Adults With Intellectual Disabilities
Authors: Oppewal Alyt , Maes-Festen Dederieke , Hilgenkamp Thessa Irena Maria
Published: January 2020

Physical fitness is positively related to health outcomes like morbidity and all-cause mortality, with minimally required cutoff values to generate those health benefits. Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) exhibit very low fitness levels well below those cutoff values. Our novel hypothesis is that even among very unfit, older adults with ID, small changes in fitness translate to major changes in health.
Proximal Adaptations in Chronic Ankle Instability: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Authors: DEJONG ALEXANDRA F. , KOLDENHOVEN RACHEL M. , HERTEL JAY
Published: January 2020

Introduction

Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is known to induce impairments throughout the lower quarter kinetic chain, however there is currently no synthesized information on proximal adaptations of the trunk, hip, thigh, and knee for neuromuscular and biomechanical outcomes during strength, balance, jumping, and gait among CAI patients. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to synthesize trunk, hip, thigh and knee neuromuscular and biomechanical outcome measures during functional assessments when comparing CAI to healthy groups.

Methods

Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature and Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online with PubMed databases were searched on June 3, 2019. Studies comparing outcomes at the trunk, hip, thigh, or knee regardless of assessment type in CAI versus healthy groups were considered for inclusion. Assessment categories were used to differentiate adaptations by assessment type after inclusion. Two independent reviewers assessed methodological quality using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scoring criteria. Data pertaining to study methodology and primary proximal adaptation outcomes were extracted. Separate random effects meta-analyses were performed for consistently reported outcome measures.

Results

Pooled estimates reflected that CAI patients had decreased triplanar isometric hip strength outcomes (P < 0.001, effect size range: 0.52–0.93). Knee kinematics did not differ from healthy groups during dynamic balance testing (P = 0.26). Few studies found CAI patients have altered knee kinematics during jumping tasks. The remaining findings were isolated to individual studies and thus inconclusive.

Conclusions

The CAI groups demonstrated triplanar hip strength deficits and altered knee flexion angles during jumping assessments. Clinicians should consider proximal evaluations and interventions for CAI patients.
Anatomical analysis of the pelvis to identify any predisposing anatomical factors for ischiofemoral space pathology: a retrospective study
Authors: López-Royo Maria Pilar , Valero-Tena Esther , Roca Mercedes
Published: January 2020

Objective:

Anatomical analysis of the hips and pelvis was performed using MRI to evaluate morphological characteristics and associations between them. We identified correlations between the ischiofemoral space (IFS), quadratus femoris space (QFS), femoral version angle (FVA) and cervicodiaphyseal angle (CDA).

Methods:

This study involved a retrospective search of a database of consecutive reports of adult hip MRI examinations carried out between January and September 2016. Patients with a medical history likely to affect pelvic and hip morphometry were excluded.

Results:

A total of 137 adult patients were enrolled in the study (45.3% males and 54.7% females), with a mean age of 50.16 ± 13.87 years. The mean IFS was 20.88 ± 5.96 mm, mean QFS was 15.2 ± 6.18 mm, mean FVA was 12.43 ± 6.98, and mean CDA was 121.27 ± 4.6°. The IFS measurements were significantly correlated with femoral measurements (p = 0.025). These visible differences showed a slight negative relationship (−0.191), and females had a smaller distance between these anatomical structures than males (p < 0.001). Females had a significantly smaller QFS than males (12.42 ± 5.94 vs 18.73 ± 4.48 mm, p = 0.000). There was a small but significant positive relationship between CDA and FVA (p = 0.022), with a correlation coefficient of 0.195.

Conclusion:

A higher FVA was correlated with a smaller IFS. Furthermore, an increase in the CDA appeared in tandem with an increase in the FVA.

