UK family businesses: industrial and geographical context, governance and performance

This report investigates family businesses in the UK and focuses on their incidence, industrial and geographical context and their governance and performance relative to non-family businesses. The sample includes near population UK data for the period 2007 to 2009 of privately held incorporated firms (excluding listed/quoted firms) and analyses around 3 million firm-year observations. The report compares and contrasts family businesses with non-family businesses with reference to governance and performance during the current recession. Family businesses that are structured with 'family trusts/settlements' are considered as an important sub-sample of family businesses in the report. The analysis highlights important differences between family and non-family firms across a number of dimensions of governance and firm performance

When “We” means “You”: Mitigating directives in rugby coaching through pronominal choice

Abstract for presentation at ALAA2016/ALS2016 joint day

Just ask Siri? A pilot study comparing smartphone digital assistants and laptop Google searches for smoking cessation advice

<div><p>Objective</p><p>To compare voice-activated internet searches by smartphone (two digital assistants) with laptop ones for information and advice related to smoking cessation.</p><p>Design</p><p>Responses to 80 questions on a range of topics related to smoking cessation (including the FAQ from a NHS website), compared for quality.</p><p>Setting</p><p>Smartphone and internet searches as performed in New Zealand.</p><p>Main outcome measures</p><p>Ranked responses to the questions.</p><p>Results</p><p>Google laptop internet searches came first (or first equal) for best quality smoking cessation advice for 83% (66/80) of the responses. Voiced questions to Google Assistant (“OK Google”) came first/first equal 76% of the time vs Siri (Apple) at 28%. Google and Google Assistant were statistically significantly better than Siri searches (odds ratio 12.4 and 8.5 respectively, p<0.0001 in each comparison). When asked FAQs from the National Health Service website, or to find information the Centers for Disease Control has made videos on, the best search results used expert sources 59% (31/52) of the time, “some expertise” (eg, Wikipedia) 18% of the time, but also magazines and other low quality sources 19% of the time. Using all three methods failed to find relevant information 8% (6/80) of the time, with Siri having the most failed responses (53% of the time).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Google internet searches and Google Assistant were found to be significantly superior to the Siri digital assistant for smoking cessation information. While expert content was returned over half the time, there is still substantial room for improvement in how these software systems deliver smoking cessation advice.</p></div

Medline search strategy.

<p>Medline search strategy.</p

Flow-chart of the selection of studies of economic analyses of housing interventions.

<p>Flow-chart of the selection of studies of economic analyses of housing interventions.</p

Interventions compared, study objectives and main study conclusions of included studies.

<p>Interventions compared, study objectives and main study conclusions of included studies.</p

Additional file 1: of Smokefree signage at children’s playgrounds: Field observations and comparison with Google Street View

Online appendix. (PDF 1085 kb

A Systematic Review of Health Economic Analyses of Housing Improvement Interventions and Insecticide-Treated Bednets in the Home

<div><p>Background</p><p>Housing improvements have considerable potential for improving health. So does the provision of insecticide-treated bednets for malaria prevention. Therefore we aimed to conduct updated systematic reviews of health economic analyses in both these intervention domains.</p><p>Methods and findings</p><p>The search strategy included economic analyses of housing improvement interventions and use of insecticide-treated bednets for community-dwelling, healthy populations (published between 1 January 2000 and 15 April 2014). We searched the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, and three health economics databases. Thirty-five economic analyses of seven types of intervention fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Most included studies adopted a health sector perspective and were cost-effectiveness analyses using decision analytic modeling or conducted alongside trials. The overall quality of the studies was generally likely to be adequate for informing policy-making (albeit with limitations in some areas). There was fairly consistent evidence for the cost-effectiveness/favorable cost-benefit of removing indoor lead to prevent lead poisoning and sequelae, and retrofitting insulation to prevent lung disease. But the value of assessing and improving home safety and providing smoke alarms to prevent injuries was more mixed and the economic evidence was inconclusive or insufficient for: home ventilation to prevent lung disease, installing heaters to prevent lung disease and regulating tap water temperatures to prevent scalding. Few studies (n = 4) considered health equity. The 12 studies of providing insecticide-treated bednets or hammocks to prevent malaria found these interventions to be moderately to highly cost-effective.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>This systematic review provides updated evidence that several housing improvement interventions (such as removing indoor lead and retrofitting insulation) and also the provision of insecticide-treated bednets are cost-effective interventions. Nevertheless, for some interventions additional analyses are required to better clarify their health economic and health equity value.</p></div

Characteristics of included studies, ordered by type of intervention (Table 1 continued).

<p>Characteristics of included studies, ordered by type of intervention (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0151812#pone.0151812.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a> continued).</p

Results for smoking cessation information and advice provided by Siri, Google Assistant and Google searches (see S1 Appendix for question specific results).

<p>Results for smoking cessation information and advice provided by Siri, Google Assistant and Google searches (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0194811#pone.0194811.s001" target="_blank">S1 Appendix</a> for question specific results).</p