253 research outputs found
The costs of raising children and the effectiveness of policies to support parenthood in European countries: a Literature Review
No full textThe purpose of this report is to produce an overview of available knowledge about the following issues: the costs (to parents) of parenthood and of raising children in European Countries; the effectiveness, in the short and long term, of various policy measures in avoiding or compensating for those costs; 8 the impact of different policy instruments aimed at supporting families according to various policy objectives, e.g. achieving family projects, reconciling family and working life, reducing child poverty, raising the levels of education and well being of children, and increasing equal opportunities. the wider economic and social costs and benefits of policy interventions in support of families. The current state of knowledge on the following issues is presented as follows in this review report: The costs of children and the challenges for public policies supporting parenthood (chapter 1); author: O. Thévenon The policy instruments used in the EU to support families and reduce the costs of parenthood (Chapter 2); authors: A. Math and O. Thévenon The impacts of these policies on families: o On fertility and the decision to have children (chapter 3); authors M-Th. Letablier and O. Thévenon o On parents‘ participation in the labour market, gender equality and work-life balance (chapter 4); authors: M-Th. Letablier, A. Luci, O. Thévenon o On children‘s well-being (chapter 5): M-Th. Letablier and O. Thévenon The wider economic and social costs and benefits of such policies (Chapter 6); author: A. Luci. The review of literature presented in this report attempts to make the tools, goals and impacts of family policies more clear and comparable across countries, in order to facilitate the circulation of knowledge between Member States, notably in the context of the European Alliance for Families and the newly established High Level Experts Group on Demography Issues. The report provides a review of recent literature and available data material on the direct and indirect costs of raising children in the European Union (using international as well as particularly important national studies). Ground breaking studies from countries outside the EU, of particular interest from a methodological point of view, are also included in the review. Focus is on the following kinds of costs of having and raising children over the long and short term: - Direct financial costs, e.g. for housing, health care, education, child care, - Indirect financial costs, e.g. for lost income, lost pension rights, lost career prospects etc. , also taking into account the impact on gender roles and gender equality. The costs of raising children are examined at the different phases of their development, from birth through to the age at which they become autonomous. The overview also summarizes knowledge on the main determinants of costs, including, the effects of the number of children, the socio-economic status of parents, and the family structure. Significant differences in cost levels and structures across Member States are identified. The overview also identifies gaps in the available knowledge, and highlights some issues for future research that have the potential to contribute to a better understanding of the policy impact and to better comparability across the European Union.cost of children; family policies; work and family life reconciliation; fertility; female employment
Aesthetic Flat Closure: Scoping Review Protocol
No full textAesthetic Flat Closure: Scoping Review Protocol
Luci Hulsman1, Meghana Bhaskara1, Shahnur Ahmed1, Chelsea Fatheuer1, Ethan Rinne1, Al Hassanein
1Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Indianapolis, IN
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
Acknowledgements: Hannah Craven
Study Information
Hypotheses:
For patients with breast cancer requiring mastectomy, a majority of patients undergo breast reconstruction, however some patients prefer, and some are medically indicated—such in the case of inflammatory breast cancer—to forego breast reconstruction following mastectomy. There currently is no standardized surgical approach to achieve a cosmetic flat post mastectomy chest. Therefore, this scoping review seeks to investigate the various methods used to obtain a flat post mastectomy closure without plans for reconstruction.
Blinding:
No blinding is involved in this study.
Study design:
Covidence will be utilized for source screening. Two independent screeners will perform title, abstract, and full text screening with a third screener to resolve conflicts. Articles selected for data extraction will be independently assessed by two extractors for agreement with a third extractor to resolve conflicts.
Randomization:
There is no randomization involved in this study.
Explanation of existing data:
This is a scoping review of published data.
Data collection procedures:
The data used in this study will be derived from previously published studies. Data will be collected through a systematic database search of Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and Scopus. Search terms will be developed in collaboration with the medical library librarians. In addition to database searches, websites of relevant plastic surgery and breast reconstruction societies will be searched. Inclusion criteria are 1) studies describing patient populations seeking flat closure, 2) studies discussing flat closure techniques, and 3) studies on flat closure surgical outcomes 4) studies on patient reported outcomes following flat closure. Exclusion criteria are 1) studies not available in the English language, 2) studies discussing flat closure with the intent of future reconstruction, 3) studies discussing flat closure not in the context of therapeutic or prophylactic for breast cancer.
Sample size:
There is no predetermined sample size of this review. All articles fitting specified criteria will be included.
Analysis Plan:
Extraction and analysis will be categorized by general statistics about flat aesthetic closure and then specifically by closure techniques
Housing and Housing Finance: The View from Australia and Beyond
No full textThis paper draws together themes from work at the RBA, other national central banks, the BIS and elsewhere on recent developments in housing and housing finance. The general conclusion is that financial and macroeconomic developments have increased the demand for the stock of housing. Because the stock of housing is inherently slow to adjust, this has increased its relative price. Although this is a global trend, individual country institutions have affected outcomes, sometimes in ways that are not obvious. The resulting expansion in both sides of the household balance sheet is an important development for policy-makers to monitor, but it is probably not of itself a cause of financial instability.housing; housing finance; economic geography; cross-country
Reciprocal learning and chronic care model implementation in primary care: results from a new scale of learning in primary care
No full textAbstract Background Efforts to improve the care of patients with chronic disease in primary care settings have been mixed. Application of a complex adaptive systems framework suggests that this may be because implementation efforts often focus on education or decision support of individual providers, and not on the dynamic system as a whole. We believe that learning among clinic group members is a particularly important attribute of a primary care clinic that has not yet been well-studied in the health care literature, but may be related to the ability of primary care practices to improve the care they deliver. To better understand learning in primary care settings by developing a scale of learning in primary care clinics based on the literature related to learning across disciplines, and to examine the association between scale responses and chronic care model implementation as measured by the Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (ACIC) scale. Methods Development of a scale of learning in primary care setting and administration of the learning and ACIC scales to primary care clinic members as part of the baseline assessment in the ABC Intervention Study. All clinic clinicians and staff in forty small primary care clinics in South Texas participated in the survey. Results We developed a twenty-two item learning scale, and identified a five-item subscale measuring the construct of reciprocal learning (Cronbach alpha 0.79). Reciprocal learning was significantly associated with ACIC total and sub-scale scores, even after adjustment for clustering effects. Conclusions Reciprocal learning appears to be an important attribute of learning in primary care clinics, and its presence relates to the degree of chronic care model implementation. Interventions to improve reciprocal learning among clinic members may lead to improved care of patients with chronic disease and may be relevant to improving overall clinic performance.</p
Plastic building blocks in Watamu: A minimal viable brick production process
No full textExecutive SummeryPlastic waste pollution is a well known global problem, also in Watamu, a little village on the coast of Kenya. The living conditions in Watamu are harsh, with a lot of unemployment and poverty. People depending on tourism which is negatively related to the plastic pollution on the beach and in the village. The housing situation for locals suffers from poverty as well, many locals lack proper shelter. The project described in this report helps to solve these issues in many ways: 1. Remanufacturing of plastic waste creates economic opportunities and reduces the waste in the environment 2. Making building blocks out of the plastic waste provides low cost building material 3. Low cost building material enables better housing opportunities for the locals The research was made possible by Steve Trott, owner of EcoWorld, a local plastic waste processing company. The company’s ambition is to grow and ignite the plastic waste circular economy in coast province Kenya. The next step in this ambition is remanufacturing plastic waste material into useful products. The deliverables of this project are: 1. A minimal viable production process of (re-)manufacturing building material from plastic waste 2. Identification of the impact on social-wellbeing, environment and economic opportunities (using the triple bottom line framework). 