Advances in knowledge:

A single conventional MRI sequence can alert us to how anatomical factors could predispose individuals to a decrease in IFS.
Social and cultural factors perpetuating early marriage in rural Gambia: an exploratory mixed methods study
Authors: Lowe Mat , Joof Mamsamba , Rojas Bomar Mendez
Published: January 2020

Background: Over the last two decades, early marriage in the Gambia declined significantly (from 58% to 30%), however this rate is still high. The reasons for the decline but continuing practice of early marriage, despite existing legislation prohibiting child marriage, are not very well understood. Very few studies have been conducted to find out what and how local factors influence decisions about early marriage in the Gambia. More information is therefore needed on underlying reasons for the persistence of early marriage in the Gambia so that program managers can use this information to design strategies to decrease early marriages.

Methods: The study was conducted in 24 rural settlements in Lower Baddibu District in the North Bank Region of the Gambia. It was based on a mixed-methods design including a cross-sectional household survey with a sample of 181 female adolescents, focus group discussions with 16 male and female parents, and eight key informant interviews with community-based decision makers.

Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis, while survey data were analyzed using Stata.

Results: The study finds that ethnicity and the fear that girls may engage in premarital sex are two important factors associated with early marriage in rural Gambia. In addition, lack of meaningful alternatives to marriage including work opportunities in rural areas may also limit the options and resources available to girls, resulting in early wedlock.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that in order to decrease early marriages in rural Gambia, future efforts should focus on understanding and addressing the role of ethnicity in determining marriage patterns and allaying the fear around premarital sex.The findings also suggest a need to provide girls with employment-oriented education including vocational skills which may result into more empowerment and a delay in marriage.
Cellular agriculture in the UK: a review
Authors: Stephens Neil , Ellis Marianne
Published: January 2020

This review details the core activity in cellular agriculture conducted in the UK at the end of 2019, based upon a literature review by, and community contacts of the authors. Cellular agriculture is an emergent field in which agricultural products—most typically animal-derived agricultural products—are produced through processes operating at the cellular level, as opposed to (typically farm-based) processes operating at the whole organism level. Figurehead example technologies include meat, leather and milk products manufactured from a cellular level. Cellular agriculture can be divided into two forms: ‘tissue-based cellular agriculture’ and ‘fermentation-based cellular agriculture’. Products under development in this category are typically valued for their environmental, ethical, and sometimes health and safety advantages over the animal-derived versions.

There are university laboratories actively pursuing research on meat products through cellular agriculture at the universities of Bath, Newcastle, Aberystwyth, and Aston University in Birmingham. A cellular agriculture approach to producing leather is being pursued at the University of Manchester, and work seeking to produce a palm oil substitute is being conducted at the University of Bath. The UK cellular agriculture companies working in the meat space are Higher Steaks, Cellular Agriculture Ltd, CellulaRevolution, Multus Media and Biomimetic Solutions. UK private investors include CPT Capital, Agronomics Ltd, Atomico, Backed VCs, and Breakoff Capital. The UK also has a strong portfolio of social science research into diverse aspects of cellular agriculture, with at least ten separate projects being pursued over the previous decade. Three analyses of the environmental impact of potential cellular agriculture systems have been conducted in the UK. The first dedicated third-sector group in this sector in the UK is Cultivate (who produced this report) followed by Cellular Agriculture UK. International groups New Harvest and the Good Food Institute also have a UK presence.
Mathematical models in the management of copper production: ideas, methods, examples
Authors: Vasil'eva Natal'ya
Published: January 2020

Presents the current status in modelling of metallurgical processes considered by the model the mathematical model used in the description of the processes of copper production and their classification. Set out a system of methods and models in the field of mathematical modeling of technological processes, including balance sheet, statistics, optimization models, forecasting models and predictive models. For specific technological processes are developed: the model of the balance of the cycle of pyrometallurgical production of copper, polynomial model for prediction of matte composition on the basis of the passive experiment, predictive model of quantitative estimation of the copper content in the matte based on fuzzy logic.
Of interest to students, postgraduates, teachers of technical universities, engineers and research workers who use mathematical methods for processing of data of laboratory and industrial experiments.
Modernization of state regulation of activities in the field of communications
Authors: Efremov A. , Leschenkov F. , Mefod'eva K. , Pilipenko A. , Starodubova O. , Tereschenko L. , Treschetenkova N. , Shulyat'ev I.
Published: January 2020

