bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Non‐governmental organizations as agents of democratization: An African perspective
Authors: Fowler Alan 
Published: July 2007

AbstractIt is currently contended that the economic adjustment programmes being implemented by most African countries should be accompanied by reforms that lead to greater democracy. As part of civil society, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) are expected to play an important role in fostering the democratic changes now argued to be needed. This article examines the theoretical grounds for assuming that NGOs will function as agents of democratization through their increasing presence and ability to transform society. It is argued that NGOs are unlikely to have significant impact on political reform because (a) regimes have effective instruments to contain such a possibility and (b) the legal standing, typical development approach and the relations maintained by the NGO community are not sufficiently consistent with this aim. It is concluded that in order to effectively promote democratization in Africa NGOs will need to adopt more complex development strategies and consciously include the issue of citizenship in their interventions.
Two errors of targeting
Authors: Cornia Giovanni Andrea , Stewart Frances 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe authors analyse the relationship between two errors which commonly arise in the attempt to ‘target’ government expenditures on poor people: ‘E‐mistakes’ in which benefits are provided to the non‐poor as well as the poor, and ‘F‐mistakes’ in which some of the poor fall outside the scope of the programme. Existing redistributive programmes are examined in order to determine the right balance between the two types of error, and the conclusion is reached that in a majority of cases universal‐benefit programmes dominate programmes of precisely targeted support.
Are third world megacities sustainable? Jabotabek as an example
Authors: Atkinson Adrian 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper enters the debate about ‘sustainable development’ with reference to the emerging ‘megacities’, of which the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, and its adjacent cities in the region known as ‘Jabotabek’ is one. It is argued that, while the immediate agenda of urban environmental management—of water, sanitation and waste—remains important, the problems involved are tractable, and it is necessary to go beyond them to try to think through the implications of regional and global processes in considering the future of city regions such as Jabotabek. The extreme inequality of income distribution in the city region, and associated patterns of power, emerge as major problems in envisaging sustainable futures.
Cost‐benefit analysis and the problem of locating environmentally noxious facilities
Authors: Quah Euston 
Published: July 2007

