The rise of the welfare state threatens the autonomy and survival of nonprofit voluntary agencies as providers of social services. Or does it? In this cross-national, empirical study of the workings ...of voluntary agencies, Ralph M. Kramer cuts through the conceptual confusion surrounding voluntarism and the boundaries between the public and private sectors. He draws on a survey of voluntary agencies helping disabled people in four welfare democracies (the United States, England, Israel, and the Netherlands) to explain the virtues and flaws of different patterns of government-voluntary relationships in coping with the growing demand for human services. Kramer concludes that many of the most cherished beliefs about the voluntary sector have little basis in fact. The most innovative agencies, for example, are not the smallest, but rather among the largest, most bureaucratized, and most professionalized. Government funding does not necessarily constrain agency autonomy. And giving voluntary agencies the primary responsibility for social services can reduce, not increase, citizen participation. This comparative analysis of the distinctive competence, vulnerability, and potential of the voluntary agency should replace some of the myths that guide public policy and the day-to-day activities of social service agencies. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.
The discovery of pulsars opened a new research field that allows studying a wide range of physics under extreme conditions. More than 3,000 pulsars are currently known, including especially more than ...200 of them studied at gamma-ray frequencies. By putting recent insights into the pulsar magnetosphere in a historical context and by comparing them to key observational features at radio and high-energy frequencies, we show the following:
Magnetospheric structure of young energetic pulsars is now understood. Limitations still exist for old nonrecycled and millisecond pulsars.
The observed high-energy radiation is likely produced in the magnetospheric current sheet beyond the light cylinder.
There are at least two different radio emission mechanisms. One operates in the inner magnetosphere, whereas the other one works near the light cylinder and is specific to pulsars with the high magnetic field strength in that region.
Radio emission from the inner magnetosphere is intrinsically connected to the process of pair production, and its observed properties contain the imprint of both the geometry and propagation effects through the magnetospheric plasma.
We discuss the limitations of our understanding and identify a range of observed phenomena and physical processes that still await explanation in thefuture. This includes connecting the magnetospheric processes to spin-down properties to explain braking and possible evolution of spin orientation, building a first-principles model of radio emission and quantitative connections with observations.
Objective
Concerns about differences in registration practices across countries have limited the use of routine data for international very preterm birth (VPT) rate comparisons.
Design
...Population‐based study.
Setting
Twenty‐seven European countries, the United States, Canada and Japan in 2010.
Population
A total of 9 376 252 singleton births.
Method
We requested aggregated gestational age data on live births, stillbirths and terminations of pregnancy (TOP) before 32 weeks of gestation, and information on registration practices for these births. We compared VPT rates and assessed the impact of births at 22–23 weeks of gestation, and different criteria for inclusion of stillbirths and TOP on country rates and rankings.
Main outcome measures
Singleton very preterm birth rate, defined as singleton stillbirths and live births before 32 completed weeks of gestation per 1000 total births, excluding TOP if identifiable in the data source.
Results
Rates varied from 5.7 to 15.7 per 1000 total births and 4.0 to 11.9 per 1000 live births. Country registration practices were related to percentage of births at 22–23 weeks of gestation (between 1% and 23% of very preterm births) and stillbirths (between 6% and 40% of very preterm births). After excluding births at 22–23 weeks, rate variations remained high and with a few exceptions, country rankings were unchanged.
Conclusions
International comparisons of very preterm birth rates using routine data should exclude births at 22–23 weeks of gestation and terminations of pregnancy. The persistent large rate variations after these exclusions warrant continued surveillance of VPT rates at 24 weeks and over in high‐income countries.
Tweetable
International comparisons of VPT rates should exclude births at 22–23 weeks of gestation and terminations of pregnancy.
Tweetable
International comparisons of VPT rates should exclude births at 22–23 weeks of gestation and terminations of pregnancy.
