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Actual Risks (actual + risk)
Selected AbstractsHas Finance Made the World Riskier?EUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2006Raghuram G. Rajan G20; G21; G22 Abstract Developments in the financial sector have led to an expansion in its ability to spread risks. The increase in the risk bearing capacity of economies, as well as in actual risk taking, has led to a range of financial transactions that hitherto were not possible, and has created much greater access to finance for firms and households. On net, this has made the world much better off. Concurrently, however, we have also seen the emergence of a whole range of intermediaries, whose size and appetite for risk may expand over the cycle. Not only can these intermediaries accentuate real fluctuations, they can also leave themselves exposed to certain small probability risks that their own collective behaviour makes more likely. As a result, under some conditions, economies may be more exposed to financial-sector-induced turmoil than in the past. The paper discusses the implications for monetary policy and prudential supervision. In particular, it suggests market-friendly policies that would reduce the incentive of intermediary managers to take excessive risk. [source] Dangerous Children: Assessment and Management of RiskCHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2004Paul Tiffin Background:, Workers in the field of child health appear to be presented with increasing numbers of young people who exhibit behaviours that pose a potential or actual risk to the safety of others. Method:, A review of the current literature on the assessment and management of these children and adolescents was conducted. Results:, A history taking check-list has been devised on the basis of what is known about current associations with background and current factors and violent acts directed to others. There is emerging evidence of interventions that may be effective in reducing long-term risks in such youths. However, these are often resource intensive and may be less effective in older children and adolescents. Conclusions:, Faced with the challenge of assessing and managing severely conduct disordered children, child and family mental health teams should develop formalised assessment procedures and protocols for managing risk factors in a multi-agency context. [source] Fighting infections due to multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogensCLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTION, Issue 3 2009G. Cornaglia Guest Editor Growing bacterial resistance in Gram-positive pathogens means that what were once effective and inexpensive treatments for infections caused by these bacteria are now being seriously questioned, including penicillin and macrolides for use against pneumococcal infections and,in hospitals,oxacillin for use against staphylococcal infections. As a whole, multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-positive pathogens are rapidly becoming an urgent and sometimes unmanageable clinical problem. Nevertheless, and despite decades of research into the effects of antibiotics, the actual risk posed to human health by antibiotic resistance has been poorly defined; the lack of reliable data concerning the outcomes resulting from antimicrobial resistance stems, in part, from problems with study designs and the methods used in resistence determination. Surprisingly little is known, too, about the actual effectiveness of the many types of intervention aimed at controlling antibiotic resistance. New antibiotics active against MDR Gram-positive pathogens have been recently introduced into clinical practice, and the antibiotic pipeline contains additional compounds at an advanced stage of development, including new glycopeptides, new anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ,-lactams, and new diaminopyrimidines. Many novel antimicrobial agents are likely to be niche products, endowed with narrow antibacterial spectra and/or targeted at specific clinical problems. Therefore, an important educational goal will be to change the current, long-lasting attitudes of both physicians and customers towards broad-spectrum and multipurpose compounds. Scientific societies, such as the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), must play a leading role in this process. [source] Soil-solution speciation of CD as affected by soil characteristics in unpolluted and polluted soilsENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2005Erik Meers Abstract Total metal content by itself is insufficient as a measure to indicate actual environmental risk. Understanding the mobility of heavy metals in the soil and their speciation in the soil solution is of great importance for accurately assessing environmental risks posed by these metals. In a first explorative study, the effects of general soil characteristics on Cd mobility were evaluated and expressed in the form of empirical formulations. The most important factors influencing mobility of Cd proved to be pH and total soil content. This may indicate that current legislation expressing the requirement for soil sanitation in Flanders (Belgium) as a function of total soil content, organic matter, and clay does not successfully reflect actual risks. Current legal frameworks focusing on total content, therefore, should be amended with criteria that are indicative of metal mobility and availability and are based on physicochemical soil properties. In addition, soil-solution speciation was performed using two independent software packages (Visual Minteq 2.23 and Windermere Humic Aqueous model VI [WHAM VI]). Both programs largely were in agreement in concern to Cd speciation in all 29 soils under study. Depending on soil type, free ion and the organically complexed forms were the most abundant species. Additional inorganic soluble species were sulfates and chlorides. Minor species in solution were in the form of nitrates, hydroxides, and carbonates, the relative importance of which was deemed insignificant in comparison to the four major species. [source] A simple Tenax® extraction method to determine the availability of sediment-sorbed organic compoundsENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 4 2001Gerard Cornelissen Abstract A simple method to determine the availability of sediment-sorbed organic contaminants was developed and validated. For 10 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 4 polychlorinated biphenyls, and 9 chlorobenzenes in 6 sediments, we measured the fraction extracted by Tenax® in 6 and 30 h. These fractions were compared with the rapidly desorbing fractions determined by consecutive Tenax extraction. Extraction by Tenax for 30 h completely removed the rapidly desorbing fraction plus some part of the slowly desorbing fraction. The fraction removed after 30 h was about 1.4 times the rapidly desorbing fraction. The fraction extracted by Tenax after 6 h is about 0.5 times the rapidly desorbing fraction for chlorobenzenes (CBs)/polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The rapidly desorbing fraction probably represents the fraction of sorbed organic compound that poses actual risks for transport to (ground) water and determines the uptake by organisms and that can be microbially degraded. Extraction by Tenax for 6 h provides an easy way to address these issues more accurately than does the measurement of total concentrations. [source] The Perceived Efficacy and Risks of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine: A Vignette Study,JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2001Adrian Furnham Participants (N= 148), including CAM users and general practitioner (GP) patients who had never used CAM treatments, read a series of 6 vignettes describing 3 medical conditions being treated using orthodox and CAM methods. As expected, results indicated that both CAM users and GP patients were more likely to agree that their own treatments were effective and were associated with fewer generic risks. Contrary to expectation, both CAM and GP patients were more likely to agree that orthodox treatments were associated with more actual risks than were CAM treatments, and all orthodox treatments for each medical condition were perceived as having more side effects than CAM treatments. [source] Environmental Risk and Uncertainty: Insights from Yucca MountainJOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2003Mary Riddel Using data from a survey of southern Nevada households, we develop a model,based subjective risk estimate for each household. We then explore different factors that may influence the household's location decisions if the proposed transportation route is ultimately chosen for nuclear waste transport. We extend the conventional expected utility model to allow for uncertainty surrounding the actual risks borne by the household. Finally, we examine the impact of federal government compensation on households' location decisions. The findings indicate that residents currently living near the proposed transportation route express subjective risk estimates much larger than those reported by the Department of Energy. In general, households that are uncertain about the future risks are more likely to relocate than those expressing certainty. When everything is considered, the model predicts that between one and three percent of households living near the transportation route are likely to relocate. Compensation can influence some households to remain at their present location and bear the transport risk. [source] | ||||||||||