Re-structuring competetive metropolitan regions: on territory, institutions and governance. RheinRuhr compared with London, Paris and the Randstad Holland

Currently social and political constructed urban regions are about to approach a threefold role regarding their functional, economic and political function. At first they constitute a basis for economic and social life. What is next is their role as a vital relational asset to refine competitive advantages and thirdly they exemplify the significance of a new era of reflexive capitalism. One underlying consequence of the "new" interest concerning the de- and re-territorialisation of political economic activity is to consider the regional scale as a functional space for economic planning and political governance. Our intended contribution for the ERSA-Conference deals with the role of selected European Metropolitan Regions as "driving forces" for national and Europe`s competitiveness and the involved challenges for such urban regions to pool their resources and potentials in order to cerate some kind of "appropriate organising capacities". To do so, the authors would draw on the ongoing debate about the adequate analysis of regional political economies and on the empirical results produced within two recently finished international research projects (named as EURBANET and GEMACA II: both were executed under the umbrella of the INTERREG IIC operational programme for the North Western Metropolitan Area). Whilst GEMACA II focussed on the competitiveness of metropolitan regions, the EURBANET project took on board the possible contribution of polynuclear urban regions, such as RheinRuhr and the Delta Metropolis, in order to strengthen the regional competitiveness and quality of life. Additionally, their potential roles in transnational planning processes were under study. The planned paper would start with the observation that a great number of examinations on urban or city-regional economies reduce these "spatialities" to empirical given administrative bounded cities and simultaneously to a "container" for socio-economic processes. However, a "region" is comprehended as a historical contingent process and its emergence needs to be understood as a part of socio-spatial structure and collective consciousness of society. Questions of spatial scales, territorial shapes, institutional formations and cultural identities are thus given preference by a number of social scientists and human geographers. In order to respond to this perspective, the authors want to discuss three key factors of the economic development exemplified by four metropolitan regions (as named in the headline). 1. the territorial shape of comparable functional urban regions including the specific questions of the internal spatial shape (rather monocentric or polycentric configurations without a dominant core); 2. the present "economic performance" of the selected regions embedded in the discourse of "regional competitiveness"; 3. the importance of "appropriate" institutional and policy-making frameworks for effective metropolitan governance and governments by bringing together the mutual interests of various city-regional stakeholders.

You\u27re the Top: Illustrated Sheet Music of American Popular Songs from World War I to the 1940s

Guide to an exhibition held by Watkinson Library, 2006

The feasibility and acceptability of using the Mother-Generated Index (MGI) as a Patient Reported Outcome Measure in a randomised controlled trial of maternity care

Background: Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess Quality of Life (QoL) is well established, but commonly-used PROM item-sets do not necessarily capture what all respondents consider important. Measuring complex constructs is particularly difficult in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Mother-Generated Index (MGI) is a validated antenatal and postnatal QoL instrument in which the variables and scores are completely respondent-driven. This paper reports on the feasibility and acceptability of the MGI in an RCT, and compares the resulting variables and QoL scores with more commonly used instruments. Methods: The single-page MGI was included at the end of a ten page questionnaire pack and posted to the RCT participants at baseline (28-32 weeks' gestation) and follow-up (six weeks postnatal). Feasibility and acceptability were assessed by ease of administration, data entry and completion rates. Variables cited by women were analysed thematically. MGI QoL scores were compared with outcomes from the EQ-5D-3 L; Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; Satisfaction With Life Scale; and State Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results: Six hundred and seventy eight pregnant women returned the pack at baseline; 668 completed the MGI (98.5 %); 383/400 returns at follow up included a completed MGI (95.7 %). Quantitative data were scanned into SPSS using a standard data scanning system, and were largely error-free; qualitative data were entered manually. The variables recorded by participants on the MGI forms incorporated many of those in the comparison instruments, and other outcomes commonly used in intrapartum trials, but they also revealed a wider range of issues affecting their quality of life. These included financial and work-related worries; moving house; and concerns over family illness and pets. The MGI scores demonstrated low-to-moderate correlation with other tools (all r values p &lt;.01). Conclusions: Without face-to-face explanation and at the end of a long questionnaire, the MGI was feasible to use, and acceptable to RCT participants. It allowed individual participants to include issues that were important to them, but which are not well captured by existing tools. The MGI unites the explanatory power of qualitative research with the comparative power of quantitative designs, is inexpensive to administer, and requires minimal linguistic and conceptual translation. Trial registration: ISRCTN27575146 (date assigned 23 March 2011)</p

