bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Programming InterStim™ for faecal incontinence
Authors: Cattle K. R. , Douglas L. , Kiff E. S.
Published: July 2008

Objective  Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) for faecal incontinence (FI) is achieved by implanting a pulse generator attached to a tined lead with individually programmable electrodes. Our aim was to establish whether the ‘ideal’ programme for the treatment of FI has been used most commonly. We also wished to determine whether re‐programming changed the symptom severity scores.

Method  The following data were extracted from our SNS patient database: the frequency with which each programme was used, the length of time it was effective for, the number of months from implantation that the programme was started and the symptom severity scores prior to a change or no change in programme.

Results  Thirty‐eight patients have had implanted pulse generators inserted since 2004. One hundred and two programme changes were documented in the database. The ‘ideal’ programme was not most commonly programmed. The common programmes were effective for longest. The electrode furthest from the tip was used in the initial programme only once and the median duration from implantation to the start of a programme including it is 13 months. Symptom severity scores were significantly higher in patients who required re‐programming than in those whose programme remained unchanged.

Conclusions  In our patients the ‘ideal’ programme was not the programme used most frequently, nor for the longest duration. The theoretical migration of the tined lead inwards with time is upheld by our results. Patients who feel the sensation of SNS perianally have lower symptom scores than those who do not and who require re‐programming.
Short term outcome after emergency and elective surgery for colon cancer
Authors: Sjo O. H. , Larsen S. , Lunde O. C. , Nesbakken A.
Published: July 2008

Objective  Emergency presentation of colon cancer is common and associated with high mortality and morbidity following surgical treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate postoperative mortality and complications in a consecutive and population based series.

Method  All patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon diagnosed between 1993 and 2007 were registered prospectively. Postoperative mortality and complication rates in elective and emergency patients were compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent risk factors for postoperative complications.

Results  In the study period 1129 patients were admitted, of whom 279 (25%) presented as an emergency. A total of 999 (89%) patients underwent surgical treatment; 924 patients (82%) had a major resection. The mortality rate was 3.5% after elective and 10% after emergency operation with resection (P < 0.01), and the complication rate was 24% and 38% (P < 0.01), respectively. In patients with left‐sided obstruction, the mortality rate after Hartmann’s procedure was 19% compared to 3% after resection with primary anastomosis (P < 0.01). Multivariate analyses demonstrated that emergency operation, increasing age, advanced tumour stage and ASA class IV were independent risk factors for postoperative mortality.

Conclusion  Emergency operation for colon cancer was associated with high rates of complications and mortality, indicating that immediate surgery should be avoided if possible. Decompression of left sided obstruction with a stent seems promising, whereas no conclusion can be made with regard to optimal procedure if stent placement fails; in this study Hartmann’s procedure was associated with high mortality and morbidity.
Comparative study to determine the need for intraoperative colonic irrigation for primary anastomosis in left‐sided colonic emergencies
Authors: Ortiz H. , Biondo S. , Ciga M. A. , Kreisler E. , Oteiza F. , Fraccalvieri D.
Published: July 2008

Abtract

Objective  To compare the outcome of resection and primary anastomoses in patients undergoing emergency surgery of the left colon with and without intraoperative colonic irrigation.

Method  From January 2004 to December 2006, 102 consecutive patients with acute occlusion or perforation of the left colon were operated on an emergency basis in two Coloproctology units. According to the sample size calculation, 61 patients from one unit underwent surgery with intraoperative colonic irrigation, whereas 41 patients from the second unit underwent surgery without intraoperative colonic irrigation. The endpoints were mortality and morbidity.

Results  Thirty (49.2%) patients with intraoperative colonic irrigation and 8 (19.5%) without colonic irrigation developed one or more complications postoperatively (odds ratio 4.0, 95% CI 1.6–10.0, P = 0.002). An increased number of wound infections was seen in the group managed with colonic irrigation 15 vs 3 (P = 0.034). The postoperative mortality rate and the occurrence of dehiscence of the anastomoses were similar in both study groups.

Conclusion  The present findings indicate that resection and primary anastomosis in patients undergoing emergency surgery of the left colon can be safely performed without intraoperative colonic irrigation.
Intranictitans tacking for replacement of prolapsed gland of the third eyelid in dogs
Authors: Plummer C. E. , Källberg M. E. , Gelatt K. N. , Gelatt J. P. , Barrie K. P. , Brooks D. E.
Published: July 2008

Objective To evaluate a new procedure for fixation of prolapsed nictitans glands to the cartilage of the nictitans that will not interfere with the mobility of the nictitating membrane.

