Capital Fixity and Mobility in Response to the 2008-09 Crisis: Variegated Neoliberalism in Mexico and Turkey

The article examines the 2008-9 crisis responses in Mexico and Turkey as examples of variegated neoliberalism. The simultaneous interests of corporations and banks relative to the national fixing of capital and their mobility in the form of global investment heavily influenced each state authority’s policy responses to the crisis at the expense of the interests of the poor, workers, and peasantry. Rather than pitching this as either evidence of persistent national differentiation or some Keynesian state resurgence, we argue from a historical materialist geographical framework that the responses of capital and state authorities in Mexico and Turkey actively constitute and reconstitute the global parameters of market regulatory design and neoliberal class rule through each state’s distinct domestic policy formation and crisis management processes. While differing in specific content the form of Mexico and Turkey’s state responses to the crisis ensured continuity in their foregoing neoliberal strategies of development and capital accumulation, most notably in the continued oppression of workers. That is, the prevailing strategy of accumulation continues to be variegated neoliberalism

Papel de los lípidos en los procesos de cocción-extrusión

Extrusion is a versatile and very efficient technology that is widely used in food and feed processing. The cooking extruders have found many applications, which include: breakfast cereals, snack foods, other cereal based products, pet food and aquatic foods, texturized vegetable proteins, confectionery products, chemical and biochemical reactions, and oil extraction. Lipids are components that play an important role in most of the extrusion cooking processes. They can act as plastificizers or emulsifiers, and affect more significantly texture and stickiness of the extrudate. This paper reviews effect of oils and other lipids reactions during extrusion cooking as well as the effects of amylase-lipid complexation on extrudate quality.La extrusión es, en general, una tecnología versátil y muy eficiente, que se aplica ampliamente en la elaboración de alimentos y piensos. Los equipos de cocción-extrusión tienen numerosas aplicaciones, entre las que pueden incluirse: los cereales de desayuno listos para comer, los aperitivos, diferentes productos basados en cereales, los piensos para animales domésticos y peces, proteínas vegetales texturizadas, productos de pastelería, reacciones químicas y bioquímicas, y la extracción de aceites. Los lípidos son componentes que juegan un papel importante en la mayoría de los procesos de cocción-extrusión. Pueden actuar como plastificantes o como emulsionantes, suministrando lubricación. En este artículo se revisan con detalle los efectos de las reacciones de los aceites y otros lípidos durante el proceso de cocción-extrucción así como el efecto de la formación de complejos amilasa-lípidos sobre la calidad de los extrudados

Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Acceptance of Family Planning Methods among Married Persons in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Family planning acceptance remains a global health challenge especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where culture, religion, lack of knowledge and ignorance determine FPMs acceptance.  The study investigated the differences in levels of acceptance of family planning methods among married persons in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State by socio-demographic variables of education, gender, religion and location. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select four Local Government Areas from Abakaliki education zone (2 urban, 2 rural) and 1,098 married persons for the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled Acceptance of Family Planning Methods Questionnaire (AFPMQ). The instrument was subjected to face validity. The reliability score of the instrument was 0.75 using Cronbach alpha. Data were collated and analyzed using mean and standard deviation, criterion mean score of 2.50. Inferential statistics of t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics were used to test the hypotheses at alpha level of 0.05. The results of the study showed that there was low level of acceptance of all family planning methods (Mean values < 2.50). Results also showed that level of acceptance of family planning methods differed significantly among married persons by education, gender, religion and location (p < 0.05). The study concluded that acceptance of FPMs among married person in Abakaliki Education Zone was generally and recommended, that family planning programme designs must incorporate all shades of belief, values and convictions in program planning and that government at all levels should partner with religious organizations and traditional rulers to help create more awareness of FPMs through intensive health education, as this will help to increase the level of acceptance of FPMs Keywords: Family planning methods, acceptance, gender, age, education, location, married person

Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Acceptance of Family Planning Methods among Married Persons in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Family planning acceptance remains a global health challenge especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where culture, religion, lack of knowledge and ignorance determine FPMs acceptance.  The study investigated the differences in levels of acceptance of family planning methods among married persons in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State by socio-demographic variables of education, gender, religion and location. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select four Local Government Areas from Abakaliki education zone (2 urban, 2 rural) and 1,098 married persons for the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled Acceptance of Family Planning Methods Questionnaire (AFPMQ). The instrument was subjected to face validity. The reliability score of the instrument was 0.75 using Cronbach alpha. Data were collated and analyzed using mean and standard deviation, criterion mean score of 2.50. Inferential statistics of t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics were used to test the hypotheses at alpha level of 0.05. The results of the study showed that there was low level of acceptance of all family planning methods (Mean values < 2.50). Results also showed that level of acceptance of family planning methods differed significantly among married persons by education, gender, religion and location (p < 0.05). The study concluded that acceptance of FPMs among married person in Abakaliki Education Zone was generally and recommended, that family planning programme designs must incorporate all shades of belief, values and convictions in program planning and that government at all levels should partner with religious organizations and traditional rulers to help create more awareness of FPMs through intensive health education, as this will help to increase the level of acceptance of FPMs Keywords: Family planning methods, acceptance, gender, age, education, location, married person

Tripartism in comparative and historical perspective

This special issue explores changes in the nature of tripartite arrangements between firms, governments and organized labour across the last century, focusing on their post-1945 heyday. Although tripartism has its origins at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the post-1945 long boom represented an historical high-water mark that may now be seen as quite distinct from our own long period of volatility and crisis. Historical concerns are frequently stimulated by those of the present and this is especially the case in contemporary history. Anglo-Saxon historians may feel that the age of tripartism is at an end, but the contributions within this issue show that although this may accurately reflect current perceptions, tripartism continues , albeit often in weak forms, in other national and transnational contexts; its history therefore retains contemporary resonance. In our present age, it is commonly assumed that the relative power of employers has increased at the expense of government – the central co-ordinating actor in tripartism – and organized labour. Within the firm, not only workers, but also traditional managers have been displaced by assertive investors and allied to them, a new managerial class that has little emotional capital sunk in the firm other than as a vehicle for shareholder value maximization or release, and personal enrichment. From the business historian’s viewpoint, these assumptions raise a number of issues surrounding long term trends and diversity in the nature of the capitalist ecosystem within which tripartism is located. In this connection, there are four alternative points of view on broad approaches to labour management. The first, rooted in the then apparent solidity of the British postwar tripartite settlement, was that the incorporation of labour’s institutions was structurally essential to the state’s role in avoiding or genuinely resolving crises. The second sees tripartism as very much an historical exception, representing to a large extent a product of a very specific set of historic circumstances around the Great Depression and the post-World War Two long boom. The third, a variant of the second, would see historic compromises between state, the firm, and workers as a reflection of the thirty year period of relative global prosperity and growth which had deeper historic roots stretching back at least into the Nineteenth Century. The fourth highlights national diversity in global capitalism and views the labour management options adopted according not only to temporal trends but also to such dimensions as space, scale, and global centre-periphery relations. The latter view implies that elements of post-war compromises may persist, even if, within many of the advanced societies, they do so in dilute form

The impact of precarious employment on mental health: The case of Italy

Although there has been a sizeable empirical literature measuring the effect of job precariousness on the mental health of workers the debate is still open, and understanding the true nature of such relationship has important policy implications. In this paper, we investigate the impact of precarious employment on mental health using a unique, very large data set that matches information on job contracts for over 2.7 million employees in Italy followed over the years 2007e2011, with their psychotropic medication prescription. We examine the causal effects of temporary contracts, their duration and the number of contract changes during the year on the probability of having one or more prescriptions for medication to treat mental health problems. To this end, we estimate a dynamic Probit model, and deal with the potential endogeneity of regressors by adopting an instrumental variables approach. As instruments, we use firm-level probabilities of being a temporary worker as well as other firm-level variables that do not depend on the mental illness status of the workers. Our results show that the probability of psychotropic medication prescription is higher for workers under temporary job contracts. More days of work under temporary contract as well as frequent changes in temporary contract significantly increase the probability of developing mental health problems that need to be medically treated. We also find that moving from permanent to temporary employment increases mental illness; symmetrically, although with a smaller effect in absolute value, moving from temporary to permanent employment tends to reduce it. Policy interventions aimed at increasing the flexibility of the labour market through an increase of temporary contracts should also take into account the social and economic cost of these reforms, in terms of psychological wellbeing of employees

