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Last Quarter (last + quarter)
Selected AbstractsExtending Gregory VII's ,Friendship Network': Social Contacts in Late Eleventh-Century FranceHISTORY, Issue 312 2008KRISTON R. RENNIE In the last quarter of the eleventh century, the Roman Church had a capable ruler and defender in Pope Gregory VII (1073,85). Despite his otherwise charismatic authority, however, Gregory's ability to extend his influence beyond the papacy's more immediate control of Rome and the Campagna was limited. Filling this administrative and legal gap was the emerging office of legation, developing ad hoc under Gregory VII in matters of reform and law. Papal legates such as the French representative, Bishop Hugh of Die (later archbishop of Lyons), became crucial figures in the machinery of papal government. They assumed a vital role in the transmission of reforming legislation north of the Alps while effectively widening Gregory VII's ,friendship network' to encompass influential members of the local and regional clerical and lay elite. With the assistance of this ecclesiastical office, moreover, the papacy significantly enhanced its opportunity for social contacts, thereby strengthening its hold on the more distant provinces of Western Christendom. By focusing on existing and growing social networks in late eleventh-century France, this article examines Hugh of Die's role as an instrument of church reform, and assesses this legate's impact on the larger papal reform initiative in France. [source] Social, Economic and Demographic Consequences of Migration on KeralaINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2001K.C. Zachariah Migration has been the single most dynamic factor in the otherwise dreary development scenario of Kerala during the last quarter of the last century. It has contributed more to poverty alleviation and reduction in unemployment in Kerala than any other factor. As a result of migration, the proportion of the population below the poverty line has declined by 12 per cent. The number of unemployed persons , estimated to be only about 13 lakhs in 1998 compared with 37 lakhs reported by the Kerala Employment Exchanges , has declined by over 30 per cent. Migration has caused nearly a million married women in Kerala to live away from their husbands. Most of these so-called "Gulf wives" experienced extreme loneliness to begin with, and were burdened with added family responsibilities to which they had not been accustomed when their husbands were with them. But over a period, and with a helping hand from abroad over the ISD, most came out of their early gloom. Their gain in autonomy, status, management skills and experience in dealing with the world outside their homes were developed the hard way and would remain with them for the rest of their lives for the benefit of their families and society. In the long run, the transformation of these million women will have contributed more to the development of Kerala society than all the temporary euphoria created by remittances and modern gadgetry. Kerala is dependent on migration for employment, subsistence, housing, household amenities, institution building, and many other developmental activities. The danger is that migration could cease, as shown by the Kuwait war of 1993, and repercussions could be disastrous for the State. Understanding migration trends and instituting policies to maintain the flow of migration is more important today than at any time in the past. Kerala workers seem to be losing out in international competition for jobs in the Gulf market. Corrective policies are needed urgently to raise their competitive edge over workers in competing countries in South and South-East Asia. Like any other industry, migration from Kerala needs periodic technological upgrading of workers. Otherwise, there is a danger that the State might lose the Gulf market permanently. The crux of the problem is Kerala workers' inability to compete with expatriates from other South and South-East Asian countries. The solution lies in equipping workers with better general education and job training. This study suggests a twofold approach. In the short run, the need is to improve the job skills of prospective emigrant workers. This could be achieved through ad hoc training programmes focussed on the job market in Gulf countries. In the long run, the need is to restructure the educational system, taking into consideration the future demand of workers not only in Kerala but also in potential destination countries all over the world, including the US and other developed countries. Kerala emigrants need not always be construction workers in the Gulf countries; they could also be software engineers in developed countries. [source] Impact of Migration on Kerala's Economy and SocietyINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2001K.C. Zachariah This article reports results of the first migration study covering the entire State of Kerala. It encompasses both measurement as well as analysis of the various types and facets of migration. Migration has been the single most dynamic factor in an otherwise dreary development scenario in Kerala during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Kerala is approaching the end of the millennium with a little cheer in many people's homes as a result of migration which has contributed more to poverty alleviation than any other factor, including agrarian reforms, trade