Methods A prospective clinical trial utilizing a nonabsorbable suture to anchor the prolapsed gland to the cartilage of the third eyelid was undertaken. Fifteen eyes of 10 dogs were included in the study. A 4‐0 nylon suture was passed from the anterior surface of the third eyelid through the base of the cartilage to the posterior aspect and then tunneled circumferentially beneath the conjunctiva over and around the prolapsed gland. The suture was then passed through the cartilage again to the anterior face of the third eyelid. The gland was replaced into its normal position as the suture was slowly tightened and then tied on the anterior aspect of the nictitans.

Results Over a period of several weeks, the glands reduced in size and took on a normal appearance. All glands but one remained in place for the length of follow‐up, which ranged from 2 weeks to 33 months.

Conclusions This procedure results in acceptable cosmetic effects with the return of the gland to its normal position posterior to the nictitating membrane. The advantage of this technique over traditional tacking to the orbital rim is that the third eyelid retains its normal mobility and, thus, its protective functions. The procedure once mastered is very quick and can be performed in less time than many of the traditional replacement techniques.
Heterologous penetrating keratoplasty for treatment of a corneal sequestrum in a cat
Authors: Townsend Wendy M. , Rankin Amy J. , Stiles Jean , Krohne Sheryl G.
Published: July 2008

A corneal sequestrum was diagnosed in an 8‐year‐old, neutered male Burmese cat. A heterologous penetrating keratoplasty (PK) (fresh canine corneal tissue) was performed to restore a clear visual axis. A heterograft was selected in order to decrease the risk of viral transmission as a screened donor was not available. One month postoperatively the graft was vascularized and opaque. The owner failed to return for recheck examinations until 16 months postoperatively at which time only a faint central nebula remained.
Use of ketamine, xylazine, and diazepam anesthesia with retrobulbar block for phacoemulsification in dogs
Authors: Hazra Sarbani , De Dipak , Roy Biswarup , Bose Arup , Nandi Samit , Konar Aditya
Published: July 2008

Objective  The study was undertaken to evaluate the use of ketamine, xylazine, and diazepam along with a local retrobulbar nerve block for routine phacoemulsification in the dog.

Animals  Ten clinically healthy mixed‐breed dogs of either sex, weighing between 10 and 15 kg.

Procedures  Ten mixed‐breed dogs were selected for unilateral cataract removal by phacoemulsification. Standard preoperative preparations for cataract surgery were followed. Pre‐anesthetic medication consisted of atropine sulfate (0.02 mg/kg, SC). Anesthesia was induced by xylazine HCl (1.0 mg/kg, IM) followed by ketamine (5.0 mg/kg, IM). Anesthesia was maintained subsequently with IV ketamine and diazepam to effect and depth of anesthesia was assessed clinically by pedal reflex and jaw reflex. After induction of anesthesia, a retrobulbar nerve block was performed using 2 mL of 2% lignocaine. Eye position was graded after retrobulbar block and IOP was examined preoperative, post‐anesthetic, 6 h postoperative and 24 h after surgery. Phacoemulsification was performed using the phaco‐chop technique and an intraocular lens was placed. Anesthetic recovery and postoperative recovery following surgery was recorded.

Result  The exposure of the globe in all the dogs was adequate; the desired central fixation of the eye was obtained and surgery could be performed uneventfully. The mean IOP recorded after induction of anesthesia was 15.75 ± 0.82, which was not significantly (P > 0.01) different from pre‐anesthetic values (14.85 ± 0.85).

Conclusion  Phacoemulsification was successfully performed with this anesthetic regimen without encountering major intraoperative or anesthetic complications.
Changing patterns of diet, physical activity and obesity among urban, rural and slum populations in north India
Authors: Yadav K. , Krishnan A.
Published: July 2008

Rapid urbanization and accompanying lifestyle changes in India lead to transition in non‐communicable disease risk factors.

A survey was done in urban, urban slum and rural population of Haryana, India, in a sample of 4129 men and 3852 women using WHO STEPS questionnaire.

A very high proportion of all the three populations reported inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables. Rural men reported five times physical activity as compared with urban and urban slum men and rural women reported seven times physical activity as compared with women in the other two settings. Mean body mass index (BMI) was highest among urban men (22.8 kg m−2) followed by urban slum (21.0 kg m−2) and rural men (20.6 kg m−2) (P‐value < 0.01). Similar trend was seen for women but at a higher level than men. Prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg m−2) was highest for urban population (male = 5.5%, female = 12.6%) followed by urban slum (male = 1.9%, female = 7.2%) and rural populations (male = 1.6%, female = 3.8%).

