The impact of widowhood on Irish mortality due to suicide and accidents

The impact of widowhood on suicide and accident mortality in Ireland was investigated using Poisson regression analysis applied to routine data relating to all 10 561 suicidal and accidental deaths of married or widowed persons aged at least 35 years in Ireland during 1986–2005. Mortality rates were almost always higher among the widowed and often by a 2-fold, statistically significant difference. The excess mortality was equivalent to 2083 or 57.6% of all suicidal or accidental deaths of widowed persons in 1986–2005. Routine contact with recently widowed persons by public health professionals may be warranted with a view to reducing their excess mortality

Education and better citizenship:

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1931. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

The effect of copper upon the eutectoid reaction in the zinc-aluminum system

A Leitz dilatometer was used to study the kinetics of the eutectoid reaction in the zinc-aluminum system and the effect of small additions of copper upon this reaction. Three alloys were investigated: a pure 78% zinc - 22% aluminum alloy; a 78% zinc - 21.9% aluminum - 0.1% copper alloy; a 78% zinc - 21% aluminum -1.0% copper alloy. It was found that this reaction was similar to the pearlite reaction in the iron-carbon system. The reaction occurred by diffusion processes and the products of the reaction looked similar to pearlite when examined under the microscope. Copper was found to impede the reaction by interfering with the diffusion of zinc and aluminum atoms. This effect was most pronounced at temperatures below 80° C. At higher temperatures, the copper atoms caused relatively little difference in the kinetics of the eutectoid reaction --Abstract, page ii

Payout Policy in the 21st Century

We survey 384 CFOs and Treasurers, and conduct in-depth interviews with an additional two dozen, to determine the key factors that drive dividend and share repurchase policies. We find that managers are very reluctant to cut dividends, that dividends are smoothed through time, and that dividend increases are tied to long-run sustainable earnings but much less so than in the past. Rather than increasing dividends, many firms now use repurchases as an alternative. Paying out with repurchases is viewed by managers as being more flexible than using dividends, permitting a better opportunity to optimize investment. Managers like to repurchase shares when they feel their stock is undervalued and in an effort to affect EPS. Dividend increases and the level of share repurchases are generally paid out of residual cash flow, after investment and liquidity needs are met. Financial executives believe that retail investors have a strong preference for dividends, in spite of the tax disadvantage relative to repurchases. In contrast, executives believe that institutional investors as a class have no strong preference between dividends and repurchases. In general, management views provide at most moderate support for agency, signaling, and clientele hypotheses of payout policy. Tax considerations play only a secondary role. By highlighting where the theory and practice of corporate payout policy are consistent and where they are not, we attempt to shed new light on important unresolved issues related to payout policy in the 21st century.

Participation in everyday activities and quality of life in pre-teenage children living with cerebral palsy in South West Ireland

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of physical disability in children but its impact on quality of life is not well understood. This study examined participation in everyday activities among children without CP and children with mild, moderate and severe impairment due to CP. We then examined ten domains of quality of life in children with CP and investigated whether participation in everyday activities was associated with improved quality of life independent of gender, age and level of impairment. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of children aged 8–12 years based on two questionnaires, frequency of participation (FPQ) and KIDSCREEN, completed by parents of 98 children on the South of Ireland Cerebral Palsy Register (response rate = 82%) and parents of 448 children attending two Cork city schools (response rate = 69%) who completed one questionnaire (FPQ). Multiple linear regression was used: firstly to estimate the effect of severity of CP on participation in everyday activities independent of age and gender and secondly we estimated the effect of participation on quality of life independent of age gender and level of impairment. Results: Participation in 11 of the 14 everyday activities examined varied across the children without CP and the children with varying severity of CP. In general, increased impairment decreased participation. Independent of age and gender, there was a highly significant decrease in overall participation with a fall of -6.0 (95% CI = -6.9 to -5.2) with each increasing level of impairment. The children with CP generally had high quality of life. Increased impairment was associated with diminished quality of life in just two domains – Physical well-being and Social support and peers. Overall participation in everyday activities was significantly associated with quality of life in 3 of the 10 domains (Physical well-being, Social support and peers & Moods and emotions) in analysis adjusted for gender age and level of impairment. Conclusion: While increased impairment due to CP restricts participation in the majority of everyday activities, the level of participation has a limited effect on the quality of life of the children with CP in age 8–12 years

Factors explaining variation in recommended care pathways following hospital-presenting self-harm:a multilevel national registry study

BACKGROUND People who present to hospital following self-harm are at high risk of suicide. Despite this, there are considerable variations in the management of this group across hospitals and the factors influencing such variations are not well understood. AIMS The aim of this study was to identify the specific hospital and individual factors associated with care pathways following hospital-presenting self-harm. METHOD Data on presentations to hospitals by those aged 18 years and over were obtained from the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland for 2017 and 2018. Factors associated with four common outcomes following self-harm (self-discharge, medical and psychiatric admission and psychosocial assessment before discharge) were examined using multilevel Poisson regression models. RESULTS Care pathways following self-harm varied across hospitals and were influenced by both hospital and individual factors. Individual factors were primarily associated with self-discharge (including male gender, younger age and alcohol involvement), medical admission (older age, drug overdose as a sole method and ambulance presentations) and psychiatric admission (male gender, methods associated with greater lethality and older age). The hospital admission rate for self-harm was the only factor associated with all outcomes examined. The availability of psychiatric in-patient facilities and specialist mental health staff contributed to variation in psychiatric admissions and psychosocial assessments prior to discharge. Hospital factors explained the majority of observed variation in the provision of psychosocial assessments. CONCLUSIONS Characteristics of the presenting hospital and hospital admission rates influence the recommended care pathways following self-harm. Provision of onsite mental health facilities and specialist mental health staff has a strong impact on psychiatric care of these patients

Preliminary Results of a Spatial Analysis of Dublin City’s Bike Rental Scheme

We present some initial observations on the usage and flow patterns of the DublinBikes (DB) bicycle rental scheme across Dublin city. In September 2009 Dublin City in conjunction with outdoor advertising company JC Decaux made 450 bicycles publicly available from 40 locations around the city in a scheme called DublinBikes (DB). Cycling, as a commuting mode forms an important part of the Irish Government's Transport policy for Ireland up to 2020 stating that "a culture of cycling will be developed by 2020 to envisage around 160,000 people cycling for their daily commute, up from 35,000 in 2006"(DOT, 2009). We follow Froehlich et al (2008) who find usage patterns from these bike rental schemes can "infer cultural and geographical aspects of the city and predict future bike station usage behaviour" when combined with geographical information and local knowledge. Data captured on DB and presented in this paper covers the period of September 20th 2009 to February 15th 2010 inclusive