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Great Britain (great + britain)
Selected AbstractsTHE PATTERN AND EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS IN GREAT BRITAIN,THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 4 2007DAVID BELL Government policy on the nature of wage bargaining in the public sector can have important implications for the provision of public services. Using the New Earnings Survey, the Labour Force Survey and the British Household Panel Survey, we examine the size and evolution of public,private sector wage differentials across geographical areas within the UK and over time. Public sector bargaining structures have led to historically high wage premia, although these premia are declining over time. In high-cost low-amenity areas, such as the south-east of England, the public sector underpays relative to the private sector, therefore creating problems in recruitment to and provision of public services. Public sector labour markets are around 40 per cent as responsive to area differences in amenities and costs as are private sector labour markets. Differences in the degree of spatial variation between sectors are likely to remain, leading to persistent problems for the delivery of public services in some parts of the UK. Reform of public sector pay structures is likely to be costly, and so other non-pay policies need to be considered to increase the attractiveness of public sector jobs. [source] ,MERELY MECHANICAL': ON THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYRIGHT IN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAINART HISTORY, Issue 1 2008ANNE MCCAULEY The invention of the medium of photography and its commercialization as a cheap multiple during the 1850s and 1860s led to challenges to extant copyright laws in France and Great Britain. This paper traces the ways that debates over photographic copyright confronted current understandings of originality and mechanization and repeated arguments that had already been raised by laws governing prints and casts. The British Fine Arts Copyright Act of 1862, which extended statutory protection to all photographs, is contrasted with French cases, which struggled to accommodate photographs within the fine arts as defined by the copyright law of 1793. [source] "A Certain Irritation": The White House, the State Department, and the Desire for a Naval Settlement with Great Britain, 1927,1930DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, Issue 5 2007B. j. c. Mckercher First page of article [source] The impacts of climate change on the risk of natural disastersDISASTERS, Issue 1 2006Maarten K. Van Aalst Abstract Human emissions of greenhouse gases are already changing our climate. This paper provides an overview of the relation between climate change and weather extremes, and examines three specific cases where recent acute events have stimulated debate on the potential role of climate change: the European heatwave of 2003; the risk of inland flooding, such as recently in Central Europe and Great Britain; and the harsh Atlantic hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005. Furthermore, it briefly assesses the relation between climate change and El Niño, and the potential of abrupt climate change. Several trends in weather extremes are sufficiently clear to inform risk reduction efforts. In many instances, however, the potential increases in extreme events due to climate change come on top of alarming rises in vulnerability. Hence, the additional risks due to climate change should not be analysed or treated in isolation, but instead integrated into broader efforts to reduce the risk of natural disasters. [source] Abundance , occupancy relationships in macrofauna on exposed sandy beaches: patterns and mechanismsECOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2004Matthew T. Frost We studied the relationship between abundance and extent of occupancy of 158 species of macrofauna inhabiting 66 sandy beaches around the coast of Great Britain. We also used these data to test the predictions of two hypotheses proposed to explain positive abundance-occupancy relationships. We found a strong positive relationship between abundance and extent of occupancy; this pattern was apparent in taxonomic subsets of organisms which have contrasting reproductive and dispersal traits such as planktotrophic/lecithotrophic development in the plankton vs brood development under parental care. Moreover, the abundance-occupancy relationships in these taxonomic subsets had statistically indistinguishable slopes, and elevation. We propose that this lends support to the notion that differences in population structure such as the tendency to form metapopulations may not be primary determinants of the abundance-occupancy pattern in these taxa as proposed by the rescue/metapopulation hypothesis. To test the predictions of the niche-breadth hypothesis we derived values describing the range of sediment grain-sizes exploited by members of two taxonomic subgroups: amphipods and bivalves. We found a