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century: a History

Recounts the complex, multifaceted process of growth and change that transformed Trinity from the Hartford local, as it was known in the early 20th century, into a premier national liberal arts college. Expansive in scope, the book takes as its domain everything from presidential administrations to athletics, the U.S. Navy\u27s V-12 program during World War II to curricular reform, expansion of the physical plant to student activism, coeducation to neighborhood involvement. Its pages are filled with the faculty, administrators, students, trustees, alumni, and friends who have cherished the College decade after decade and helped sustain its special character. Complementing the text of this richly informative history is a large number of illustrations taken from the College\u27s visual archives and depicting subjects across the entire span of Trinity\u27s history. (Excerpted from book jacket)https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/w_books/1001/thumbnail.jp

Skilling Time

This article describes disagreements about the MacCrate Report on skills education for law students, as well as the connections between the Report\u27s recommendations and legal education at William Mitchell College of Law. The final commentary focuses on what William Mitchell can do to further ensure that teaching prepares students for the learning they will have to do when they begin working as lawyers

My Lawyer Told Me to Say I\u27m Sorry: Lawyers, Doctors, and Medical Apologies

The role of apologies in litigation has received a great deal of attention in the last ten years. This is particularly true of “medical apologies,” those expressions of regret and, in some cases, admissions of responsibility made by health care professionals. Two recent trends have prompted examination of medical apologies. First, widely reported empirical studies suggest that patients and their families may be less likely to bring malpractice lawsuits following adverse outcomes if treating physicians have apologized. Second, over about the past ten years, two-thirds of the states have adopted statutes that exclude these apologies from evidence if there is a later malpractice trial. Minnesota finds itself in the forefront of one of these trends and at the tail end of the other. For the last several years, the health care profession has given substantial attention to the importance of robust physician-patient communication following adverse medical events. Minnesota stands as a leader in adopting both medical standards and statutory requirements meant to foster disclosure and reporting in the aftermath of adverse health events. In contrast, Minnesota remains in the minority of states that have not adopted a statute or rule excluding medical apologies from litigation. This article argues that Minnesota’s current approach is exactly right. It is a mistake to attempt to use evidentiary standards to improve physician-patient communication. Our principal objection to these statutes does not stem from either the nature of doctors or the nature of apologies, but the nature of lawyers. Creating an evidentiary exclusion for medical apologies would inevitably enmesh lawyers in the most sensitive of conversations. That would be a mistake. This article reaches its conclusion after examination of the medical culture surrounding communication between doctor and patient; a review of the evidentiary considerations that gave rise to these types of statutes and an examination of Minnesota’s own experience with disclosure following adverse medical events. It is, no doubt, easier to draft evidentiary rules than to change medical culture, but more profound change will come from focusing on what happens in hospitals rather than what happens in courtrooms

The Other Shoe Drops: Minnesota Rejects Daubert

In 1991, the United States Supreme Court handed decided Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., rejecting the long-standing federal test for the admissibility of scientific testimony articulated in Frye v. United States. Unlike many states, however, which embraced Daubert within years--or even months--of the federal decision, Minnesota declined to make Daubert the law of the jurisdiction. In a pair of cases decided in 2000, Goeb v. Tharaldson and Sentinel Mgmt. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety, the court held that Minnesota would retain the general acceptance test. The court\u27s rejection of Daubert can be read as an attempt to give the Minnesota trial bench and bar the best of both worlds: Frye-Mack consistency coupled with Daubert-style gatekeeping. This article examines the successes and failures of the Minnesota approach