bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of boosting system architecture and thermomechanical limits on diesel engine performance: Part-I—Steady-state operation
Authors: Galindo José , Climent Hector , Varnier Olivier , Patil Chaitanya
Published: September 2017

Internal combustion engine developments are more focused on efficiency optimization and emission reduction for the upcoming future. To achieve these goals, technologies like downsizing and downspeeding are needed to be developed according to the requirement. These modifications on thermal engines are able to reduce fuel consumption and [Formula: see text] emission. However, implementation of these kind of technologies asks for right and efficient charging systems. This article consists of study of different boosting systems and architectures (single- and two-stage) with combination of different charging systems like superchargers and e-boosters. A parametric study is carried out with a zero-dimensional engine model to analyze and compare the effects of these different architectures on the same base engine. The impact of thermomechanical limits, turbo sizes and other engine development option characterizations are proposed to improve fuel consumption, maximum power and performance of the downsized/downspeeded diesel engines.
Unmanned aerial vehicle localization using distributed sensors
Authors: Nam Seung Yeob , Joshi Gyanendra Prasad
Published: September 2017

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles of varying types and sizes has increased drastically in recent years. Finding the exact geometric location of these unmanned aerial vehicles is important for several reasons. In this work, we investigate a new approach to localizing unmanned aerial vehicles using multiple image sensors, such as cameras connected through sensor networks, so that sensitive areas can be protected. In the proposed approach, image sensors deployed in the ground measure the azimuth angle and angle of elevation of the target vehicle and send that information to a collector node, so it can estimate the location of the target vehicle based on the collected samples. Two estimation methods are proposed to solve the localization problem. The first scheme localizes the projection of the target vehicle on the horizontal plane and estimates the altitude later. The second scheme estimates the location of the target vehicle directly in three-dimensional space. The performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated through simulation.
Flexible lateral isocenter: A novel mechanical functionality contributing to dose reduction in neurointerventional procedures
Authors: Borota Ljubisa , Patz Andreas
Published: September 2017

Aim of the study

A new functionality that enables vertical mobility of the lateral arm of a biplane angiographic machine is referred to as the flexible lateral isocenter. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of the flexible lateral isocenter on the air-kerma rate under experimental conditions.

Material and methods

An anthropomorphic head-and-chest phantom with anteroposterior (AP) diameter of the chest varying from 22 cm to 30 cm simulated human bodies of different body constitutions. The angulation of the AP arm in the sagittal plane varied from 35 degrees to 55 degrees for each AP diameter. The air-kerma rate (mGy/min) values were read from the system dose display in two settings for each angle: flexible lateral isocenter and fixed lateral isocenter.

Results

The air-kerma rate was significantly lower for all AP diameters of the chest of the phantom when the flexible lateral isocenter was used: (a) For 22 cm, the p value was 0.028; (b) For 25 cm, the p value was 0.0169; (c) For 28 cm, the p value was 0.01005 and (d) For 30 cm, the p value was 0.01703.

Conclusion

Our results show that the flexible lateral isocenter contributes significantly to the reduction of the air-kerma rate, and thus to a safer environment in terms of dose lowering both for patients and staff.
Influence of carotid tortuosity on internal carotid artery access time in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke
Authors: Kaymaz ZO , Nikoubashman O , Brockmann MA , Wiesmann M , Brockmann C
Published: September 2017

Purpose

Carotid artery anatomy is thought to influence internal carotid artery access time (ICA-AT) in patients requiring mechanical thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke. This study investigates the association between ICA-AT and carotid anatomy.

Material and methods

Computed tomography angiography (CTA) data of 76 consecutive patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke requiring mechanical thrombectomy for middle cerebral artery or carotid T occlusion were evaluated. The supraaortic extracranial vasculature was analyzed regarding take-off angles and curvature of the affected side. Digital subtraction angiography data were primarily analyzed regarding ICA-AT and secondarily regarding recanalization time and radiographic result.

Results

ICA-AT was significantly influenced by vessel tortuosity. Take-off angle of the left common carotid artery ( p = 0.001) and the brachiocephalic trunk ( p = 0.002) as well as the tortuosity of the common carotid artery ( p = 0.002) had highest impact on ICA-AT. For recanalization time, however, we found only the take-off angle of the left common carotid artery to be of significance ( p = 0.020). There was a tendency for ICA-AT to correlate with successful (mTICI ≥ 2 b) revascularization (average time of successful results was 24.3 minutes, of unsuccessful was 35.6 minutes; p = 0.065). Every evaluated segment with less carotid tortuosity showed a carotid AT below 25 minutes.

