bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Paying for Early Retirement
Authors: Casey Bernard 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe paper looks at the relative importance of state benefits, employer benefits and private sources in supporting early retired men. Using data from various administrative sources, the General Household Survey and the Family Expenditure Survey, it shows how the increase in early retirement which occurred between 1979 and 1986 went hand in hand both with a greater reliance on means-tested benefits and a greater reliance on employer benefits. Although the income of the early retired was well above the minimum accorded by the ‘income support’ system, there were major differences between subgroups of the early retired—those dependent solely on state benefits and those with other sources of income, private and personal—and these differences have become more pronounced over time. Finally, the paper looks at the total costs of early retirement: to the state, to employers and to the early retired themselves. Total costs ballooned between 1979 and 1986. Much of the extra expenditure on benefits fell on employers, but the early retired themselves, through accepting a considerable reduction in their income, bore the bulk of the costs of early retirement.
Individual Taste or Collective Decision? Public Policy on School Meals
Authors: Rose Richard , Falconer Peter 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTSchool meals today are provided on a compromise basis; some pupils are charged and others are not. The compromise thus rejects two types of universalistic principles: allocating private benefits by the market and provision of merit goods collectively free of charge. The article examines, empirically and conceptually, the changing meaning of school meals; the demand and supply of school meals and the allocation of public subsidies to non-needy children; conflicting goals of expert nutritionists, egalitarians, redistributionists, efficient managers, and parents and children. The article concludes by considering political constraints on rationalising the programme in the name of universalistic principles. These constraints include the inheritance of commitments from previous governments, collective responsibility of spending and Treasury ministers; intra-party divisions between frontbench and backbench MPs; and low political salience of charging as an issue.
Consensual Approaches to Poverty Lines and Social Security
Authors: Veit-Wilson J.H. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe principal problematic issue in all poverty measures is the source and status of the standards of needs and deprivation. Rejection of minimum subsistence or quasi-absolute approaches to defining poverty, and acceptance of the social relativism of poverty, logically demand that the indicators of deprivation equally be derived from the society in question and not be prescribed for it by ‘experts’. The paper reviews the policy implications of the distinction between deprivation and poverty, and discusses two principal approaches to empirical methods of establishing ‘consensual’ measures of poverty: the income proxy method and the deprivation indicator method. The paper also distinguishes sociologically-based poverty lines from politically-based social security scales, outlining some important aspects of the theoretical and methodological relations between them.
Age and Income in Contemporary Society: A Research Note
Authors: Hedström Peter , Ringen Stein 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis research note describes the distribution of family income in seven industrial nations, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. Significant differences between the countries are identified. A ‘poverty cycle’ of the type identified by Rowntree still describes the distribution of income over age groups, but it is neither strong nor universal. Elderly families are found to be a key group for understanding the degree of income inequality in contemporary societies.
Citizenship: Opportunities, Rights and Routes to Welfare in Old Age
Authors: Twine Fred 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTBritish debates on citizenship often start from an examination of the important work of T.H. Marshall (1950). This paper is no exception. It is argued that Marshall confuses ‘rights’ and ‘opportunities’ within his notion of civil rights. This critique is then developed in terms of Titmuss' concept of the ‘social division of welfare’ so as to distinguish different routes to welfare in old age. A distinction is made between a civil opportunity route to occupational pensions and a social rights route to a state earnings related pension. This distinction is then elaborated to tease out some social class and gender dimensions of citizenship and inequality in old age from a life course perspective.
The Myth of ‘Unemployable’ People: an evaluation of a new employment service for the ‘hard core’ unemployed
Authors: van den Berg H. , van der Veer C.G. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn an era characterised by vast unemployment it is widely believed that certain categories of people are essentially ‘unemployable’. In most Western European countries, for instance, immigrants and other minority groups are considered to belong to the ‘hard core’ unemployed. While standard methods of the employment service have largely failed in assisting such individuals, a new method has been developed in the Netherlands referred to as the ‘tailor-made’ method. This article summarises research findings on the characteristics and suitability of this method. The findings contradict the myth of the ‘unemployable’ people.
Users and Providers: Different Perspectives on Community Care Services
Authors: Wilson Gail 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTElderly clients usually express satisfaction with their services when they are asked. Surveys of clients and carers therefore have to take this tendency into account. It is important not to ask direct questions and to allow for positive, neutral and negative responses, otherwise positive responses will be overestimated. A survey of clients and carers served by a community psychogeriatric service indicated that the way a service is delivered can be more important than what is provided. The differences between staff and user perceptions of services are analysed. There are theoretical reasons for the differences connected with the combination of care and control exercised by service providers. There are also practical reasons in terms of staff perceptions, which are dominated by process, and client perceptions, which are more directly influenced by the services as they are actually delivered. Attempts to incorporate users' views into the processes of service delivery need to understand these differences and to acknowledge the limitations of user satisfaction surveys.
Comparing Family Policy in Britain, France and Germany
Authors: Hantrais Linda 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn a context where the employment model of welfare is dominant, family policy has remained an area of limited and indirect competence for the European Community. Comparative analysis of Britain, France and the Federal Republic of Germany as examples of EC member states with different socio-cultural traditions and policy styles shows the limitations of theories about universalism, convergence and harmonisation of family structures and policies. Compared with Britain and Germany, the family policy making style in France is more explicit, visible, coherent and legitimate. Its objectives are overtly pro-natalist and it would seem to have had a stronger direct socio-economic impact.
Sweden's Syringe Exchange Debate: Moral Panic in a Rational Society
Authors: Gould Arthur 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe distribution of clean syringes to intravenous drug users has been accepted by many European countries as a necessary measure to prevent the spread of HIV. In Sweden however an official report recommending the widespread adoption of syringe exchange schemes was rejected after considerable debate in the press, at public meetings, in parliament and government. The medical consensus in favour of syringe exchange schemes was rejected by a much wider consensus of drug agency workers, militant pressure groups and the political establishment. It was felt that syringe exchange schemes would not only condone drug misuse but encourage it. The success of the restrictive line in this debate can only partially be explained through a pluralistic analysis of the principal actors involved. To understand why drug misuse in Sweden has come to symbolise a much greater threat to social stability and national values, a deeper analysis of Swedish institutions and culture is required.
Community Ownership and the Break-up of Council Housing in Britain
Authors: Clapham David , Kintrea Keith 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article provides an assessment of the Community Ownership programme in Scotland, which involved the transfer of council housing to par-value co-operatives and community-based housing associations. The evaluation is considered under four headings: resident involvement; the effectiveness of housing management; neighbourhood impacts; and financial appraisal. The findings lend support to the government's programme of breaking up council housing, but lead to criticisms of the emphasis on large-scale voluntary transfers and the neglect of ownership co-operatives in England. In Scotland, the lack of support for the formation of tenant management co-operatives is also criticised.
Dismantling the ‘Iron Rice Bowl’: Welfare Reforms in the People's Republic of China
Authors: Leung Joe C. B. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTIn common with most countries in the world, China is facing an increasing demand for welfare. The free-market economic reforms of the last decade have dramatically transformed social policy in China, which is gradually retreating from an egalitarian and collective approach and moving towards a pluralistic and ‘residual’ orientation. Now, widening income inequalities are accepted as both necessary and inevitable.
Ideology, Programme and Organizational Factors in Public Assistance: The Case of Israel
Authors: Doron Abraham , Kramer Ralph M. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTWhile ideology may not explain differences in welfare policy on an international comparative basis, it can help account for the process of policy development in a particular country. In Israel, ideology was very significant in the historical development of public assistance by its influence on social security policy choices concerning the removal of certain groups from the residual programme of public assistance. Indirectly, ideology also shaped the extent and type of convergence of public assistance and social insurance, as well as the relative size and scope of these two benefit systems. It had, however, relatively little influence on the subsequent operating character of the public assistance programme, which seems to have an inner logic, independent of ideology, inhering in its operating principles. The latter — local responsibility, relative liability, less eligibility and means-testing – were reinforced by the organizational character of the sponsoring agency. Because they serve as a residual programme for groups whose claim for support is not yet legitimized, public assistance programmes in most Western countries will confront the same dilemmas and acquire a similar operating character.
The Hospital Accident and Emergency Department: What is its Role?
Authors: Calnan Michael 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThe problem over the use of accident and emergency departments is portrayed in terms of a typical conflict between professional and lay needs. However, in contrast with the more common image of the professional hospital doctor successfully developing both structural and interactional strategies for maintaining professional dominance over the patient, it is argued that the structural characteristics of the accident and emergency department pose control problems for the profession. These control problems have been exacerbated by developments in other areas of the health service and have led to the development of policies which emphasize both clinical and social elements of patient need. Although there is apparent recognition by providers of the importance of taking into account patient need, the proposed policies are based on professional images of how patients ‘ought’ to use the service. What is clearly lacking is comprehensive data on how the public and the community wishes to use the service and how they actually use the service. Data from national and local studies on patient felt needs and patient demand for the hospital accident and emergency departments are presented and the implications for policy are discussed.