AbstractMany developing projects include proposals for the construction of certain kinds of facilities that would provide useful services to the general community. Facilities such as sewage treatment plants, transmission stations, public utilities, nuclear power stations and airports are, by general consensus, necessary for development and growth. However, there is little doubt that the residents living near these facilities would suffer from their negative external effects. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and highlight the problem of siting an environmentally noxious facility. The paper presents the characteristics of such a facility, examines current conflict‐resolution instruments and emphasizes the importance of valuing intangibles, including option values in environment impact assessments. Finally, it offers some general considerations for establishing a compensation package for local residents, including two alternative compensation mechanisms to effect payment. Based in large part on cost‐benefit analysis, a set of efficiency and equity criteria to screen compensation claims is presented.
Non‐nested hypothesis testing of theories of inflation in Latin America
Authors: Dowla Asif 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThere is a lively debate among the monetarists and the structuralists in explaining the persistence of inflation in Latin American countries. The monetarists point out the role of excess demand in generating inflation. On the other hand, the structuralists point out the role of structural factors; agricultural bottleneck, foreign trade bottleneck, and public sector bottlenecks in causing inflation. In this paper we conduct non‐nested hypothesis testing of the structuralist and the monetarist theories of inflation using data for a set of Latin American countries. No general pattern emerges from the tests. In the case of individual country studies the results are mixed. For some countries the tests rank the monetarist model over the structuralist model, while for some others they either accept or reject both models. In the pooled sample there is even less variation in the results. In most of the cases the tests accept both models, suggesting that it is not possible to differentiate between the models. The results of the paper casts serious doubt on the applicability of monetarist and structuralist theories in explaining inflation in Latin America. The conclusion of the paper may be able to explain why in the past stabilization programmes based either on monetarist or structuralist ideas have failed miserably in controlling inflation in Latin America.
Compatibility of the cooperative model with urban informal sector development: A policy query
Authors: Ahwireng‐Obeng Fred 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe degree to which urban informal sector (UIS) operators are willing to engage in cooperation as a self‐help system to attract external support, is determined largely by participatory control, incentive structures and individual self‐determination in the organization and external manoeuvrability. It is not, however, possible to determine a priori whether, in the UIS, formalities of the cooperative model would permit socioeconomic benefits (including sustainable employments and incomes) to be attained sufficiently to offset perverse incentives they induce. This paper seeks explanations of these tendencies and to examine how cooperatives can contribute to UIS development in developing countries.
The application of economic evaluation techniques in the health sector: The state of the art
Authors: Evans David B. , Hurley Susan F. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractEconomic evaluation techniques were originally developed to assess the efficiency of public, rather than private, investment decisions. They are particularly relevant to the health sector where there is general agreement that free markets fail to produce efficient and equitable solutions, and government intervention can improve both equity and efficiency. In this paper, the four evaluation techniques most commonly applied to the health sector—cost‐minimization, cost‐effectiveness, cost‐utility and cost‐benefit analysis—are reviewed in turn. The purpose is not to provide a step by step guide to their use. Rather, the aim is to explain the context in which they are used, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and to highlight a number of methodological issues and controversies surrounding their application. The discussion shows that no technique is without problems, and none can be recommended as being better than the others in all situations. The review concludes that, despite the sophistication of the academic debate surrounding the techniques, the type of economic evaluation which will influence health policy must remain pragmatic. For the time being, a full description of the costs and benefits of competing alternatives is likely to be more useful to decision makers than attempts to incorporate all possible costs and benefits into a single efficiency ratio.
Burden of disease assessment and health system reform: Results of a study in Mexico
Authors: Lozano R. , Murray C. J. L. , Frenk J. , Bobadilla J.‐L. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper describes in broad terms the first national assessment of the burden of disease using Disability Adjusted Life Years, which formed part of an overall study of health system reform in Mexico. The overall project, ‘Health and the Economy: proposals for improving the Health System in Mexico’, is one of the first experiences of applying the analytical tools featured in the World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. The Mexican National Burden of Disease (NBD) study was a critical component of the analysis of health system reform in Mexico. It provided a strong analytical basis for the identification of epidemiological priorities. The results of the study document the heterogeneous nature of the epidemiological transition in different parts of Mexico, and included both premature mortality and disability in the analysis. The results of this study were employed along with information on the cost‐effectiveness of major health interventions in Mexico to design a package of essential health services for all Mexicans. Not only was the NBD study useful in identifying health needs and interventions that may have a major health impact, but the exercise itself had a number of other benefits. Through the careful review of all available sources of information on the incidence, prevalence, duration and severity of disability and mortality by age, sex and cause, the strengths and gaps in the current information system were identified. The process by which a large number of Mexican experts were involved in the estimation of the burden of each disease encouraged broad participation of health experts in the discussions about health reform in Mexico.
NGOS‐a policy panacea for the next millennium?
Authors: Green Andrew , Matthias Ann 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThere has been a significant growth in interest in NGOs in health care over the last decade. This article suggests a number of ideological and other reasons for this interest and analyses the consequences in terms of growing support by donor agencies. The resultant donor policies are still very blunt and often fail to recognize adequately the significant differences among NGOs in terms of their characteristics, roles and motivations. The article concludes that there is a need to develop the current weak understanding of NGOs, for donors to be more focused in their policies towards NGOs, and for support to be given to the important role of governments in developing policy frameworks within which NGOs can operate.
The demise of ‘socialist’ state forms in Africa: an Overview
Authors: Simon David 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper surveys the recent eclipse of various state forms in the Third World claiming the label ‘socialist', with particular reference to Africa. Different variants are distinguished and their trajectories since the late 1980s are explained in terms of both internal and external factors. A comparison of economic and social data on (ex‐)socialist and overtly capitalist Third World states shows that there is generally no clear basis for distinguishing between them within any broad income band. Finally, the nature and extent of politico‐economic change in Africa's erstwhile socialist countries is traced, and is shown to be most marked in the former ‘Marxist‐Leninist’ states.
Change in African farming systems between the mid‐1970s and the mid‐1980s
Authors: Wiggins Steve 
Published: July 2007

AbstractConventional wisdom holds that Africa has been undergoing an agrarian crisis, marked by falling food production per capita and rising imports of cereals, as seen in national statistics. This paper tries to test whether African farmers have indeed experienced the setbacks suggested, by looking at village‐level studies of change in fanning systems between the mid‐1970s and the mid‐1980s. Fourteen studies from six countries were examined. Contrary to the above thesis, there was little evidence of decline, and much of increased production per head, albeit by modest margins. If the studies are representative, then talk of crisis is exaggerated, the national statistics probably seriously underestimate farm output and unspectacular policy may suffice to support African farmers to produce and market more.
Policy‐based lending by the world bank
Authors: Qureshi Moeen Ahmed 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper aims to explain the essential logic of adjustment lending by the World Bank, and to assess some of the implications of the Bank's expertise in this genre for the practice of project lending. Adjustment lending arose from a sense that the disturbances which struck the international economy in the early 1980s could not be adjusted to by project lending alone, and that a lending instrument was required which would help correct the policy distortions which threatened the efficiency of the Bank's projects themselves. Such finance is provided to countries whose commitment to reform is proven, in order to reduce the sacrifice of growth which economic adjustment would otherwise require. Conditionality as understood by the Bank consists of a set of understandings between the Bank and a borrower concerning the nature of the reform programme required, of which the explicit legal conditions contained in loan documents are simply the external symbol. Since the start, conditionality has been linked to the requirements for project success, but much conditionality has in the 1980s been moved away from project agreements towards sector‐level agreements in order to ensure that those signing contracts on behalf of the recipient are also those empowered to carry them out and to take responsibility for sustainability. It may be expected that the demand for adjustment lending will diminish at least in the countries which used it effectively in the 1980s; and therefore that the relative importance of this type of operation in total Bank lending will diminish over time.
Western joint ventures in China
Authors: Casson Mark , Zheng Jurong 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe paper presents new evidence on Western investment in China. It offers a comprehensive analysis of official statistics for the period 1979‐86 which is supplemented by questionnaire responses from 79 Western investors. Theories of internalization and joint venture activity are tested using a regression model which examines the interplay of industry‐specific, firm‐specific and source country‐specific determinants of business strategy. The results suggest that Western investors have pursued a coherent rational strategy towards the economic and political uncertainties of the host environment.
When projects collapse: Irrigation failure in the Gambia from a household perspective
Authors: Webb Patrick 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of the failure of an irrigation project on former beneficiary households. The project in question was designed to expand pump‐irrigated rice production amongst smallholders in The Gambia. It achieved this aim for a few years; increased farm productivity improved food security for participating households, while at the same time increasing their ability to invest in farm, household and community assets. However, the project subsequently succumbed to numerous technical and institutional problems. The paper considers the reasons for the project's failure, discusses the effects and consequences of project unsustainability from the household perspective, and draws a number of conclusions about minimum requirements in the design of projects of this type.
Glycosyl imidates, 73. Synthesis of ganglioside gm1 via a GA1 intermediate
Authors: Stauch Thomas , Greilich Ulrike , Schmidt Richard R. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractThe synthesis of GM1 pentasaccharide 36 via GA1‐intermediate 24 was based on lactose building block 11, Galβ(1–3)‐GalN3 building block 23, and sialyl donors 32. For the synthesis of 11, tetra‐O‐acetyl galactosyl trichloroacetimidate 3 or 2,3‐di‐O‐acetyl‐4,6‐O‐benzylidene‐galactosyl trichloroacetimidate 5 as donors were allowed to react with 4‐O‐unprotected glucose derivative 4 as acceptor to afford lactose derivatives 6 and 7, respectively, in high yields. They were readily transformed via 8 into 2b,3b‐O‐MPM‐protected 9; reductive opening of the dioxane ring with DIBAH furnished regioselectively the desired 4b‐O‐unprotected lactose derivative 11. From donor 3 and 6‐O‐benzoyl‐protected 2‐azidoglucose 19 as acceptor Galβ(1–3)GalN3 disaccharide 20 was synthesized which was readily converted into per‐O‐acylprotected trichloroacetimidate 23. Reaction of 23 with 11 afforded upon Sn(OTf)2 catalysis the desired β‐linked tetrasaccharide 24 in high yield. Removal of the MPM‐protective groups with DDQ furnished 2b,3b‐O‐unprotected derivative 31, which gave by treatment with sialyl donors 32a and 32b GM1‐pentasaccharide intermediate 33 in good yield. 2b‐O‐Acetylation and then hydrogenolysis in the presence of Pearlman's catalyst and ensuing peracetylation afforded O‐acyl‐protected GM1‐pentasaccharide 36 which was already previously converted into GM1.
Die Allen‐Racemisierung, eine zweistufige Reaktion
Authors: Roth Wolfgang R. , Bastigkeit Thorsten 
Published: July 2007

The Racemization of Allene, a Two‐Step ReactionFor four vinyl‐ and phenyl‐substituted allenes racemization enthalpies have been determined, which are 2–6 kcal · mol‐1 below the estimate derived from the parent system by correction for the additional radical stabilization of the intermediate allyldiradical 2(I), indicating the growing importance of the carbene type structure 2(II) for the intermediate. — The racemization of 1,3‐dimethylallene 1b at temperatures >300°C in the presence of NO allows the trapping of an intermediate, which is considered to be the orthogonal allyl diradical 2b. From the trapping kinetics (307–388°C), the reversible bimolecular addition of NO at low temperatures (225–285°C) and the strength of the CNO bond an enthalpy well for the singlet diradical of 2.7 kcal · mol‐1 and a singlet‐triplet splitting of 5.6 kcal · mol‐1 is derived with the triplet being the groundstate. — The postulated intermediate diradical 2 can be stabilized electronically by phenyl and vinyl groups or by strain when incorporated in an eight‐membered ring. Thermolyses of the optically active 1,2,5‐cyclooctatriene 18 in the presence of oxygen allows to determine the enthalpy well of the corresponding diradical 25 to be 13.1 kcal · mol‐1.
Anodic Cyanation of N‐Substituted 1‐Benzazepines: Synthesis of the Corresponding α‐Aminonitriles
Authors: Michel Sébastien , Le Gall Erwan , Hurvois Jean‐Pierre , Moinet Claude , Tallec André , Uriac Philippe , Toupet Loic 
Published: July 2007