Conclusion

Supraaortic vessel tortuosity significantly influences ICA-AT in mechanical thrombectomy for an acute large vessel. There furthermore was a trend for lower successful recanalization rates with increasing ICA-AT.
Bedwetting in children
Authors: Finnikin Lisa
Published: September 2017

Bedwetting, or nocturnal enuresis, is involuntary wetting of the bed during sleep, over which a child has no conscious control. Bedwetting is a common childhood problem that causes great distress to some families. Clear advice and reassurance may be all that is necessary, as most children become dry at night without any intervention. If intervention is required, simple effective treatments are available. This article aims to outline practical management of nocturnal enuresis and how to give effective advice and information to families.
Revisiting the media generation: Youth media use and computational literacy instruction
Authors: Jenson Jennifer , Droumeva Milena
Published: September 2017

An ongoing challenge of 21st century learning is ensuring everyone has the requisite skills to participate in a digital, knowledge-based economy. Once an anathema to parents and teachers, digital games are increasingly at the forefront of conversations about ways to address student engagement and provoke challenges to media pedagogies. While advances in game-based learning are already transforming educative practices globally, with tech giants like Microsoft, Apple and Google taking notice and investing in educational game initiatives, there is a concurrent and critically important development that focuses on “game construction” pedagogy as a vehicle for bringing computational literacy to middle and high school students. Founded on Seymour Papert’s constructionist learning model and developed over nearly two decades, there is compelling evidence that game construction can increase confidence and build capacity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This project is a research-based challenge to the by now widely questioned but surprisingly persistent presumption that students in today's classrooms are all by default “digitally native” and that those “digitally native” children are learning just by playing digital games. Through a survey of 60+ students at a largely immigrant middle school in Toronto, Canada, we present some important updates on youth’s media and technology competence and its relationship to baseline knowledge of computer programming and performance in a computational literacy game-based curriculum.
Cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders among MS patients from Latin America
Authors: Vanotti Sandra , Caceres Fernando J
Published: September 2017

Cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis have been extensively documented. The focus of this review will be on cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders in multiple sclerosis patients from Latin America, in the context of international literature. Multicentre studies carried out in Latin America have shown that 43% of the patients have cognitive impairment and 34.5% in early stages of the disease, 29% depression and 20.9% neuropsychiatric disorders. The profile of cognitive impairment corresponds to alterations in visual and verbal memory, in attention, in information processing speed and in verbal fluency. The neuropsychiatric profile showed disorders in anxiety, depression, apathy and irritability domains. In the region, there exist validations of the multiple sclerosis neuropsychological screening questionnaire (MSNQ), the brief repeatable battery of neuropsychological tests (BRB-N) and the brief international cognitive assessment for multiple sclerosis (BICAMS), as well as of the paced auditory serial addition test (PASAT) and the symbol digit modalities test (SDMT). A study showed that 53% of the patients who met the NEDA3 condition had cognitive impairment. This finding highlights the need for taking cognitive assessment into account when determining therapeutic efficacy.
The genetics of multiple sclerosis in Latin America
Authors: Rivas Alonso Verónica , Flores Rivera José de Jesús , Rito García Yamel , Corona Teresa
Published: September 2017

Background

In today’s globalised world, the heterogeneity of diseases such as multiple sclerosis has been studied since it has been suggested that ethnic differences, in conjunction with geographical and environmental factors, influence its incidence and prevalence.

Aim

Based on this, an attempt has been made to identify the genetic factors that may confer risk or protection, not only for developing multiple sclerosis but also for determining the course of its evolution.

Results

In Latin America we have some data about this, which have been replicated in different populations in the entire region, with very different results compared with other regions, which could explain not only the different frequencies in some populations, such as Caucasians, but also the course of the disease and the response to actual treatments. However, in addition to these findings, other associated epigenetic mechanisms have also been found in our populations, such as levels of vitamin D, parasitic diseases, and indigenous populations. Therefore, the study of epigenetics plays a crucial role in understanding the physiopathology of multiple sclerosis. It must be studied in each population, especially in Latin America, due to its broad heterogeneity.

Conclusion

It is very important to understand not only the genetic and external factors with these very specific effects in multiple sclerosis patients, but also the way they interact and are able to explain the frequency and some specific phenotypes of the disease in our populations besides the posibility to be a very specific treatment target.
Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the Activity Rating Scale for Disorders of the Knee
Authors: Flosadottir Vala , Roos Ewa M. , Ageberg Eva
Published: September 2017

Background:

The Activity Rating Scale (ARS) for disorders of the knee evaluates the level of activity by the frequency of participation in 4 separate activities with high demands on knee function, with a score ranging from 0 (none) to 16 (pivoting activities 4 times/wk).

Purpose:

To translate and cross-culturally adapt the ARS into Swedish and to assess measurement properties of the Swedish version of the ARS.

Study Design:

Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2.

