Underperforming policy networks : the biopesticides network in the United Kingdom

Loosely integrated and incomplete policy networks have been neglected in the literature. They are important to consider in terms of understanding network underperformance. The effective delivery and formulation of policy requires networks that are not incomplete or underperforming. The biopesticides policy network in the United Kingdom is considered and its components identified with an emphasis on the lack of integration of retailers and environmental groups. The nature of the network constrains the actions of its agents and frustrates the achievement of policy goals. A study of this relatively immature policy network also allows for a focus on network formation. The state, via an external central government department, has been a key factor in the development of the network. Therefore, it is important to incorporate such factors more systematically into understandings of network formation. Feedback efforts from policy have increased interactions between productionist actors but the sphere of consumption remains insufficiently articulated

Writing in Britain and Ireland, c. 400 to c. 800

No abstract available

The organisation and delivery of health improvement in general practice and primary care: a scoping study

Background This project examines the organisation and delivery of health improvement activities by and within general practice and the primary health-care team. The project was designed to examine who delivers these interventions, where they are located, what approaches are developed in practices, how individual practices and the primary health-care team organise such public health activities, and how these contribute to health improvement. Our focus was on health promotion and ill-health prevention activities. Aims The aim of this scoping exercise was to identify the current extent of knowledge about the health improvement activities in general practice and the wider primary health-care team. The key objectives were to provide an overview of the range and type of health improvement activities, identify gaps in knowledge and areas for further empirical research. Our specific research objectives were to map the range and type of health improvement activity undertaken by general practice staff and the primary health-care team based within general practice; to scope the literature on health improvement in general practice or undertaken by health-care staff based in general practice and identify gaps in the evidence base; to synthesise the literature and identify effective approaches to the delivery and organisation of health improvement interventions in a general practice setting; and to identify the priority areas for research as defined by those working in general practice. Methods We undertook a comprehensive search of the literature. We followed a staged selection process involving reviews of titles and abstracts. This resulted in the identification of 1140 papers for data extraction, with 658 of these papers selected for inclusion in the review, of which 347 were included in the evidence synthesis. We also undertook 45 individual and two group interviews with primary health-care staff. Findings Many of the research studies reviewed had some details about the type, process or location, or who provided the intervention. Generally, however, little attention is paid in the literature to examining the impact of the organisational context on the way services are delivered or how this affects the effectiveness of health improvement interventions in general practice. We found that the focus of attention is mainly on individual prevention approaches, with practices engaging in both primary and secondary prevention. The range of activities suggests that general practitioners do not take a population approach but focus on individual patients. However, it is clear that many general practitioners see health promotion as an integral part of practice, whether as individual approaches to primary or secondary health improvement or as a practice-based approach to improving the health of their patients. Our key conclusion is that there is currently insufficient good evidence to support many of the health improvement interventions undertaken in general practice and primary care more widely. Future Research Future research on health improvement in general practice and by the primary health-care team needs to move beyond clinical research to include delivery systems and be conducted in a primary care setting. More research needs to examine areas where there are chronic disease burdens – cancer, dementia and other disabilities of old age. Reviews should be commissioned that examine the whole prevention pathway for health problems that are managed within primary care drawing together research from general practice, pharmacy, community engagement, etc

Never trust a drug that can be pronounced in three different ways: medication errors in anaesthesia

No abstrac

Are We Adopting the Orphans, or Creating Them? Medical Ethics and Legal Jurisprudential Guidance for Proposed Changes to the Orphan Drug Act

This Note traces the subtle changes in the underlying purposes of the Orphan Drug Act, and evaluates those purposes from the perspectives of medical ethics and legal jurisprudence. Part I begins with the history of the Orphan Drug Act discussed issue by issue, to elucidate the subtle changes in the purpose of the Orphan Drug Act through its history. Part II explores the moral and ethical issues presented by the Orphan Drug Act to identify eleven guiding principles from medical ethics and legal jurisprudence. Lastly, Part III applies these guiding principles to the most common proposed amendments to the Orphan Drug Act. Ultimately, through a holistic understanding of the guiding principles which inform the Orphan Drug Act from medical and legal perspectives, amendments will no longer be viewed as patches to fix the “problem drugs” gaining national attention, but as opportunities to strengthen the policy goals underlying the Orphan Drug Act

