Are Young People's Educational Outcomes Linked to their Sense of Control?

This paper analyzes the link between young people's sense (locus) of control over their lives and their investments in education. We find that young people with a more internal locus of control have a higher probability of finishing secondary school and, conditional on completion, meeting the requirements to obtain a university entrance rank. Moreover, those with an internal locus of control who obtain a university entrance rank achieve somewhat higher rankings than do their peers who have a more external locus of control. Not surprisingly, there is a negative relationship between growing up in disadvantage and educational outcomes. However, this effect does not appear to operate indirectly by increasing the likelihood of having a more external locus of control. In particular, we find no significant relationship between family welfare history and young people's locus of control.locus of control, parental socio-economic background, education

Does the Family Investment Hypothesis Explain Immigrant Labor Market Activity?

No abstract.

Cultural Transmission of Work-Welfare Attitudes and the Intergenerational Correlation in Welfare Receipt

This paper considers the potential for the cultural transmission of attitudes toward work, welfare, and individual responsibility to explain the intergenerational correlation in welfare receipt. Specifically, we investigate whether 18-year olds’ views about social benefits and the drivers of social inequality depend on their families’ welfare histories. We begin by incorporating welfare receipt into a theoretical model of the cultural transmission of work-welfare attitudes across generations. Consistent with the predictions of our model, we find that young people’s attitudes towards work and welfare are shaped by socialization within their families. Young people are more likely to oppose generous social benefits and adopt an internal view of social inequality if their mothers support these views, if their mothers were employed while they were growing up, and if their families never received welfare. These results are consistent with —though do not definitively establish— the existence of an intergenerational welfare culture.cultural transmission, attitudes, intergenerational welfare receipt

Opportunities for topical antimicrobial therapy: permeation of canine skin by fusidic acid

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcal infection of the canine epidermis and hair follicle is amongst the commonest reasons for antimicrobial prescribing in small animal veterinary practice. Topical therapy with fusidic acid (FA) is an attractive alternative to systemic therapy based on low minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs, commonly <0.03 mg/l) documented in canine pathogenic staphylococci, including strains of MRSA and MRSP (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and S. pseudintermedius). However, permeation of canine skin by FA has not been evaluated in detail. This study aimed to define the degree and extent of FA permeation in canine skin in vitro from two sites with different hair follicle density following application of a licensed ophthalmic formulation that shares the same vehicle as an FA-betamethasone combination product approved for dermal application in dogs. Topical FA application was modelled using skin held in Franz-type diffusion cells. Concentrations of FA in surface swabs, receptor fluid, and transverse skin sections of defined anatomical depth were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography and ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) analysis. RESULTS: The majority of FA was recovered by surface swabs after 24 h, as expected (mean ± SEM: 76.0 ± 17.0%). FA was detected within 424/470 (90%) groups of serial sections of transversely cryotomed skin containing follicular infundibula, but never in 48/48 (100%) groups of sections containing only deeper follicular structures, nor in receptor fluid, suggesting that FA does not permeate beyond the infundibulum. The FA concentration (mean ± SEM) in the most superficial 240 μm of skin was 2000 ± 815 μg/g. CONCLUSIONS: Topically applied FA can greatly exceed MICs for canine pathogenic staphylococci at the most common sites of infection. Topical FA therapy should now be evaluated using available formulations in vivo as an alternative to systemic therapy for canine superficial bacterial folliculitis.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Western Indian Ocean marine and terrestrial records of climate variability: a review and new concepts on land-ocean interactions since AD 1660

We examine the relationship between three tropical and two subtropical western Indian Ocean coral oxygen isotope time series to surface air temperatures (SAT) and rainfall over India, tropical East Africa and southeast Africa. We review established relationships, provide new concepts with regard to distinct rainfall seasons, and mean annual temperatures. Tropical corals are coherent with SAT over western India and East Africa at interannual and multidecadal periodicities. The subtropical corals correlate with Southeast African SAT at periodicities of 16–30 years. The relationship between the coral records and land rainfall is more complex. Running correlations suggest varying strength of interannual teleconnections between the tropical coral oxygen isotope records and rainfall over equatorial East Africa. The relationship with rainfall over India changed in the 1970s. The subtropical oxygen isotope records are coherent with South African rainfall at interdecadal periodicities. Paleoclimatological reconstructions of land rainfall and SAT reveal that the inferred relationships generally hold during the last 350 years. Thus, the Indian Ocean corals prove invaluable for investigating land–ocean interactions during past centuries

Journeying with Morrie: challenging notions of professional delivery of spiritual care at the end of life

The spiritual welfare of dying people has in recent years moved from the domain of religion to become the concern of health care professionals, particularly as part of the ideal of holism that underpins palliative care. Professional delivery of spiritual care incorporates the features of assessment, control and treatment which may involve varying degrees of intrusion into the patient's deeply personal inner self. Using a case study approach, this article explores meanings of spirituality and understandings of what is meant by the term 'spiritual care'. It argues that biographical and community approaches to spiritual care of dying people may be more congruent with the concept of the 'whole person' because this support is rooted in an intimate contextual knowledge of the dying person by the caregiver. This challenges the dominant discourses of professional expertise to embrace informal personal and collective competence in this important aspect of end of life care