The communications industry is one of the most important sectors of economy in conditions of digitalization, which becomes the basis for further innovative development, to a large extent depends on adequate legal regulation and state participation. In the presented scientific and practical Handbook gives a General characteristic of the legal regulation in the field of communications in the Russian Federation, covers the approaches to state regulation and deregulation of the industry. A separate Chapter is devoted to questions of regulation of communication services of new generation, the analysis of the relevant contractual structures.
Deals with the foreign and international experience, identifies trends of legal regulation of relations in the age of digital economy, ways of overcoming of contradictions between the market and legal constraints. Proposals on modernization of legislation in accordance with new conditions and possibilities of technical progress.
For researchers, practitioners, professionals engaged in law enforcement and legislative activities, teachers, students and postgraduates of law schools and faculties.
Safer Skies over Spain
Authors: Elvira Verónica , Bernal Francisco , Hernandez-Coronado Pablo , Herraiz Esperanza , Alfaro Cesar , Gomez Javier , Rios Insua David
Published: January 2020

Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aerea, the Spanish aviation safety and security agency, applied an innovative risk analysis methodology and decision support system, developed in partnership with the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, to improve Spain’s national aviation safety. The agency uses several analytics methods to forecast the likelihood and impact of various types of safety occurrences, thus enabling management to focus attention and resources where they will be most effective.
Assessment of cancer-related fatigue among Jordanian patients: a cross-sectional survey
Authors: Abu-Taha Osama Mohammad , Al Qadire Mohammad Ibrahim , Maharmeh Mahmoud , Alyami Mansour Saleh
Published: January 2020

Background:

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is considered to be one of the most common symptoms reported by cancer patients. However, little information is available regarding the variables associated with CRF among Jordanian patients.

Aims:

To assess the prevalence of CRF and explore its predictors among Jordanian patients.

Methods:

A cross-sectional survey design was used.

Findings:

Of the 240 patients surveyed, 210 (87.5%) had fatigue at the time of the survey. The total mean fatigue score was 6.2 (SD=1.7) out of a maximum possible score of 10. The results also showed that being unemployed, with longer hospitalisation, low haemoglobin, and having lung cancer seem to predict higher levels of CRF.

Conclusion:

Several variables and factors associated with CRF were identified. In response to these results, healthcare providers should pay more attention to CRF, which needs to be assessed on a regular basis and to be managed with the available pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.
The use of 3.15% chlorhexidine gluconate/70% alcohol hub disinfection to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections in dialysis patients
Authors: Marty Cooney R. , Manickam Nisha , Becherer Paul , Harmon Laura S. , Gregg Liza , Farkas Zena , Shea Louanne M. , Parekh Priyanka , Murphy Jacqueline , Shade Wanda
Published: January 2020

Purpose:

Preventing CLABSI events in the dialysis inpatient population represents significant challenges. Bacteremia associated with lines or grafts are common health-associated infections that lead to adverse patient outcomes. Dialysis patients represent a much higher infection risk due to health frequency needs, more frequent hospitalizations, multiple comorbidity issues, fistula functionality, and multiple attempts for line access leading to additional complications, costs, morbidity, and mortality.

Methods:

An observational study was conducted including central line device days, CLABSI events, and possible confounding variables in admitted dialysis patients. All CLABSI data were identified according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network's definitions for CLABSIs. The intervention involved the removal of 70% alcohol swabs and alcohol hub disinfecting caps, then replacing with swabs containing 3.15% chlorhexidine gluconate/70% alcohol for central line hub disinfection and vascular graft access skin disinfection.

Results:

The 5-year preintervention period (2008–2012) involved 7568 central line days, 11 CLABSI events, and a 1.45 per 1000 device day rate. The 6-month trial period involved 1559 central line days and no CLABSI events. The 5-year postimplementation period (2013–2017) involved 9787 central line days, 5 CLABSI events, and a 0.51 per 1000 device day rate. The postimplementation period represented a statistically significant (P value=0.0493) reduction with 65% fewer CLABSI events compared with the preimplementation period.