union activities and social welfare legislation. The study shows that nearly 1.5 million Keralites now live outside India. They send home more than Rs.4,000 million a year by way of remittances. Three-quarters of a million former emigrants have come back. They live mostly on savings, work experience, and skills acquired while abroad. More than a million families depend on an internal migrant's earnings for subsistence, children's education and other economic requirements. Whereas the educationally backward Muslims from the Thrissur-Malappuram region provide the backbone of emigration, it is the educationally forward Ezhawas, Nairs and Syrian Christians from the former Travancore-Cochin State who form the core of internal migration. The article also analyses the determinants and consequences of internal and external migration. It offers suggestions for policy formulation directed at optimum utilization of remittances sent home by emigrants and the expertise brought back by the return migrants. Migration in Kerala began with demographic expansion, but it will not end up with demographic contraction. Kerala has still to develop into an internally self-sustaining economy. The prevailing cultural milieu in which its people believe that anything can be achieved through agitation, and any rule can be circumvented with proper political connections, must change and be replaced by a liberalized open economy with strict and definite rules of the game. [source] Explaining Migration: A Critical ViewINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 165 2000Joaquín Arango The article surveys the major contemporary explanations of migration, starting with the neo-classical theory, and then the array of theories and conceptual frameworks that have flourished in the last quarter of the century. The survey highlights the fact that in its relatively short history, theorising about migration has taken the form of a string of separate, generally unconnected theories, models, conceptual frameworks and empirical generalisations, rather than a cumulative sequence of contributions. As awhole, existing theories of migration can be faulted for focusing almost exclusively on the explanation of the causes of migration, to the detriment of other dimensions; for making ,grand claims' out of proportion with effective explanatory power; and for providing explanations ex-post rather than guiding empirical research and providing testable hypotheses. In addition to the difficulties that all the social sciences experience when trying to explainhuman behaviour, migration theories face special ones: its subject matter is hard to define, difficult to measure, extremely multifaceted and multiform, and thus resistant to theory-building. Whilst the reservoir of theories, and especially of conceptual frameworks, available nowadays represents a clear improvement over the situation a few decades ago, their contribution toour knowledge of migration is still limited. [source] The Chilean Agrarian Transformation: The Pre-Agrarian Reform Period (1955,1965)JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 2 2006ANTONIO BELLISARIO Today Chilean agriculture has recovered from years of diminishing returns. The same arduous work carried out by a declining workforce has suddenly attained higher productivity and, therefore, achieved economic growth. This article suggests that Chile has undergone a series of fundamental changes in the last quarter of the twentieth century, which have intensified its capitalist development. It analyses the agrarian structure of the hacienda system during the period immediately before the agrarian reform, looking particularly at the transition to modern capitalism, agricultural growth and the land question. It argues that before the implementation of the agrarian reform, the country had not finished its transition to modern capitalism due to the persistence of the antiquated hacienda system. It further suggests that the land reform process , implemented and consolidated from 1964 to 1980 , permitted the culmination of the long-postponed transition to modern capitalism and gave rise to the ascendancy of an agro-industrial bourgeoisie and an export-oriented agriculture integrated into the world economy. [source] Are Banks Still Special?JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 1 2000New Evidence on Their Role in the Corporate Capital-Raising Process Bankers appear to play a special role in providing commitment-based financing to corporations. This type of lending is important not only for small firms that lack access to public debt markets but for large and medium-size companies as well. For such companies, commitment-based financing provides access to debt capital that becomes valuable when the firm has an immediate need for funding but interest rates in public debt markets are prohibitively high, or the firm is undervalued by the market. A good example of this was provided by the Asian crisis in the last quarter of 1998, when $10 billion of commercial paper was retired and $20 billion of net new commercial loans were booked. The authors also suggest that the fact that commitment-based financing is used by larger companies when they believe themselves to be undervalued in the market is probably the best explanation of why announcements of these types of loans elicit a positive stock price reaction. [source] Reforming hospital nursing: the experiences of Maria MachinNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 