3. Implementation roadmap for EcoWorld Research process and outcome The following research activities are performed, described with the outcome: 1. An analysis to get a good and qualitative understanding of the local context and the (potential) impact of the design. 2. Data analysis to create a list of insights that are used as inspiration and requirements for the design process. 3. An inclusive decision making process concluded to focus on designing building bricks for school in Watamu. 4. Material selection based on availability of waste and producibility at EcoWorld, resulting in recycled PP waste as feedstock. 5. Literature study on plastic waste bricks to learn from existing research, resulting in melting and moulding the plastic waste into an interlocking brick shape. 6. Design cycles on production process and material composition of the bricks. The outcome was a series of 23 different bricks containing either HDPE, PET or PP in combination with sand or other additives. 7. Destructive testing on the 23 bricks to find the influence of the different plastic sorts, with a chosen best option as outcome; PP plastic. 8. Final test on compressive strength at the TUDelft to find the best recycled PP mixture composition considering strength and cost and to prove the feasibility of the selected brick (the minimal viable product). Description of the final design The minimal viable production process was co-designed locally, with local skill and materials. This process was used as an experimental set-up to test the shape, weight and size of the brick, the local opinions, the mixture composition and insights for the next phase of the brick production line development. The tests with different material compositions lead to the final choice of 50% recycled PP and 50% fine sand...Integrated Product Desig
Editor's note
No full textWe start the academic year (Autumn) with a very interesting and provocative issue. Our invited guest author, Dr. Luci Nussbaum, provides us with a thorough account of the importance of interrogating how we understand students’ plurilingual practices outside of the classroom in order to better approach the teaching of languages inside the class
"The Story Must Be Told As It Is": Colonial Spiritual Self-Identification and Resistance in Leslie Marmon Silko and Luci Tapahonso
No full textabstract: This thesis will examine the novels and poetry of Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna) and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo), exploring how they are working to maintain, control, protect and develop their spiritual Indigenous identities. I link their literary work to Article 31.1, from the United Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which states that “Indigenous people have the right to maintain, control, and protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies, and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.” I argue that both Silko and Tapahonso create narratives and characters that illustrate how indigenous identity is self-determined and maintained through resistance to colonization and assimilation. I examine how these stories and characters incorporate new knowledge, about modern lifeways, into traditional Indigenous oral traditions and histories. Both Silko and Tapahonso connect nature and history, as they illustrate how oral traditions are passed down through the continual sharing of inter-generational stories and ethnobotanical information about plants, animals and food. This study will track how oral stories help the characters (re)connect with the land, and with foodways, by re-establishing a relationship of resistance against the exploitation, assimilation, and colonization of indigenous peoples, lands, and resources and the maintenance of spirituality through oral traditions.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis English 201
João Carlos Marinho and Pepetela: two writers in bullet point. The crime genre in Berenice detective and Jaime Bunda, secret agent
No full textA presente tese procura sustentar que as obras do corpus desta pesquisa, Berenice detetive, do brasileiro João Carlos Marinho, e Jaime Bunda, agente secreto, do angolano Pepetela, duas narrativas literárias de língua portuguesa, são ambas tributárias do gênero policial sem, no entanto, abdicarem de ser, ao mesmo tempo, obras sui generis. Para dar suporte a semelhante proposição busca-se, inicialmente, inventariar e comentar os mais importantes traços das principais vertentes do gênero policial e sua relação com história e sociedade; em seguida, analisa-se, em separado e comparativamente, as obras Berenice detetive e Jaime Bunda, agente secreto, a fim de compreender em qual medida estas obras se inserem no ou se afastam do gênero policial; com quais obras literárias ou cinematográficas, dentro e fora do gênero policial, e com quais vertentes do citado gênero, ambas dialogam; quais procedimentos intertextuais lançam mão em sua construção; em quais contextos ambas estão inseridas; e os efeitos estéticos, culturais e sociopolíticos que alcançam. Após a realização das análises acima mencionadas, tenta-se elucidar o modelo teórico de análise comparativa de narrativas ficcionais efetuado nesta investigação por intermédio do gênero literário, num esforço de contribuição teórica desta pesquisadora ao campo dos Estudos Comparados de Literaturas de Língua Portuguesa.This dissertation sets out to prove that the works Berenice detective, by the Brazilian author João Carlos Marinho, and Jaime Bunda, secret agent, by the Angolan author Pepetela, two literary narratives of the Portuguese language, are related to the crime genre without abdicating being, at the same time, sui generis works. In order to support similar proposition, we initially seek to identify and comment on the most important traits of the main strands of the crime genre and its relationship with history and society. Then the works Berenice detective and Jaime Bunda, secret agent are analyzed, separately and comparatively, to understand to what extent these works are part or apart from the crime genre; which variants of the crime genre they are related to either in literary or movie works; which intertextual procedures are used in its construction; in which contexts both are embedded; and the aesthetic, cultural and sociopolitical effects achieved. After the analysis, we try to elucidate the theoretical model for comparative analysis of fictional narratives through the literary genre in an effort to contribute to the field of Comparative Studies in Literatures of Portuguese
Frazer et ses bois sacrés
No full textCet article considère la place des bois sacrés — particulièrement le bois sacré de Nemi —dans l’œuvre de James Frazer. Tout en admettant que l’œuvre de Frazer contribue peu à l’analyse moderne des luci, l’auteur montre l’importance du bois sacré de Nemi (et de son rameau d’or) non seulement à l’intérieur de la structure littéraire de son livre, mais aussi pour sa contribution à une grande popularité dans le monde anglo-saxon.This article considers the function of the sacred groves — particularly that of Nemi — in the work of James Frazer. Although Frazer’s work has little to contribute to the modern analysis of the luci, the author tries to show the importance of the sacred grove of Nemi (and its golden bough) in the literary structure of the book, and in its becoming a popular model in the Anglo-Saxon world
The costs of raising children and the effectiveness of policies to support parenthood in European countries: a Literature Review
No full textThe purpose of this report is to produce an overview of available knowledge about the following issues: the costs (to parents) of parenthood and of raising children in European Countries; the effectiveness, in the short and long term, of various policy measures in avoiding or compensating for those costs; 8 the impact of different policy instruments aimed at supporting families according to various policy objectives, e.g. achieving family projects, reconciling family and working life, reducing child poverty, raising the levels of education and well being of children, and increasing equal opportunities. the wider economic and social costs and benefits of policy interventions in support of families. The current state of knowledge on the following issues is presented as follows in this review report: The costs of children and the challenges for public policies supporting parenthood (chapter 1); author: O. Thévenon The policy instruments used in the EU to support families and reduce the costs of parenthood (Chapter 2); authors: A. Math and O. Thévenon The impacts of these policies on families: o On fertility and the decision to have children (chapter 3); authors M-Th. Letablier and O. Thévenon o On parents‘ participation in the labour market, gender equality and work-life balance (chapter 4); authors: M-Th. Letablier, A. Luci, O. Thévenon o On children‘s well-being (chapter 5): M-Th. Letablier and O. Thévenon The wider economic and social costs and benefits of such policies (Chapter 6); author: A. Luci. The review of literature presented in this report attempts to make the tools, goals and impacts of family policies more clear and comparable across countries, in order to facilitate the circulation of knowledge between Member States, notably in the context of the European Alliance for Families and the newly established High Level Experts Group on Demography Issues. The report provides a review of recent literature and available data material on the direct and indirect costs of raising children in the European Union (using international as well as particularly important national studies). Ground breaking studies from countries outside the EU, of particular interest from a methodological point of view, are also included in the review. Focus is on the following kinds of costs of having and raising children over the long and short term: - Direct financial costs, e.g. for housing, health care, education, child care, - Indirect financial costs, e.g. for lost income, lost pension rights, lost career prospects etc. , also taking into account the impact on gender roles and gender equality. The costs of raising children are examined at the different phases of their development, from birth through to the age at which they become autonomous. The overview also summarizes knowledge on the main determinants of costs, including, the effects of the number of children, the socio-economic status of parents, and the family structure. Significant differences in cost levels and structures across Member States are identified. The overview also identifies gaps in the available knowledge, and highlights some issues for future research that have the potential to contribute to a better understanding of the policy impact and to better comparability across the European Union
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