64 research outputs found
Supporting safe motherhood : a review of financial trends : full report
Get PDFThis study is designed to measure financial trends and new initiatives in support of the Safe Motherhood (SM) Initiative, identify issues of statistical methodology that may constrain the analysis, and establish a baseline for 1988 against which to measure future financial trends. Global support for specific safe motherhood activities is limited. Funding for selected safe motherhood activities is estimated to have increased (in current dollars) from 818.8 million in 1988. About half this amount was for so-called core activities, including family planning services. The magnitude of support for prevention of the complications of pregnancy is less certain. General health, population and nutrition sector flows increased substantially over the same period and estimated World Bank safe motherhood expenditures in 1989 are triple the previous year's total. New specific safe motherhood activities are beginning to emerge in the form of care for the complications of pregnancy, better secondary and tertiary facilities, training and promotional workshops. In conclusion, it is clear that policies to support maternal health are widely endorsed. However, the effectiveness of donor financing may require far greater attention to two special problems: (a) improving data on SM financial trends; and (b) strengthening recipient countries'capacity to activate project demand.Early Child and Children's Health,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Gender and Health
European Unification: The Origins and Growth of the European Community. European Documentation 3/1986
Get PDFA novel low-cost approach to estimate the incidence of Japanese encephalitis in the catchment area of three hospitals in Bangladesh
No full textAcute meningoencephalitis syndrome surveillance was initiated in three medical college hospitals in Bangladesh in October 2007 to identify Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases. We estimated the population-based incidence of JE in the three hospitals' catchment areas by adjusting the hospital-based crude incidence of JE by the proportion of catchment area meningoencephalitis cases who were admitted to surveillance hospitals. Instead of a traditional house-to-house survey, which is expensive for a disease with low frequency, we attempted a novel approach to identify meningoencephalitis cases in the hospital catchment area through social networks among the community residents. The estimated JE incidence was 2.7/100,000 population in Rajshahi (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.8–4.9), 1.4 in Khulna (95% CI = 0.9–4.1), and 0.6 in Chittagong (95% CI = 0.4–0.9). Bangladesh should consider a pilot project to introduce JE vaccine in high-incidence areas.Repon C. Paul, Mahmudur Rahman, Emily S. Gurley, M. Jahangir Hossain, Serguei Diorditsa, ASM Mainul Hasan, Sultana S. Banu, ASM Alamgir, Muhammad Aziz Rahman, Hardeep Sandhu, Marc Fischer and Stephen P. Lub
Clin Infect Dis
No full textHepatitis E virus (HEV) causes outbreaks of jaundice associated with maternal mortality. Four deaths among pregnant women with jaundice occurred in an urban community near Dhaka, Bangladesh, in late 2008 and were reported to authorities in January 2009. We investigated the etiology and risk factors for jaundice and death.|Field workers identified suspected cases, defined as acute onset of yellow eyes or skin, through house-to-house visits. A subset of persons with suspected HEV was tested for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies to HEV to confirm infection. We used logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors for HEV disease and for death. We estimated the increased risk of perinatal mortality associated with jaundice during pregnancy.|We identified 4751 suspected HEV cases during August 2008-January 2009, including 17 deaths. IgM antibodies to HEV were identified in 56 of 73 (77%) case-patients tested who were neighbors of the case-patients who died. HEV disease was significantly associated with drinking municipally supplied water. Death among persons with HEV disease was significantly associated with being female and taking paracetamol (acetaminophen). Among women who were pregnant, miscarriage and perinatal mortality was 2.7 times higher (95% confidence interval, 1.2-6.1) in pregnancies complicated by jaundice.|This outbreak of HEV was likely caused by sewage contamination of the municipal water system. Longer-term efforts to improve access to safe water and license HEV vaccines are needed. However, securing resources and support for intervention will rely on convincing data about the endemic burden of HEV disease, particularly its role in maternal and perinatal mortality.20142014-05-22T00:00:00ZU01 CI000298/CI/NCPDCID CDC HHS/United States24855146PMC4130310690
A search for firm characteristics that explain option-granting behaviour in South Africa
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.Share options have become a popular, frequently rewarding and incentive-providing form of remuneration for executive directors and other employees. Previous international research has shown that the firm's decision to grant share options may be influenced by its financial reporting situation; its tax position; the existence of conflicting interests between management and other stakeholders; as well as the firm's size and liquidity situation. The reasons why the conflict of interest has been found to be significantly associated with the granting of share options is because share options can align the interests of management with those of the shareholders and in so doing reduce the extent of agency costs. The lack of an accounting requirement to recognise share options as an expense has also been found to influence the firms' decision to grant share options depending on its financial reporting position. The firm's tax position has also been associated with the decision to grant options based on the fact that firms cannot obtain a tax deduction for the value of share options granted. Finally, large firms with liquidity constraints have been found to be more likely to grant share options, due to the lack of available cash reserves for the payment of salaries. There has been no research as to whether the above explanatory variables influence the granting of share options by South African firms. The objective of this study is to investigate whether the variables that were identified internationally as being associated with share option grants apply to grants made to South African executive directors. This study examines whether the extent of share options granted is associated with various financial reporting and tax indicators, proxies for agency costs, the firm's size and its liquidity. Data from 61 firms over 2000 and 2001 was obtained. A total of 33 firms that granted share options were examined together with 28 firms that did not. The value of share options was measured using the dividend-adjusted Black Scholes model, and the dependent variable was calculated to be the value of share options granted during the year divided by the sum of the value of share options granted and the annual cash salary paid to the executives. This variable was regressed against thirteen independent variables identified in previous research. The results of this research indicate strongly that the larger the finn and the greater the extent of future growth opportunities (represented by the ratio of research and development to total assets), the more likely it is that finns will grant options, both of which are consistent with existing theoty. Option granting behaviour was also found to differ across industries and there was some evidence that the more difficult it is to monitor executive's performance (represented by the ratio of the variance in return on equity to the variance in share price), the more likely it is that the finn will grant options. Variables that were statistically significant but in the opposite direction to what was expected were growth in assets and the market-to-book ratio, both of which were negatively correlated with option granting behaviour. TIlls inconsistency may however be due to the fact that the data from the sample may not be a true reflection of the population. Financial reporting incentives, tax disincentives, liquidity, and two proxies for agency costs (the variance of market-adjusted returns and the ratio of the variance of marketadjusted returns to total returns) were not found to be significantly associated with option granting. TIlls suggests that the lack of a requirement to recognise share options as an expense; no deductions of share options for tax purposes; the fact that executive's choose to invest in projects that yield highly variable returns; and that finns that have a large amount of noise in their share price relative to the market, do not influence the decision to grant share options in South Africa. It therefore appears that the key drivers for granting share options to South African executive directors are finn size, unclear signals between earnings performance and the quality of manager's decisions and the desire to reduce agency costs by encouraging managers to focus on long-term investment opportunities
Exploring variation in the performance of planned birth: A mixed method study
Get PDFObjective: Variation in practice in relation to indications and timing for both induction of labour (IOL) and planned caesarean section (CS) clearly exists. However, the extent of this variation, and how this variation is explained by clinicians remains unclear. The aim of this study was to map the variation in IOL and planned CS at eight Australian hospitals, and understand why variation occurs from the perspective of clinicians at these hospitals. Our ultimate aim was to identify opportunities for improvement as evidenced by hospital data, clinician experiences, and feedback. Design: A two-phased mixed method study using sequential explanatory study design. The first phase consisted of an analysis of routinely collected patient data to map variation between hospitals. The second phase consisted of focus groups with clinicians to gain their perspectives on the reasons for variation. Setting and Participants: Patient data consisted of routine data from 19,073 women giving birth at eight Sydney hospitals between November 2017 and October 2018. Focus groups were attended by a total of 61 medical staff and 121 midwives. Results: Hospital data analysis found substantial variation, before and after adjustment for case-mix, in rates of both IOL (adjusted rates 27.6%–42%) and planned CS (adjusted rate 15.4%–22.6%). Planned CS by gestation also showed variation, although after restricting analysis to term (≥37 weeks gestation) births, variation was reduced. At focus groups, five main themes explaining variation emerged: local guidelines, policies and procedures (inconsistency and ambiguity); uncertainty of the evidence/what is best practice (contradictory research and different interpretations of evidence); clinician preferences, beliefs and values; the culture of the unit; and organisational influences (access to specialised clinics, theatre time). Key conclusions: Considerable variation in IOL and planned CS, even after case-mix adjustment, was found in this sample of Australian hospitals. Engagement with hospital clinicians identified likely sources of this variation and enabled clinicians at each hospital to consider appropriate local responses to address variation, such as more detailed review of their planned birth cases. Implications for practice: At a macro level, measures to reduce unwarranted variation should initially focus on consistent national guidelines, while supporting equitable access to operating theatres for optimal CS timing, and shared decision-making training to reduce influence of clinician preference
WHEAT BUFFER STOCKS AND TRADE IN AN EFFICIENT GLOBAL ECONOMY
Get PDFThis study assesses storage and trade of wheat in an integrated global economy. Domestic and international linkages are analyzed using a dynamic rational expectations model of the world wheat market. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of endogenizing both storage and trade in studying commodity markets. Results suggest an optimal US buffer stock level of 150 million bushel. Results indicate that past government stockholdings have not followed efficient market outcomes. Private markets likely would perform better in the absence of government market distortions. Results indicate that elimination of the Export Enhancement Program by the US and of export restitution payments by the EU is unlikely to have a major impact on wheat exports from the two regions, but will save millions of tax dollars in both regions.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,
The healing touch: spiritual healing in England, c.1870-1955
Get PDFThis thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of spiritual healing in England in its various different guises during the late-nineteenth and early- to mid-twentieth centuries. It considers the interplay between the various spiritual healing groups themselves and between their philosophies and practices and orthodox medical theory more generally. The first half examines how spiritual healing was conceptualised by those who practised it - who spiritual healers were, what they believed and how they defined illness and healing. The specific therapeutic techniques used by healers are delineated, and the themes of touch and morality explored in detail. The second half of this thesis then examines how spiritual healing was perceived by the religious and medical establishments, and explores their co-operational discourse. Firstly, the reaction of the orthodox Christian churches to spiritual healing and their fractured and inherently conservative attempts to utilise it as a means of revitalising orthodox Christianity are analysed. The final chapters then chart the chronological relationship between spiritual healing and orthodox medicine during three specific periods, and explore the way in which spiritual healing intersected and impacted upon medical reactions to the new psychology of the twentieth century
Esprit '91. Proceedings of the annual Esprit conference. Brussels, 25-29 November 1991. EUR 13853 EN
Get PDFAn Exploration of the Dynamics of Consensual Approaches in Biodiversity Planning for the Wider Countryside: Evaluating the Usefulness and Applicability of Actor-Network Theory
No full textThis research examines the usefulness of applying theoretical principles from the Sociology of
Translation and Actor Network Theory to the scenario of biodiversity planning in Oxfordshire
between the early nineteen nineties and 2001. It develops a model derived from a social
constructionist approach to considering Nature, and seeks to apply it to empirical data on the
development of Oxfordshire's Local Biodiversity Action Plan. The data is considered in relation
to the four poles of the model which are the 'scientific knowledge or technical' pole; the
'institutional' pole; the 'production of practices' pole and the 'nature protected' pole. The idea
that is applied is that scientific knowledge that is generated for a purpose becomes the accepted
wisdom and consequently is institutionalized. From this acceptance of the importance of
scientific or technical authority, practices will then be generated (for example, land or water
management strategies) and these then protect particular elements of nature; essentially what
society, and more specifically, the actors involved with problematising the issue deem as being
elements that are important to preserve.
Also, there is a time and space dimension built into the model since the author builds on the
ideas of actor-network theorists who argue that a network is not a flat shape but that actors may
act at a distance (e. g. global actor) but still be linked into a localized network. Similarly, actors
may be incorporated from different times but may be held into place within a given network
because their views or actions are part of a stable agreement (e. g. text/intermediary object) that
has encapsulated a number of different actors.The actor-networks presented in this thesis are
heterogeneous in nature in that they incorporate elements of nature and the human world as
different actors represent the views of others. The research explores stable and unstable
networks that are founded within consensual approaches through partnership working between
many different types of organisation
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