Limitations:

A limitation was variations in scrub time and dry time during central venous catheter hub access. While we were comparing 2 products, behavioral practices using these 2 products were possible influencers and represent a possible confounding variable.

Conclusions:

This study found that using alcohol with chlorhexidine gluconate prior to accessing central line hubs and vascular grafts allows for reduction in CLABSI events and sustains statistically significant lower CLABSI rates in the inpatient dialysis population. HIGHLIGHTS Using alcohol with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) before accessing central line hubs helps reduce central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) events Using alcohol with CHG before accessing vascular grafts helps reduce CLABSI events A statistically significant reduction (65%) in CLABSI events occurred after use. Statistically significant lower CLABSI rates are sustainable with use of alcohol with CHG
Minimally Invasive Adhesive Treatment of Dental Wear with Feldspathic Ceramic Restorations – A Case Report
Authors: Mihali Sorin Gheorghe , Lolos Dan
Published: January 2020

Nowadays non-carious dental lesions are a frequent pathology that affects teeth by irreversible losing the hard non-carious dental tissues. That can affect patients by damaging the aesthetic and functional aspects. A clinical trial case of adhesive restorations was the approach for patients affected by dental abrasions. All the patients are systematically and exclusively treated with adhesive feldspathic ceramic restorations in the frontal area. In this article, one of full-mouth rehabilitation through adhesive restorations was presented. The tooth structure was not sacrificed; some thin veneers made of feldspathic ceramic was bonded directly on the teeth. At the end of this non-prep therapy was an achieved esthetic and functional outcome for all cases with maintaining the teeth vitality.
Researching impact
Authors: Haux Tina
Published: January 2020

The empirical strategy for this book is set out in chapter three. It consists of two parts, namely the analysis of the most highly ranked impact case studies (based on the impact ranking of submitting units) from three sub-panels: Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work and Politics and International Relations. The second part consists of qualitative interviews with Professors of Social Policy, reflecting on impact and influence over their professional careers.
Dimension 4: Taking the long view: looking back over 40 years of Social Policy
Authors: Haux Tina
Published: January 2020

Based on 16 interviews with Social Policy Professors on the impact and influence they have had (or not had) over their professional lifecourse, the chapter picks up on themes set out in chapter 2 about the feasibility of academics influencing policy-making and highlights the role of luck, (often international) collaboration, the role of mentors and a strong emphasis on epistemic communities.
From social regulation of competition to competition as social regulation: transformations in the socioeconomic governance of the European Union
Authors: Roumpakis Antonios , Papadopoulos Theo
Published: January 2020

This chapter studies the character of contemporary socioeconomic governance in the EU. It draws on empirical evidence capturing the type and extent of regulatory changes in the fields of industrial relations, corporate governance, and the coordination of macro-economic policy in the EU. The effects of these changes are long term, cumulative, and mutually reinforcing and should be seen as integral elements of a relatively coherent project to establish a form of transnational polity in Europe that privileges competition as its regulatory rationale. Indeed, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has been institutionally prioritising market freedoms and competition over labour rights, and especially the right to collective action in an emerging transnational regulatory field in the EU. Meanwhile, the new procedures of European macro-economic coordination construe national wage setting, collective bargaining institutions, and, more generally, social policy as adjustment variables serving primarily the purpose of promoting or restoring member states' economic competitiveness.
Exporting healthcare services: a comparative discussion of the UK, Turkey and South Korea
Authors: Lunt Neil
Published: January 2020

This chapter looks at the responses of three countries to the encouragement of health systems to engage in global markets, and moves beyond how competition is embedded in the welfare state to consider how the welfare state is embedded in competition. The three countries — the UK, Turkey, and South Korea — face similar healthcare pressures but have different private/public healthcare mixes and have developed distinct responses to the increasing private treatment of patients and the wider export of health services. In implementing health export programmes, all three countries have sought to emphasise specific system characteristics and strategies that reflect their particular historical and institutional differences. Indeed, trade in health services is considered a highly desirable export allowing countries to promote the virtues of their health systems — technology, quality, and reputation. The perceived benefits for domestic economies are the ability to generate revenue and secure wider trickle-down effects, as well as the growing influence that a nation derives from exporting such services.
Conclusion: social policy in an era of competition
Authors: Horsfall Dan , Hudson John
Published: January 2020

