scholarly journals By Slow Degrees: Two Centuries of Social Reproduction and Mobility in Britain

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Lambert ◽  
Kenneth Prandy ◽  
Wendy Bottero

This paper discusses long term trends in patterns of intergenerational social mobility in Britain. We argue that there is convincing empirical evidence of a small but steady linear trend towards increasing social mobility throughout the period 1800-2004. Our conclusions are based upon the construction and analysis of an extended micro-social dataset, which combines records from an historical genealogical study, with responses from 31 sample surveys conducted over the period 1963-2004. There has been much previous study of trends in social mobility, and little consensus on their nature. We argue that this dissension partly results from the very slow pace of change in mobility rates, which makes the time-frame of any comparison crucial, and raises important methodological questions about how long-term change in mobility is best measured. We highlight three methodological difficulties which arise when trying to draw conclusions over mobility trends - concerning the extent of controls for life course effects; the quality of data resources; and the measurement of stratification positions. After constructing a longitudinal dataset which attempts to confront these difficulties, our analyses provide robust evidence which challenges hitherto more popular, politicised claims of declining or unchanging mobility. By contrast, our findings suggest that Britain has moved, and continues to move, steadily towards increasing equality in the relationship between occupational attainment and parental background.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juqing Zhao ◽  
Pei Chen ◽  
Guangming Wan

BACKGROUND There has been an increase number of eHealth and mHealth interventions aimed to support symptoms among cancer survivors. However, patient engagement has not been guaranteed and standardized in these interventions. OBJECTIVE The objective of this review was to address how patient engagement has been defined and measured in eHealth and mHealth interventions designed to improve symptoms and quality of life for cancer patients. METHODS Searches were performed in MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to identify eHealth and mHealth interventions designed specifically to improve symptom management for cancer patients. Definition and measurement of engagement and engagement related outcomes of each intervention were synthesized. This integrated review was conducted using Critical Interpretive Synthesis to ensure the quality of data synthesis. RESULTS A total of 792 intervention studies were identified through the searches; 10 research papers met the inclusion criteria. Most of them (6/10) were randomized trial, 2 were one group trail, 1 was qualitative design, and 1 paper used mixed method. Majority of identified papers defined patient engagement as the usage of an eHealth and mHealth intervention by using different variables (e.g., usage time, log in times, participation rate). Engagement has also been described as subjective experience about the interaction with the intervention. The measurement of engagement is in accordance with the definition of engagement and can be categorized as objective and subjective measures. Among identified papers, 5 used system usage data, 2 used self-reported questionnaire, 1 used sensor data and 3 used qualitative method. Almost all studies reported engagement at a moment to moment level, but there is a lack of measurement of engagement for the long term. CONCLUSIONS There have been calls to develop standard definition and measurement of patient engagement in eHealth and mHealth interventions. Besides, it is important to provide cancer patients with more tailored and engaging eHealth and mHealth interventions for long term engagement.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 146-155
Author(s):  
A. V. Alekseyenko ◽  
Y. Aphinyanaphongs ◽  
S. Brown ◽  
D. Fenyo ◽  
L. Fu ◽  
...  

SummaryTo survey major developments and trends in the field of Bioinformatics in 2010 and their relationships to those of previous years, with emphasis on long-term trends, on best practices, on quality of the science of informatics, and on quality of science as a function of informatics.A critical review of articles in the literature of Bioinformatics over the past year.Our main results suggest that Bioinformatics continues to be a major catalyst for progress in Biology and Translational Medicine, as a consequence of new assaying technologies, most predominantly Next Generation Sequencing, which are changing the landscape of modern biological and medical research. These assays critically depend on bioinformatics and have led to quick growth of corresponding informatics methods development. Clinical-grade molecular signatures are proliferating at a rapid rate. However, a highly publicized incident at a prominent university showed that deficiencies in informatics methods can lead to catastrophic consequences for important scientific projects. Developing evidence-driven protocols and best practices is greatly needed given how serious are the implications for the quality of translational and basic science.Several exciting new methods have appeared over the past 18 months, that open new roads for progress in bioinformatics methods and their impact in biomedicine. At the same time, the range of open problems of great significance is extensive, ensuring the vitality of the field for many years to come.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H Steckel

