1,849 research outputs found
Crime and Economic Incentives
We explore the role that economic incentives, particularly changes in wages at the bottom end of
the wage distribution, play in determining crime rates. We use data on the police force areas of
England and Wales between 1975 and 1996. We find that falls in the wages of unskilled workers
leads to increases in crime. We carry out a number of experiments with different wage measures,
including a wage measure that accounts for the effects of changes in the composition of
employment. These reinforce the picture of a strong impact of wages on crime. The result that
incentives play a central role is reinforced further by the strong impact on crime of deterrence
measures and of a measure of the returns to crime
Educational achievement and ethnicity in compulsory schooling
This paper analyzes the evolution of the attainment gap between white British born and ethnic minority pupils throughout compulsory schooling, from the age of 5 to
16. At the start of school, pupils from most ethnic groups substantially lag behind White British pupils, but these gaps decline for all groups throughout primary and
secondary school. Language is the single most important factor why most ethnic minority pupils improve relative to White British pupils. Although poverty explains part of the differences in levels, it cannot explain why ethnic minority pupils gain relative to or even overtake White British pupils. All ethnic minority groups initially attend worse performing schools than White British pupils. However, more than 20 percent of the subsequent relative improvement can be attributed to ethnic minority pupils moving up to better schools relative to White British pupils. Finally, our results suggest the possibility that the relative improvement of ethnic minority pupils may be related to teacher incentives to concentrate attention on particular pupils, caused by the publication of school league tables at the end of secondary school
Diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome in routine clinical practice.
The updated international consensus criteria for definite antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) are useful for scientific clinical studies. However, there remains a need for diagnostic criteria for routine clinical use. We audited the results of routine antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) in a cohort of 193 consecutive patients with aPL positivity-based testing for lupus anticoagulant (LA), IgG and IgM anticardiolipin (aCL) and anti-ß(2)glycoprotein-1 antibodies (aß(2)GPI). Medium/high-titre aCL/aβ(2)GPI was defined as >99th percentile. Low-titre aCL/aβ(2)GPI positivity (>95(th )< 99(th) percentile) was considered positive for obstetric but not for thrombotic APS. One hundred of the 145 patients fulfilled both clinical and laboratory criteria for definite APS. Twenty-six women with purely obstetric APS had persistent low-titre aCL and/or aβ(2)GPI. With the inclusion of these patients, 126 of the 145 patients were considered to have APS. Sixty-seven out of 126 patients were LA-negative, of whom 12 had aCL only, 37 had aβ(2)GPI only and 18 positive were for both. The omission of aCL or aβ(2)GPI testing from investigation of APS would have led to a failure to diagnose APS in 9.5% and 29.4% of patients, respectively. Our data suggest that LA, aCL and aβ(2)GPI testing are all required for the accurate diagnosis of APS and that low-titre antibodies should be included in the diagnosis of obstetric APS
Establishing links between organizational climate, employee well-being and historical patient outcomes
This research undertaken in collaboration with Queensland Health analysed the links between dimensions of workplace climate/employee well-being contained in a number of
Queensland Health databases, including the Patient Satisfaction Survey, the Clinical Incident database, the compliments and complaints database, the Variable Life Adjusted Display (VLAD) Database and the Better Workplaces
Staff Opinion Survey database. Queensland Health sought to identify in what ways workplace climate is related to patient outcomes using existing datasets collected within the Queensland Health Centre for Healthcare Improvement. The process of establishing links involved matching aggregated data for specific facilities (where possible), or failing that, larger facilities (e.g. Hospital), or the Health Service District. Once the datasets had been matched on location or facility, correlations were calculated between the aggregated scores. The results demonstrated links between the data sets. These links showed that a better workplace climate is associated with greater reported numbers of clinical incidents, especially “no harm” clinical incidents. There was also a link between workplace climate and patient compliments/complaints which show that unsolicited compliments received from patients and their families are clearly related to a number of positive aspects of workplace climate (workplace morale, role clarity, and appraisal and recognition) and individual
morale. The results linking workplace climate and patient satisfaction showed that there is a strong positive relationship between overall patient satisfaction and role clarity, and a negative relationship between overall patient satisfaction and both workplace distress and
excessive work demands. While these results relate to historical data and therefore should not be construed to reflect the current state of operation within Queensland Health, they are still indicative of some very important
relationships. This is the first study to demonstrate that more positive clinical management practices, better perceptions of the workplace climate and better employee
well-being are a reflection of a better incident reporting and learning culture in a health care organization, ultimately resulting in improved patient outcomes
Studies of energetic muons in cosmic ray showers
A magnet spectrograph situated at the British Universities joint air shower array at Haverah Park, near Harrogate, has been used for studies of various aspects of the muon component of extensive air showers (EAS).An introduction to EAS and the relevance of muon studies is given, and two momentum spectrographs are described, the second being an improvement over the first, yielding higher precision and momentum resolution. A detailed survey of track-fitting methods applicable to neon flash tube data from muon spectrographs is made, and an accurate method is described. The results of track fitting data from both instruments are presented and discussed. Theoretical model calculations on the muon component are described, and have been used to predict possible areas for further experiments. Comparisons are made between the prediction of model calculations and experimental data from the spectrograph in an attempt to determine several parameters governing the development of EAS. Two methods of obtaining the mean production height of muons in EAS are described, and the results interpreted in terms of the development of EAS. Further experiments which may be relevant to measurements of the primary particle mass are described
Economics of education research: a review and future prospects
In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its history as a field and discussing the ways in which economists have contributed both to education research and to education policy-making. In particular, we highlight the theoretical and methodological contributions that economists have made to the field of education during the last 50 years. Despite the success of the economics of education as a field of inquiry, we argue that some of the contributions made by economists could be limited if the economics of education is seen as quite distinct from the other disciplines working in the field of education. In these areas of common interest, economists need to work side by side with the other major disciplines in the field of education if their contribution to the field is to be maximised, particularly in terms of applying improved methodology. We conclude that the study of education acquisition and its economic and social impact in the economics of education research area is very likely to remain a fertile research ground. Acknowledgement
Floppy swimming: Viscous locomotion of actuated elastica
Actuating periodically an elastic filament in a viscous liquid generally
breaks the constraints of Purcell's scallop theorem, resulting in the
generation of a net propulsive force. This observation suggests a method to
design simple swimming devices - which we call "elastic swimmers" - where the
actuation mechanism is embedded in a solid body and the resulting swimmer is
free to move. In this paper, we study theoretically the kinematics of elastic
swimming. After discussing the basic physical picture of the phenomenon and the
expected scaling relationships, we derive analytically the elastic swimming
velocities in the limit of small actuation amplitude. The emphasis is on the
coupling between the two unknowns of the problems - namely the shape of the
elastic filament and the swimming kinematics - which have to be solved
simultaneously. We then compute the performance of the resulting swimming
device, and its dependance on geometry. The optimal actuation frequency and
body shapes are derived and a discussion of filament shapes and internal
torques is presented. Swimming using multiple elastic filaments is discussed,
and simple strategies are presented which result in straight swimming
trajectories. Finally, we compare the performance of elastic swimming with that
of swimming microorganisms.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure
Quantitative sensory testing with Electronic von Frey Anesthesiometer and von Frey filaments in nonpainful cats: a pilot study
Measurement of sensory thresholds could represent a complementary tool to behavioural pain scores in cats. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of quantitative sensory testing (QST) with the Electronic von Frey Anesthesiometer (EVF) and von Frey filaments (VFF) in healthy cats, and to assess the limits of agreement (LOA) between the two devices
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