This concluding chapter highlights key arguments from across the book in order to set out an integrated agenda for future research. Theoretically rooted analyses must be at the core of such an agenda. The inter-pollination/cross-fertilisation of ideas from many disciplines is important in developing an understanding of the complex and multi-faceted ways in which competition is influencing welfare states. However, while theory is central to this agenda, it must also be rooted in detailed empirical analysis. In looking to transcend the competition state/welfare state dichotomy, this interplay between theory and evidence is key, and where theoretically rooted social policy analysts can add particular value to current debates.
The role of social movements leading to the emergence of women public intellectuals
Authors: Brooks Ann
Published: January 2020

This chapter addresses the significance of social movements in accelerating women into the public sphere as public intellectuals. Indeed, the role of social movements was important in defining women public intellectuals politically. The growth of social movements has to be set alongside the expansion of higher education for women, as well as the expansion of the print industry. This led to an expansion and broadening of the base of women's participation in political activity, particularly around specific campaigns and causes. Women were actively involved, individually and collectively, in a number of campaigns prior to the emergence of the suffrage movement. Ultimately, the intersection of gender and class was an important factor leading to the growth of both political activism and, more specifically, the emergence of the suffragettes and later women's liberation movement (WLM). Analysis shows that the motivation of most women was pragmatic and issue based as opposed to ideological. Issue-based politics covered all social classes and thus brought women together in social activism and within social movements.
Contemporary mental health services
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: January 2020

This chapter begins with a discussion of the development of the service user movement within mental health. It emphasises the importance of service user perspectives before going on to examine a range of contemporary concerns within services.
Contemporary mental health social work
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: January 2020

The chapter contains an outline of mental health policy and legislation including the role of the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP). Trends in the use of the MHA are examined. Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and the field are used as a conceptual lens. The chapter argues that mental health social work, in common, with other areas of practice has become dominated by risk and risk management. This has occurred at the expense of relationship-based approaches.
Digital subprime: tracking the credit trackers
Authors: Deville Joe
Published: January 2020

This chapter introduces a phenomenon I call ‘digital subprime’. Digital subprime represents a frontier in lenders’ quest for predictive power, involving a growing group of technology startups who are entering subprime, payday lending markets in various countries and are lending at high rates of interest to borrowers who often have either poor or not credit histories. In this variant of consumer credit lending, diverse forms of data are processed through forms of algorithmic analysis in the attempt to better predict the repayment behaviour of individuals. This data often appears extremely mundane and to have very little to do with the credit product in hand. The chapter seeks to map the terrain of possibility represented by the diverse forms of data that are rendered accessible to lenders, partly as a basis for future research, and partly to highlight key developments in the present and future ontologies of money.
Syrian youth in Turkey: gender and problems outside the refugee camps
Authors: Çifci Elif Gökçearslan , Kurnaz Dilek
Published: January 2020

There are 2,841,036 Syrians currently hosted under the temporary protection regime in Turkey. As of January 2017, males accounted 519,029 (18.26%) of the population aged from 19 to 34, while females numbered 407,358 (14.33%) of the same population in Turkey, where the total number of the population aged from 19 to 34 is 926,387(32.60%). Women are the most vulnerable group among the young population who have to deal with issues related to unemployment, single parenting, high number of childbirths as a result of the lack of birth control, abuse-negligence and polygamy in both source and destination countries. They carry a heavy burden as they cannot free themselves from socially accepted values in Turkey. This chapter examines the challenges introduced by the refugee crisis especially for women, and presentsthe challenges faced by Syrian youth while enroute to Turkey and as temporary residents in Turkey. Following the interviews conducted with women, it has been established that majority of them were not able to enter the paid workforce, and could only survive by either marrying or making one of their children enter the workforce who eventually becomes the breadwinner of the family.
Rethinking social policy from a capability perspective
Authors: Yerkes Mara A. , Javornik Jana , Kurowska Anna
Published: January 2020