Methods:

The COSMIN guidelines were followed. Participants (N = 100 [55 women]; mean age, 27 years) who were undergoing rehabilitation for a knee injury completed the ARS twice for test-retest reliability. The Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), Tegner Activity Scale (TAS), and modernized Saltin-Grimby Physical Activity Level Scale (SGPALS) were administered at baseline to validate the ARS. Construct validity and responsiveness of the ARS were evaluated by testing predefined hypotheses regarding correlations between the ARS, KOOS, TAS, and SGPALS. The Cronbach alpha, intraclass correlation coefficients, absolute reliability, standard error of measurement, smallest detectable change, and Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients were calculated.

Results:

The ARS showed good internal consistency (α ≈ 0.96), good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient >0.9), and no systematic bias between measurements. The standard error of measurement was less than 2 points, and the smallest detectable change was less than 1 point at the group level and less than 5 points at the individual level. More than 75% of the hypotheses were confirmed, indicating good construct validity and good responsiveness of the ARS.

Conclusion:

The Swedish version of the ARS is valid, reliable, and responsive for evaluating the level of activity based on the frequency of participation in high-demand knee sports activities in young adults with a knee injury.
Periodontal Disease and Pregnancy Outcomes: Overview of Systematic Reviews
Authors: Daalderop L.A. , Wieland B.V. , Tomsin K. , Reyes L. , Kramer B.W. , Vanterpool S.F. , Been J.V.
Published: September 2017

Periodontal disease is very common during pregnancy. Although it has been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes, systematic reviews have reached discrepant conclusions on these links. Therefore, we conducted a systematic overview of systematic reviews studying the association between periodontal disease and adverse pregnancy outcomes. We searched 6 online databases up to November 2016 and hand-searched references and citations of eligible papers. Systematic reviews of studies comparing pregnancy outcomes among women with and without periodontal disease were eligible for inclusion. Primary outcomes were maternal mortality, preterm birth, and perinatal mortality. Two reviewers extracted data and assessed risk of bias of individual systematic reviews. Findings are described in tabular and narrative form. Twenty-three systematic reviews (including between 3 and 45 studies) were included. None reported the association between periodontal disease and maternal or perinatal mortality. Systematic reviews with the lowest risk of bias consistently demonstrated positive associations between periodontal disease and preterm birth (relative risk, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 2.0; 17 studies, 6,741 participants), low birth weight (LBW; relative risk, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.1; 10 studies, 5,693 participants), preeclampsia (odds ratio, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.4 to 3.4; 15 studies, 5,111 participants), and preterm LBW (relative risk 3.4; 95% CI, 1.3 to 8.8; 4 studies, 2,263 participants). Based on these figures, estimated population-attributable fractions for periodontal disease were 5% to 38% for preterm birth, 6% to 41% for LBW, and 10% to 55% for preeclampsia. In terms of limitations, as several primary studies did not adjust for confounding, meta-analyses may have overestimated the strength of the associations under study. Due to substantial overlap in included primary studies, we could not aggregate results across reviews. Consistent evidence from systematic reviews with low risk of bias indicates that pregnant women with periodontal disease are at increased risk of developing preeclampsia and delivering a preterm and/or LBW baby (PROSPERO: CRD42015030132).

Knowledge Transfer Statement: This study highlights that periodontal disease is an important risk factor for several common adverse pregnancy outcomes. Clinicians should be aware of this link to guide risk selection. Research is needed to develop novel preventive and treatment strategies.
High-quality draft genome sequence of Ensifer meliloti Mlalz-1, a microsymbiont of Medicago laciniata (L.) miller collected in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
Authors: Osman Wan Adnawani Meor , van Berkum Peter , León-Barrios Milagros , Velázquez Encarna , Elia Patrick , Tian Rui , Ardley Julie , Gollagher Margaret , Seshadri Rekha , Reddy T. B. K. , Ivanova Natalia , Woyke Tanja , Pati Amrita , Markowitz Victor , Baeshen Mohamed N. , Baeshen Naseebh Nabeeh , Kyrpides Nikos , Reeve Wayne
Published: September 2017

Ensifer meliloti
Mlalz-1 (INSDC = ATZD00000000) is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod that was isolated from an effective nitrogen-fixing nodule of
Medicago laciniata
(L.) Miller from a soil sample collected near the town of Guatiza on the island of Lanzarote, the Canary Islands, Spain. This strain nodulates and forms an effective symbiosis with the highly specific host M. laciniata. This rhizobial genome was sequenced as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Genomic Encyclopedia for Bacteria and Archaea-Root Nodule Bacteria (GEBA-RNB) sequencing project. Here the features of
E. meliloti
Mlalz-1 are described, together with high-quality permanent draft genome sequence information and annotation. The 6,664,116 bp high-quality draft genome is arranged in 99 scaffolds of 100 contigs, containing 6314 protein-coding genes and 74 RNA-only encoding genes. Strain Mlalz-1 is closely related to
Ensifer meliloti
IAM 12611T,
Ensifer medicae
A 321T and
Ensifer numidicus
ORS 1407T, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. gANI values of ≥98.1% support the classification of strain Mlalz-1 as
E. meliloti
. Nodulation of M. laciniata requires a specific nodC allele, and the nodC gene of strain Mlalz-1 shares ≥98% sequence identity with nodC of M. laciniata-nodulating
Ensifer
strains, but ≤93% with nodC of
Ensifer
strains that nodulate other
Medicago
species. Strain Mlalz-1 is unique among sequenced
E. meliloti
strains in possessing genes encoding components of a T2SS and in having two versions of the adaptive acid tolerance response lpiA-acvB operon. In
E. medicae
strain WSM419, lpiA is essential for enhancing survival in lethal acid conditions. The second copy of the lpiA-acvB operon of strain Mlalz-1 has highest sequence identity (> 96%) with that of
E. medicae
strains, which suggests genetic recombination between strain Mlalz-1 and
E. medicae
and the horizontal gene transfer of lpiA-acvB.
Birds of Paradise and Other Transitional Phenomena
Authors: Park So Young
Published: September 2017

This essay explores Dante's idea of trasumanar, “going beyond the human,” through a vertical reading of cantos 23 of the Commedia. It examines how Dante relies on bodies and their sensory experiences to explain heavenly paradise and the ineffable. The essay invokes D. W. Winnicott's idea of transitional phenomena to understand the cognitive activity of reading as an act of creativity and collaboration.
Effects of a titin mutation on negative work during stretch-shortening cycles in skeletal muscles
Authors: Hessel Anthony L. , Nishikawa Kiisa C.
Published: September 2017

Negative work occurs in muscles during braking movements such as downhill walking or landing after a jump. When performing negative work during stretch-shortening cycles, viscoelastic structures within muscles store energy during stretch, return a fraction of this energy during shortening, and dissipate the remaining energy as heat. Because tendons and extracellular matrix are relatively elastic rather than viscoelastic, energy is mainly dissipated by cross bridges and titin. Recent studies demonstrate that titin stiffness increases in active skeletal muscles, suggesting that titin contributions to negative work may have been underestimated in previous studies. The muscular dystrophy with myositis (mdm) mutation in mice results in a deletion in titin that leads to reduced titin stiffness in active muscle, providing an opportunity to investigate the contribution of titin to negative work in stretch-shortening cycles. Using the work loop technique, extensor digitorum longus and soleus muscles from mdm and wild type mice were stimulated during the stretch phase of stretch-shortening cycles to investigate negative work. The results demonstrate that, compared to wild type muscles, negative work is reduced in muscles from mdm mice. We suggest that changes in the viscoelastic properties of mdm titin reduce energy storage by muscles during stretch and energy dissipation during shortening. Maximum isometric stress is also reduced in muscles from mdm mice, possibly due to impaired transmission of cross bridge force, impaired cross bridge function, or both. Functionally, the reduction in negative work could lead to increased muscle damage during eccentric contractions that occur during braking movements.
The Use of Violence in Illegal Markets: Evidence from Mahogany Trade in the Brazilian Amazon
Authors: Chimeli Ariaster B. , Soares Rodrigo R.
Published: September 2017

We provide evidence on the effect of market illegality on violence. Brazil was historically the main exporter of mahogany. Starting in the 1990s, trade was restricted and eventually prohibited. We build on previous evidence that mahogany trade persisted after prohibition and document relative increases in violence in areas with natural occurrence of mahogany. We show that as illegal activity receded in the late 2000s so did the relative increase in violence. We describe an experience of increase in violence following the transition of a market from legal to illegal and contribute to the evaluation of prohibition policies under limited enforcement. (JEL F14, K42, L73, O13, O17, O19, Q23)
First de novo draft genome sequence of Oryza coarctata, the only halophytic species in the genus Oryza
Authors: Mondal Tapan Kumar , Rawal Hukam Chand , Gaikwad Kishor , Sharma Tilak Raj , Singh Nagendra Kumar
Published: September 2017

Oryza coarctata plants, collected from Sundarban delta of West Bengal, India, have been used in the present study to generate draft genome sequences, employing the hybrid genome assembly with Illumina reads and third generation Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology. We report for the first time that more than 85.71 % of the genome coverage and the data have been deposited in NCBI SRA, with BioProject ID PRJNA396417.
Empirical Investigation of an Equity Pairs Trading Strategy
Authors: Chen Huafeng (Jason) , Chen Shaojun (Jenny) , Chen Zhuo , Li Feng
Published: September 2017

We show that an equity pairs trading strategy generates large and significant abnormal returns. We find that two components of the trading signal (i.e., short-term reversal and pairs momentum) have different dynamic and cross-sectional properties. The pairs momentum is largely explained by the one-month version of the industry momentum. Therefore, the pairs trading profits are largely explained by the short-term reversal and a version of the industry momentum.

The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2825 .

This paper was accepted by Lauren Cohen, finance.
‘There’s a lot of it about’
Authors: Payne Geoff
Published: September 2017

Academic mobility analysts, who until very recently have looked at national rates rather than at the personal experience and consequences of being mobile and immobile, have tended to emphasise the constraints on mobility. Politicians want more upward mobility, not the downward mobility this would also inevitably involve. Many proposals for policies to improve mobility rates following the political re-discovery of mobility still ultimately depend on individualistic explanations, but recent surveys have shown that around three quarters of British adults have been intergenerationally socially mobile (that is, when downward mobility is included) as conventionally measured across seven social classes. Whether these ‘classes’ are seen as a set of categories, or a system of inter-connected advantages and disadvantage, by definition there have to be ‘losers’ in the mobility race.
Documenting mobility
Authors: Payne Geoff
Published: September 2017

While mobility was the sole concern of recent politics, its importance can be gauged from official documents. These include Labour’s White Paper New Opportunities (2009); the Liberal Democrats’ ‘Independent Commission on Social Mobility’ (2009); Conservative policy papers Building Skills, Transforming Lives (2008) and Through the Glass Ceiling(2008); the Coalition’s Opening Doors, Breaking Barriers: a strategy for social mobility (2011) and White Paper Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System (2011), and the Conservatives’ Fulfilling Our Potential (2015); plus reports from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (‘SMCPC’), the All-party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility (2012), and briefings like the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit’s Getting on, getting ahead (2008). A review of these reveals wrong technical definitions, cherry-picking of research evidence, and unwarranted assumptions about early life intervention as a mobility facilitator.
Political control and bureaucratic expertise: policy analysis by ministerial cabinet members
Authors: Brans Marleen , Visscher Christian de , Gouglas Athanassios , Jaspers Sylke
Published: September 2017

While in many Western-European countries the ascent of special advisors is a relatively recent phenomenon, Belgium has long engaged ministerial cabinets as structural interfaces between politics and administration. Relatively large by international standards, ministerial cabinets consist of political advisors who as “an extension of their minister” put pressure on the civil servants in order to ensure political responsiveness. At the turn of the millennium, the reduction and revision of ministerial cabinets in favour of strengthening the administration’s role in policy formulation gained a place on the agenda. In several of the Belgian administrations, the policy analytical capacity has been strengthened, and the relations between the administration and ministerial cabinets improved in the direction of greater complementarity of roles. This chapter makes comparative literature on politico-administrative relations, and of survey material on the policy analytical roles of ministerial advisors and civil servants to analyse how bureaucratic policy expertise is balanced with political control. The analysis will point at the enduring functionality of ministerial cabinets in a polity characterized by fragile coalition government and partitocracy.
Thinking in splendid isolation? The organisation and policy engagement of think tanks in Belgium
Authors: Fraussen Bert , Pattyn Valérie , Lawarée Justin
Published: September 2017

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, think tanks proliferated dramatically. Once a predominantly American and British phenomenon, the think tank model is now globally dispersed. Think tanks appear in great diversity, with varying size, legal forms, policy ambit, organizational structures and political significance, leading to many hybrid forms, rather than one dominant model. In this chapter, the authors take a closer look at the organization of think tanks in Belgium, address how they organize themselves against the background of the Belgian (neo-corporatist) political system and clarify the nature of their policy work. Via a charting of the most well-known think tanks, the authors analyze which types of think tanks are active in the Belgian political arena, the resources that they have at their disposal and the policy output they generate. Are they serving as a bridge between knowledge and power, or are they themselves rather a manifestation of the knowledge-power nexus?
Social work academia and policy in Finland1
Authors: Blomberg Helena , Kroll Christian
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in Finland. It begins by presenting an overview of social policy and the welfare state in Finland and by discussing the emergence of the social work profession and the place of policy practice in that country. The features of social work education in Finland are then depicted. Following these, the methodology and the findings of a study of the policy engagement of Finnish social work academics are presented. The findings relate to the levels of engagement in policy and the forms that this takes. The study also offers insights into various factors that are associated with these, such as perceptions, capabilities, institutional support and the accessibility of the policy process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the findings and their implications.
Social work academia and policy in Germany
Authors: Herz Andreas , Köngeter Stefan
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in Germany. It begins by presenting an overview of social policy and the welfare state in Germany and by discussing the emergence of the social work profession in that country. The unique features of social work education in Germany and the place of policy engagement in the social work discourse are depicted. Following these, the methodology and the findings of a study of the policy engagement of German social work academics are then presented. The findings relate to the levels of engagement in policy and the forms that this takes. The study also offers insights into various factors that are associated with these, such as perceptions, capabilities, institutional support and the accessibility of the policy process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the findings and their implications.
Social work academics and policy in Spain
Authors: Martínez-Román María Asunción , Mateo-Pérez Miguel Ángel
Published: September 2017

This chapter examines the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in Spain. It begins by presenting an overview of social policy in Spain, particularly in the post-Franco era, and by discussing the emergence of the social work profession in that country. The development of social work education in Spain and its contemporary features are then depicted. Following these, the methodology and the findings of a study of the policy engagement of social work academics in Spain are presented. The findings relate to the levels of engagement in policy and the forms that this takes. The study also offers insights into various factors that are associated with these, such as perceptions, capabilities, institutional support and the accessibility of the policy process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the findings and their implications.
Where academia and policy meet: a cross-national perspective
Authors: Weiss-Gal Idit , Gal John
Published: September 2017

This chapter provides an overview of the findings on the engagement of social work academics in the policy process in 12 countries. It describes the Policy Practice Engagement conceptual framework that served as the basis for the cross-national study. The levels, activities, stages and perceived impact of social work academics’ engagement in policy in the different countries are presented. The findings indicate that social work academics across the countries clearly regard affecting social policy as a major role. However, their level of policy engagement appears to be modest. Their policy-related activities are undertaken mainly in the public sphere, focus more on changing the discourse and are generally conducted in partnership with others in social work. The more social work academics are motivated to engage in policy and the more facilitating their organizational environment, the more likely they are to engage in policy-related activities. The ways in which social work scholars seek to exert their influence will reflect the degree to which they have access to policy formulation institutions and the ways in which policy-makers perceive them and their role.
Human epigenetics prematurely born(e)?
Authors: Wastell David , White Sue
Published: September 2017

This chapterr shifts the focus from animals to humans, and examines the extant literature on the human epigenome. It reviews seminal work on the impact of natural disasters (such as the Dutch Hunger Winter) on the epigenetic profile of those subject to these calamities. It describes how gestation and early infancy are reconfigured as a site of risk. It interrogates the nature of the claims made within the literature and also examines the thought style and presuppositions, particularly in those studies which seek to translate findings from laboratory to the clinic and public health policy. The small size of the effects on human populations is also highlighted, compared to other influences such as social deprivation.
Water and sanitation in Africa: current status, trends, challenges and opportunities
Authors: Kararach George , Yepes Tito
Published: September 2017

Africa faces difficult water/sanitation legacies in the form of high hydrological variability and a multiplicity of transboundary river basins alongside poor sanitation. These challenges impeded the continent’s economic growth. Balanced investments in water resource and sanitation infrastructure and institutions are needed to increase productive uses of water, to mitigate the effect of recurrent floods and droughts, and to achieve basic water security as a platform for Africa’s economic growth. Priority should be given to investments that (a) focus on growth, (b) reduce rural poverty, (c) build climate resilience and adaptation, and (d) foster cooperation in international river basins. Because most African countries have low stocks of hydraulic infrastructure, emphasizing investments in infrastructure is appropriate for them. However, institution building and reform, improvements in water/sanitation management and operations, and strengthening of water information systems must complement growth in infrastructure. Development of institutions should be advanced in parallel with infrastructure investment.
Africa’s prospects for infrastructure development and regional integration: energy sector
Authors: Teljeur Ethèl , Chetty Mayuree , Hendriksz Morné
Published: September 2017

Energy sector development is required to enable greater regional economic integration (harmonization of legal and regulatory frameworks for energy, coordination of energy infrastructure investments, etc.) in Africa. This can address problems associated with fractured energy infrastructure investment and allowing African nations to develop more shared facilities. In addition, regional integration facilitates trade of energy resources and services via sub-regional power pools. Despite the current attempts to integrate regional infrastructure via power pools, actual trade within these pools is low, and the opportunity to derive efficiencies from integrated regional resource planning is missed in favour of national plans. Different stages and design of energy market liberalization or (re-) regulation and the desire for energy self-sufficiency (“security of supply”) hinder the development of bilateral or multilateral projects. Investment in interconnection capacity is required to facilitate intra-power pool trade and achieve the efficiencies associated with the pooling of demand and integrated energy planning.
Regional integration and infrastructure connectivity in Africa
Authors: Mubila Maurice , Yepes Tito
Published: September 2017

Regional infrastructure is one aspect of broader regional integration. In contrast to economic or political integration, however, cooperation in infrastructure provision is easier to achieve, because benefits are more clearly defined, and countries need to cede less sovereignty. Regional infrastructure cooperation is therefore an effective initial step on the path to broader integration. Some countries have more to gain from regional integration than others. Landlocked countries depend particularly on effective road and rail corridors to the sea, as well as on intra-continental fiber-optic backbones that link them to submarine cables. Coastal countries depend particularly on sound management of water resources upstream. Small countries benefit especially from regional power trade that reduces the costs of energy supply. If regional integration provides a substantial economic dividend to some of the participating countries, designing compensation mechanisms that benefit all of them should be possible. However, financing regional public goods tend to be problematic.
Infrastructure deficit and financing needs in Africa
Authors: Ncube Mthuli
Published: September 2017

There is a consensus that Africa has a huge infrastructure deficit. An urgent question demanding our attention therefore is: what are the levels of access to sources of local market finance for infrastructure development in Africa? It brings to our attention the state of infrastructure access in the continent with a special focus on constraints to infrastructure development in Africa. The Chapter then discusses innovative local sources of infrastructure finance in the continent alongside some of the constraints and solutions to a major source that the African Development Bank has emphasized lately—infrastructure bond. The other question to be answered therefore is: given the constraints and opportunities, what is the role of the African Development Bank?
(Re)producing elites: meritocracy, the state and the politics of the curriculum in Singapore
Authors: Lim Leonel
Published: September 2017

This chapter first examines how the logic of meritocracy in Singapore vacillates between its elitist and egalitarian dimensions. Drawing upon ethnographic data from an elite and a mainstream school, it then develops an analysis of how one specific area of the curriculum – critical thinking – embodies this tension, specifying distinct knowledges and competencies for different students. The chapter argues that even as critical thinking is taught to all students, what often remains obfuscated are the ways through which the ideology of meritocracy acts to selectively recontextualize both the form and content of the subject in the process of its transmission.
Corporate consultancy practices in education services in England
Authors: Gunter Helen M.
Published: September 2017

This chapter reports on primary research into the experience of education professionals who are located at the interface of the privatisation of public education in England. Specifically data are provided from “dispossessed experts” who have moved into private consultancy through the push of redundancy from the public system and/or the pull of business freedoms as a rejection of public bureaucracy. I examine what it means to be located within a ‘conjunctural crisis’ through using the thinking tools of hysteresis, mimicry and misrecognition in order to examine the influence of corporate elites. Such influences impact on how individuals reposition at a time of major changes to identity and working lives (and livelihoods), where the neoliberal project is lived, revised and constructed through ordinary decisions and practices.
Embracing social responsibilities through local leadership: comparing the experience of the mayors of Bristol and Liverpool
Authors: Ismail Nasrul
Published: September 2017

This chapter analyses the extent to which the notion of social responsibility through leadership has been embraced by Bristol and Liverpool mayors, as the only elected mayors in England’s core cities, operationalised through the broad framing principles of accountability, integrity, dependability, and authenticity. At the macro level, whilst the Localism Act 2011 enables the mayors to deliver authentic solutions during times of austerity, there is no sense of real devolution of powers from Whitehall, or in the risk-averse provisions under the Public Sector (Social Value) Act 2012. At the meso level, the discussion pivots around the transformation of mayoral relationships with non-state actors, from co-production of the public services to co-determination of the local decision-making. At the micro level, socially responsible leadership has been theorised from the citizens’ viewpoint, including matters such as paving the way, inspiring a shared vision, and challenging the status quo.
Popular leaders or rats in the ranks? Political leadership in Australian cities
Authors: Burton Paul
Published: September 2017

Australia is a highly urbanised country but its cities are governed by local councils organised and led in a variety of ways. This variety stems in part from the fact that local government is shaped principally by laws enacted by each of the eight State and Territory governments that comprise the Commonwealth of Australia. In most cases the single tier of local government is led by a mayor working with a relatively small group of councillors, but only in Queensland are all of these mayors required to be directly elected by popular vote. This chapter uses this pattern of variability to explore the extent to which the mayors of Queensland have been able to realise in practice the notional benefits associated with direct election and whether this experience provides a plausible foundation for the transformation of local political leadership across the country as a whole. The chapter considers also the relationship between different models of local political leadership and the realisation of wider goals of urban governance.
Professional dilemmas of defining a problem: the case of addiction treatment1
Authors: Isaksson Joakim , Törnqvist Daniel
Published: September 2017

This chapter analyses how a problem, such as the use of narcotics, can be defined as both a social and a medical problem, and how different definitions of a problem may cause professional dilemmas for welfare professions involved in treatment. The chapter examines implications of the fact that these different problem definitions originate from two different academic disciplines: medicine and social science, and that the social perspective on drug abuse is currently challenged by what some describe as a medicalization of social problems. The chapter argues that welfare professionals need to understand and recognise both these perspectives.
Policy analysis in political parties
Authors: de Hoyos Irma Mendez
Published: September 2017

This chapter analyses the extent to which Mexican political parties have evolved and developed competence for policy analysis, offer policy options to party candidates during campaigns and carry out research on public policy to support the decision making process once in government. The main argument is that Mexican political parties are seldom accountable and transparent, and it is not clear which are the incentives to develop policy analysis and research capabilities to compete on the basis of policy choices, given the extended clientelistic network used to gain votes. The analysis is based on three basic sources of information: political parties’ official documents regarding their policy analysis centers (think tanks), party manifestos for the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections and some interviews.
For Whose Benefit?
Authors: Patrick Ruth
Published: September 2017

How is welfare reform anticipated, experienced and reflected upon by those directly affected? What protection do the social rights of citizenship offer to those in receipt on out-of-work benefits? Is a policy focus on moving people into paid employment the right one? What is the impact of the pervasive stigma of benefits receipt on those on out-of-work benefits? And does mainstream politicians’ and the media’s analysis of the policy ‘problem’ of ‘welfare’ coincide with lived experiences? This book answers these questions in exploring how those at the sharp end of welfare reform experience changes to the benefit system. Drawing upon repeat interviews with single parents, disabled people and young jobseekers in the UK, this book explores how the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are experienced on the ground, and whether the welfare state still offers meaningful protection and security to those who rely upon it for all or most of their income. Further, the extent of the gap between lived experiences of ‘welfare’ and the policy rhetoric is illustrated, with a discussion of the consequences of this for the likely success of the welfare reform programme. This book provides a critical account of the welfare reforms undertaken by David Cameron’s UK Governments between 2010 and 2016, and concludes by suggesting an alternative way forward, one with the scope to deliver meaningful social and citizenship inclusion for all.
“William Faulkner”
Authors: Davidson Donald
Published: September 2017

This chapter is a review of William Faulkner's novel, Soldiers' Pay, arguing that it reveals Faulkner as a “sensitive, observant person with a fine power of objectifying his own and other people's emotions...” Soldiers' Pay is the story of of a wounded aviator who returned home to a small town in Georgia following the conclusion of World War I. The text here claims that Soldiers' Pay is superior to to John Dos Passos's Soldiers Three, because it delves deeper into human nature. Faulkner's title indicated the irony which he discovers in the post-war situation, that irony familiar to returned soldiers, who came back to discover life moving as casually as ever in its old grooves, and people as much untouched by the war as by polar exploration. The text concludes by describing Soldiers' Pay as “a powerful book, done with careful artistry and with great warmth of feeling”.
“Preface” to British edition of Soldiers’ Pay
Authors: Hughes Richard
Published: September 2017

This chapter is an essay examining Soldiers' Pay, the story of a soldier who returns, like an unwanted ghost, to the country he has “saved.” The scene is the state of Georgia, an unfamiliar one to most English readers, but not so unfamiliar as that they will expect. William Faulkner deals with an aspect of the war previously practically untouched: peace. The text argues that Soldiers' Pay is more than just another (in the popular sense) “War Book.” It is a tragic, fascinating, and beautiful narrative; told by a man who writes because he can. It is not only an achievement, it is promising as well: and the promise is borne out by at least two other Faulkner novels, Mosquitoes and The Sound and the Fury.
“Tattered Banners”
Authors: Boyle Kay
Published: September 2017

This chapter is an essay which reviews William Faulkner's novel The Unvanquished, the story of an old lady who sets out to find and ask a Yankee colonel to return to her a chest of family silver tied with hemp rope, two darkies, and two confiscated mules. The text claims that there are two Faulkners: the one who stayed down South and the one who went to war in France. That is, Faulkner of the Sartoris saga and the Faulkner who wrote “Turn About,” for instance, and “All the Dead Pilots” and Pylon. The Unvanquished, set during the Civil War, is one more chapter in the Sartoris saga. In this book, as in his others, Faulkner writes with that “fierce desire of perfection” which contemporaries said Michelangelo evidenced when “flinging himself on the material of marble,” vehemently seeking expression for “the human elements of fervor and tenderness”.
“On The Sound and the Fury: Time in the Work of William Faulkner”
Authors: Sartre Jean-Paul
Published: September 2017

This chapter discusses the nature of time in The Sound and the Fury, noting that the first thing that strikes one in reading William Faulkner's novel is its technical oddity. It wonders why Faulkner has “broken up the time of his story and scrambled the pieces,” and suggests that his metaphysics is a metaphysics of time. At first glance, the technique Faulkner has adopted seems a negation of temporality because we confuse temporality with chronology. The unspeakable present, the sudden invasions of the past, the memories—all are reminiscent of the lost and recaptured time of Marcel Proust. Faulkner uses his extraordinary art to describe our suffocation and a world dying of old age. The essays claims that it likes Faulkner's art, but it does not believe in his metaphysics.