Urbanization increases the prevalence of the studied non‐communicable disease risk factors, with women showing a greater increase as compared with men. Non‐communicable disease control strategy needs to address urbanization and warrants gender sensitive strategies specifically targeting women.
Decentralized Wage Formation in Sweden
Authors: Granqvist Lena , Regnér Håkan
Published: July 2008

Recent Swedish collective bargaining agreements have incorporated provisions for local pay review talks and opportunities for individuals to negotiate their own wages. Using trade union data, we show that members who participate in local pay review talks and members who negotiate their own wages have significantly higher monthly wages than those who do not. Pay decentralization either improves an individual's bargaining position or attracts more productive trade union members. Either way, trade union wage policies to increase individual‐level wage variance are achieving their intended effects.
The Coexistence of Competition and Cooperation between Networks: Implications from Two Taiwanese Healthcare Networks*
Authors: Peng Tzu‐Ju Ann , Bourne Mike
Published: July 2008

The issue of coopetition, the coexistence of cooperation and competition, has recently come to the fore in the strategic management field. Previous coopetition research has focused on the intra‐organizational level, inter‐organizational level and triad level, but less attention has been paid to coopetition at the network level. The purpose of this paper is to address the coexistence of competition and cooperation between networks, and to depict how networks with different structures interact with each other. Drawing from a detailed case study of two healthcare networks in Taiwan, we demonstrate how they first initiated competition, followed by cooperation and then coopetition. From our analysis of this example of network coopetition, we develop three propositions that address the forces driving competition and cooperation and the different structures that allow competition and cooperation to coexist. We found that two organizations will compete and cooperate simultaneously when each organization has complementary but distinctly different sets of resources and when the field of competition is distinctly separate from the field of cooperation. In addition, two networks will find it easier to balance competition and cooperation when each network has compatible but distinctly different structures. We argue that the simultaneous existence of cooperation and competition is not dependent on closeness to the customer, as previously suggested in the literature, but on the balance between the forces for cooperation and for competition. We suggest from this research that networks can maintain the balance between competition and cooperation when they act using different structures. Finally, we discuss the implications of the value of competition and then coopetition at multiple levels of analysis and the implications for future research from a practical perspective.
Competing and Cooperating Similarity in Global Strategic Alliances: An Exploratory Examination
Authors: Kim Jooheon , Parkhe Arvind
Published: July 2008

We used two variables, competing similarity and cooperating similarity, in developing a comprehensive model that forces a simultaneous treatment of partner characteristics and partner capabilities in global strategic alliances. An empirical test of this model on a sample of 70 global strategic alliances indicated mixed support for our hypotheses, and suggested that competing similarity has a negative effect and cooperating similarity has a positive effect on alliance outcomes. Findings also show that deliberate ‘relational efforts’ mitigate the frictional effects of differences in partner characteristics.
Deterrence and Coercive Diplomacy: The Contributions of Alexander George
Authors: Levy Jack S.
Published: July 2008

Alexander George was a towering figure who made path breaking and enduring contributions to political psychology, international relations, and social science methodology. I focus on George's closely related research programs on deterrence and coercive diplomacy, with special attention to the importance of the asymmetry of motivation, strategies for “designing around” a deterrent threat, the controllability of risks, images of the adversary, signaling, the sequential failure of deterrence, the role of positive inducements along with coercive threats, and the need for actor‐specific models of the adversary. In the process, I highlight other elements of George's theoretically and methodologically integrated research program: his conceptions of the proper role of theory; his emphasis on the infeasibility of a universal theory and the need for conditional generalizations that are historically grounded, sensitive to context, bounded by scope conditions, and useful for policy makers; and the indispensability of process tracing in theoretically driven case studies.
Optimal Trade Policy under Homogeneous Bertrand Competition*
Authors: Hwang Hong , Mai Chao‐Cheng , Yang Ya‐Po
Published: July 2008

In a seminal paper, Eaton and Grossman (1986) conclude that an export tax is optimal if firms produce heterogeneous products and engage in Bertrand price competition. In particular, they made a comment that could be interpreted to mean that even in the case of a homogeneous product, the optimal policy is still an export tax. This paper has re‐examined the case and found that the optimal export policy can be an export subsidy, free trade, or an export tax, depending on the marginal cost differential between the domestic and the foreign firms. Moreover, if government intervention entails a cost, free trade becomes the only optimal policy.
The Transfer Problem and Real Exchange Rate Overshooting in Financial Crises: The Role of the Debt Servicing Multiplier*
Authors: Menzies Gordon , Vines David
Published: July 2008

We develop a real model of exchange rate overshooting due to a debt servicing multiplier. Borrowers of foreign capital are bound by noncontingent contracts to pay the world rate of return following an adverse shock. This is onerous, since the marginal product of capital is less than the world rate of return and the shock causes some capital to become extra‐marginal. If the resultant debt servicing shortfall is met by taxes on workers, this reduces their demand for nontradable goods, which feeds back onto their wage, reducing their demand for nontradable goods, etc. In the short run, when extra‐marginal projects are “stuck” in the economy, the real exchange rate can overshoot. This mechanism may help to explain overshooting of exchange rates in the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
What's in a Name? ‘Work and Family’ or ‘Work and Life’ Balance Policies in the UK since 1997 and the Implications for the Pursuit of Gender Equality
Authors: Lewis Jane , Campbell Mary
Published: July 2008

Since 1997, Labour has developed a wide range of policies on childcare services, care leaves and flexible working hours. In 2000, the term ‘work‐life balance’ was introduced and has been used by Government Departments and by the academic community with very little discussion of its meaning vis à vis the use of ‘family‐friendly’ policies, or the promotion of ‘work and family balance’. We explore the introduction of the term work‐life balance, the reasons for it, and its significance at the policy level, especially in terms of its implications for the pursuit of gender equality. We find that at the policy level, its use was more a matter of strategic framing than substantive change. Nevertheless, because of the UK Government's largely gender‐neutral approach to the whole policy field, it is important to make explicit the tensions in the continuing use of the term work‐life balance, particularly in relation to the achievement of gender equality.
EU Integration and the Transformation of Post‐communist Welfare: Traversing a ‘Quantum Leap’?
Authors: Lendvai Noemi
Published: July 2008

While many academic accounts treat post‐communist Europe as just another site of Europeanization with an emphasis on ‘adaptation’ and ‘learning’, this article argues that EU integration and the transformation of post‐communist Europe is a much more complex, volatile and uncertain process; not so much one of adaptation but more a ‘quantum leap’, apparently bypassing the stage of a Keynesian regime. Post‐communist Europe is asked to join an EU agenda that has many features of what Jessop calls the ‘Schumpeterian Workfare Postnational Regime’ (SWPR). In that sense, EU integration of post‐communist welfare is not simply a ‘catch‐up’, it is a complex transformation process whereby, rather than EU Enlargement and Eastern Europe being seen as a threat to ‘Social Europe’, the EU imposes its own ‘social deficit’ and economic hegemony onto Eastern Europe.
Increasing Choice and Control for Older and Disabled People: A Critical Review of New Developments in England
Authors: Glendinning Caroline
Published: July 2008

This paper critically examines new policies currently being implemented in England aimed at increasing the choice and control that disabled and older people can exercise over the social care support and services they receive. The development of these policies, and their elaboration in three policy documents published during 2005, are summarized. The paper then discusses two issues underpinning these proposals: the role of quasi‐markets within publicly funded social care services; and the political and policy discourses of consumerism and choice within the welfare state. Despite powerful critiques of welfare consumerism, the paper argues that there are nevertheless very important reasons for taking choice seriously when considering how best to organize and deliver support and other services for disabled and older people. A policy discourse on consumerism, however, combined with the use of market mechanisms for implementing this, may be highly problematic as the means of creating opportunities for increased choice and, on its own, risks introducing new forms of disadvantage and social exclusion.
Dynamic Inefficiency in an Overlapping Generation Economy with Pollution and Health Costs
Authors: GUTIÉRREZ MARÍA‐JOSÉ
Published: July 2008

We analyze an overlapping generations model in which pollution arises, in an accumulatively way, from production. Householders do not care directly about the environment, but pollution leads them to incur health costs when they are elderly. We show that the presence of pollution means that the economy more likely to be dynamically inefficient. For these cases we analyze two kinds of tax scheme: one based on production taxes and the other based on capital and wage taxes. We show how to design both schemes to put the economy into the golden rule allocation. We also show that under the production tax scheme young and elderly agents pay less taxes (or receive more transfers) than under the production tax system.
Competition over Time‐Inconsistent Consumers
Authors: GOTTLIEB DANIEL
Published: July 2008

How do firms respond to consumers' time inconsistency? This paper studies the optimal design of nonexclusive contracts under competition. It shows that nonexclusivity creates a stark asymmetry between immediate‐costs goods and immediate‐rewards goods. For immediate‐cost goods nonexclusivity does not affect the equilibrium and, when consumers are sophisticated, the efficient allocation is achieved. When consumers are partially naive, the optimal sales tax may be either positive or negative and depends on parameters that are hard to estimate. In the case of immediate‐rewards goods, however, the equilibrium features marginal‐cost pricing and is always inefficient. Moreover, the optimal tax does not depend on the consumers' degree of naiveté and is a function of parameters that are easy to assess.
Political Cycles: Issue Ownership and the Opposition Advantage
Authors: SOUBEYRAN RAPHAËL , GAUTIER PASCAL
Published: July 2008

In modern democracies, common wisdom suggests that political parties alternate in power due to voters' disappointment. The aim of this paper is to show that parties' turnover may be due to voters' “satisfaction.” Our model is built on two main assumptions: Parties “own” different issues, and investments in the provision of public goods create a linkage between successive elections. We show that no party can maintain itself in power forever when the median voter is moderate enough. This result holds when the parties' main objective is to win the election and is compatible with a large range of candidates subobjectives that may change from one election to the next. We also provide some novel welfare implications. Whereas rent‐seeker candidates always dominate reelection‐concerned candidates in one public good models, rent‐seeker candidates may be welfare improving compared with reelection‐concerned candidates.
Joint Projections of Temperature and Precipitation Change from Multiple Climate Models: A Hierarchical Bayesian Approach
Authors: Tebaldi Claudia , Sansó Bruno
Published: July 2008

Posterior distributions for the joint projections of future temperature and precipitation trends and changes are derived by applying a Bayesian hierachical model to a rich data set of simulated climate from general circulation models. The simulations that are analysed here constitute the future projections on which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change based its recent summary report on the future of our planet’s climate, albeit without any sophisticated statistical handling of the data. Here we quantify the uncertainty that is represented by the variable results of the various models and their limited ability to represent the observed climate both at global and at regional scales. We do so in a Bayesian framework, by estimating posterior distributions of the climate change signals in terms of trends or differences between future and current periods, and we fully characterize the uncertain nature of a suite of other parameters, like biases, correlation terms and model-specific precisions. Besides presenting our results in terms of posterior distributions of the climate signals, we offer as an alternative representation of the uncertainties in climate change projections the use of the posterior predictive distribution of a new model’s projections. The results from our analysis can find straightforward applications in impact studies, which necessitate not only best guesses but also a full representation of the uncertainty in climate change projections. For water resource and crop models, for example, it is vital to use joint projections of temperature and precipitation to represent the characteristics of future climate best, and our statistical analysis delivers just that.
The Giants of Excess: A Challenge to the Nation’s Health
Authors: Grand Julian Le
Published: July 2008

Sir William Beveridge in his famous report wanted to eliminate the five giants of want, squalor, idleness, ignorance and disease: the giants of too little. However, the problems facing welfare states are more the giants of too much: the giants of excess. For health in particular, excessive behaviours of various kinds contribute significantly to the major sources of morbidity and mortality in our society, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney and liver diseases. There are few good theories about why individuals engage in excess behaviours. But it is clear that one of the main problems that face both individuals and the government or other agencies tasked with improving health is that the costs of most unhealthy activities impact in the future, whereas the benefits from them occur in the present. Policies have to be developed that either bring some of the costs from unhealthy activities (or the benefits from healthy ones) back from the future, or reduce some of the benefits from unhealthy activities (or reduce the costs of healthy ones) in the present. To avoid the danger of the ‘nanny state’, they should also not impact too greatly on individual freedom or autonomy. Promising ideas that meet these criteria, which are derived from the philosophy of libertarian paternalism, include smoking permits and exercise hours.
Forecasting Obesity Trends in England
Authors: Mills Terence C.
Published: July 2008

Forecasts of trends in obesity in England for 2010 are produced by treating the available data, which contain the proportions of the population, categorized by age and sex, falling into different body mass index ranges, as compositional data sets, so that the implicit simplex restrictions are automatically satisfied. Forecasts are calculated by using linear trend models for the log-ratio transformations and are accompanied by prediction regions. The advantages of treating data on proportions compositionally are emphasized and compared with forecasts that have been obtained by ignoring this restriction.
Improving Semiparametric Estimation by Using Surrogate Data
Authors: Chen Song Xi , Leung Denis H. Y. , Qin Jing
Published: July 2008

The paper considers estimating a parameter β that defines an estimating function U(y, x, β) for an outcome variable y and its covariate x when the outcome is missing in some of the observations. We assume that, in addition to the outcome and the covariate, a surrogate outcome is available in every observation. The efficiency of existing estimators for β depends critically on correctly specifying the conditional expectation of U given the surrogate and the covariate. When the conditional expectation is not correctly specified, which is the most likely scenario in practice, the efficiency of estimation can be severely compromised even if the propensity function (of missingness) is correctly specified. We propose an estimator that is robust against the choice of the conditional expectation via an empirical likelihood. We demonstrate that the estimator proposed achieves a gain in efficiency whether the conditional score is correctly specified or not. When the conditional score is correctly specified, the estimator reaches the semiparametric variance bound within the class of estimating functions that are generated by U. The practical performance of the estimator is evaluated by using simulation and a data set that is based on the 1996 US presidential election.
Gaussian Predictive Process Models for Large Spatial Data Sets
Authors: Banerjee Sudipto , Gelfand Alan E. , Finley Andrew O. , Sang Huiyan
Published: July 2008

With scientific data available at geocoded locations, investigators are increasingly turning to spatial process models for carrying out statistical inference. Over the last decade, hierarchical models implemented through Markov chain Monte Carlo methods have become especially popular for spatial modelling, given their flexibility and power to fit models that would be infeasible with classical methods as well as their avoidance of possibly inappropriate asymptotics. However, fitting hierarchical spatial models often involves expensive matrix decompositions whose computational complexity increases in cubic order with the number of spatial locations, rendering such models infeasible for large spatial data sets. This computational burden is exacerbated in multivariate settings with several spatially dependent response variables. It is also aggravated when data are collected at frequent time points and spatiotemporal process models are used. With regard to this challenge, our contribution is to work with what we call predictive process models for spatial and spatiotemporal data. Every spatial (or spatiotemporal) process induces a predictive process model (in fact, arbitrarily many of them). The latter models project process realizations of the former to a lower dimensional subspace, thereby reducing the computational burden. Hence, we achieve the flexibility to accommodate non-stationary, non-Gaussian, possibly multivariate, possibly spatiotemporal processes in the context of large data sets. We discuss attractive theoretical properties of these predictive processes. We also provide a computational template encompassing these diverse settings. Finally, we illustrate the approach with simulated and real data sets.
Who Withdraws Housing Equity and Why?
Authors: BENITO ANDREW
Published: July 2008

The decision to extract home equity is examined using household‐level data for the UK over 1993–2003. At its peak during the period, around 1‐in‐10 homeowners withdraw equity per year. Little is known about this financial decision. I find that the equity withdrawal decision conforms to predictions from the standard life‐cycle framework and models that predict its use as a financial buffer. The paper also estimates responses to the large house price appreciation and significant reductions in mortgage rates seen during the period.
INSTABILITY AND THE INCENTIVES FOR CORRUPTION
Authors: CAMPANTE FILIPE R. , CHOR DAVIN , DO QUOC‐ANH
Published: July 2008

We investigate the relationship between corruption and political stability, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. We propose a model of incumbent behavior that features the interplay of two effects: ahorizon effect, whereby greater instability leads the incumbent to embezzle more during his short window of opportunity, and ademand effect, by which the private sector is more willing to bribe stable incumbents. The horizon effect dominates at low levels of stability, because firms are unwilling to pay high bribes and unstable incumbents have strong incentives to embezzle, whereas the demand effect gains salience in more stable regimes. Together, these two effects generate a non‐monotonic, U‐shaped relationship between total corruption and stability. On the empirical side, we find a robust U‐shaped pattern between country indices of corruption perception and various measures of incumbent stability, including historically observed average tenures of chief executives and governing parties: regimes that are very stable or very unstable display higher levels of corruption when compared with those in an intermediate range of stability. These results suggest that minimizing corruption may require an electoral system that features some re‐election incentives, but with an eventual term limit.
Punctuated Equilibrium and Agenda‐Setting: Bringing Parties Back in: Policy Change after the Dutroux Crisis in Belgium
Authors: WALGRAVE STEFAAN , VARONE FRÉDÉRIC
Published: July 2008

The article analyzes how focusing events affect the public and political agenda and translate into policy change. Empirically, the study focuses on the policy changes initiated by paedophile Marc Dutroux's arrest in 1996 in Belgium. Theoretically, the article tests whether Baumgartner and Jones's (1993) U.S. punctuated equilibrium approach applies to a most different system case, Belgium being a consociational democracy and a partitocracy. Their approach turns out to be useful to explain this “critical case”: Policy change happens when “policy images” and “policy venues” shift. Yet, the Dutroux case shows also that political parties, as key actors in the Belgian policy process, should be integrated more explicitly in the punctuated equilibrium theory. Finally, the article argues that the quantitative analysis of longitudinal data sets on several agendas should be supplemented with qualitative case study evidence (e.g., interviews with key decision makers) to unravel the complex case of issue attention and policy change.
Political‐Administrative Relations: Impact of and Puzzles in Aberbach, Putnam, and Rockman, 1981
Authors: LEE KWANG‐HOON , RAADSCHELDERS JOS C.N.
Published: July 2008

Political‐administrative relations became an issue once politicians and administrators came to be considered as distinct actors in the public realm. This happened in the late eighteenth century, and several authors since then explored the nature of this relationship in normative and/or juridical terms. But it took almost two centuries before it became an object of systematic empirical study in a comparative perspective: Aberbach, Putnam, and Rockman (APR 1981). The APR study was the first to use survey methods and to advance empirically based theory. In this article we discuss the intellectual attention for this topic since the early nineteenth century, APR's findings and impact and—given APR's influence upon methods—some intriguing problems with the framework that they developed. Finally we list some potential new avenues of research.
Explaining the Reform of Banking Supervision in Europe: An Integrative Approach
Authors: QUAGLIA LUCIA
Published: July 2008