4 2006Carol Helmstadter The reform of hospital nursing in the last quarter of the nineteenth century brought nursing leaders into conflict with the gendered and class bound structure of Victorian society. The experiences of Maria Machin are used in this article as an example of the barriers nursing leaders had to overcome in order to establish a competent nursing service. While Machin was eminently successful in improving patient care and expanding the knowledge base of her nurses, she could not change the perceptions of nursing which the public at large held. At the beginning of the nineteenth century hospital nurses had been essentially cleaning women who gave some of the less important nursing care. They formed a cheap service which many hospital governors considered a relatively low priority in the overall operation of the hospital. This view of nursing persisted long after the reformers had made nursing into something quite different. Machin's nursing career also illustrates how nursing participated in a major aspect of British imperialism, the export of professional expertise and administrative skills as well as the way nursing fitted into the rise of the new professionalism. [source] Latest news and product developmentsPRESCRIBER, Issue 11 2006Article first published online: 14 SEP 2010 NSAIDs linked to erectile dysfunction Use of NSAIDs may double the risk of erectile dysfunction, according to an observational study from Finland (J Urol 2006;175:1812-6). A survey of 1683 men aged 50-70 showed that, over a five-year period, the incidence of erectile dysfunction was 93 per 1000 person-years of NSAID use compared with 35 per 1000 person-years in nonusers. After controlling for risk factors and compared with nonusers of NSAIDs who did not have arthritis, the relative risk was greater in NSAID users whether they had arthritis (1.9, 95% CI 1.2-3.1) or not (2.0, 95% CI 1.2-3.5). The risk was somewhat higher in nonusers with arthritis (1.3, 95% CI 0.9-1.8). Inhaled steroids do not modify asthma course Fluticasone does not ameliorate the course of asthma in young children, say US investigators (N Engl J Med 2006;354:1985-97). Fluticasone 88,g twice daily controlled symptoms for two years in 285 children aged two to three. However, in the following treatment-free year there were no differences from placebo in asthma-free days, lung function or exacerbation frequency. Fluticasone was associated with a 1.1cm reduction in growth during treatment, though this decreased to 0.7cm after a year without treatment. A second study (N Engl J Med 2006;354:1998-2005) found that introducing an inhaled steroid after a three-day episode of wheezing in one-month-old infants did not prevent the development of persistent wheezing in the first three years of life. Prescribing for fracture prevention increases Prescribing of medicines to reduce fracture risk in post-menopausal women has tripled in the last five years, according to a PPA prescribing review (www.ppa.org.uk/news/pact-052006.htm). The change predates NICE guidance on secondary prevention, published in 2005. Approximately 480 000 women in the UK receive treatment. Alendronic acid accounts for almost a third of prescriptions and half of the £45 million spent in the last quarter of 2005. There was a two-fold variation in prescribing costs between strategic health authorities. Pharmacist prescribing for hypertension A survey of patients attending a pharmacist-led clinic for hypertension has found overwhelming support for pharmacist prescribing (Pharm J 2006;276:567-9). All 127 patients offered an appointment at a hypertension clinic run by pharmacist supplementary prescribers were surveyed; the response rate was 87 per cent. Eighteen respondents chose not to attend, of whom five preferred their usual medical care. Responses from 88 patients revealed that 57 per cent believed the standard of care was better than previously, and 86 per cent said they now understood more about their condition, felt more involved in treatment decisions and were able to make an appointment easily. Ninety-two per cent considered pharmacist supplementary prescribing a good idea. Anti-TNFs linked to malignancy/infections The anti-TNF monoclonals infliximab (Remicade) and adalimumab (Humira) are associated with an increased risk of cancer and serious infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (JAMA 2006;295:2275-85). A meta-analysis of nine randomised trials involving 3493 treated patients showed that, compared with placebo, these agents were associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.3 (95% CI 1.2-9.1) for malignancy, and there was evidence of a dose-response effect. The number needed to harm (NNH) for one additional malignancy in 6-12 months' treatment was 154. There was also an increased risk of serious infection (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.3-3.1), for which the NNH was 59 for one case in 3-12 months' treatment. The authors say that the findings were based on low numbers of events and should be interpreted cautiously. Travelling abroad with CDs Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust has published a guide to help patients who travel abroad while taking controlled drugs (www.aintree hospitals.nhs.uk/publications/file.aspx?int_version_id=912). The leaflet explains the need for a licence and provides contact details for relevant organisations. New PCTs announced The government has announced the long-awaited reorganisation of PCTs in England (www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/PressReleases/PressReleases Notices/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4135001&chk=j12UcL). The current total will be reduced from 303 to 152 from 1 October. More than 70 per cent will be co-terminous with local authorities in the hope that services will be delivered more efficiently. The changes will reduce administrative costs, with anticipated savings of £250 million in the next two years. The reorganisation of PCTs follows a restructuring of strategic health authorities and was the subject of a major public consultation exercise in 2005/06. There will also be a reorganisation of ambulance trusts, reducing the number from 29 to 12. Regional maps of the new PCT boundaries are available atwww.dh.gov.uk/ NewsHome/NewsArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4135088&chk=oJufTo. New and updated guides New medicines guides for GI disease have been published by the Medicines Information Project at http://medguides.medicines.org.uk. PRODIGY has issued 11 updated and five new full guides and has also updated five of its quick reference guides (www.prodigy.nhs.uk). [source] Canadian economic geography at the millenniumTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 1 2000TREVOR J. BARNES Over the last quarter of a century the Canadian economy experienced a series of profound changes which have affected every level of society. They include new forms of flexible production, fundamental changes in regulation at all spatial scales, structural shifts away from manufacturing towards service sector activities, the rise of information technology (IT) and computerization at the workplace, the feminization of the labour market, and, what has become the leitmotif of the age, globalization. Such changes are intimately connected with geography. By that we mean not merely that they take on a geographical form, but that geography is pan of their very constitution. In this sense Canadian economic geographers are exactly in the right time and the right place to make use of their skills. Indeed, over the last five years there has been an explosion of literature by Canadian economic geographers on precisely these kinds of changes that are simultaneously both economic and geographical. In reviewing that literature the paper begins by situating Canada within its wider global setting, which we then follow by surveying the diverse writing around the three broad sectors that make-up the Canadian economy: the resource sector, the manufacturing sector, and the service sector. We conclude by highlighting two particular research themes within Canadian economic geography that have become especially germane over the late 1990s. The first is on new labour markets and forms of work both of which have been transformed during the last decade; and the second is on new forms of industrial innovation, which are clearly pivotal to the future well-being of the country for the next millennium. Au cours des vingt-cinq dernières années, l'économie canadienne a connu une série, de changements profonds qui ont affecté toutes les couches de la société. Ces changements comprennent les nouvelles formes de production flexible, les changements fondamentaux dans la réglementation à toutes les échelles spatiales, la mutation structurelle du secteur industriel au secteur tertiaire, la montée de la technologie de l'information (Tl) et l'informatisation sur le lieu de travail, la présence plus importante des femmes sur le marché du travail, et, ce qui est devenu le leitmotiv de notre époque, la mondialisation. De tels changements sont intimement liés à la geographie. Par la, nous ne disons pas simplement qu'ils prennent une forme géographique, mais que la géographie fait partie intégrante de leur constitution. Dans ce sens, les géographes-économistes canadiens arrivent, si l'on peut dire, au bon endroit au bon moment pour mettre leurs connaissances à profit. En effet, on assiste depuis les cinq dernières années à une recrudescence impressionnante des travaux de géographes-économistes canadiens portant, précisément, sur ces types de changements qui sont à la fois économiques et géographiques. En faisant le compte-rendu de cette littérature scientifique, cet article situe d'abord le Canada dans son contexte mondial plus large, passe ensuite en revue ce qui a étéécrit au sujet des trois grands secteurs qui forment l'économie canadienne: les secteurs primaire, secondaire et tertiaire. Nous concluons en mettant en relief deux thèmes de recherches de la géographie économique canadienne qui sont devenus particulièrement pertinents depuis la fin des années 1990. Le premier traite des nouveaux marchés du travail et des nouvelles formes de travail, qui ont tous deux subi des transformations au cours de la dernière décennie. Le second traite des nouvelles formes d'innovation industrielle, qui sont cruciales pour le bien-être futur du pays à l'aube du nouveau millénaire. [source] Medicare Hospital Charges in the Last Year of Life: Distribution by Quarter for Rural and Urban Nursing Home Decedents With Cognitive ImpairmentTHE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2008Charles E. Gessert MD ABSTRACT:,Background:Medicare beneficiaries incur 27%-30% of lifetime charges in the last year of life; most charges occur in the last quarter. Factors associated with high end-of-life Medicare charges include less advanced