In this chapter, we discuss the key challenges and issues related to interpreting basic concepts of the capability approach (CA) in a social policy context. We start by briefly introducing the CA, tracing the idea of capabilities back to the writings of Aristotle and interpreting them in the context of Sen's capability approach. We then discuss the theoretical and empirical debates surrounding the CA as it was further developed by Nussbaum and later interpreted by other scholars such as Robeyns. The focus here is on the main conceptual and empirical debates in relation to social policy research and practice, centred on the key concepts in Sen's approach to capabilities: means, capabilities, functionings, conversion factors, and agency. Multiple interpretations of these concepts create difficulties in applying the CA to social policy research. This chapter offers a way forward in addressing these issues as they apply specifically to social policy research and practice.
Education as investment? A comparison of the capability and social investment approaches to education policy
Authors: Bonvin Jean-Michel , Laruffa Francesco
Published: January 2020

This chapter compares the role of education policy in social investment and the capability approach. Based on an analysis of the document 'Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes' adopted by the European Commission in 2012 (and cited in the 'Social Investment Package'), we argue that the role of educational policy in social investment is mainly that of fostering the right skills for the flourishing of the economy and thus of improving people's productivity as workers. In contrast, the capability approach allows emphasizing the contribution of education not only to workers' employability but also to citizens' autonomy as well as to democratic citizenship. From this viewpoint, the capability approach could improve the normative basis of social investment, allowing to broaden the perspective on education policy beyond the one centred on human capital that currently informs social investment.
Disability and austerity: the perfect storm of attacks on social rights
Authors: Rummery Kirstein
Published: January 2020

This chapter will focus on the impact that the post 2008 austerity regime has had on the lives of disabled people in the UK. It will trace the way in which previous hard- fought for rights in social care and welfare that have been developing since 1997 have been stripped back under austerity. It will focus on the stigmatisation of disabled people as ‘shirkers’, welfare conditionality and budget cuts. Looking at social care, direct payments and self-directed support, and the move from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments and the impact of other changes in the benefits system, it will examine how these changes have created a ‘perfect storm’ of welfare cutbacks. It will also look at how disability intersects with gender and age to reduce rights and support further, particularly with the reduction of support available to informal carers.
Looking forward, this chapter will examine the impact of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and the devolution of universal credit and DLA to see whether there is likely to be some divergence in disability rights between Scotland the rest of the UK, and speculate about the possible outcomes of Brexit and our withdrawal from the EU.
Financialisation and social protection? The UK’s path towards a socially protective public–private pension system
Authors: Bridgen Paul
Published: January 2020

Consideration of pension financialisation in recent years has focused on the rise of defined contribution pensions, highlighting the greater level of individualised interaction this has encouraged between citizens and the financial sector. This development has generally been seen as unequivocally neo-liberal, complementary to retrenching reforms replacing private provision for public.
This chapter, in contrast, argues for a less rigid, more fluid understanding of UK pension financialisation, one that has entailed the interaction of financialising and progressive social protection agendas in a politics more diverse and negotiated than proposed in the current literature. The result in 2019 is a UK public-private pension mix under which at least some traditional social protection objectives are met through social regulation rather than public provision. To emphasise the continuing role for agents in today’s system, the paper finishes by proposing two ambitious, but feasible, regulatory reforms designed to enhance the system’s socially protective features.
The moving frontier and beyond: the third sector and social policy
Authors: Macmillan Rob , Kendall Jeremy
Published: January 2020