Conference Report George Eliot and Her Work: Anakara Turkey, March 1999

George Eliot\u27s works are not well-known in Turkey, except for The Mill on the Floss, which is regularly studied in university departments of English Literature as part of an introductory course to the English novel, and Silas Mamer, which is occasionally included in postgraduate courses in nineteenth-century literature. There have been only four published translations of her novels - three of The Mill on the Floss (in 1970, 1975 and 1981) and one of Silas Mamer (1977), plus an introductory guide to her work, which appeared as long ago as 1949. The main aim of the two-day \u27George Eliot and Her Work\u27 conference, organized by Middle East Technical University, Ankara, in March 1999, was to encourage greater interest in her work. Over eighty participants listened to twelve papers presented by academics from Turkey, Britain and Jordan, which focused on a variety of issues. Some of the more noteworthy papers included Armagan Erdogan, a PhD student at the University of Warwick, who talked on \u27Mothers and Daughters in The Mill on the Floss\u27; Berrin Aksoy, Asociate Professor of Translation Studies at Haceteppe University, Ankara, who gave a very interesting talk on translating the Mill on the Floss into Turkish: Giilbiin Onur of Sel9uk University, Konya, on \u27Happiness as a matter of soul: Middlemarch\u27; and a remarkable pair of papers given by Clare Brandabur and Hassan Athamneh of Yarmouk University, Jordan, on The Essence of Christianity\u27 and \u27Orientalism\u27 in Daniel Deronda. Other papers, given by Unal Norman (, Consummate Narcissism in Romola\u27), and Meral Cileli (\u27Values in Felix Holt\u27) of Middle East Technical University, provided useful introductions to two of George Eliot\u27s lesser-known novels. This conference was aimed at students, as well as staff of English Literature departments; to attract their interest, a video was shown of the BBC production of Silas Mamer, together with six short programmes on \u27Material on the life and work of George Eliot\u27, originally made by BBC Education. The principal guest speaker from Britain, sponsored by the British Council, was Christine James of the British Film Institute who gave two representations of how Middlemarch was transformed by Andrew Davies (the screenwriter) and Anthony Page (the director) into a successful 6-part BBC series in 1993. Throughout the conference, a five-minute presentation was shown on \u27George Eliot Country’. This was made up of a series of photographs, plus accompanying commentary, of the major sites associated with George Eliot in the Nuneaton and Bedworth area. For their assistance in compiling this presentation, the organizers are indebted to Bill and Kathleen Adams of the George Eliot Fellowship, and Rose Selwyn of the Nuneaton Borough Council Marketing Department

Developing Countries Can Innovate and Produce Vaccines: The Case of Butantan in Brazil

Since the introduction of vaccines, governments learn that they are the most efficient and inexpensive tool to avoid the spreading of infectious diseases. It resulted in the creation of public research institutes to develop new vaccines, which gave birth to the vaccine industry, that is, growing in size by acquisition of competitors, which estimate that in 2019 they will sell $58 billion, where developing countries represent 80% of the world population, submitted to be dependent of production and prices from large producers. Incapable or not willing to assume the responsibility to produce, accept to purchase vaccines in bulk for filling and labeling as “producers.” Butantan, a public not for profit institute became the first producer of specific anti-venoms and anti-rabies sera. In 1985, Butantan Center of Biotechnology attracted 25 young PhD, which accepted to carry on inovations and technical developments, setting dedicated plants to produce vaccines at affordable cost, aiming self-sufficiency to distribute free through the Ministry of Health. This chapter describes problems and solutions that must be faced to produce vaccine at a cost that developing countries can afford

A founder-controlled, social wasp assemblage, and a recent severe fall in numbers

The 35 species of social wasps surveyed in an 8 ha plot in the Cabeça de Veado valley near Brasilia (1979 and 1997) averaged 17.9 species per survey. From 1/3 to 1/2 of the species disappeared between consecutive surveys and only two were present in every survey. On average, 43% of the 40 species known to inhabit the valley were recorded on each survey. This high rate of turn-over demonstrates that the wasps comprised a “founder-controlled” assemblage. On two more surveys, nine species were recorded in 2010 and ten in 2015; numbers which reflect recent reports on the global trend of losses of social wasps