When economists investigate long-term trends and socioeconomic differences in the standard of living or quality of life, they have traditionally focused on monetary measures such as gross domestic product—which has occupied center stage for over 50 years. In recent decades, however, scholars have increasingly recognized the limitations of monetary measures while seeking useful alternatives. This essay examines the unique and valuable contributions of four biological measures—life expectancy, morbidity, stature, and certain features of skeletal remains—to understand levels and changes in human well-being. People desire far more than material goods and in fact they are quite willing to trade or give up material things in return for better physical or psychological health. For most people, health is so important to their quality of life that it is useful to refer to the “biological standard of living.” Biological measures may be especially valuable for historical studies and for other research circumstances where monetary measures are thin or lacking. A concluding section ruminates on the future evolution of biological approaches in measuring happiness.


Author(s):  
Ryo Onishi ◽  
Yosuke Hatakeyama ◽  
Kunichika Matsumoto ◽  
Kanako Seto ◽  
Koki Hirata ◽  
...  

Previous studies indicated that optimal care for pneumonia during hospitalization might reduce the risk of in-hospital mortality and subsequent readmission. This study was a retrospective observational study using Japanese administrative claims data from April 2010 to March 2019. We analyzed data from 167,120 inpatients with pneumonia ≥15 years old in the benchmarking project managed by All Japan Hospital Association. Hospital-level risk-adjusted ratios of 30-day readmission for pneumonia were calculated using multivariable logistic regression analyses. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation in each consecutive period. In the analysis using complete 9-year data including 54,756 inpatients, the hospital standardized readmission ratios (HSRRs) showed wide variation among hospitals and improvement trend (r = −0.18, p = 0.03). In the analyses of trends in each consecutive period, the HSRRS were positively correlated between ‘2010–2012’ and ‘2013–2015’ (r = 0.255, p = 0.010), and ‘2013–2015’ and ‘2016–2018’ (r = 0.603, p < 0.001). This study denoted the HSRRs for pneumonia could be calculated using Japanese administrative claims data. The HSRRs significantly varied among hospitals with comparable case-mix, and could relatively evaluate the quality of preventing readmission including long-term trends. The HSRRs can be used as yet another measure to help improve quality of care over time if other indicators are examined in parallel.


2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (18) ◽  
pp. 4831-4843 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Jonathan Gero ◽  
David D. Turner

Abstract A trend analysis was applied to a 14-yr time series of downwelling spectral infrared radiance observations from the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) located at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) site in the U.S. Southern Great Plains. The highly accurate calibration of the AERI instrument, performed every 10 min, ensures that any statistically significant trend in the observed data over this time can be attributed to changes in the atmospheric properties and composition, and not to changes in the sensitivity or responsivity of the instrument. The measured infrared spectra, numbering more than 800 000, were classified as clear-sky, thin cloud, and thick cloud scenes using a neural network method. The AERI data record demonstrates that the downwelling infrared radiance is decreasing over this 14-yr period in the winter, summer, and autumn seasons but it is increasing in the spring; these trends are statistically significant and are primarily due to long-term change in the cloudiness above the site. The AERI data also show many statistically significant trends on annual, seasonal, and diurnal time scales, with different trend signatures identified in the separate scene classifications. Given the decadal time span of the dataset, effects from natural variability should be considered in drawing broader conclusions. Nevertheless, this dataset has high value owing to the ability to infer possible mechanisms for any trends from the observations themselves and to test the performance of climate models.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-50
Author(s):  
Xiao-xia Huang ◽  
Lei Yan ◽  
Shi-wen Wang