age, non-white race, absence of advance directive, and urban residence. Methods: We analyzed Medicare hospital charges in the last year of life for nursing home residents with severe cognitive impairment, focusing on rural,urban differences. The study population consisted of 3,703 nursing home residents (1,882 rural, 1,821 urban) in Minnesota and Texas who died in 2000-2001. Data on Medicare hospital charges were obtained from 1998-2001 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services MedPAR files. Results: During the last year of life, unadjusted charges averaged $12,448 for rural subjects; $31,780 for urban. The charges were distributed across the last 4 quarters similarly for the 2 populations, with 15%-20% of charges incurred in each of the first 3 quarters, and 47% (rural) and 52% (urban) in the last quarter. At the individual level, a higher percentage of hospital charges were incurred in the last 90 days by urban than by rural residents (P < .001). A larger proportion of urban (43%) than rural (37%) residents were hospitalized in the final quarter. The charges for hospitalized residents (N = 1,994) were distributed similarly to those of the entire study population. Discussion: Medicare hospital charges during the last year of life were lower for rural nursing home residents with cognitive impairment than for their urban counterparts. Charges tend to be more concentrated in the last 90 days of life for urban residents. [source] Effect of fortifying concentrate supplement with fibrolytic enzymes on nutrient utilization, milk yield and composition in lactating goatsANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Prokasananda BALA ABSTRACT Thirty lactating Beetle-sannen crossbred goats were randomly divided into 3 groups based on first fortnight milk yield, and then adjusted to body weights to study the effect of fibrolytic enzyme supplementation on digestibility and milk production. Goats in the control group (C) were fed 500 g of concentrate supplement (CS) without exogenous fibrolytic enzymes (control; CG) or CS fortified with cellulase and xylanases @ of 4000 and 12500 (EG1) or 8000 and 18 750 IU/kg (EG2), respectively. CS was offered in two equal proportions just after milking at 7 and 17 h. After feeding CS, goats were fed 1200 g of wheat straw as roughage in two equal parts at 08.00 and 18.00 hours. Milk yield was studied for 3½ months. Milking was done by hand. Changes in body weight were also recorded. After a preliminary period of 60 days of feeding, a 7-day digestibility trial was conducted in two intervals with 5 animals from each group at a time. The increase in either wheat straw or NDF intake due to the enzyme mixture was only 3%. There was significant improvement (P < 0.05) in the diet digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF and total carbohydrates (TC) between the control and EG1 and EG2 goats. Improvements were greater (P < 0.05) in the latter group. Microbial protein (MBP) was estimated based on purine derivatives and creatinine excreted in spot urine samples. MBP increased about 10 and 15% in EG1 and EG2, but these values were statistically invalid. Phenomenally milk yield, fat and SNF were significantly (P < 0.001) changed with progression of lactation. On a temporal basis, fortnightly changes in FCM yield of this study could be grouped as 1 month each of first and last and 1½ of middle phase of lactation. Repeated measure analysis showed 180 to 260 mL/day of higher FCM and 16 to 20 g/day of higher SNF yield (P < 0.001) in EG2 than control or even EG1 during 5 to 7th fortnight. However, no significant impact (P > 0.05) was noticed on TF. Feed intake, g/kg FCM yield was also 7% less in EG2 than either CG or EG1. The study concluded that apart from increased digestibility, fortification of CS with cellulase and xylanases enzymes improved FCM yield in the last quarter of lactation in goats, and improved body weights by 5% (P > 0.05). While the digestibility of the diet was higher in EG1 and EG2, the impact on FCM and SNF yield was noticed only on EG2. Our study indicated that CS of lactating goats may be fortified with 8000 and 18 500 IU/kg CS in the last quarter of lactation. [source] Practising Applied Ethics with philosophical integrity: the case of Business EthicsBUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Deon Rossouw The unprecedented growth and demand for Applied Ethics (Business Ethics, Medical Ethics, Information Ethics, Engineering Ethics, etc.) since the last quarter of the previous century, has opened up a range of new opportunities for the discipline of Philosophy. While these new opportunities have been enthusiastically seized upon by some philosophers, others have frowned upon them or rejected them outright. In order to make sense of this demand for Applied Ethics training, I will first explore in general why this demand for Applied Ethics developed. I will then use the example of Business Ethics to demonstrate and discuss some of the suspicions contemplated by philosophers who regard Applied Ethics as a dangerous and deceitful temptation that potentially can corrupt Philosophy, and that philosophers should at best avoid or at least be very careful of. I will assess the legitimacy and seriousness of these concerns and objections with regard to Business Ethics and then outline an Aristotelian approach to Business Ethics that I believe can be practised with philosophical integrity. [source] | ||||||||||||||||