The Fort Dodge Line: Iowa\u27s Feisty Interurban

Review of: The Fort Dodge Line: Iowa\u27s Feisty Interurban, by Don L. Hofsommer

The Iowa Route: A History of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway

Review of: The Iowa Route: A History of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Rail-way, by Don L. Hofsommer

Regulating Small and Medium Charities: Does It Improve Transparency and Accountability?

Internationally, there has been a steady increase in the number of countries instigating charity regulation. Public interest theory suggests that regulation increases organisational transparency through reducing information asymmetry, protects (or encourages) a competitive market, and leads to a distribution of resources which is in the public interest. While these arguments may explain charity regulation, the cost of compliance can be an issue for small- and medium-sized charities. Therefore, regulators tend to take a light-handed approach to small and medium charities’ information provision. This paper ascertains the impact of a light- handed enforcement regime on small and medium charities’ reporting, analysing the financial reporting practices of a selection of 300 small- and medium-sized charities registered with the former New Zealand Charities Commission against the Charities Act 2005 requirements and hence the rationale for this regulator. It uses this analysis to predict how the regulator’s activities might impact future reporting practices of charities

The Annual General Meeting as an Accountability Mechanism

This review of Annual General Meetings (AGMs) as they evolved historically in English parishes and early joint-stock companies shows the manner in which they provided valuable opportunities to fulfil organisational accountability. AGMs enabled members to call elected governors to account and, in generating forums for organisational construction, supplied models which were foundational in early company law. As faceto- face meetings, AGMs were heterogeneous and presented non-financial information to augment publicly available financial information. Whilst low attendance at AGMs indicates apathy and modern technological advances may enable their replacement, recent calls to revise the legal requirement for an AGM have not gained traction. This paper therefore suggests a recommitment to the process of AGM accountability as practised in early public sector and profit-oriented organisations. This will enable today’s organisations to utilise the potential of the AGM as a formal and transparent mechanism to deliver accountability

Light-handed charity regulation: its effect on reporting practice in New Zealand

Internationally, there has been a steady increase in the number of countries instigating charity regulation. While the Charity Commission for England and Wales was established by the Charitable Trusts Acts of 1853, since 2005 the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Charity Commission for Northern Ireland and the Singaporean Charity Council were established almost contemporaneously with New Zealand’s Charities Commission. In other countries (such as Canada and the United States) tax authorities register and monitor charitable activity leading to a perception that charities need regulation if the donating public's trust and confidence is to increase. Public interest theory suggests that regulation increases organisational transparency through reducing information asymmetry, protects (or encourages) a competitive market, leading to a distribution of resources which is in the public interest (Gaffikin, 2005). While these arguments are commonly used to call for regulation in the private (for profit) sphere, nonetheless they may explain the increase in the number of bodies regulating charities internationally. Notwithstanding a need for regulation, the cost of complying with these regimes is often an issue, especially for small and medium-sized charities and therefore regulator tend to take a light-handed approach to small and medium charities' information provision (for example, Hind, 2011; Morgan, 2010a). Responding to the call by Hyndman and McDonnell (2009) for research into charities regulation, its rationale and operation, this paper ascertains the impact of a light-handed enforcement regime on small and medium charities' reporting. In so doing, it analyses the General Purpose Financial Reporting (GPFR) practices of a selection of 300 small and medium-sized charities registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission against the Charities Act requirements and hence the rationale for this regulator. It uses this analysis to predict how the regulator's activities might impact future reporting practices of charities

Characterisation of macrophage migration inhibitory factor homologues in plasmodium species

Malaria is responsible for 1-3 million deaths per year worldwide, with half the global population at risk of infection. Plasmodium falciparum is the parasite responsible for severe malaria and accounts for almost all fatal cases. The Plasmodium falciparum genome sequencing project identified a putative protein that shares sequence homology with the cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). MIF has been shown to have a wide range of functions including the modulation of inflammatory responses. The major objective of this project was to characterise the potential MIF homologue in P. falciparum (PfMIF) and to test the hypothesis that this protein may influence the host immune system during the course of P. falciparum infection. Sequence analysis and modelling techniques were used to show that PfMIF shares important structural similarities to other MIF species. Studies of parasites in culture demonstrated that PfMIF mRNA and protein are expressed during ring and trophozoite stages of the parasite life cycle. Furthermore, PfMIF was found to be exported into the cytosol of the infected erythrocyte, and released upon schizont rupture, thus providing an opportunity for PfMIF to interact directly with the host immune system. Recombinant PfMIF protein was generated and used to treat monocytes in vitro. These experiments showed that PfMIF inhibits the random migration and chemotaxis of monocytes and influences surface molecule expression, as evidenced by a decrease in TLR2, TLR4 and CD86. Access to a cohort of children in Kenya allowed examination of patient antibody responses to PfMIF, which showed a pattern of expression similar to antibody responses to other malaria antigens previously examined. In conclusion, these studies suggest that PfMIF could be an important molecule involved in the interaction between the parasite and the host immune system during the course of P. falciparum infection

The role of central catecholamines in performance during prolonged exercise in warm conditions

Performance during prolonged exercise capacity diminishes with increasing temperatures. The onset of fatigue under these conditions is not adequately explained by peripheral mechanisms. Recently, drugs which inhibit the reuptake of dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain have been found to improve exercise performance in warm conditions. The aim of this thesis was to further explore and characterise the role of these neurotransmitters during prolonged exercise in warm conditions by manipulating their reuptake or synthesis. The first series of experiments were designed to further investigate the effects of bupropion, a dopamine and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, which has been found to improve performance in warm conditions. To explore gender differences in response to acute bupropion administration, the effects of bupropion on prolonged exercise performance in warm conditions in women was investigated in Chapter 3. The results of this study suggest that during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, acute administration of bupropion improves exercise performance. To determine whether there are any dose-dependent effects of bupropion, the experiment in Chapter 4 was designed to test three different doses of bupropion. Exercise performance was only improved for the maximal dose, suggesting a threshold for the performance effects of bupropion. Catecholamine precursors do not appear to improve exercise performance as consistently as reuptake inhibitors. In agreement with previous studies, the dopamine precursor L-DOPA did not affect exercise performance in warm conditions in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6 the effect of the atypical antidepressant nutritional supplement S-adenosylmethionine was investigated for its role in the synthesis of dopamine and noradrenaline. S-adenosylmethionine appeared to negatively influence cognitive function, increased skin temperature and circulating prolactin concentrations, but no effects on exercise performance were observed

Right Place, Right Time Commission: Call to Action

Report of the NHS Providers Commission on delayed transfers of care. The report examines the evidence for best practice in transfers of care across physical and mental health

Lincoln\u27s Generals\u27 Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War--for Better and for Worse

Review of: Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War—for Better and for Worse , by Candice Shy Hooper