Decoherence effects in quantum nondemolition measurement induced entanglement between Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the robustness of quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement-induced entanglement between Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs). We consider an experimental scheme where two BECs are placed in the paths of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a QND interaction creates entanglement between coherent light and the atoms. We analyze the two dominant channels of decoherence, atomic dephasing and photon loss on the entangled states produced by this scheme. We calculate the effect of dephasing on the variance and expectation values of the spin operators, entanglement, and correlation criteria. Our analysis does not use the Holstein-Primakoff approximation and is capable of modeling long light-atom interaction times, producing non-Gaussian states beyond the two-mode squeezed states. In the presence of dephasing, the entangled states are robust in the macroscopic limit as long as the dimensionless interaction time is less than $1/\sqrt{N}$, where $N$ is the number of atoms in the BEC. For photon loss, the entangled states generated by long interaction times show remarkable robustness that makes the scheme promising for various quantum information applications

Antiplasmodial activity of the ethanol extract of Dacryodes edulis leaf in Plasmodium berghei infected mice

Background: Malaria treatment in Africa is increasingly becoming difficult resulting from Plasmodium falciparum resistant to available antimalarial agents. Therefore, evaluating plants used in traditional medicines can lead to alternative treatment against malaria.Methods: This study evaluated the antiplasmodial activity of ethanol extract of Dacryodes edulis in chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium berghei NK65 strain in mice. The 4-day suppressive test, repository and curative effect against established rodent malaria infection models were assayed in this study. The oral acute toxicity test and phytochemical screening were also carried out on the ethanol leaf extract.Results: The ethanol leaf extract of Dacryodes edulis (D. edulis) at varying doses of 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg significantly (p<0.05) exhibited dose-dependent decrease in parasitaemia at suppressive, repository and curative studies. Chloroquine 10 mg/kg significantly (p<0.05) decreased parasitaemia levels in the three models of malaria infections. The antiplasmodial activity of the leaf extract is comparable with the standard drug. The extract was found to be non-toxic acutely in mice.Conclusions: The findings show that D. edulis ethanol leaf extract demonstrated high antiplasmodial activity in a dose-dependent fashion. Thus, supporting claims of the plant traditional therapeutic importance for malaria treatment, and can be developed as an alternative therapy against the disease

Safety of an intravenous formulation of lamotrigine

AbstractPurposeIntravenous (IV) formulations are useful when treating patients where oral administration is not possible and to study certain pharmacokinetic parameters such as bioavailability. We developed a stable-labeled IV formulation of lamotrigine (LTG) for studying pharmacokinetics in epilepsy patients.MethodsStable-labeled IV LTG was given to 20 persons with epilepsy (6 men; 14 women) with a mean age of 34.8 years (SD 11.7). A 50mg dose of LTG (stable labeled) was given intravenously and replaced 50mg of the regular morning oral dose of LTG (unlabeled, commercially available formulation).ResultsNo significant changes in blood pressure, heart rate, or adverse events including rash were attributed to administration of a 50-mg dose of the intravenous LTG formulation.ConclusionOur results show that LTG base that is complexed with 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin and stable-labeled can be given safely as a tracer replacement dose

Minimum size and positioning of imaging field for CBCT scans of impacted maxillary canines

Objectives: In children and adolescents, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is frequently used for localization of unerupted or impacted teeth in the anterior maxilla. CBCT causes a higher radiation dose than conventional intraoral and panoramic imaging. The objective was to analyze the location of impacted canines in a three-dimensional coordinate and thereby optimize the CBCT field-of-view (FOV), for radiation dose reduction.Materials and methods: Location of 50 impacted maxillary canines of children under 17 years was retrospectively evaluated from CBCT scans. The minimum and maximum distances of any part of the right- and left-side canines to three anatomic reference planes were measured to assess the adequate size and position of a cylindrical image volume.Results: A cylinder sized 39.0 (diameter)×33.2 (height) mm, with its top situated 13.8 mm above the hard palate, its medial edge 8.4 mm across the midline, and anterior edge 2.5 mm in front of the labial surface of maxillary central incisors fitted all the analyzed canines.Conclusions: In this sample, the FOV required for imaging maxillary impacted canines was smaller than the smallest FOV offered by common CBCT devices. We encourage development of indication-specific CBCT imaging programs and aids to facilitate optimum patient positioning.Clinical relevance: An impacted maxillary canine is a common dental problem and a frequent indication for 3D imaging particularly in growing individuals. This article focuses on the optimization of CBCT of impacted canines. Our recommendation of a reduced FOV promotes radiation safety.</p