The Deceit of Self Help: Preschool Playgroups and Working Class Mothers
Authors: Finch Janet 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThis article explores the voluntary, self help sector of preschool provision, using material from an in-depth study of playgroups in economically deprived areas of Lancashire. It argues that such playgroups tend either to collapse or to abandon the principle of self help because the economic, structural and cultural location of working class women makes these alternatives to statutory provision not a viable option in such localities. The restructuring of welfare to encourage self help is deceitful because it promotes forms of provision which working class women cannot provide for themselves; it fits well, however, with encouraging them to be ‘better’ mothers on a full-time basis.
Welfare for Profit: Moral, Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives
Authors: Gilbert Neil 
Published: January 2009

AbstractSince the 1960s there has been an increasing number of proprietary agencies engaged in the delivery of social services in the United States. This development has generally been greeted with disfavour by welfare state advocates. Various arguments have been put forward against welfare for profit on moral, empirical and theoretical grounds. This paper analyzes these arguments and proposes several basic conditions that would seem to have significant bearing on the choice between profit and nonprofit providers for a given service.
Postmodern Social Policy: A Contradiction in Terms?
Authors: Hillyard Paddy , Watson Sophie 
Published: January 2009

AbstractThe aim of this article is to present a less negative and more rounded analysis of the potential contribution of postmodernism to social policy than that presented by Taylor-Gooby (1994) in this journal entitled ‘Postmodernism: A Great Leap Backwards?’. It covers four major themes. First, it examines Foucault's ideas on power/knowledge, the body, discipline and surveillance. Second, the article explores the connections between feminism, postmodernism and social policy. Third, it analyses theories of the poststructural state. Fourth, it considers a neglected topic in the subject of space and assesses the contribution of postmodern discourses of spatiality and their relevance to social policy. The article acknowledges the contradiction arising from post-modernism's critique of meta-theory and mainstream social policy's commitment to universalism, but concludes that the answer does not lie in the universal rejection of postmodernism but in the use of the ideas and insights to move the discipline in new directions.
Researching Living Standards: Some Problems and Some Findings
Authors: Morris Lydia 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article reports on comparative research into the living standards of unemployed couples claiming Income Support, couples claiming in-work benefits and couples in receipt of a male median wage. The data reveal high levels of debt and credit dependence across the whole sample, which have a particularly damaging impact on the daily consumption patterns of the unemployed group. The problems this raises for comparative judgements about living standards are discussed, most notably the need for a longitudinal perspective in both the analysis of financial circumstances and the interpretation of data on current standards of living.
Feminism and Child Daycare
Authors: Randall Vicky 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTThis article explores some of the main reasons why feminist mobilisation around the issue of child daycare in Britain has been so limited and its impact so modest. It describes this mobilisation, comparing it with experience in other countries and with mobilisation on other issues. It suggests that the modest achievement to date is largely attributable to factors other than the lack of feminist pressure. Indeed feminist reservations were partly a realistic response to these external constraints. But they were also a consequence of the particular character of second wave feminism in Britain and of the questions posed by the issue of childcare for feminists. These questions included the nature and proper role of the state, motherhood, the value of paid employment for women, social class and the tension between short and long-term strategies for social change.
Women and Health in China: Anatomy, Destiny and Politics
Authors: Pearson Veronica 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACTA number of circumstances have combined in the reform era in China to put women at a more disadvantageous position now than at any other time since 1949. Some of them reflect age-old prejudices, others are the result of the economic reforms, but the two join in a synthesis to threaten women's improved status. Health factors that have particularly impinged on women include: the one-child policy and the skewed birth ratio in favour of boys that this has led to; very clear problems in the area of mental health, including a suicide rate which is much higher for women than for men; kidnapping; and life-threatening exploitation in the new special economic zones. The government's desire to control women's fertility, however, has led to a marked improvement and increase in maternity and childcare health services in the last ten years. The central government has lost power to the provinces and is no longer able to take decisive action to protect women from the effects of discrimination.
Independence of color and luminance edges in natural scenes
Authors: HANSEN THORSTEN , GEGENFURTNER KARL R. 