This chapter claims that the third sector has been marginalised in much social policy scholarship, and overlooked in the analysis of welfare policies, institutions and outcomes. This is in part because of entrenched assumptions about ‘sectors’, in which the state, and latterly the market, are privileged in social policy thinking. Moreover, this picture has arguably been reinforced by the efforts of specialist third sector scholars to identify and define a distinctive and valuable realm of activities for enquiry. Rather than invoking a single ‘moving frontier’ to account for historical as well as recent and ongoing shifts in the evolving mixed economy of welfare, the chapter argues in favour of a distinctive and differentiated field-based understanding of social policy. The third sector's contribution to social policy emerges as contested, varied, fluid and shaped by institutions and socio-political forces and processes in complex ways.
Paradoxical lives: intellectual disability policy and practice in twentieth-century Australia
Authors: Monk Lee-Ann
Published: January 2020

This chapter uses the history of Kew Cottages, (1887-2008), the first purpose-built institution for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia, as a lens through which to explore the history of Australian intellectual disability policy and practice. Influenced by international thinking, the broad outline of Australia’s policy history follows a similar pattern to other western countries. In the first decades of the twentieth century, in an atmosphere of anxiety about the ‘menace of the feeble-minded’, policy emphasised institutional segregation. In its last decades, policies of normalisation and deinstitutionalisation promised to return people with intellectual disabilities to the community. Yet the life stories of the Cottages’ residents recounted here reveal that in the nexus between policy and practice, the lives of people with intellectual disabilities could prove paradoxical.
Intellectual disability in twentieth-century Ghana
Authors: Abraham Jane , Odoom Auberon Jaleel
Published: January 2020

This chapter recounts, for the first time, the twentieth-century history of intellectual disability in Ghana. the first sub-Saharan British colony to achieve independence in 1957. It outlines the stark clash between the relative recently introduced beliefs of Western individuality and the long-standing beliefs of a more community-based society. In traditional rural Ghanaian society, the mildly or moderately intellectually disabled persons could integrate with relative ease into a labour-intensive agricultural economy, where literacy was not at a premium. For the severely or profoundly disabled person, life was less predictable. Seclusion or even infanticide could arise from both spiritual beliefs about the influence of evil forces or punishment from the gods, and the view that such an individual might not be fully human. Additional factors were economic concerns about families bearing the load of an unproductive person, allocating precious financial resources to the education of a person seen as unlikely to benefit from it, and anxieties about employment and marriageability. Current life stories indicate how some people with intellectual disabilities in Ghana are learning to manage and resist these cultural complexities and assert their own humanity.
People with intellectual disabilities in the European semi-periphery: the case of Hungary
Authors: Turnpenny Ágnes
Published: January 2020

This chapter provides an overview of how the situation of people with intellectual disabilities transformed in Hungary during the twentieth century. Focusing on four main historical periods – pre-1945, state socialism between 1945 and 1989, the era of post-socialist transformation from 1990, and the current period following Hungary’s European Union membership in 2004 – it highlights the development of policy and practice, and their impact on people. The chapter mostly draws on historical sources, and the analysis of published data and research. In addition, three vignettes illustrate some ‘typical themes’ in the life trajectories of individuals with intellectual disabilities and the various forms of exclusion they face in contemporary Hungary. Although the country underwent major political and societal transformation in the twentieth century, the exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities – and their families – remained a constant feature across historical eras and political regimes.
‘My life in the institution’ and ‘My life in the community’: policies and practice in Taiwan
Authors: Chou Yueh-Ching
Published: January 2020

In Taiwan social services for people with intellectual disabilities have been established since 1980 and a movement supporting people to live in the community was launched in 2000. However, deinstitutionalisation has never been a state policy and it has rarely been considered and recognised by parents and service workers. Although Taiwan is not a member of the UN, it passed into law an Implementation Act based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2014. Thus the Taiwan government has a legal responsibility to comply with the CRPD’s general obligations. This chapter firstdescribes the history of people with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan and articulates its historical and political context. Secondly, it narrates the life stories of three citizens with intellectual disabilities to express how their lives, both in institutions and in the community, have been intertwined with wider social, historical and political contexts. The conclusion examines the need for the continuation of advocacy concerning the right to choose where to live for people with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan.