bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
HYSTERESIS HYPOTHESIS IN UNEMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATES: EVIDENCE FROM AUSTRALIAN STATES AND TERRITORIES	*
Authors: LIU DE‐CHIH , SUN CHIN‐HWA , LIN PEI‐CHIEN
Published: June 2012

This article simultaneously investigates the hysteresis hypothesis of unemployment and labour force participation using regional level data in Australia. The conventional univariate and panel unit root tests indicate that the hysteresis hypothesis cannot be rejected for most of the regions in Australia. To further confirm if the hysteresis finding in unemployment and labour force participation results from not considering structural breaks. We employ a panel stationarity test recently developed by Carrion‐i‐Silvestre et al. (2005), which considers multiple structural breaks and cross‐sectional dependence. The test results lend support for unemployment hysteresis and participation regime‐wise stationarity. Accordingly, the findings imply that a temporary shock may have permanent effects on the unemployment rate but not on labour force participation in Australia and thus call for policies aimed at improving the adjustment mechanism in unemployment.
THE JOB CREATION EFFECT OF R&D EXPENDITURES*
Authors: BOGLIACINO FRANCESCO , VIVARELLI MARCO
Published: June 2012

In this study we use a unique database covering 25 manufacturing and service sectors for 15 European countries over the period 1996–2005, for a total of 2,295 observations, and apply GMM‐SYS panel estimations of a demand‐for‐labour equation augmented with technology. We find that R&D expenditure – fostering product innovation – have a job‐creating effect, in accordance with the previous theoretical and empirical literature discussed in the paper. Interestingly enough, the labour‐friendly nature of R&D emerges in both the flow and the stock specifications. These findings provide further justification for the European Lisbon targets.
History of Federal–State Fiscal Relations in Australia: A Review of the Methodologies Used
Authors: Williams Ross
Published: June 2012

Governments of the Australian states and territories differ in their fiscal capacity. For the last 80 years, the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) has provided advice on interstate fiscal transfers. The CGC initially provided advice only on the needs of ‘claimant states’, with the Commonwealth government directly playing an important role in mitigating horizontal (and vertical) fiscal imbalances. Since 1981, however, nearly all general revenue grants from the Commonwealth to the states have been based on recommendations of the CGC. The article is thematically based and examines the range of methodologies that have been used to allocate federal funds to the states since federation and examines their effectiveness.
Forecasting Housing Approvals in Australia: Do Forecasters Herd?
Authors: Pierdzioch Christian , Rülke Jan‐Christoph , Stadtmann Georg
Published: June 2012

Price trends in housing markets may reflect herding of market participants. A natural question is whether such herding, to the extent that it occurred, reflects herding in forecasts of professional forecasters. Using more than 6,000 forecasts of housing approvals for Australia, we did not find evidence of forecaster herding. On the contrary, forecasters anti‐herd and, thereby, tend to intentionally scatter their forecasts around the consensus forecast. The extent of anti‐herding seems to vary over time. We also found that more pronounced anti‐herding leads to less accurate forecasts.
Supply Elasticity Estimates for the Sydney Housing Market
Authors: Gitelman Emily , Otto Glenn
Published: June 2012

This article presents estimates of the supply elasticity for residential property in metropolitan Sydney over the period 1991–2006. Our results suggest that supply is inelastic—less than unity—for all types of housing, although the supply elasticity is relatively larger for strata properties (apartments and flats) than for non‐strata properties (separate and semi‐detached houses, terraces and townhouses). We also find evidence of a significant fall in supply elasticity between 1991–1996 and 2001–2006. When the median time taken by a local council to decide on a development application is included in the supply curve, it is found to have a negative effect on the supply of residential property. However, split‐sample estimates indicate this effect is largely confined to the 1991–1996 period.
Unobserved Heterogeneity, Job Training and the Employer Size–Wage Effect in Australia
Authors: Cai Lixin , Jeffrey Waddoups C.
Published: June 2012

This study attempts to clarify the nature of the employer size–wage effect in Australia by determining the extent to which it can be explained by observed and unobserved quality differences of workers. Our empirical results show that, for men, quality‐adjusted employer size–wage effects are quite small and are mostly driven by lower wages for workers in the smallest firms (fewer than 20 workers). For women, size–wage effects disappear when unobserved quality differences are accounted for. We also find that accounting for differences in the incidence of job training has no effect on the structure of wage differences by employer size.
That Pesky Problem of Persistent Gender Bias
Authors: Cobb‐Clark Deborah A.
Published: June 2012

This article provides a brief overview of the way that economists think about and measure gender pay gaps and labour market discrimination. Recent Australian evidence is then presented which highlights the relationship between the gender pay gap and both statistical and self‐assessed discrimination measures. Finally, the policy implications of these relationships are considered. In particular, it is argued that public policy needs to be targeted towards addressing the issue of gender bias more broadly, rather than focusing narrowly on the issue of gender pay gaps alone. This includes addressing the issue of sexual harassment.
How Women Are Faring in the Australian Labour Market
Authors: Sloan Judith
Published: June 2012

The Economic and Social Outlook Conference that was held in 2011 carried a separate session on the role of women in the Australian labour market for the first time. Women now make up some 45 per cent of the workforce—in the late 1970s, the proportion stood at one‐third. While women play an increasingly more important role in the labour market, the gap between male and female earnings has shown stubborn persistence, at around 15 per cent. Various explanations include productivity‐related characteristics and the changing age profile of the female workforce. For low‐paid workers, these explanations are convincing; for high‐paid workers, both in the public and private sector, the pay gap remains unexplained.
Bad Leaders/Misleaders
Authors: GINI AL , GREEN RONALD M.
Published: June 2012

Although we need the good witness of others to form our best selves, an argument can be made that we need to study the dark side of the equation as well. The understanding and analysis of bad leaders/misleaders is an important component of leadership studies. However, we argue that bad leaders should never be defined as leaders. Leadership aims at the good of its communities, while misleaders do not. Ethics, therefore, is not only essential to the practice of leadership but to the very meaning of the term.
The Economy of Social Data: Exploring Research Ethics as Device
Authors: Gross Ana
Published: June 2012

The following article argues that research ethics and data regulatory frameworks can be understood as devices that articulate a particular kind of social data economy. Following Waldby and Mitchell's (2006) work on biological material economies it explores how social research ethics and data regulatory frameworks in the United Kingdom, organized around the notions of informed consent and anonymization, have favoured a model in which privacy is disentangled from the human agency to which it makes reference in order to be converted and objectified as data. Informed consent and anonymization are hence here analysed as devices which enable the circulation, exchange and valuation of data, or in other words, as devices which enable the conversion of privacy into property. In particular, the paper argues that informed consent enacts a legitimate transaction between data subject and data controller and can be therefore understood as a surrogate property contract. On the other hand, anonymization, which works by suppressing the author function, renders singular data units commensurable and aggregatable in the form of databases, a procedure which supports the emergence of a specific set of property rights. Finally, the conclusion critically addresses the work of ethics as a device as new datascapes organized by the principle of traceability produce ‘the human’ as disaggregated and distributed.
A Flank Movement in the Understanding of Valuation
Authors: Muniesa Fabian
Published: June 2012

The sociological understanding of valuation often starts with an idea of value as something that something has by virtue of how people consider it (that is, it is socially constructed, a convention, a social representation, a projection). At some point, however, analysis also often draws a contrast between this sort of appraisal and some other type of value that the thing may have as a result of its own condition (what it costs, how it is made, with what kind of labour, money and materials, what it is worth in relation to objective standards and fundamental metrics). Dissatisfaction with this binary approach has been expressed in various quarters, but the pragmatist contribution of John Dewey provides a particularly useful resource with which to engage with the subject. This article reviews some aspects of this dissatisfaction, with a focus on the pragmatist idea of valuation considered as an action. I discuss this idea in relation to financial valuation, referring in particular to early pedagogical materials on corporation finance elaborated in the context of the professionalization of business administration. Finally I elaborate on the usefulness of a pragmatist stance in the understanding of financial valuation today.
Transactional Politics
Authors: Ruppert Evelyn , Savage Mike
Published: June 2012

In spring 2009, revelations over the expense claims of British MPs led to one of the most damaging scandals affecting the legitimacy of parliamentary democracy in recent history. This article explores how this incident reveals the capacity of Web 2.0 devices and transactional data to transform politics. It reflects, graphically, the political power of identifying and knowing people on the basis of their transactions, on what they do rather than what they say. It also shows in practice how Web 2.0 devices such as Crowdsourcing, Google Docs, mash-ups and visualization software can be used to mobilize data for collective and popular projects. Basic analytic tools freely available on the Web enable people to access, digitize and analyse data and do their own analyses and representations of phenomena. We examine media and popular mobilizations of transactional data using the specific example of the MPs' expenses scandal and relate this to larger currents in online government data and devices for public scrutiny which give rise to a new politics of measurement. We argue that this politics of measurement involves the introduction of new visual devices based on the manipulation of huge databases into simplified visual arrays; the reorientation of accounts of the social from elicited attitudes and views to transactions and practices; and, the inspection of individuals arrayed in relation to other individuals within whole (sub) populations. It is also a politics that mobilizes new informational gatekeepers and organizers in the making and analysis of transactional data and challenges dominant or expert forms of analysis and representation.
Dirty Data: Longitudinal Classification Systems
Authors: Uprichard Emma
Published: June 2012

Typically in longitudinal quantitative research, classifications are tracked over time. However, most classifications change in absolute terms in that some die whilst others are created, and in their meaning. There is a need, therefore, to re-think how longitudinal quantitative research might explore both the qualitative changes to classification systems as well as the quantitative changes within each classification. By drawing on the changing classifications of local food retail outlets in the city of York (UK) since the 1950s as an illustrative example, an alternative way of graphing longitudinal quantitative data is presented which ultimately provides a description of both types of change over time. In so doing, this article argues for the increased use of ‘dirty data’ in longitudinal quantitative analysis, a step which allows for the exploration of both qualitative and quantitative changes to, and within, classification systems. This ultimately challenges existing assumptions relating to the quality and type of data used in quantitative research and how change in the social world is measured in general.
The Changing Lives of Measures and Values: From Centre Stage in the Fading ‘Disciplinary’ Society to Pervasive Background Instrument in the Emergent ‘Control’ Society
Authors: Verran Helen
Published: June 2012

This paper examines the work that measures and values do in policy in the context of an epochal change in the relations between knowledge and policy in Australia. I tell a story of successive attempts to rehabilitate a dying Australian river. The first attempt employs policy as the application of theoretically justified natural knowledge about rivers and their environs. The second attempt occurs after the evidence-based policy era has dawned in Australia. The contrast shows that measures, values and facts about the dying river justified by epistemic practices have been displaced. In an era of evidence-based policy and governance through market mechanisms, measures and values speak to policy through designs that can be bought and sold. In order to be able to better describe this shift I develop an analytic vocabulary to give an account of the intensive properties of what I call enumerated entities, and link the shift to the move from a disciplinary to a control society.
LIVING IN RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION? INSIGHTS FROM LARGE‐SCALE HOUSING ESTATES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
Authors: HERFERT GÜNTER , NEUGEBAUER CAROLA SILVIA , SMIGIEL CHRISTIAN
Published: June 2012

Can Central and Eastern European large housing estates generally be branded as places of decline and social decay? Current results from an ongoing research project on sociospatial differentiation of different neighbourhoods in CEE‐urban regions reveal a high level of residential satisfaction and a low level of potential mobility. Based on theoretical considerations about residential satisfaction the paper compares five large housing estates: Leipzig‐Grünau, Budapest‐Havanna, Vilnius‐Karoliniskes, Sofia‐Mladost and St. Petersburg‐Lenin Prospect. After analysing local housing markets as well as socio‐demographic development of the selected case studies from an interregional perspective, sociospatial processes are highlighted from an intra‐urban perspective. The paper goes on to explore different types of residential satisfaction and potential residential mobility. A main emphasis is put on the interpretation of these types against the backdrop of different housing conditions. In conclusion, the authors try to answer the question, whether residential satisfaction is a stable or fragile phenomenon in large housing estates in Central and Eastern Europe.
Anthropomorphism, Parsimony, and Common Ancestry
Authors: SOBER ELLIOTT
Published: June 2012

I consider three theses that are friendly to anthropomorphism. Each makes a claim about what can be inferred about the mental life of chimpanzees from the fact that humans and chimpanzees both have behavioral trait B and humans produce this behavior by having mental trait M. The first thesis asserts that this fact makes it probable that chimpanzees have M. The second says that this fact provides strong evidence that chimpanzees have M. The third claims that the fact is evidence that chimpanzees have M. The third thesis follows from a plausible Reichenbachian model of how a common ancestor is probabilistically related to its descendants. The first two theses do not, and they have no general evolutionary justification.
Learning Conditional Information
Authors: DOUVEN IGOR
Published: June 2012

Some of the information we receive comes to us in an explicitly conditional form. It is an open question how to model the accommodation of such information in a Bayesian framework. This paper presents data suggesting that there may be no strictly Bayesian account of updating on conditionals. Specifically, the data seem to indicate that such updating at least sometimes proceeds on the basis of explanatory considerations, which famously have no home in standard Bayesian epistemology. The paper also proposes a still broadly Bayesian model of updating on conditionals that explicitly factors in explanation. The model is shown to have clear empirical content and thus to be open to empirical testing.
Does Visual Spatial Awareness Require the Visual Awareness of Space?
Authors: SCHWENKLER JOHN
Published: June 2012

Many philosophers have held that it is not possible to experience a spatial object, property, or relation except against the background of an intact awareness of a space that is somehow ‘absolute’. This paper challenges that claim, by analyzing in detail the case of a brain‐damaged subject whose visual experiences seem to have violated this condition: spatial objects and properties were present in his visual experience, but space itself was not. I go on to suggest that phenomenological argumentation can give us a kind of evidence about the nature of the mind even if this evidence is not absolutely incorrigible.
Of Weighty Reasons and Indiscriminate Blankets: The Retention of DNA for Forensic Purposes
Authors: McCARTNEY Carole
Published: June 2012

This article explores the fallout from the decision in S & Marper v. UK (2008), where the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), in ruling that the UK's DNA retention regime breached human rights, was ‘struck by the blanket and indiscriminate nature’ of the power to retain DNA and stated that the UK government required ‘weighty reasons’ to justify the retention of DNA in cases of unconvicted individuals. Since the ruling, successive UK governments have drafted new retention regimes but serious doubts remain as to whether the issue of DNA retention has been satisfactorily resolved.
Replication of Routines in Organizations: Existing Literature and New Perspectives
Authors: Friesl Martin , Larty Joanne
Published: June 2012

Replication of existing routines in new contexts is an important value‐creating strategy for organizations. This paper synthesizes the state of research on replication and organizes the literature around two broad themes: forward knowledge flows (i.e. from a replicator to a replicatee) and reverse knowledge flows. The authors show that the theoretical assumptions of existing research leave important questions around the replication of routines unaddressed. More specifically, they identify research gaps in regard to micro‐level processes of replication. Little is understood about the performance of routines in practice and, related to that, the processes through which routines change during replication. Drawing on recent theorizing on organizational routines, in particular the relationship between the ostensive and performative aspects, helps the authors to unpack the micro‐level processes of forward and reverse knowledge flows. This paper opens two new trajectories for research on replication: (1) a focus on the actions of individual actors in the enactment of organizational routines provides new possibilities for understanding how replication is an inherently political process; (2) conceptualizing change as endogenous within the performance of routines offers a route to a more nuanced understanding of change and deviation in the process of replication. The paper closes with a summary of major theoretical arguments, questions for further research and implications for practitioners.
A Trust Crisis
Authors: Sapienza Paola , Zingales Luigi
Published: June 2012

We conjecture that the changes in economic activity from late 2008 to early 2009 is due to a drop in trust. We present new survey evidence consistent with this hypothesis.
Is Pay a Matter of Values?
Authors: Adams Renée Birgit , Giannetti Mariassunta
Published: June 2012

Public outrage over executive compensation reached an all‐time high during the financial crisis. Around the world, many argued that CEOs and boards were immoral in setting their pay and pressured governments to impose restrictions on executive pay. Using a unique sample of data on human values for CEOs, we show that CEOs and directors have different values than general members of the population. CEOs and directors place more emphasis on power and achievement values than members of the population, and they emphasize self‐direction values more. However, values appear to have little explanatory power for pay, in contrast to economic variables. While some CEOs may be unethical in setting their pay, our results suggest that pay is not a matter of values on average.
How to Sell a (Bankrupt) Company
Authors: Cornelli Francesca , Felli Leonardo
Published: June 2012

This paper suggests a way to sell a company that maximizes the proceeds from the sale. The key to this proposal is the option left to the seller to retain a fraction of the shares of the company. Indeed, by retaining the minority stake, the seller can transfer the control of the company while reducing to a minimum the rents that the sale of the company leaves in the hands of the buyer. We then focus on two main applications of this idea: bankruptcy procedures and carve‐outs.
Induction and exacerbation of psoriasis with Interferon‐alpha therapy for hepatitis C: A review and analysis of 36 cases
Authors: Afshar M. , Martinez A.D. , Gallo R.L. , Hata T.R.
Published: June 2012

Background  Interferon‐alpha (IFN‐α) therapy is used to treat hepatitis C infection. The exacerbation and occurrence of psoriasis in hepatitis C patients treated with IFN‐α is increasingly recognized, but the distinct associated features, aetiology and management have not been reviewed.

Objective  To review all published cases of hepatitis C patients who developed psoriasis while receiving IFN‐α therapy.

Methods  The review was conducted by searching the PubMed database using the keywords ‘hepatitis C’ AND ‘psoriasis.’ In addition, references to additional publications not indexed for PubMed were followed to obtain a complete record of published data.

Results  We identified 32 publications describing 36 subjects who developed a psoriatic eruption while receiving IFN‐α therapy for hepatitis C. Topical therapies were a commonly employed treatment modality, but led to resolution in only 30% of cases in which they were employed solely. Cessation of IFN‐α therapy led to resolution in 93% of cases. Hundred per cent of those who developed psoriasis while on IFN‐α therapy responded to systemic therapy and were able to continue the drug.

Conclusion  Further studies and analysis of IFN‐α‐induced lesions are necessary to clarify the role of IFN‐α and the hepatitis C virus in the development of psoriatic lesions.
Analysis of serum chemokine levels in patients with HIV‐associated eosinophilic folliculitis
Authors: Yokobayashi H. , Sugaya M. , Miyagaki T. , Kai H. , Suga H. , Yamada D. , Minatani Y. , Watanabe K. , Kikuchi Y. , Tamaki T. , Sato S.
Published: June 2012

Background  Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection exhibit various skin diseases. HIV‐associated eosinophilic folliculitis (EF) and pruritic papular eruption (PPE) are frequently seen.

Objective  To understand the mechanisms underlying HIV‐associated EF and PPE.

Methods  In order to know frequencies of EF and PPE among patients with HIV infection, we first collected HIV+ patients who visited dermatology clinic in National Center for Global Health and Medicine during February 2007. We next collected 25 serum samples from HIV+ patients with skin diseases from May 2008 to May 2010. Eight of 25 patients had EF (EF group), four had PPE (PPE group) and others had non‐itchy skin problems such as condyloma acuminatum (no itch group).

Results  We first confirmed high frequencies of EF (10.7%) and PPE (5.3%) among 75 HIV+ patients who visited our clinic during one month. We then measured serum levels of CCL11, CCL17, CCL26 and CCL27. Serum CCL17 levels in EF were significantly higher than those of PPE and no itch group. Serum CCL26 and CCL27 levels in EF were higher than those of no itch group. The number of CD4+ cells in EF was significantly lower than that in no itch group.

Conclusion  High serum levels of CCL17, CCL26 and CCL27, and low CD4+ cell counts may account for the development of HIV‐associated EF.
The regeneration games: purity and security in the Olympic city1
Authors: Fussey Pete , Coaffee Jon , Armstrong Gary , Hobbs Dick
Published: June 2012

This paper examines the wider social impacts of hosting the London 2012 Olympic Games and its ‘legacy’ ambitions in East London, emphasizing securitization as an inbuilt feature of the urban regeneration project. Drawing on extensive original empirical research, the paper analyses the modalities of Olympic safety and security practices within the Olympic Park itself and their wider impact, while also connecting this research to theorization and debates in urban sociology and criminology. In this complex setting, a raft of formal and informal, often subtle, regulatory mechanisms have emerged, especially as visions of social ordering focused on ‘cleansing’ and ‘purifying’ have ‘leaked out’ from the hyper‐securitized ‘sterilized’ environment of the Olympic Park and become embedded within the Olympic neighbourhood. In such complex circumstances, applying Douglas' (1966) work on purity and danger to the spatial realm provides a key conceptual framework to understand the form and impact of such processes. The imposition of order can be seen to not only perform ‘cleansing’ functions, but also articulate multiple symbolic, expressive and instrumental roles.
‘Our struggles are bigger than the World Cup’: civic activism, state‐society relations and the socio‐political legacies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup1
Authors: Cornelissen Scarlett
Published: June 2012

South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw a large number of public demonstrations, strikes and other forms of civic campaigning. World Cup activism was both preceded and followed by extensive and intensifying public unrest and industrial action that in the period before the tournament, threatened to derail the event. This paper assesses the motivations, forms and implications of the activism during South Africa's staging of the FIFA finals and interprets them against the larger context of shifting state‐society relations in the country. There are two purposes to the analysis. First, to explore the underlying internal social forces that gave shape to the protests at the time, and the possible influence of the exogenous politics of mega‐event social mobilization. Second, the implications and outcomes of these dynamics for longer term socio‐political processes in the country are considered. The activism displayed many of the features of the politics of contestation of sport mega‐events today. Importantly, however, the activism stemmed from a particular systemic dynamic and reflected changing relations in the post‐apartheid political community. Therefore, while the World Cup was used as a strategic opportunity by many advocacy groups, it was one that rather fleetingly and ambivalently presented an additional platform to such groups in an otherwise on‐going set of political battles. Rather than a strong case study of sport's transformative capacity, the civic campaigning during South Africa's World Cup demonstrates the way a sport mega‐event can be used as a strategic entry point by civil society groups in their engagement with the state, although this can occur with greater or lesser success.
Fans, homophobia and masculinities in association football: evidence of a more inclusive environment
Authors: Cashmore Ellis , Cleland Jamie
Published: June 2012

This article draws on 3,500 responses from fans and professionals involved in association football (soccer) to an anonymous online survey posted from June 2010 to October 2010 regarding their views towards gay footballers. The overall findings are that, contrary to assumptions of homophobia, there is evidence of rapidly decreasing homophobia within the culture of football fandom. The results advance inclusive masculinity theory with 93 per cent of fans of all ages stating that there is no place for homophobia within football. Fans blame agents and clubs for the lack of openness and challenge football's governing organizations to oppose the culture of secrecy surrounding gay players and to provide a more inclusive environment to support players who want to come out.
Party Responsiveness on European Union Integration in Transition Democracies of Central and Eastern Europe*
Authors: SPANIHELOVA LUCIE , ZICHA BRANDON C.
Published: June 2012

Some argue that the direct representative relationship between voters and party elites is difficult to establish in transition democracies. In part, the difficulty stems from the fact that parties may have a hard time discerning the preferences of their respective voter coalitions. In the case of EU integration, parties may have additional incentives to disregard the interests of the public in the hope of securing benefits associated with their country's membership of the EU. In this article we investigate the extent of party responsiveness on EU integration issues in early transition years in central and eastern European countries. We find that while mainstream parties do consistently show more support for EU integration, we find no evidence that parties, in fact, track their voters. The lack of responsiveness cannot, however, be explained by the general instability of public and party positions, nor can this absence of a relationship be satisfactorily captured by low salience of the EU in the transition years.
The Case for Demoicracy in the European Union*
Authors: Cheneval Francis , Schimmelfennig Frank
Published: June 2012