Published: January 2009

AbstractForm vision is traditionally regarded as processing primarily achromatic information. Previous investigations into the statistics of color and luminance in natural scenes have claimed that luminance and chromatic edges are not independent of each other and that any chromatic edge most likely occurs together with a luminance edge of similar strength. Here we computed the joint statistics of luminance and chromatic edges in over 700 calibrated color images from natural scenes. We found that isoluminant edges exist in natural scenes and were not rarer than pure luminance edges. Most edges combined luminance and chromatic information but to varying degrees such that luminance and chromatic edges were statistically independent of each other. Independence increased along successive stages of visual processing from cones via postreceptoral color-opponent channels to edges. The results show that chromatic edge contrast is an independent source of information that can be linearly combined with other cues for the proper segmentation of objects in natural and artificial vision systems. Color vision may have evolved in response to the natural scene statistics to gain access to this independent information.
FrameDP: sensitive peptide detection on noisy matured sequences
Authors: Gouzy Jérôme , Carrere Sébastien , Schiex Thomas 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
Summary: Transcriptome sequencing represents a fundamental source of information for genome-wide studies and transcriptome analysis and will become increasingly important for expression analysis as new sequencing technologies takes over array technology. The identification of the protein-coding region in transcript sequences is a prerequisite for systematic amino acid-level analysis and more specifically for domain identification. In this article, we present FrameDP, a self-training integrative pipeline for predicting CDS in transcripts which can adapt itself to different levels of sequence qualities.
Availability: FrameDP for Linux (web-server and underlying pipeline) is available at {{http://iant.toulouse.inra.fr/FrameDP}} for direct use or a standalone installation.
Contact: thomas.schiex@toulouse.inra.fr
Sequence-based prediction of protein interaction sites with an integrative method
Authors: Chen Xue-wen , Jeong Jong Cheol 
Published: January 2009

Abstract
Motivation: Identification of protein interaction sites has significant impact on understanding protein function, elucidating signal transduction networks and drug design studies. With the exponentially growing protein sequence data, predictive methods using sequence information only for protein interaction site prediction have drawn increasing interest. In this article, we propose a predictive model for identifying protein interaction sites. Without using any structure data, the proposed method extracts a wide range of features from protein sequences. A random forest-based integrative model is developed to effectively utilize these features and to deal with the imbalanced data classification problem commonly encountered in binding site predictions.
Results: We evaluate the predictive method using 2829 interface residues and 24 616 non-interface residues extracted from 99 polypeptide chains in the Protein Data Bank. The experimental results show that the proposed method performs significantly better than two other sequence-based predictive methods and can reliably predict residues involved in protein interaction sites. Furthermore, we apply the method to predict interaction sites and to construct three protein complexes: the DnaK molecular chaperone system, 1YUW and 1DKG, which provide new insight into the sequence–function relationship. We show that the predicted interaction sites can be valuable as a first approach for guiding experimental methods investigating protein–protein interactions and localizing the specific interface residues.
Availability: Datasets and software are available at http://ittc.ku.edu/~xwchen/bindingsite/prediction.
Contact: xwchen@ku.edu
Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Analysis of mitochondrial DNA diversity in Burkina Faso populations confirms the maternal genetic homogeneity of the West African goat
Authors: Royo L. J. , Traoré A. , Tambourá H. H. , Álvarez I. , Kaboré A. , Fernández I. , Ouédraogo‐Sanou G. , Toguyeni A. , Sawadogo L. , Goyache F. 
Published: January 2009

SummaryTo date, no comprehensive study has been performed on mitochondrial genetic diversity of the West African goat. Here, we analysed a 481‐bp fragment of the HVI region of 111 goats representing four native West African populations, namely the three main Burkina Faso breeds, zoo‐farm kept Dwarf goats and endangered Spanish goat breeds used as the outgroup. Analyses gave 83 different haplotypes with 102 variable sites. Most haplotypes (65) were unique. Only three haplotypes were shared between populations. Haplotypes were assigned to cluster A except for H45 (belonging to the Spanish Bermeya goat) which was assigned to cluster C. amova analysis showed that divergence between groups (ΦCT) was not statistically significant regardless of whether the partition in two hierarchical levels that was fitted included Spanish samples or not. The West African goat scenario shown here is consistent with that previously reported for the species: haplogroup A is predominant and has a very high haplotype diversity regardless of the geographic area or sampled breed. The large phenotypic differences observable between the West African Dwarf and Sahelian long‐legged goat populations are not detectable with mitochondrial markers. Moreover, a previously suggested introgression of Sahelian goat southwards because of desertification could not be assessed using mtDNA information.