weak, statistically non-significant relationship between this niche-breadth measure and occupancy in bivalves which have been shown to respond to grain-size in previous studies, however this was negated after correction for possible artefacts of sampling effort. All other relationships between abundance or occupancy and grain-size range were non-significant. The consistency of the demonstrated abundance-occupancy relationship with those demonstrated in other studies of primarily terrestrial fauna indicates some shared mechanistic explanation, but our data fail to provide support for the two mechanistic hypotheses investigated. [source] Predicting the life-time benefit of school-based smoking prevention programmesADDICTION, Issue 6 2010Mark Jit ABSTRACT Aim School-based smoking prevention programmes may delay the age of smoking initiation, but do not appear to achieve lasting reductions in smoking prevalence beyond school-leaving age. We explored whether delaying the age at which someone initiates smoking may have life-time benefits by increasing the likelihood of quitting in later life. Design and setting Data from the General Household Survey of Great Britain were used in a logistic regression model to examine the association between age at which someone initiates regular smoking and the probability that the person will quit smoking later in life. The effect of confounding variables (sex, ethnicity, socio-economic class, education and geographical location) was taken into account. The predicted relationship was used in a cohort model to estimate the life-time reduction in smoking prevalence and all-cause mortality of a school-based smoking prevention programme. Results Age of regular smoking initiation was associated strongly with the probability of quitting later in life (coefficient ,0.103, P < 0.001). The strength of the association was slightly reduced but still significant when confounding variables were included (coefficient ,0.075, P < 0.001). An intervention that delays smoking initiation without decreasing smoking prevalence at age 18 may reduce adult smoking prevalence by 0.13,0.32% (depending on age) and all-cause mortality by 0.09% over the life-time of the sample. Conclusion School-based smoking prevention programmes have potential for a beneficial effect over the life-time of the participants even if they have no apparent effect at school-leaving age. [source] The rise of modern business: Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan and China , By Mansel G. BlackfordECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009FRANCO AMATORI No abstract is available for this article. [source] Rent seeking and collusion in the military allocation decisions of Finland, Sweden, and Great Britain, 1920,381ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009JARI ELORANTA Analysis of military acquisition policies in Finland, Sweden, and Great Britain in the period from 1920 to 1938 produces evidence of rent seeking, both quantitative and qualitative, in all three cases. The Finnish institutional environment offered the most extensive rents and collusion opportunities, which translated into tangible price advantages for domestic producers. The Swedish and British domestic producers operated under more efficient institutions and thus had to settle for more moderate rents. Evolving institutional environments determined the extent of the rent seeking. [source] Steam, hot air, and small change: Matthew Boulton and the reform of Britain's coinageECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 3 2003George Selgin This article challenges the claim that Great Britain solved its ,big problem of small change' (the problem of keeping decent low-denomination coins in circulation) by embracing Matthew Boulton's steam-based coining technology. Evidence from Great Britain's commercial token episode (1787,97) shows that a successful small change system depended, not on the motive power employed in coining, but on the quality and consistency of coin engravings and on having means for systematically withdrawing worn coins. The Tower Mint failed to solve Great Britain's small change problem, not because its equipment was old-fashioned, but because its policies and constitution were flawed. [source] Caught in a Trap?ECONOMICA, Issue 268 2000Wage Mobility in Great Britain: 197 In this paper I study wage mobility in Great Britain using the New Earnings Surveys of 1975,94 and the British Household Panel Surveys of 1991,94. Measuring mobility in terms of decile transition matrices, I find a considerable degree of immobility within the wage distribution from one year to the next. Mobility is higher when measured over longer time periods. Those in lower deciles in the wage distribution are much more likely to exit into unemployment and non-employment. Measuring mobility by studying changes in individuals' actual percentile rankings in the wage distribution, I find evidence that short-run mobility rates have fallen since the late 1970s. This has potentially important welfare implications, given the rise in