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) bivalent vaccine in field. Methods The articles on effectiveness of HFRS bivalent vaccine were retrieved from Vip Database, China Journal Full-text Database, Wanfang database, China Hospital Knowledge Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, MEDLINE and ProQuest. Two persons extracted data and evaluated the quality of data together for meta-analysis. Results Seven articles were included into the analysis, and two articles were random clinical trials, five were quasi-trials. Meta-analysis showed that the overall effectiveness of HFRS bivalent vaccine was 85% (95% confidence interval: 53%-95%) within one year after vaccination, and the effectiveness in two-dose recipients and three-dose recipients was 87% (95% confidence interval: 54%-96%) and 60%, respectively; it was 96% (95% confidence interval: 78%-99%) within 2-5 years after vaccination, and the effectiveness in two-dose recipients and three-dose recipients was 95% (95% confidence interval: 19%-100%) and 96% (95% confidence interval: 70%-99%), respectively; it was 100% (only one article included) within 6-9.6 years after vaccination. The effectiveness in two-dose recipients was 88% (95% confidence interval: 62%-96%) during 1-2.5 years after vaccination, and that in three-dose recipients was 94% (95% confidence interval: 70%-99%) during 1-5 years after vaccination. Conclusions HFRS bivalent vaccine is effective in field, and there is no difference between two-dose recipients and three-dose recipients. We should do some further studies on the long-term effectiveness of HFRS bivalent vaccine and on the age of vaccine reception.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Victoria Stanciu ◽  
Carmen Valentina Rădulescu ◽  
Dumitru Alexandru Bodislav ◽  
Sorin Burlacu ◽  
Ovidiu Cristian Andrei Buzoianu

This paper examines the corporate governance and sustainability disclosure and investigates the existing anchor between sustainability disclosure and corporate governance in Romanian companies. The topic provides a generous field of study because of the novelty of sustainable reporting for the Romanian companies and need for robust, consolidated corporate governance. The study’s sample includes listed and non-listed companies operating in the oil, transportation, chemistry and pharmaceutical industries. Annual reports, comply-or-explain declarations and stand-alone sustainability reports of the companies were analyzed on a time frame of three years aiming at measure the quality of sustainability disclosures and investigate the correlations between board governance and sustainability disclosure. The study emphasized that the companies opted mainly to integrate sustainable reporting in the annual management report. The independent reports on sustainability are more rigorous and better aligned to the Romanian framework, then the information integrated into the annual management reports. Improved disclosure is needed on the main risks with severe impacts, policies regarding specific aspects of sustainability, key performance indicators relevant to particular businesses. The sustainability reporting is more focus on soft disclosure items. Companies with larger board size and a higher number of board meetings registered higher disclosure in sustainability reporting. Robust corporate governance is imperative for Romanian companies because they are facing drastic changes in all aspects of their activity. A new rethink approach is needed from the sustainability perspective aiming at reshaping the entire processes starting with a long-term strategy, business models, risk and data management and processing.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranjana Mary Varghese ◽  
Supraja C. S.

Of late, the concept of corporate social responsibility has gained prominence from all avenues. Across the globe, most of the prominent leading corporations seem to have realized the importance of being associated with socially relevant causes as a means of promoting their brands. Corporate have started moving from what is our share mode to what is our environmental impact and how much we are accountable mode. Nearly all leading organizations in India are involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in areas like education, health, livelihood creation, skill development, and empowerment of not just the weaker sections of the society but the society in large. This paper examines the concept of few notable firms sacrificing profits in the social interest within the environmental realm especially for children. Although the analysis of goodwill and quality of different initiatives within the umbrella of CSR is challenging, an attempt can be made to fulfill the social responsibility. The authors have tried to take four Indian firms who are exclusively into a robust CSR strategy, where child rights are being respected and protected. These programmes aim at holistic development of the concerned. The objective, sector, modus operandi and the scope of the programmes are investigated. Also a small effort has been made to understand the needs of children in India, scope of the corporate in fulfilling those needs and facilitate long term change in the lives of the marginalized children. A brief analysis regarding the best practices by the authors suggests that integrated empowerment is needed for sustainable development in the society. Moreover protecting the rights of children should be integral to every CSR strategy. Corporate can impact the access to the necessities, which are essential for survival and development of children in many ways.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Jochen Meyer

It is a strange paradox that the public is talking about health technology but cares more about disease technology: people address chronic diseases, people want to change unhealthy behaviors, people aim to help carers and nurses - but people hardly ever look at those who are and want to remain healthy. This is even stranger, as times of health outnumber periods of disease in most persons` lifetimes. Somewhat surprisingly, technology available today is not yet optimally suited to help staying healthy. The authors discuss challenges with respect to the adaption of health behavior models, long-term interaction, quality of data, design of devices, primary use of data, and life-long data. And the authors suggest understanding technical systems for wellbeing as navigational systems, guiding a person through life on a healthy path.


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