Devolved school-based financial management in New Zealand : observations on the conformity patterns of school organisations to change

This paper examines the intent and consequences of ‘new’ financial management (the ‘New Public Financial Management’) (NPFM) procedures invoked to facilitate a macro-micro interface within the context of the significant administrative reform of the New Zealand (NZ) state education system. The 1989 administrative reform of the NZ education system was predicated on a particular view of public sector management, which was characterised by the umbrella heading of ‘New Public Management’ (NPM). It was claimed that NPFM provided a link between the sets of values highlighted through the NPM reform process and the internal workings of various public sector organisations. The study provides case studies of the organisational financial management practices of four schools, some ten years after the reform. The observed practices are analysed and interpreted within a theoretical framework comprising two competing theories of change – NPM which provides the ‘normative’ intent for public sector organisational change, and institutional theory that offers an explanation of the ‘operational’ consequences of public sector organisational (i.e. schools) response to change. The findings suggest that accounting and management technologies have served a useful, political purpose, although not in the way espoused by NPM proponents

Development of the children's eating behaviour questionnaire

Individual differences in several aspects of eating style have been implicated in the development of weight problems in children and adults, but there are presently no reliable and valid scales that assess a range of dimensions of eating style. This paper describes the development and preliminary validation of a parent-rated instrument to assess eight dimensions of eating style in children; the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ). Constructs for inclusion were derived both from the existing literature on eating behaviour in children and adults, and from interviews with parents. They included reponsiveness to food, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, fussiness, emotional overeating, emotional undereating, and desire for drinks. A. large pool of items covering each of these: constructs was developed. The number of items was then successively culled through analysis of responses from three samples of families of young children (N = 131; N = 187, N = 218), to produce a 35-item instrument with eight scales which were internally valid and had good test-retest reliability. Investigation of variations by gender and age revealed only minimal gender differences in any aspect of eating style. Satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating diminished from age 3 to 8. Enjoyment of food and food responsiveness increased over this age range. The CEBQ should provide a useful measure of eating style for research into the early precursors of obesity or eating disorders. This is especially important in relation to the growing evidence for the heritability of obesity, where good measurement of the associated behavioural phenotype will be crucial in investigating the contribution of inherited variations in eating behaviour to the process of weight gain

Postpartum Safety and Satisfaction Following Early Discharge

Two Ontario sites were involved in the evaluation of an obstetrical discharge program. Before program implementation a group of eligible women were enrolled as the preprogram control group (n = 542). During the program, eligible women who agreed to early discharge (ED) became the ED group (n = 319), and those opting not to go home early but consenting to participate in the evaluation became the concurrent group (n = 456). All groups were mailed a self-administered postpartum questionnaire. On demographic characteristics, safety and satisfaction, the ED group was comparable to the concurrent group. Hospital readmission rates did not differ across groups after stratification by site or hospital. Multiple classification analyses revealed a similar pattern for overall satisfaction levels. This unique ED program, which allowed pre- or postnatal enrollment and did not require an initial home assessment, appears to be a safe, effective and flexible approach to obstetrical care

Schizophrenia is associated with excess multiple physical-health comorbidities but low levels of recorded cardiovascular disease in primary care: cross-sectional study

<b>Objective</b> To assess the nature and extent of physical-health comorbidities in people with schizophrenia and related psychoses compared with controls. <p></p> <b>Design </b>Cross-sectional study. <p></p> <b>Setting </b>314 primary care practices in Scotland. <p></p> <b>Participants </b>9677 people with a primary care record of schizophrenia or a related psychosis and 1 414 701 controls. Main outcome measures Primary care records of 32 common chronic physical-health conditions and combinations of one, two and three or more physical-health comorbidities adjusted for age, gender and deprivation status. <p></p> <b>Results</b> Compared with controls, people with schizophrenia were significantly more likely to have one physical-health comorbidity (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.27), two physical-health comorbidities (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.44) and three or more physical-health comorbidities (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.27). Rates were highest for viral hepatitis (OR 3.98, 95% CI 2.81 to 5.64), constipation (OR 3.24, 95% CI 3.00 to 4.49) and Parkinson's disease (OR 3.07, 95% CI 2.42 to 3.88) but people with schizophrenia had lower recorded rates of cardiovascular disease, including atrial fibrillation (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.73), hypertension (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.76), coronary heart disease (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.71) and peripheral vascular disease (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.97).<p></p> <b>Conclusions </b>People with schizophrenia have a wide range of comorbid and multiple physical-health conditions but are less likely than people without schizophrenia to have a primary care record of cardiovascular disease. This suggests a systematic under-recognition and undertreatment of cardiovascular disease in people with schizophrenia, which might contribute to substantial premature mortality observed within this patient group. <p></p&gt

The Pathology of Non-Suppurative Nephritis in Children

Within the last few years many excellent articles have been written dealing with individual aspects of juvenile nephritis, but so far as the present writer is aware, there has appeared recently no monograph of wider scope purporting to give a general review of the pathology of this protean disease in the child, comparable to the studies of nephritis in the adult published by Russell (1929), Addis and Oliver (1931), and Gray (1933). It appeared, therefore, that such an investigation with a survey of the recent literature on the subject might be of some interest. In children nephritis manifests itself in purer form than in adults, since in the former there is no wear and tear of past life to complicate the picture, nor do we have to think of the circulatory system in relation to the kidneys, Hill (1919), while the absence of previous attacks which often complicate the disease in the adult, simplifies the evaluation of the etiological factor in the child, and also the problem of correlating renal structural changes and functional damage, Paterson (1926). In a previous short study of juvenile nephritis by the writer some interesting results emerged even trom the limited series series of cases then investigated - among others the fact that in young children death can take place at a very early stage, with little evidence of disease on macroscopic or even on microscopic examination, and that even when definite pathological changes are evident to the naked-eye, these often form no reliable indication of the type or stage of lesion actually present. Another feature of note was the total absence in many cases of any etiologic factor to which the attack of nephritis might be attributed, though, according to modern views some general or focal infection of etiological significance is rarely lacking. These points have all been more fully investigated in the present study and will be dealt with later

Notes on the Occurrence of Warts on Cottontail Rabbits

About twelve years ago my attention was drawn to some interesting epithelial growths on the head of a cottontail rabbit which was sent to the college by Mr. J. Schuyler Long, who wrote from the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs. The head and accompanying letter were referred to Professor H. E. Summers, then head of the Department of Zoology at Iowa State College. The letter reads: I am sending you a rabbit\u27s head... It has several curious growths which resemble horns. I have killed a great many rabbits but never saw anything like it before. I should be pleased to hear... as to the explanation of this peculiar formation. The rabbit from which the head was taken was caught in a trap by one of our boys. In all other respects it looked like an ordinary rabbit and exhibited no other peculiarities, except that on two places on the body were growths similar in color and texture to these horns, but not pointed. They were about an inch square or a little less, and were raised about 3/4 to 1/2 inch out of the skin