National frameworks for banking and, more generally, financial supervision in various European countries have undergone significant changes in the last decade or so. What explains these supervisory reforms? This work addresses this question by examining the recent reforms in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, engaging in a structured, focused comparison, mainly using process tracing and adopting an analytical framework articulated across three levels of analysis. It is argued that while international and EU factors acted as antecedent variables, establishing the background for the reforms, they were mediated by national factors—to be precise, by two independent variables—that account for distinctive modes and outcomes of reforms. In addition, the institutional strength of the central bank—the intervening variable—can make a difference to the process of reform by either inhibiting or catalyzing change.
Near‐nerve needle sensory and medial plantar nerve conduction studies in patients with small‐fiber sensory neuropathy
Authors: Uluc K. , Temucin C. M. , Ozdamar S. Erdem , Demirci M. , Tan E.
Published: July 2008

Background and purpose:  The aim of this prospective study was to show and compare the rate of large‐fiber involvement with near‐nerve needle sensory (NNNS) nerve conduction study (NCS) and with medial plantar NCS recorded with surface electrodes in a group of patients who had clinically pure small‐fiber sensory neuropathy (SFSN) with reduced intra‐epidermal nerve fiber density in skin biopsy and with normal routine NCS.

Methods and results:  The study included 19 patients with clinically pure SFSN with normal routine NCS results and 17 healthy volunteers. Routine NCS, skin biopsy, medial plantar NCS and NNNS NCS were performed. NNNS NCS data were evaluated both by using univariate analysis methods and by using a multivariate analysis method, principal components analysis (PCA). Eight patients (42%) had abnormal results for medial plantar NCS with surface electrodes. Seven patients (37%) had abnormal results for NNNS NCS with PCA, whilst only four patients with univariate analysis. We found a significant correlation between intra‐epidermal nerve fiber densities, medial plantar NCS and PCA results of NNNS NCS.

Conclusions:  This study showed that large‐nerve fibers are also involved in some patients with pure SFSN and medial plantar NCS can accurately diagnose neuropathy without a need for NNNS NCS in patients with normal routine NCS.
Academic and Non‐Academic Staff's Psychological Contract in Turkey
Authors: Aydin İnayet , Yilmaz Kürşad , Memduhoğlu Hasan Basri , Oğuz Ebru , Güngör Sabri
Published: July 2008

Studies of psychological contract as part of organisation‐individual agreements have become important in recent years. This study determines views, about the psychological contract, of academic and non‐academic staff and managers in faculties of education in Turkey. A total of 442 employees at 11 state universities in Turkey were included in the research. ‘Psychological Contract Inventory’ and ‘Psychological Contract Measures’, designed by Rousseau were utilised during the development process of the data‐gathering tool. After the adaptation work, the scale consisted of 68 items under three sections and seven subscales. The results showed that academic staff and executives considered that their university carried out its obligations towards the staff at a ‘moderate’ level, whereas the non‐academic staff considered it ‘insufficient’. The academic and the non‐academic staff considered that the employees carried out their tasks at a ‘maximum’ level, whereas the executives considered it ‘moderate’.
The perception and utilisation of social support in times of cultural change: the case of Arabs in Israel
Authors: Azaiza Faisal
Published: July 2008

Arabs in Israel are currently undergoing a modernisation process characterised by a gradual shift from a collectivistic to an individualistic cultural orientation. During such a transition, perceptions and utilisation of social support assume great significance. This article examines perceptions and utilisation patterns of social support networks among Arabs in Israel. The research population consisted of 507 respondents, representative of the Arab population, randomly selected by means of a telephone survey. Findings are discussed within the context of modernisation processes, collectivistic and individualistic cultural orientations, and their association with the perception and utilisation of social support.
Empowerment and globalisation in a Nordic social work education context
Authors: Johansson Ing‐Marie , Sewpaul Vishanthie , Horverak Sveinung , Schjelderup Liv , Omre Cecilie , Bǿrnholdt Lis
Published: July 2008

The Nordic countries have been experiencing paradigm shifts from a focus on problems, pathology and deficits to more strengths‐based, capacity‐building and inclusive approaches, especially in the field of child welfare. This article describes joint Nordic (Nordplus) Master level courses that have been introduced to promote a more inclusive and empowering way of working with children and families. The overall theme of the Nordplus project is democratisation of child welfare work. The project includes three separate courses: (i) Empowerment and family decision making in child welfare; (ii) Strengths and solution oriented child welfare work; (iii) Children, youth and participation. The project brought together masters students from the Nordic countries and professional academics from the Nordic countries, South Africa and Australia. This article describes and problematises the learning process and the outcomes of the project. An important aim of the project was to interrogate the relationship between the global and the local.
The over‐representation of indigenous children in the Australian child welfare system
Authors: Tilbury Clare
Published: July 2008

