Creating British Global Leadership: The Liberal Trading Community from 1750 to 1792

This paper explores the process by which Great Britain rose to a position of global leadership in the 1800s. It examines the critical period from 1750 to 1792 when Great Britain moved from global leadership based on colonial/mercantile power to leadership based on industrial/commercial power. I hypothesize that the roots of the Pax Britannica of 1815-1873 have their source in the emerging liberal trading community created by the British in the fifty years before the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. This coalition of states was created around a dominant new idea (economic liberalism) based in the distribution of positive benefits from inclusion in the community, and intended to provide an innovative solution to the problems of international political economy created by the burgeoning industrial revolution. The community was created through the actions of successive British governments throughout the period, and served as the basis for the British-led coalitions which emerged victorious from the global wars of 1792 to 1815. This case study helps answer important questions about how Great Britain was able to move from one period of global leadership to another, and on a more general level provides some insights into the role coalition-building plays in attaining and exercising global power

The Industrial Revolution and Birth of the Anti-Mercantilist Idea:Epistemic Communities and Global Leadership

This paper seeks to offer a new perspective on the linkage between global leadership and the role of epistemic communities in international relations. The issue of bilateral trade liberalization between Great Britain and its trading partners rose to prominence on the global agenda in the 1700s by the efforts of British political economists and merchants. These efforts were prompted by changes in economic relations brought about by the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the mercantile system. While this group was small in number and its interactions rudimentary by 20th Century standards, it nonetheless met the qualifications specified by many scholars. It is further argued that such communities are linked to the exercise of global leadership in the long cycle model's phases of agenda setting and coalition building. They arc started and based in the global leader, and arc nurtured by the relatively open social and political structures of that leader. Evidence supporting this argument strengthens the long cycle model's explanatorypower with regard to agenda setting, coalition creation, and the role of innovative solutions to global problems, and makes preeminence in knowledge -based communities another dimension of global leadership

Development of an item bank for measuring prosthetic mobility in people with lower limb amputation: The Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS-M)

Achieving mobility with a prosthesis is a common post-amputation rehabilitation goal and primary outcome in prosthetic research studies. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) available to measure prosthetic mobility have practical and psychometric limitations that inhibit their use in clinical care and research.To develop a brief, clinically meaningful, and psychometrically robust PROM to measure prosthetic mobility.A cross-sectional study was conducted to administer previously developed candidate items to a national sample of lower limb prosthesis users. Items were calibrated to an item response theory model and two fixed-length short forms were created. Instruments were assessed for readability, effective range of measurement, agreement with the full item bank, ceiling and floor effects, convergent validity, and known groups validity.Participants were recruited using flyers posted in hospitals and prosthetics clinics across the United States, magazine advertisements, notices posted to consumer websites, and direct mailings.Adult prosthesis users (N = 1091) with unilateral lower limb amputation due to traumatic or dysvascular causes.Not applicable.Candidate items (N = 105) were administered along with the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System Brief Profile, Prosthesis Evaluation Questionnaire - Mobility Subscale, and Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale, and questions created to characterize respondents.A bank of 44 calibrated self-report items, termed the Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS-M), was produced. Clinical and statistical criteria were used to select items for 7- and 12-item short forms. PLUS-M instruments had an 8th grade reading level, measured with precision across a wide range of respondents, exhibited little-to-no ceiling or floor effects, correlated expectedly with scores from existing PROMs, and differentiated between groups of respondents expected to have different levels of mobility.The PLUS-M appears to be well suited to measuring prosthetic mobility in people with lower limb amputation. PLUS-M instruments are recommended for use in clinical and research settings

Associations Between Perceived Proximity to Neighborhood Resources, Disability, and Social Participation Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Results From the VoisiNuAge Study

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between perceived proximity to neighborhood resources, disability and social participation, and the potential moderating effect of perceived proximity to neighborhood resources on the association between disability and social participation among community-dwelling older women and men. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Older adults (296 women; 258 men). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Data on age, education, depressive symptoms, frequency of participation in community activities, perceived proximity to neighborhood resources (services and amenities), and functional autonomy in daily activities (disability) were collected by interviewer-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Greater perceived proximity to resources and lower level of disability were associated with greater social participation for both women (R(2)=0.10; p<0.001) and men (R(2)=0.05; p<0.01). The association between disability and social participation did not vary as a function of perceived proximity to neighborhood resources among women (no moderating effect; p=0.15). Among men, however, greater perceived proximity to neighborhood resources enhanced social participation (p=0.01), but only among those with minor or no disability. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies should investigate why perceived proximity to services and amenities is associated with social participation among older men with minor or no disabilities and with women overall but has no association among men with moderate disabilities