cross-section earnings inequality observed over the last two decades. [source] The risk of a horse-and-rider partnership falling on the crosscountry phase of eventing competitionsEQUINE VETERINARY JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006J. K. Murray Summary Reasons for performing study: Fatalities resulting from horse falls occurring during the cross-country phase of eventing competitions initiated epidemiological investigation of the risk factors associated with horse falls. Objectives: To identify variables that increased or decreased the risk of a horse fall during the cross-country phase of an eventing competition. Methods: Data were collected from randomly selected British Eventing competitions held in Great Britain during 2001 and 2002. Data were obtained for 173 cases (jumping efforts resulting in a fall of the horse-and-rider partnership) and 503 matched controls (jumping efforts not resulting in a fall). The risk of falling was modelled using conditional logistic regression. Results: An increased risk of a horse fall was associated with jumping into or out of water; taking off from good-to-soft, soft or heavy ground; fences with a drop landing; nonangled fences with a spread ,2 m; and angled fences. Other risk factors included riders who knew that they were in the lead within the competition before the cross-country phase; an inappropriate speed of approach to the fence (too fast or too slow); horse-and-rider partnerships that had not incurred refusals at earlier fences; and riders who received cross-country tuition. Conclusions: This study has identified modifiable course- and fence-level risk factors for horse falls during the cross-country phase of eventing competitions. The risk of horse and rider injury at eventing competitions should be reduced by 3 simple measures; maintaining good to firm take-off surfaces at fences, reducing the base spread of fences to <2 m and reducing the use of fences at which horses are required to jump into or out of water. Risk reduction arising from course and fence modification needs to be confirmed by intervention studies. Potential relevance: Knowledge of factors that increase or decrease the risk of a horse fall can be used by UK governing bodies of the sport to reduce the risk of horse falls on the cross-country phase of eventing competitions, and reduce the risk of horse and rider injuries and fatalities. As one in 3 horses that fall injure themselves and one in 100 horse falls results in fatality to the horse, we suggest that immediate consideration is given to these recommendations. [source] Why the democratic nation-state is still legitimate: A study of media discoursesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009ACHIM HURRELMANN Focusing on media discourses, this article maps the communicative reproduction of legitimacy in Great Britain, the United States, Germany and Switzerland. It argues that political communication constitutes a distinctive dimension of legitimation that should be studied alongside public opinion and political behaviour. Research on legitimation discourses can help us understand why the legitimacy of established democracies remains stable in spite of the challenges of globalisation: Delegitimating communication tends to focus on relatively marginal political institutions, while the core regime principles of the democratic nation-state, which are deeply entrenched in the political cultures of Western countries, serve as anchors of legitimacy. These democratic principles also shape the normative benchmarks used to evaluate legitimacy, thus preventing a ,de-democratisation' of legitimation discourses. Finally, the short-lived nature of media interest as well as ritualistic legitimation practices shield the democratic nation-state from many potentially serious threats to its legitimacy. [source] Experiments on the susceptibility of conifers to Heterobasidion annosum in Great BritainFOREST PATHOLOGY, Issue 4 2001Greig During the period 1960,71, experimental plantings were established at three sites in western Britain that were infested with Heterobasidion annosum: Ceri in mid-Wales, Lael in north-west Scotland and Red Marley in the West Midlands of England. At each site a randomized block experiment involving at least four species was supplemented with an ancillary trial of other species. In two of the experiments various treatments were applied to the previous stand of trees before or at felling, but only stump removal reduced the amount of disease in the succeeding crops. At Ceri, the incidence of H. annosum in stems removed at first thinning was: Picea sitchensis, 14%; Pseudotsuga menziesii 11%; Pinus contorta 3% and Abies procera 1%. At Lael, the figures were Larix decidua 59%; P. menziesii 51%; Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 37%; Abies amabilis 33% and Tsuga heterophylla 21%. There was negligible disease in A. procera;Abies grandis and Pinus sylvestris. At Red Marley, the incidence of disease was: P. menziesii 28%; T. heterophylla 18%; A. grandis 7%; Picea abies 1% and Pinus nigra