The debate on the European Union's democratic deficit usually operates within a national‐democratic framework of analysis. This article argues for a change in methodology. It follows the thesis that the EU is a ‘demoicracy’– a polity of multiple demoi– and has to be evaluated as such. Core principles of demoicracy are developed and the EU is assessed accordingly. Such an evaluation is not only more adequate, but also provides original insights: it is found that, whereas the constitutional development of the EU has approached demoicratic standards in general, major deficits remain at the national level.
Partnerships of a feather flock together? An analysis of the emergence of networks of partnerships in the global cocoa sector
Authors: BITZER VERENA , GLASBERGEN PIETER , LEROY PIETER
Published: June 2012

In this article, we move away from the case study approach dominant in the literature on partnerships and explore the emergence of networks of partnerships. Taking the global cocoa sector as our research setting, we examine 55 partnerships to analyse the linkages between them, their evolution over time, as well as the simultaneous occurrence of cooperation and competition. We discover that the partnerships are connected to each other through overlapping memberships of organizations and increasingly also through institutional linkages. The linkages between the partnerships channel the flow of resources and thereby reinforce the capacity of individual partnerships. A meta‐governance organization, which steers and coordinates the broader sustainability efforts of the cocoa industry, enhances the impact of the linkages. Our analysis shows that partnerships should be studied not only as autonomous entities but also as networks of partnerships.
Consumer satisfaction among patients and their general practitioners about involving nurse specialists in primary care for patients with urinary incontinence
Authors: Albers‐Heitner Pytha , Winkens Ron , Berghmans Bary , Joore Manuela , Nieman Fred , Severens Johan , Lagro‐Janssen Toine
Published: June 2012

Scand J Caring Sci; 2013; 27; 253–259

Consumer satisfaction among patients and their general practitioners about involving nurse specialists in primary care for patients with urinary incontinence

Background:  Urinary incontinence (UI) is a very common problem, but existing guidelines on UI are not followed. To bring care in line with guidelines, we planned an intervention to involve nurse specialists on UI in primary care and assessed this in a randomised controlled trial. Alongside this intervention, we assessed consumer satisfaction among patients and general practitioners (GPs).

Methods:  Patients’ satisfaction with the care provided by either nurse specialists (intervention group) or GPs (control group), respectively, was measured with a self‐completed questionnaire. GPs’ views on the involvement of nurse specialists were measured in a structured telephone interview.

Results:  The patient satisfaction score on the care offered by nurse specialists was 8.4 (scale 1–10), vs. 6.7 for care‐as‐usual by GPs. Over 85% of patients would recommend nurse specialist care to their best friends and 77% of the GPs considered the role of the nurse specialist to be beneficial, giving it a mean score of 7.2.

Conclusions:  Although the sample was relatively small and the stability of the results only provisionally established, substituting UI care from GP to nurse specialist appears to be welcomed by both patients and GPs. Small changes like giving additional UI‐specific information and devoting more attention to UI (which had been given little attention before) would provide a simple instrument to stimulate patients to change their behaviour in the right direction.
Age‐dependent vulnerability to experimental acute pancreatitis is associated with increased systemic inflammation and thrombosis
Authors: Okamura Daiki , Starr Marlene E. , Lee Eun Y. , Stromberg Arnold J. , Evers B. Mark , Saito Hiroshi
Published: June 2012

The severity and mortality rates of acute pancreatitis (AP) are significantly elevated in the elderly population. However, due to a lack of appropriate animal models, the underlying mechanisms for this age‐dependent vulnerability remain largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to characterize a murine model of AP, which displays age‐associated severity, and to use this model to identify pathophysiologies that are distinctive of the aged with AP. AP was induced in young (4–5 months), middle‐aged (12–13 months), and aged (23–25 months) C57BL/6 mice by repeated injection of caerulein, a homologue of the gastrointestinal hormone cholecystokinin. Approximately 10% of aged mice died during AP, while young and middle‐aged mice showed no mortality. Although both young and aged mice exhibited early signs of edema and inflammation in the pancreas, kidney, and lung, young mice showed signs of recovery within 24 h, while aged mice exhibited increasingly severe tissue damage and cell death. There was a significant age‐dependent increase in pancreatic neutrophil activation and systemic inflammation as assessed by pancreatic myeloperoxidase and plasma interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) concentration, respectively. Importantly, aged but not young mice with AP showed significantly elevated thrombosis in the lung and kidney as well as a marked increase in plasma concentration of plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1), a primary inhibitor of the fibrinolytic system. These results demonstrate that aging is associated with increased severity of AP characterized by augmented and prolonged pancreatic inflammation and the presence of multiple extra‐pancreatic sequelae including thrombosis.
Nutrient‐dependent requirement for SOD1 in lifespan extension by protein restriction in Drosophila melanogaster
Authors: Sun Xiaoping , Komatsu Toshimitsu , Lim Jinhwan , Laslo Mara , Yolitz Jason , Wang Cecilia , Poirier Luc , Alberico Thomas , Zou Sige
Published: June 2012

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) modulate aging and aging‐related diseases. Dietary composition is critical in modulating lifespan. However, how ROS modulate dietary effects on lifespan remains poorly understood. Superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) is a major cytosolic enzyme responsible for scavenging superoxides. Here we investigated the role of SOD1 in lifespan modulation by diet in Drosophila. We found that a high sugar‐low protein (HS‐LP) diet or low‐calorie diet with low‐sugar content, representing protein restriction, increased lifespan but not resistance to acute oxidative stress in wild‐type flies, relative to a standard base diet. A low sugar‐high protein diet had an opposite effect. Our genetic analysis indicated that SOD1 overexpression or dfoxo deletion did not alter lifespan patterns of flies responding to diets. However, sod1 reduction blunted lifespan extension by the HS‐LP diet but not the low‐calorie diet. HS‐LP and low‐calorie diets both reduced target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling and only the HS‐LP diet increased oxidative damage. sod1 knockdown did not affect phosphorylation of S6 kinase, suggesting that SOD1 acts in parallel with or downstream of TOR signaling. Surprisingly, rapamycin decreased lifespan in sod1 mutant but not wild‐type males fed the standard, HS‐LP, and low‐calorie diets, whereas antioxidant N‐acetylcysteine only increased lifespan in sod1 mutant males fed the HS‐LP diet, when compared to diet‐matched controls. Our findings suggest that SOD1 is required for lifespan extension by protein restriction only when dietary sugar is high and support the context‐dependent role of ROS in aging and caution the use of rapamycin and antioxidants in aging interventions.
Passive smoking exposure might be associated with hypermetropia
Authors: El‐Shazly Amany A
Published: June 2012

Citation information: El‐Shazly AA. Passive smoking exposure might be associated with hypermetropia. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2012, 32, 304–307. doi: 10.1111/j.1475‐1313.2012.00918.x

Purpose:  The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between nicotine exposure in children via passive smoking and the refractive errors of these children.

Methods:  The study included 300 children between the age of 5 and 12 years. Children were subjected to detailed history taking with special emphasis on the degree of exposure to passive smoke. They underwent a complete ophthalmological evaluation including cycloplegic refraction. Urine samples were collected to measure urinary levels of cotinine and creatinine with subsequent calculation of the cotinine creatinine ratio (CCR).

Results:  The refractive error assessment indicated 122 hypermetropic (40.7%), 86 myopic (28.7%) and 92 emmetropic (30.7%) children. Gender and age were not statistically different between the three groups. Urinary cotinine was significantly higher in the hypermetropic than myopic and emmetropic groups (p < 0.0001). Moreover, it was significantly higher in the emmetropic group than the myopic one (p = 0.02). Cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR) and the parental number of cigarettes smoked per day showed the same pattern as urinary cotinine. Considering all 300 data, the spherical equivalent refractive error was significantly correlated with the number of cigarettes smoked by the parents, CCR and urinary cotinine levels cotinine (p < 0.0001 for all correlations).

Conclusion:  Passive smoking indices were related to the degree of refractive error and children with hypermetropia showed significantly higher passive smoking indices. We suggest that passive smoking might be associated with a refractive error shift towards hypermetropia.
The development & evaluation of two vision screening tools for correctable visual loss in older people
Authors: Jessa Zahra , Evans Bruce JW , Thomson David W
Published: June 2012

Citation information: Jessa Z, Evans BJW & Thomson DW. The development & evaluation of two vision screening tools for correctable visual loss in older people. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2012, 32, 332–348. doi: 10.1111/j.1475‐1313.2012.00919.x

Objectives:  In the UK, 20–50% of older people have undetected reduced vision and in most cases this results from correctable problems (refractive error and cataract). Many older people are not availing themselves of state‐funded community optometric care. We assessed the efficacy of two vision screening instruments at detecting correctable visual problems and investigated the effect of optometric intervention on quality of life.

Methods:  A computerised vision screener (CVS) was developed and refined after a preliminary study of 180 older people to include tests of: monocular presenting distance high contrast and low contrast visual acuities (VAs), binocular near acuities, and monocular visual fields. The modified CVS and a flip‐chart vision screener (FVS) were evaluated on a second sample of 200 people aged 65+ (mean age 77 years). All participants in both studies were given an optometric eye examination, including high and low contrast VAs, refraction, binocular vision tests, tonometry, automated perimetry, and dilated fundoscopy including cataract grading and ARM grading. The target conditions were significant gain in monocular distance VA or binocular near VA with new refractive correction, significant cataract, or macular degeneration at risk of rapid progression. The Low Vision Quality of Life Questionnaire (LVQoL) was administered before and up to 3 months after testing.

Results:  For the CVS, the best sensitivity (80.3%, 95% CI 72.4–86.4; specificity 66.7%, 95% CI 55.6–76.1) was obtained for a screener test combination of a fail on high contrast VA (>0.19 LogMAR) OR low contrast VA (>0.39 LogMAR) OR near VA (>N11.9). A screener test combination of high contrast VA OR near VA gave sensitivity of 79.5% (71.5–85.7) and specificity 67.9% (57–77.3). For the FVS, the best sensitivity was obtained for a test combination of a fail on high contrast VA OR low contrast VA OR near VA (sensitivity 82%, 95% CI 74.2–87.8; specificity 61.5%, 95% CI 50.4–71.6). A screener test combination of low contrast VA alone gave sensitivity of 75.4% (67.1–82.2) and specificity 76.9% (66.4–84.9). Significant improvements in LVQoL were found, with a significant correlation between gain in VA with new spectacles and improvement in LVQoL.

Conclusions:  The vision screeners are effective tools for detecting those with reduced vision. Further work is required to determine their effectiveness as a tool for encouraging older people to engage in regular eyecare.
A differential evolution algorithm to solve redundancy allocation problems
Authors: Beji Noura , Jarboui Bassem , Siarry Patrick , Chabchoub Habib
Published: June 2012

To improve system reliability without changing its nature, three methods are proposed. The first method uses more reliable components and the second method provides redundant components within the system. The third method is a combination of these two methods. The redundancy allocation problem (RAP) finds the appropriate mix of components and redundancies within a system to maximize its reliability or minimize its cost due to several constraints, such as cost, weight, and volume. This paper presents a methodology to solve the RAP, which is an NP‐hard problem, modeled with discrete variables. In this paper, we use a metaheuristic to solve the RAP of a series–parallel system with a mix of components. Our metaheuristic offers a practical method with specific solution encoding, and combines a penalty function to solve large instances of the relaxed RAP, where different types of components can be used in parallel. The efficiency of the algorithm was tested through a set of well‐known benchmark problems from the literature. Testing of the algorithm achieved satisfactory results in reasonable computing time.
TRADE SIZE AND PRICE CLUSTERING: THE CASE OF SHORT SALES AND THE SUSPENSION OF PRICE TESTS
Authors: Blau Benjamin M. , Van Ness Bonnie F. , Van Ness Robert A.
Published: June 2012

In this article, we compare trade size and price clustering of short sales with regular trades. We find that short sales cluster less on round sizes and round prices than do nonshort trades. When price tests are suspended, both trade size and price clustering markedly increase for short sales although the difference between shorts and nonshorts remains significant during the postsuspension period. These results are consistent with the idea that because of execution uncertainty caused by price tests, short sellers are less concerned with cognitive processing costs, negotiations costs, and the costs associated with revealing information through trade sizes.
THE ROLE OF INVESTMENT BANK REPUTATION AND RELATIONSHIPS IN EQUITY PRIVATE PLACEMENTS
Authors: Erhemjamts Otgontsetseg , Raman Kartik
Published: June 2012

We explore the role of placement agents in equity private placements. Reputable agents are more likely to place shares of firms that have performed better and that have had frequent prior relationships with the agent. Controlling for self‐selection and endogeneity, firms using reputable agents offer smaller price discounts. However, issuers having frequent prior relationships with placement agents incur higher gross spreads. Although the results support the certification role of investment banks in private placements, they also shed light on the costs incurred by issuers that frequently rely on the same investment bank.
DOES FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY REDUCE INVESTMENT DISTORTIONS?
Authors: de Jong Abe , Verbeek Marno , Verwijmeren Patrick
Published: June 2012

The average U.S. firm has less leverage than one would expect based on the trade‐off between tax shields and bankruptcy costs. We focus on firms’ financial flexibility and examine whether firms preserve debt capacity to reduce investment distortions in the future. We find that firms with high unused debt capacity invest more in future years than do firms with low unused debt capacity. Furthermore, firms that are reluctant to borrow in unconstrained periods are more likely to issue debt in periods in which access to capital markets is more constrained.
ARE PAIRS TRADING PROFITS ROBUST TO TRADING COSTS?
Authors: Do Binh , Faff Robert
Published: June 2012

We examine the impact of trading costs on pairs trading profitability in the U.S. equity market, 1963 to 2009. After controlling for commissions, market impact, and short selling fees, pairs trading remains profitable, albeit at much more modest levels. Specifically, we document a risk‐adjusted return of about 30 basis points per month among portfolios of well‐matched pairs that are formed within refined industry groups. Pairs trading exhibits a lower risk and lower return profile than a short‐term reversal strategy that sorts stocks relative to their industry peers. Notably, both these types of contrarian investing are largely unprofitable after 2002.
A longitudinal assessment of relationship characteristics that predict new parents' relationship satisfaction
Authors: Theiss Jennifer A. , Estlein Roi , Weber Kirsten M.
Published: June 2012

Drawing on the relational turbulence model, this study queries whether it is the amount of relational uncertainty and partner interference in a relationship, or the magnitude of an increase in these mechanisms over time, that accounts for decreased relationship satisfaction for new parents. To test these competing hypotheses, a longitudinal study of 78 couples was conducted in which both partners completed surveys about their relationship at 4 time points during the transition to parenthood. Multilevel modeling revealed that the amount and the increase of relational uncertainty and partner interference were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction when considered separately, but when evaluated in combination, the magnitude of an increase in these variables was the stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction.