Health Authorities, Priority-setting and Resource Allocation: A Study in Decision-making in New Labour's NHS

This paper analyses the decision‐making process of health authorities under New Labour in the NHS through a study of their qualitative responses to questionnaires. We find a considerable frustration and cynicism with the government's plans for reform, with its interference at the local level with services, and an acknowledgement of the differences between health authorities’ practice and what they believe the government requires, with, often, only minimal effort being made attempting to achieve new governmental performance targets. We conclude by making suggestions for an alternative strategy less likely to antagonize local health service providers.     

Preschool and School Readiness of Children of Immigrants*

Objective. In this article, we use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Kindergarten Cohort to analyze the links between preschool attendance and the school readiness of children of immigrants. Methods. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Kindergarten Cohort, we estimate multivariate regression models for the effects of preschool on school readiness for children of immigrants and children of natives. Results. We find that children whose mothers were born outside the United States are less likely to be enrolled in school or center‐based preschool programs than other children. We find that preschool attendance raises reading and math scores as much for children of immigrants as it does for other children. Attending preschool also raises the English‐language proficiency of children of immigrants. Although not the main focus of our study, we examined the effects of Head Start, and found that this program improves children's English proficiency, with especially large effects for children of immigrants whose mothers have less than a high school education; in this latter group, Head Start also improved math scores. Conclusions. Given that preschool benefits children of immigrants as much as it does children of natives and given that children of immigrants are less likely to be enrolled, our findings strongly suggest that enrolling more children of immigrants in preschool would help reduce inequality in skills at school entry.     

Bispectral-Based Goodness-of-Fit Tests of Gaussianity and Linearity of Stationary Time Series

Spectral domain tests for time series linearity typically suffer from a lack of power compared to time domain tests. We present two tests for Gaussianity and linearity of a stationary time series. The tests are two-stage procedures applying goodness-of-fit techniques to the estimated normalized bispectrum. We illustrate the performances of the tests are competitive with time domain tests. The new tests typically outperform Hinich's (1982 Hinich , M. J. ( 1982 ). Testing for Gaussianity and linearity of a stationary time series . J. Time Ser. Anal. 3 : 169 – 176 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) bispectral based test, especially when the length of the time series is not large.     

Comparison of exercise attitudes and behaviors of urban older adults with AARP's national sample results

This study assessed perceptions about exercise among a convenience sample of low-income, urban, older adult patients at a publicly operated ambulatory primary-care clinic, and results were then compared with the findings of a national study. Although it was expected that the predominantly minority and economically disadvantaged participants in this study would trail significantly behind their White counterparts in their perceptions and behavior regarding exercise, findings demonstrated otherwise. Specifically, when physicians encourage moderate exercise, when patients believe that they can overcome barriers to exercise, and when the environment supports moderate exercise through the availability of community exercise classes, inequities in health behaviors can be reduced. Interventions designed to increase exercise for this population should be developed with an understanding of the many barriers that they will have to overcome, a focus on building confidence, and communicating the many benefits of this behavior.     

歌德与“世界文学”

歌德对世界文学影响巨大。他的作品被翻译成48种语言,是各国经典的重要组成部分。歌德通晓多种语言,熟悉欧洲国家各历史时代的文学作品和形式,他翻译、戏仿或用这些作品的风格写作。《浮士德》简直是欧洲文学传统的汇集。歌德还对世界各地的民歌有着浓厚的兴趣,积极搜集欧洲主流之外的作品。他参与"世界文学"的最突出的例子是两本诗集《西东诗集》和《中德四季晨昏杂咏》。前者受波斯诗人哈菲兹影响,后者受中国戏剧和小说影响。歌德希望借文化了解来提高宽容度,他的"世界文学"我们现在称之为"跨文化交流",指一系列的全球对话和交换。在这些对话和交换中,不同文化的共性日趋明显,个性却也并未被抹杀。歌德通过广泛的学术阅读、文本翻译来了解世界上各种文化的观点,并宽容地对待这些观点,平静地接受或忽略它们。歌德赞同康德艺术和科学相互启发的观点。他的科学实践以及"世界文学"实践都是为了寻找一切生命体在不同中体现出的统一和和谐。     

Leveraging risk assessment for foodborne outbreak investigations: The Quantitative Risk Assessment-Epidemic Curve Prediction Model

Root cause analysis can be used in foodborne illness outbreak investigations to determine the underlying causes of an outbreak and to help identify actions that could be taken to prevent future outbreaks. We developed a new tool, the Quantitative Risk Assessment-Epidemic Curve Prediction Model (QRA-EC), to assist with these goals and applied it to a case study to investigate and illustrate the utility of leveraging quantitative risk assessment to provide unique insights for foodborne illness outbreak root cause analysis. We used a 2019 Salmonella outbreak linked to melons as a case study to demonstrate the utility of this model (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). The model was used to evaluate the impact of various root cause hypotheses (representing different contamination sources and food safety system failures in the melon supply chain) on the predicted number and timeline of illnesses. The predicted number of illnesses varied by contamination source and was strongly impacted by the prevalence and level of Salmonella contamination on the surface/inside of whole melons and inside contamination niches on equipment surfaces. The timeline of illnesses was most strongly impacted by equipment sanitation efficacy for contamination niches. Evaluations of a wide range of scenarios representing various potential root causes enabled us to identify which hypotheses, were likely to result in an outbreak of similar size and illness timeline to the 2019 Salmonella melon outbreak. The QRA-EC framework can be adapted to accommodate any food–pathogen pairs to provide insights for foodborne outbreak investigations.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Decision Aids on Problem-Solving Processes*

Despite the growing number of investigations examining decision support systems (DSS), relatively few empirical studies have evaluated the effects of DSS on problem-solving processes. This study uses protocol analysis to investigate the impact of a specific decision aid on problem-solving processes in a semi-structured problem. Results indicate that decision aids influence the problem-solving processes of decision makers. The effect of a decision aid is found to be contingent on familiarity with the decision aid, task familiarity, and the interaction of these two factors. Suggestions for incorporating interaction effects and problem-solving processes into future examinations are proposed.     

Action collective,action de mouvement social: la contribution du syndicalisme à la liberté au travail dans un exemple néo-zélandais

Les syndicats peuvent contribuer à la liberté au travail par une action collective axée sur l'intérêt des membres, mais aussi en nouant des partenariats avec d'autres acteurs de la société civile, dans le cadre d'un mouvement social. Pour traiter ce dernier aspect, encore peu documenté, les auteurs s'appuient sur les définitions de la liberté de Berlin (1988) et MacCallum (1967) puis sur la théorie de la démocratie radicale de Laclau et Mouffe (2019). Ils illustrent leur propos par une étude de cas portant sur les stratégies déployées par des syndicats néozélandais en vue d'accompagner l'action officielle pour une transition juste face au défi climatique.     

Quantitative risk assessment-epidemic curve prediction model for leafy green outbreak investigation

The objective of this study was to leverage quantitative risk assessment to investigate possible root cause(s) of foodborne illness outbreaks related to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC O157) infections in leafy greens in the United States. To this end, we developed the FDA leafy green quantitative risk assessment epidemic curve prediction model (FDA-LG QRA-EC) that simulated the lettuce supply chain. The model was used to predict the number of reported illnesses and the epidemic curve associated with lettuce contaminated with STEC O157 for a wide range of scenarios representing various contamination conditions and facility processing/sanitation practices. Model predictions were generated for fresh-cut and whole lettuce, quantifying the differing impacts of facility processing and home preparation on predicted illnesses. Our model revealed that the timespan (i.e., number of days with at least one reported illness) and the peak (i.e., day with the most predicted number of reported illnesses) of the epidemic curve of a STEC O157-lettuce outbreak were not strongly influenced by facility processing/sanitation practices and were indications of contamination pattern among incoming lettuce batches received by the facility or distribution center. Through comparisons with observed number of illnesses from recent STEC O157-lettuce outbreaks, the model identified contamination conditions on incoming lettuce heads that could result in an outbreak of similar size, which can be used to narrow down potential root cause hypotheses.