var. maritima 0%. In the ancillary trial at Lael, the incidence of H. annosum in P. sitchensis was 55% and in P. abies 16%. The mean height of colonization by H. annosum within the diseased stems removed at first thinning at Lael (age 21,22 years) was 2.1 m for L. decidua, 1.4 m for P. sitchensis and 1.3 m for P. abies. Armillaria sp. caused mortality and decay in two of the experiments and these data are also presented. The results are discussed in relation to other information on the susceptibility of these species to H. annosum in the UK and elsewhere. Expérimentations sur la sensibilité des conifères à Heterobasidion annosum Entre 1960 et 1971, des plantations expérimentales ont été installées dans trois sites infectés par Heterobasidion annosum dans l'ouest de la Grande-Bretagne: à Ceri (centre du Pays de Galles), à Lael (nord-ouest de l'Écosse), et à Red Marley (ouest des Midlands, Angleterre). Dans chaque site, un essai en blocs randomisés comprenant au moins quatre espèces a été complété avec des espèces supplémentaires. Dans deux des essais, divers traitements ont été appliqués au peuplement antérieur ou au moment de son exploitation, mais seul l'arrachage des souches avait réduit la quantité de maladie. A Ceri, l'incidence de H. annosum dans les tiges enlevées à la première éclaircie était la suivante: Picea sitchensis, 14%; Pseudotsuga menziesii, 11%; Pinus contorta, 3% et Abies procera, 1%. A Lael: Larix decidua, 59%; Pseudotsuga menziesii, 51%; Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, 37%; Abies amabilis, 33%; Tsuga heterophylla, 21%. La maladie était négligeable chez A. procera, A. grandis et Pinus sylvestris. A Red Marley, l'incidence était la suivante: Pseudotsuga menziesii, 28%; Tsuga heterophylla, 18%; Abies grandis, 7%; Picea abies, 1% et Pinus nigra var. maritima, 0%. Chez les espèces supplémentaires à Lael, l'incidence était de 55% chez Picea sitchensis et de 16% chez P. abies. La hauteur moyenne de colonisation des tiges infectées par H. annosum, prélevées à la première éclaircie à Lael (age: 21,22 ans) était de 2,1 m chez Larix decidua, 1,4 m chez Picea sitchensis et 1,3 m chez P. abies. Armillaria sp. provoquait des mortalités et des altérations dans deux des essais et ces données sont également présentées. Les résultats sont discutés en relation avec d'autres informations sur la sensibilité de ces espèces àH. annosum au Royaume-Uni et ailleurs. Versuche zur Anfälligkeit von Nadelgehölzen gegen Heterobasidion annosum in Grossbritannien Während der Jahre 1960,71 wurden an drei Standorten im Westen Großbritanniens Versuchspflanzungen angelegt, die von Heterobasidion annosum befallen waren (Ceri in Mittelwales, Lael in Nordwest-Schottland und Red Marley im westlichen Mittelland von England). An jedem Standort wurde ein randomisierter Blockversuch mit mindestens vier Baumarten angelegt. Ergänzend wurden zusätzliche Arten getestet. Auf zwei Versuchsflächen wurden unterschiedliche Behandlungen des Vorbestandes bzw. der Fläche durchgeführt. Das Auftreten der Krankheit im Folgebestand konnte nur durch die Rodung der Stümpfe reduziert werden. In Ceri wurden bei den in der ersten Durchforstung entnommenen Stämmen folgende Infektionshäufigkeiten festgestellt: Picea sitchensis 14%, Pseudotsuga menziesii 11%, Pinus contorta 3% und Abies procera 1%. In Lael ergab sich folgendes Bild: Larix decidua 59%, Pseudotsuga menziesii 51%, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 37%, Abies amabilis 33% und Tsuga heterophylla 21%. Der Befall von Abies grandis, A. procera and Pinus sylvestris war vernachlässigbar gering. In Red Marley betrug die Infektionshäufigkeit bei Pseudotsuga menziesii 28%, bei Tsuga heterophylla 18%, Abies grandis 7%, Picea abies 1% und Pinus nigra var. maritima 0%. In dem Ergänzungsversuch in Lael waren Picea sitchensis zu 55% und P. abies zu 16% von H. annosum infiziert. Die mittlere Höhe der Ausbreitung von H. annosum in den erkrankten Stämmen, die bei der ersten Durchforstung entfernt wurden, betrug in Lael (Alter 21,22 Jahre) 2,1 m bei Larix decidua, 1,4 m bei Picea sitchensis und 1,3 m bei P. abies. Auch Armillaria sp. verursachte Mortalität und Fäule. Diese Daten werden ebenfalls präsentiert. Die Ergebnisse werden im Vergleich mit der verfügbaren Information zur Anfälligkeit dieser Baumarten diskutiert. [source] MUSLIMS, HINDUS, AND SIKHS IN THE NEW RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE OF ENGLAND,GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2003CERI PEACH ABSTRACT. This article examines the dramatic changes brought to English townscapes by Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism. These "new" religions have arrived with the large-scale immigration and subsequent natural growth of the minority ethnic populations of Great Britain since the 1950s. The article traces the growth and distribution of these populations and religions, as well as the development of their places of worship from front-room prayer rooms to cathedral-scale buildings. It explores the way in which the British planning process, dedicated