Abstractα‐Cyano‐N‐alkyl‐1‐benzazepines are obtained by electrochemical oxidation of various 1‐benzazepines. Electrolyses are carried out in a flow cell, at a carbon felt anode in methanol; the supporting electrolyte is a mixture of lithium acetate and sodium cyanide. With 2,3,4,5‐tetrahydrobenzazepines 2a–c and 5a–b, cyanation takes place either on the sidechain or on the seven‐membered ring; with the latter, the 3‐methyl substituted derivatives 5a–b, the reaction is stereospecific leading only to the trans‐α‐cyano compound. With dihydrobenzazepines 8a–b only ring cyanation occurs; the reaction is again stereospecific for 2,3‐dihydro‐1,3,5‐trimethylbenzazepine (8a) but not for the 2,5‐dihydro‐1,3,5‐trimethyl isomer (8b).
Tetraethynylethene Molecular Scaffolding
Authors: Tykwinski Rik R. , Diederich Franşois 
Published: July 2007

AbstractTetraethynylethene (3,4‐diethynylhex‐3‐ene‐1,5‐diyne, C10H4) and its differentially protected derivatives are versatile building blocks for carbon‐rich molecular scaffolding. They have been applied to the preparation of perethynylated dehydroannulenes, expanded radialenes, poly(triacetylenes), organometallic σ‐acetylide species, and donor/acceptor‐functionalized chromophores with interesting nonlinear optical properties. This article gives an account of the synthesis of tetraethynylethene and its derivatives as well as their elaboration into novel linearly or cross‐conjugated chromophores and functional carbon‐rich nanomaterials.
Chiral Selenium Compounds: Versatile Reagents in Organic Synthesis
Authors: Wirth Thomas 
Published: July 2007

AbstractChiral diselenides are easily accessible and can be used for various asymmetric reactions. Oxy‐ and aminoselenenylations with selenium electrophiles generated from the diselenides are used to build new asymmetric centers in the addition products. Improvements in the synthesis of chiral diselenides are described as well as the generation of addition products suitable for natural product synthesis. Oxyselenenylation‐elimination sequences can be performed with catalytic amounts of chiral diselenides. In addition, such compounds can be used as ligands in other metal‐catalyzed asymmetric reactions.
The effects of job‐related stress on medical center employee communicator style
Authors: Pettegrew Loyd S. , Thomas Richard C. , Ford Julia , Raney Denise C. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractFounded on the assumption that communicator style is situationally and contextually influenced, this study investigates the effects of job‐related stress on communicator style. It was specifically designed to measure the effects of job‐related stress factors on employee communicator style within the context of a medical center organization. Three central research questions are posed: (1) what, if any, meaningful differences in communicator style can be found from general work conditions to stress‐specific conditions; (2) do different stress conditions give rise to meaningful differences in communicator style; (3) what communicator style differences exist among three major medical center employee hierarchies in response to stress‐specific situations. The results indicate that communicator style in the stress‐specific sample was significantly more dominant, open, attentive but less dramatic and friendly. Multivariate analysis revealed that communicator style accounted for the greatest differences between employees who were experiencing stress due to being unprepared to perform their work role. All role‐related stress variables were more powerfully discriminated by the communicator style variables than department/unit stress (stress at the work group level). Finally, communicator style variables provided statistically significant discrimination of three occupational groups: physicians, administrators/managers, and line employees. Physicians appeared to be more assertive and less supportive in their communication; administrators/managers were assertive but also supportive while line employees were both submissive and supportive in their communicator style. These three employee groups were also discriminated using the job‐related stress variables. Although statistically significant findings were obtained, the discriminant functions were less powerful than the communicator style discriminant functions.
Renegotiating absence levels
Authors: Chadwick‐Jones J. K. 
Published: July 2007

AbstractAbsence figures show similar rising trends in a number of national surveys. Most of the figures utilize the Time Lost measure which is heavily weighted by sickness leaves. In general, the national computations of ‘absenteeism’ are inadequate for a variety of reasons, which are discussed. Previous attempts are summarized to relate absence rates to such factors as overtime, strikes, sex roles and an array of correlates. Techniques, managerial and psychological, for controlling absence levels are discussed and cost analysis of absence is also covered. The notion of an acceptable level in both cost and disciplinary terms is suggested and a negotiating approach to bringing absences to this level is proposed and developed subsequently.Thus, consideration of absence data within the North American context, leads to the argument that rates of casual absences might be changed by employer‐employee negotiation of agreed levels. Possible reasons for management reticence over absence information are discussed.