79 research outputs found
The beds of empire: Power and profit at the pearl fisheries of South India and Sri Lanka, c.1770-1840
No full textThe Gulf of Mannar—the shallow body of water between present-day India and Sri Lanka—was one of the largest sources of natural pearls in the world for at least two millennia. This dissertation focuses on a relatively brief period during which managerial control over the human and natural resources of the pearling industry transferred from Dutch to British powers. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries also witnessed a shift in political economic thought, as classical liberalism dislodged mercantilism as the prevailing framework for interpreting the relationship between the state and economy. The Company and Crown governments brought an assemblage of ideas to bear on the management and governance of people and oysters that sought to not only increase productivity but also fundamentally reshape the social, economic, and political foundations of the pearling industry. However, the attempt by British officials to extricate local networks and institutions from pearling operations was fraught with contradictions and seldom delivered on the promise of reform. Through an examination of key targets of government intervention—labor, markets, merchants, sovereignty, and corruption—this dissertation explores the interstices between success and failure and tracks such developments through the evolving contexts of colonialism and imperialism in India and Sri Lanka
Pearls, People, and Power : Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds
No full textPearls, People, and Power is the first book to examine the trade, distribution, production, and consumption of pearls and mother-of-pearl in the global Indian Ocean over more than five centuries. While scholars have long recognized the importance of pearling to the social, cultural, and economic practices of both coastal and inland areas, the overwhelming majority have confined themselves to highly localized or at best regional studies of the pearl trade. By contrast, this book stresses how pearling and the exchange in pearl shell were interconnected processes that brought the ports, islands, and coasts into close relation with one another, creating dense networks of connectivity that were not necessarily circumscribed by local, regional, or indeed national frames.
Essays from a variety of disciplines address the role of slaves and indentured workers in maritime labor arrangements, systems of bondage and transoceanic migration, the impact of European imperialism on regional and local communities, commodity flows and networks of exchange, and patterns of marine resource exploitation between the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression. By encompassing the geographical, cultural, and thematic diversity of Indian Ocean pearling, Pearls, People, and Power deepens our appreciation of the underlying historical dynamics of the many worlds of the Indian Ocean.
Contributors: Robert Carter, William G. Clarence-Smith, Joseph Christensen, Matthew S. Hopper, Pedro Machado, Julia T. Martínez, Michael McCarthy, Jonathan Miran, Steve Mullins, Karl Neuenfeldt, Samuel M. Ostroff, and James Francis Warren.https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/1061/thumbnail.jp
Author Correction: Genetic architecture of host proteins involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection.
No full textThe original version of this Article cited “Mehra, M. R., Desai, S. S., Kuy, S., Henry, T. D. & Patel, A. N. Cardiovascular disease, drug therapy, and mortality in Covid-19. N. Engl. J. Med. 382, e102 (2020)” as Ref. 20. The cited paper was retracted; accordingly, Ref. 20 has been replaced with "Grasselli G et al. Risk factors associated with mortality among patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units in Lombardy, Italy. JAMA Intern. Med. 180, 1345–1355 (2020)”. This has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the article
Investigating the impact of NHS based ovarian cancer screening
No full textthe UK ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in females and after uterine cancer, the second most common gynaecological cancer. There were 6,596 new cases diagnosed in the UK in 2006. The majority of women who develop ovarian cancer have few symptoms until the cancer has spread. A systematic review of published literature was performed to include randomised control trials, case control or cohort studies. It is apparent from the literature on ovarian cancer screening that internationally extensive research is performed however, there is lack of consensus on who to offer screening to, and the most efficacious way of offering it. Annual screening was found to be inadequate for early cancer detection as several studies report advanced stage disease or found that women were developing symptoms in the interim period of screening visits.
The retrospective studies performed at Milton Keynes Hospital demonstrated that ovarian cancer affects a wide age range with many women having no family history of ovarian or breast cancer. Many cases were found to have early stage ovarian cancer however, the largest group of women were found to have extensive metastatic disease at time of diagnosis. 80% of cases reviewed experienced abdominal or pelvic pains often with distension. Five patients were found to have a CA125 value in the normal range, one of which had advanced disease, indicating the limitations of this biomarker. The impact and costs associated with screening in the NHS setting vary considerably with inclusion criteria used. The UK National Screening Committee will have to decide once the findings of UKCTOCS are published in 2010/11 as to the cost benefit of offering NHS based ovarian cancer screening. An annual cost of at least £1.3 million should be expected per NHS trust, in addition to individual trusts needs for equipment, staff and additional facilities required to offer such screening
The Successful Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy in a Patient With Cerebral Aneurysms and a Pituitary Lesion
No full textDeveloping smoking cessation programs for chronically ill teens: Lessons learned from research with healthy adolescent smokers
No full textObjective: Medically fragile teens who smoke need access to smoking cessation programs, because they are at even higher risk than their healthy peers for smoking-related complications. Methods: To date, no studies on the outcome of smoking cessation programs for medically ill teens have been conducted. To suggest directions for future research, we turn to the literature on smoking cessation in the general population of teens and occasionally to the literature on adult smokers. Results: Four areas are explored: (a) the prevalence of unaided cessation in healthy teens; (b) the outcomes of various treatments for smoking cessation in healthy adolescents; (c) special issues that should be considered when designing programs for medically ill teens; and (d) lessons learned from previous research. Conclusions: Medically ill teens face a number of medical, emotional, social, and developmental challenges that can affect the quitting process. Research is sorely needed to address the unique needs of this population. © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved
Female economic dependence and the morality of promiscuity
No full textThis article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ The Author(s) 2014.In environments in which female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, male parental investment is more essential. In such environments, therefore, both sexes should value paternity certainty more and thus object more to promiscuity (because promiscuity undermines paternity certainty). We tested this theory of anti-promiscuity morality in two studies (N = 656 and N = 4,626) using U.S. samples. In both, we examined whether opposition to promiscuity was higher among people who perceived greater female economic dependence in their social network. In Study 2, we also tested whether economic indicators of female economic dependence (e.g., female income, welfare availability) predicted anti-promiscuity morality at the state level. Results from both studies supported the proposed theory. At the individual level, perceived female economic dependence explained significant variance in anti-promiscuity morality, even after controlling for variance explained by age, sex, religiosity, political conservatism, and the anti-promiscuity views of geographical neighbors. At the state level, median female income was strongly negatively related to anti-promiscuity morality and this relationship was fully mediated by perceived female economic dependence. These results were consistent with the view that anti-promiscuity beliefs may function to promote paternity certainty in circumstances where male parental investment is particularly important
Pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: an exploratory analysis of infection and fatality rates, and contextual factors associated with preparedness in 177 countries, from Jan 1, 2020, to Sept 30, 2021
No full textNational rates of COVID-19 infection and fatality have varied dramatically since the onset of the pandemic. Understanding the conditions associated with this cross-country variation is essential to guiding investment in more effective preparedness and response for future pandemics.
Daily SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 deaths for 177 countries and territories and 181 subnational locations were extracted from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's modelling database. Cumulative infection rate and infection-fatality ratio (IFR) were estimated and standardised for environmental, demographic, biological, and economic factors. For infections, we included factors associated with environmental seasonality (measured as the relative risk of pneumonia), population density, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, proportion of the population living below 100 m, and a proxy for previous exposure to other betacoronaviruses. For IFR, factors were age distribution of the population, mean body-mass index (BMI), exposure to air pollution, smoking rates, the proxy for previous exposure to other betacoronaviruses, population density, age-standardised prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer, and GDP per capita. These were standardised using indirect age standardisation and multivariate linear models. Standardised national cumulative infection rates and IFRs were tested for associations with 12 pandemic preparedness indices, seven health-care capacity indicators, and ten other demographic, social, and political conditions using linear regression. To investigate pathways by which important factors might affect infections with SARS-CoV-2, we also assessed the relationship between interpersonal and governmental trust and corruption and changes in mobility patterns and COVID-19 vaccination rates.
The factors that explained the most variation in cumulative rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection between Jan 1, 2020, and Sept 30, 2021, included the proportion of the population living below 100 m (5·4% [4·0–7·9] of variation), GDP per capita (4·2% [1·8–6·6] of variation), and the proportion of infections attributable to seasonality (2·1% [95% uncertainty interval 1·7–2·7] of variation). Most cross-country variation in cumulative infection rates could not be explained. The factors that explained the most variation in COVID-19 IFR over the same period were the age profile of the country (46·7% [18·4–67·6] of variation), GDP per capita (3·1% [0·3–8·6] of variation), and national mean BMI (1·1% [0·2–2·6] of variation). 44·4% (29·2–61·7) of cross-national variation in IFR could not be explained. Pandemic-preparedness indices, which aim to measure health security capacity, were not meaningfully associated with standardised infection rates or IFRs. Measures of trust in the government and interpersonal trust, as well as less government corruption, had larger, statistically significant associations with lower standardised infection rates. High levels of government and interpersonal trust, as well as less government corruption, were also associated with higher COVID-19 vaccine coverage among middle-income and high-income countries where vaccine availability was more widespread, and lower corruption was associated with greater reductions in mobility. If these modelled associations were to be causal, an increase in trust of governments such that all countries had societies that attained at least the amount of trust in government or interpersonal trust measured in Denmark, which is in the 75th percentile across these spectrums, might have reduced global infections by 12·9% (5·7–17·8) for government trust and 40·3% (24·3–51·4) for interpersonal trust. Similarly, if all countries had a national BMI equal to or less than that of the 25th percentile, our analysis suggests global standardised IFR would be reduced by 11·1%.
Efforts to improve pandemic preparedness and response for the next pandemic might benefit from greater investment in risk communication and community engagement strategies to boost the confidence that individuals have in public health guidance. Our results suggest that increasing health promotion for key modifiable risks is associated with a reduction of fatalities in such a scenario
Distress in couples coping with cancer: A meta-analysis and critical review of role and gender effects
No full textResearch concerning distress in couples coping with cancer was integrated using meta-analysis and narrative critical appraisal. Individual levels of distress were determined more by gender than by the role of being the person with cancer versus that person's partner. That is, women reported consistently more distress than men regardless of their role (standardized mean difference = 0.31). The association between patient and partner distress within couples was only moderate (r = .29) but is sufficient to warrant further consideration of the notion that these couples react as an emotional system rather than as individuals. It is noteworthy that this association is not moderated by gender. With a general lack of comparison groups, the question of how much distress can be ascribed to the cancer experience cannot be answered decisively; elevations in distress are probably modest. We critically discuss these results, identify important unanswered questions, and indicate directions for future research. Attention needs to be directed toward factors other than cancer as direct influences of distress in these couples and to mediators and moderators of the cancer experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
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