Similar to other wealthy countries with colonised indigenous populations, Australia's indigenous children, those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, are seriously over‐represented in the child welfare system. The specific dimensions of this problem warrant detailed examination. It is useful to consider factors such as rates of entry to care, length of stay and the nature of services provided in order to understand the problem more fully. This article uses child protection, out‐of‐home care and juvenile justice administrative data to examine the levels of disproportionality at key decision points in the child welfare system. The data show that child welfare interventions are persistently more intrusive for indigenous children, and that levels of disproportionality have not improved over time. More comprehensive child and family welfare policies are needed to address indigenous disadvantage. Despite calls by indigenous community agencies for more input to decision‐making, their participation in the Australian child welfare system remains marginal.
Contested universalism: from Bonosol to Renta Dignidad in Bolivia
Authors: Müller Katharina
Published: July 2008

Bolivia is the only Latin American country to feature a universal old‐age pension scheme. Though strikingly modest, originating at US$248 per annum, this benefit runs counter to the prevailing targeting paradigm. Ten years after the scheme's controversial start in South America's poorest country, this article is the first to focus on the interesting political economy of the universal benefit. The introduction of the benefit was not motivated by social policy considerations but by the desire to privatise state‐owned enterprises and pensions. Conceived by neoliberal structural reformers, the benefit was challenged first by the international financial institutions and then by Bolivia's developmentalist government, before the latter found a way to reconcile its re‐nationalisation project with a re‐branded universal pension.
Policing Chinese Migrant Sex Workers in Hong Kong
Authors: Lee Maggy
Published: July 2008

This article examines the nature of control of Chinese unwanted migrants. In contrast to much existing research work on the patterns and control of Chinese unauthorised migration to the West, the focus here is on the regulation of immigration violators who routinely move back and forth across the border between the People’s Republic of China and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Through an examination of official statistics, relevant documents and pilot interviews with police officers, immigration officials and prison officers, this article aims to provide some critical insights into the operationalization of the migratory control regime in Hong Kong. In particular, the use of police crackdowns and imprisonment as a migration management instrument raises important questions about their efficacy and the differential impact on particular social groups, especially for women who overstay and are ostensibly engaged in migratory sexual labour.
Short‐Term Skilled Labour Movements and Economic Growth
Authors: Tani Massimiliano
Published: July 2008

Economic models typically study the long‐term effects of migration, and hence emphasise their impact on a country’s endowment of skills using net migration rates. This approach however does not take into account the contribution of short‐term movements of skilled labour on a country’s stock of knowledge and ability to innovate. This paper develops a theoretical approach to extend the analysis to gross migration flows, which captures the volume of interactions and the potential for knowledge exchanges between a country’s skilled labour and workers living elsewhere. One implication of the approach developed is that higher growth can be achieved through higher international labour mobility, even if there is no net migration. Countries that find it difficult or impossible to attract skilled labour on a permanent basis may therefore enjoy the growth effect brought by skilled temporary migrants.
Increased Risk for Coeliac Disease in Paediatric Patients with Migraine
Authors: Alehan F , Ozçay F , Eroi I , Canan O , Cemil T
Published: July 2008

The aim was to determine the prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) in paediatric patients with migraine. Serum tissue transglutaminase IgA (tTGA) antibodies and IgA concentrations were measured in 73 patients with migraine (age range 6-17 years) and the control group ( n = 147). Patients having positive tTGA antibodies underwent duedonal biopsy. Four patients (5.5%) from the study group and one (0.6%) from the control group had positive tTGA antibody titres ( P < 0.05). Three patients with migraine had normal duedonal histology and were considered as potential CD. One patient from the study group and one from the control group declined to have biopsy. tTGA antibody is considered as a reliable indicator for the presence of CD. However, some patients with positive antibodies may have normal biopsy initially and are classified as having potential CD. Our finding of a higher prevalance of tTGA antibodies in paediatric migraine patients suggests that an association between migraine and CD might exist.
A 13-Year Long-Term Outcome Study of Elderly With Chronic Daily Headache
Authors: Fuh J-L , Wang S-J , Lu S-R , Tsai P-H , Lai T-H , Lai K-L
Published: July 2008

We established a cohort of 60 subjects with chronic daily headache (CDH) out of 1533 community-based elderly in 1993 and finished two short-term follow-ups in 1995 and 1997. All of the 26 survivors without dementia (4 M/22 F, mean age 82.7 ± 3.4 years) finished the follow-up in 2006. The mean headache frequency was 8.4 ± 11.8 days per month in the past year, and seven (27±) had persistent CDH. Based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd edn, the CDH subtypes diagnoses were chronic migraine in three subjects, chronic tension-type headache in three, and one with medication-overuse headache. All these seven subjects had CDH during the 1995 and 1997 follow-ups. The diagnosis of CDH with migrainous features increased from 25 to 71± in those with CDH from 1993 to 2006. Migraine was the most common headache type in those with CDH resolution. Aggressive treatment should be applied especially for those with persistent CDH at short-term follow-ups.