to preserving the traditional, has engaged with the exotic. [source] German Academics in British Universities During the First World War: The Case of Karl Wichmann1GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 4 2007Christopher T. Husbands ABSTRACT Despite the scholarly attention given to the treatment of Germans in Great Britain during the First World War, there are only sparse details in this historical literature about how those of German origin working specifically in higher education were treated. This article considers Professors of German of German origin in British higher education, focusing on the hitherto little-reported case of Karl Wichmann (better known as a minor German/English lexicographer), who was employed as Professor of German at the University of Birmingham from 1907 to 1917. It considers the circumstances leading to Wichmann's resignation in March 1917 and discusses the known details of what happened to him thereafter. [source] Loss of forb diversity in relation to nitrogen deposition in the UK: regional trends and potential controlsGLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 10 2006CARLY J. STEVENS Abstract In this study we investigate the impact of nitrogen (N) deposition on the diversity of three different vegetation functional groups , forbs, grasses and mosses , using a field survey of acid grasslands across Great Britain. Our aim is to identify the vegetation types that are most vulnerable to enhanced N deposition, and to shed light on the mechanisms that may be driving N-initiated species changes in the UK. Sixty-eight randomly selected grasslands belonging to the UK National Vegetation Classification group U4 (Festuca ovina,Agrostis capillaris,Galium saxatile grassland) were studied along a gradient of atmospheric N deposition ranging from 6 to 36 kg N ha,1 yr,1. At each site, vegetation was surveyed and samples were taken from the topsoil and subsoil. Aboveground plant material was collected from three species: a forb, grass and moss. Both the species richness and cover of forbs declined strongly with increasing N deposition, from greater than eight species/20% cover per m2 quadrat at low levels of N to fewer than two species/5% cover at the highest N deposition levels. Grasses showed a weak but significant decline in species richness, and a trend toward increasing cover with increasing N input. Mosses showed no trends in either species richness or cover. Most of the decline in plant species richness could be accounted for by the level of ammonium deposition. Soil KCl-extractable ammonium concentration showed a significant positive correlation with N input, but there was no relationship between N deposition and extractable nitrate. In the soil O/A horizon, there was no relationship between N deposition and %N, and only a very weak positive relationship between the level of N deposition and the C : N ratio. Finally, in the vegetation, there was no relationship between N deposition and either shoot tissue N concentration or N : P ratio for any of the three reference species. Combining our regional survey with the results of published N-addition experiments provides compelling evidence that there has been a significant decline in the species richness and cover of forbs across Great Britain, and that the primary cause is competition due to an increase in the cover of grasses in response to enhanced deposition of reactive N, primarily NH4+. [source] Dispersal and the interspecific abundance-occupancy relationship in British birdsGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2003Kevin J. Gaston ABSTRACT Aim To test the prediction that deviations of species from the positive interspecific relationship between abundance and occupancy (a measure of geographical range size) are related to differences in dispersal. Location Great Britain. Methods Quantitative data on the abundances, occupancy and dispersal distances of British birds are compared using phylogenetic comparative methods. Results Measures of natal and adult dispersal distance, and the intraspecific variance in these parameters, explain little variation in occupancy in addition to that accounted for by population size. Individual dispersal variables failed to explain significant variance when added individually to a model with population size as a predictor. Migrants and species using wet habitats tend to disperse further than residents and dry habitat species. Analysing these four groups separately revealed effects of dispersal only on the occupancy attained by dry habitat species. Conclusions The only consistent predictor of occupancy in these analyses was population size. [source] Effects of drought on contrasting insect and plant species in the UK in the mid-1990sGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2002M. D. Morecroft Abstract Aim We examined the effects of drought in the summer of 1995 and the subsequent year on contrasting species of plants, moths, butterflies and ground beetles. We tested whether population increases were associated with: (a) species of warm environments (b) species of dry environments (c) species with rapid reproduction (d) species with high rates of dispersal. Location The study was conducted at Environmental Change Network (ECN) sites throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Methods Climate monitoring, recording of plant species in permanent plots, transect walking for butterflies, light trapping for moths and pitfall trapping for carabid beetles were used. Results There was an overall increase in the number of species recorded in permanent vegetation plots between 1994 and 1996, principally among the annual and biennial vascular plants, probably as a result of gap colonization in grasslands. Most butterfly and moth species increased between 1994 and 1995. Among the butterflies, a southern distribution and high mobility were associated with species tending to increase throughout the period 1994,96, whereas declining species tended to have a northern distribution. A similar number of carabid beetle species increased as decreased in the period 1994,96; decreasing species tended to be associated with lower temperatures and wetter soils. Conclusions Current climate change scenarios indicate that the incidence of droughts in the United Kingdom will increase. A series of dry, hot summers could lead to a rapid change in the population of some species although others, including many plants, may be more resilient. This may lead to complex changes in ecosystems and needs to be considered in planning conservation strategies. [source] Access to health care in nursing homes: a survey in one English Health AuthorityHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2000MB BCh MRCGP MPH Geraldine O'Dea Abstract The objective of the study was to establish the arrangements for provision of general practitioner (GP), nursing advice, chiropody, physiotherapy and speech and language services to nursing homes and to establish the charging policies for those services. To this end a telephone survey of the managers of the 51 nursing homes registered with one English health authority, Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Health Authority, was undertaken. Forty-nine homes (96%) with 1541 residents responded. Twenty per cent of homes had no regular GP visits and half the homes had no planned medication reviews. One in five homes (27% of residents) had access to all health-care services. Eight homes (10% of residents) did not have access to therapy services or nursing advice. Thirty-three homes used private or both private and NHS chiropody services and 16 homes used the NHS service only. Seventeen homes used private or both private and NHS physiotherapy services with 10 homes receiving a regular private service. Twenty homes used the NHS service and 12 homes (15% of residents) had used no physiotherapy service. None used private speech and language services. Twenty-four of the 33 homes using private chiropody charged extra for this service compared with two of 10 homes using regular private physiotherapy. The findings suggest that there are inequalities in access to health care services in nursing homes. Moreover, there has been a deterioration in access to and levels of provision of NHS nursing and physiotherapy services since the national survey undertaken by the Office Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) in Great Britain in the mid-1980s. The new regulatory framework for older people must include systems for monitoring the provision of health services. [source] The Medical Library Association of Great Britain and IrelandHEALTH INFORMATION & LIBRARIES JOURNAL, Issue 4 2004David S. Crawford No abstract is available for this article. [source] Trade Union Presence and Employer-Provided Training in Great BritainINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2004RENÉ BÖHEIM Using linked employer-employee data from the British 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, we find a positive correlation between workplace union recognition and private-sector employer-provided training. We explore the avenues through which union recognition might affect training by interacting recognition with the closed shop, the level at which pay bargaining takes place, and multiunionism. For non-manual-labor men and women, only union recognition matters. The various types of collective-bargaining institutions have no separate effect. However, the male manual training probability is significantly increased by union presence only through multiple unionism with joint negotiation. In contrast, for women manual workers, union recognition at the workplace has no effect on the training probability. [source] The Role of Job Attributes in Understanding the Public-Private Wage DifferentialINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2002Keith A. Bender This study uses a unique data set for Great Britain to investigate the impact of differences in job attributes on the public-private wage differential. The study reveals that (1) there are substantial differences in wage structure between the two sectors, particularly finding that the public-sector wage structure is less sensitive to differences in the attributes of jobs, and (2) differences in job attributes play in a major role in accounting for pay differences across sectors. [source] Sleeping with baby: an internet-based sampling of parental experiences, choices, perceptions, and interpretations in a western industrialized contextINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2007J. J. McKenna Abstract Mothers and infants sleeping within proximity to each other (co-sleeping) represents normal, healthy, and expectable human behaviour, especially if mothers breastfeed. Yet, western health officials generally recommend against particularly one form of co-sleeping known as bedsharing. This study explores these issues and especially highlights parental accounts of their sleep practices, interpretations, and reflections based on detailed narratives or ,ethnohistories.' The sample involves a self-selected sub-group of over 200 mostly middle-class mothers from Canada, the United States, Australia, and Great Britain. Mothers report how and why they adopted co-sleeping practices, how satisfied they are (or were) with their decisions, and what benefits they think they or their infants derived from their co-sleeping practices. Also included in the reports are a surprisingly high number of parents who think they may have saved their infant's life by bedsharing, data heretofore never reported in the literature. The formulation of medical policies, we suggest, ultimately must be informed by a full understanding of how parents actually think about and subsequently structure their infant's sleep, what their goals and expectations are, and by an awareness of the emotional factors motivating parents to choose certain sleeping arrangements over others. The results reveal that many factors coalesce, often in unique ways, under unique circumstances, family by family, to determine where babies sleep and why. We conclude that sleeping arrangements are not solely determined by medically based recommendations, but also by the method of feeding, the particular needs of a particular infant, and the needs of mothers and fathers to get more sleep. While baby sleep locations and sleep patterns change in the first year of life, nighttime sleeping arrangements almost always reflect the nature of family values and the quality of social relationships at any given time. We conclude that these factors, alongside widely known independent SIDS risk factors, must also be acknowledged and respected if we are ever to achieve an effective and inclusive public health approach to the question of creating safe sleep environments for infants and children. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Spatial clustering of childhood cancer in Great Britain during the period 1969,1993INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 4 2009Richard J.Q. McNally Abstract The aetiology of childhood cancer is poorly understood. Both genetic and environmental factors are likely to be involved. The presence of spatial clustering is indicative of a very localized environmental component to aetiology. Spatial clustering is present when there are a small number of areas with greatly increased incidence or a large number of areas with moderately increased incidence. To determine whether localized environmental factors may play a part in childhood cancer aetiology, we analyzed for spatial clustering using a large set of national population-based data from Great Britain diagnosed 1969,1993. The Potthoff-Whittinghill method was used to test for extra-Poisson variation (EPV). Thirty-two thousand three hundred and twenty-three cases were allocated to 10,444 wards using diagnosis addresses. Analyses showed statistically significant evidence of clustering for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) over the whole age range (estimate of EPV = 0.05, p = 0.002) and for ages 1,4 years (estimate of EPV = 0.03, p = 0.015). Soft-tissue sarcoma (estimate of EPV = 0.03, p = 0.04) and Wilms tumours (estimate of EPV = 0.04, p = 0.007) also showed significant clustering. Clustering tended to persist across different time periods for cases of ALL (estimate of between-time period EPV = 0.04, p =0.003). In conclusion, we observed low level spatial clustering that is attributable to a limited number of cases. This suggests that environmental factors, which in some locations display localized clustering, may be important aetiological agents in these diseases. For ALL and soft tissue sarcoma, but not Wilms tumour, common infectious agents may be likely candidates. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Social marketing in action,geodemographics, alcoholic liver disease and heavy episodic drinking in Great BritainINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 3 2007Jane Powell This paper explores the use of geodemographic population classifications to identify and predict ,hotspots' of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) prone to greater than expected alcoholic liver disease. MOSAIC geodemographic codes were overlaid onto Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for Great Britain. The HES data included gender, MOSAIC Type, MOSAIC Code, postal and local authority district, month and year of birth, ethnic origin, Primary Care Trust and GP code. Analysis demonstrated that some geodemographic classifications of the population were over-represented for alcoholic liver disease episodes. These groups had low socio-economic and socio-cultural status, lived in areas of high deprivation and disadvantage. Manchester followed by Liverpool and Hull had the highest estimated patient group size in England and Hart, Surrey Heath and Wokingham the three lowest (indicating low expected levels of alcoholic liver disease compared with average). Analysis of the same data was also carried out at postcode level for Manchester indicating ,hotspots' for alcoholic level disease at street level. This analysis exemplifies the ways in which geodemographic data might be usefully applied to routine health service data to enhance service planning, delivery and improved targeting of information in harder to reach populations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Spiritual Turn and the Decline of Tradition: The Spread of Post-Christian Spirituality in 14 Western Countries, 1981,2000JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 3 2007DICK HOUTMAN This article uses data from the World Values Survey to study the spread of post-Christian spirituality ("New Age") in 14 Western countries (1981,2000, N = 61,352). It demonstrates that this type of spirituality, characterized by a sacralization of the self, has become more widespread during the period 1981,2000 in most of these countries. It has advanced farthest in France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. This spiritual turn proves a byproduct of the decline of traditional moral values and hence driven by cohort replacement. Spirituality's popularity among the well educated also emerges from the latter's low levels of traditionalism. These findings confirm the theory of detraditionalization, according to which a weakening of the grip of tradition on individual selves stimulates a spiritual turn to the deeper layers of the self. [source] A review of the road safety strategy in hong kongJOURNAL OF ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION, Issue 1 2007Becky P. Y. Loo Abstract Since the mid-1990s, the effectiveness of road safety measures in Hong Kong has been weakening. Six administrations in Australia, California, Great Britain (GB), Japan, New Zealand and Sweden are selected to help review the road safety activities in Hong Kong. Nine main components of the road safety strategy, including vision, objectives, targets, action plan, evaluation and monitoring, research and development, quantitative modeling, institutional framework and funding are summarized from the road safety strategies of these overseas administrations and compared to that of Hong Kong. It is found that Hong Kong's road safety activities have to be restructured to make significant improvement. In the future, a new approach structured by the nine different road safety components is recommended. The lessons learnt can be generalized to smooth the progress of other administrations at the Intermediate Stage towards the Advanced Stage of road safety development by using the short-, medium- and long-term approaches. [source] Quadratic Differential Demand Systems and the Retail Demand for Pork in Great BritainJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2003Panos Fousekis The primary objective of this paper is to derive a general synthetic quadratic (rank 3) differential demand system which nests within it a range of testable differential demand models including the quadratic AIDS, CBS, Rotterdam and NBR systems. A model selection test procedure is also outlined. These differential systems are then applied and tested to analyse the monthly retail demand for cuts of pork in Great Britain over the period 1989,2000. The empirical results suggest that a quadratic differential AIDS model is most appropriate for the pork demand system studied, but that the need for inclusion of quadratic income/expenditure terms is not universal for every cut within the demand system. Quadratic expenditure effects were appropriate for pork chops and leg roasts, but log linear expenditure effects were adequate for bellies, shoulders and loin roasts. Roasting cuts were expenditure and own price elastic, with pork loins, chops and bellies all expenditure and own price inelastic. [source] Proceedings of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and IrelandJOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 6 2009Article first published online: 17 NOV 200 First page of article [source] Proceedings of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and IrelandJOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 3 2004Article first published online: 25 FEB 200 First page of article [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||