As the frequency and prevalence of zoonotic diseases increase worldwide, investigating how mammal host distributions determine patterns of human disease and predicting which regions are at greatest ...risk for future zoonotic disease emergence are two goals which both require better understanding of the current distributions of zoonotic hosts and pathogens. We review here the existing data about mammalian host species, comparing and contrasting these patterns against global maps of zoonotic hosts from all 27 orders of terrestrial mammals. We discuss the zoonotic potential of host species from the top six most species-rich mammal groups, and review the literature to identify analytical and conceptual gaps that must be addressed to improve our ability to generate testable predictions about zoonotic diseases originating from wild mammals.
Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a valuable tool for the evaluation of patients with, or at risk for, heart failure and has a growing impact on diagnosis, clinical management, and decision making. ...Through its ability to characterize the myocardium by using multiple different imaging parameters, it provides insight into the etiology of the underlying heart failure and its prognosis. CMR is widely accepted as the reference standard for quantifying chamber size and ejection fraction. Additionally, tissue characterization techniques such as late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and other quantitative parameters such as T1 mapping, both native and with measurement of extracellular volume fraction; T2 mapping; and T2* mapping have been validated against histological findings in a wide range of clinical scenarios. In particular, the pattern of LGE in the myocardium can help determine the underlying etiology of the heart failure. The presence and extent of LGE determine prognosis in many of the nonischemic cardiomyopathies. The use of CMR should increase as its utility in characterization and assessment of prognosis in cardiomyopathies is increasingly recognized.
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The adaptation of plants to land required multiple morphological innovations. Among these include a variety of lateral organs that are initiated from apical meristems, in which the mantainance of ...undifferentiated stem cells is regulated by the homeodomain WUSCHEL-RELATED (WOX) transcription factors. Expansion of the WOX gene family has been associated with whole genome duplication (WGD) events and postulated to have been pivotal to the evolution of morphological complexity in land plants. Previous studies have classified the WOX gene family into three superclades (e.g., the ancient clade, the intermediate clade, and the modern clade). In order to improve our understanding of the evolution of the WOX gene family, we surveyed the WOX gene sequences from 38 genomes and 440 transcriptomes spanning the Viridiplantae and Rhodophyta. The WOX phylogeny inferred from 1039 WOX proteins drawn from 267 species with improved support along the backbone of the phylogeny suggests that the plant-specific WOX family contains three ancient superclades, which we term Type 1 (T1WOX, the WOX10/13/14 clade), Type 2 (T2WOX, the WOX8/9 and WOX11/12 clades), and Type 3 (T3WOX, the WUS, WOX1/6, WOX2, WOX3, WOX4 and WOX5/7 clades). Divergence of the T1WOX and T2WOX superclades may predate the diversification of vascular plants. Synteny analysis suggests contribution of WGD to expansion of the WOX family. Promoter analysis finds that the capacity of the WOX genes to be regulated by the auxin and cytokinin signaling pathways may be deeply conserved in the Viridiplantae. This study improves our phylogenetic context for elucidating functional evolution of the WOX gene family, which has likely contributed to the morphological complexity of land plants.
This document is an update to the 2013 publication of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) Board of Trustees Task Force on Standardized Protocols. Concurrent with this ...publication, 3 additional task forces will publish documents that should be referred to in conjunction with the present document. The first is a document on the Clinical Indications for CMR, an update of the 2004 document. The second task force will be updating the document on Reporting published by that SCMR Task Force in 2010. The 3rd task force will be updating the 2013 document on Post-Processing. All protocols relative to congenital heart disease are covered in a separate document.The section on general principles and techniques has been expanded as more of the techniques common to CMR have been standardized. A section on imaging in patients with devices has been added as this is increasingly seen in day-to-day clinical practice. The authors hope that this document continues to standardize and simplify the patient-based approach to clinical CMR. It will be updated at regular intervals as the field of CMR advances.
A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force, American Heart Association, American Society of Echocardiography, American Society of Nuclear ...Cardiology, Heart Failure Society of America, Heart Rhythm Society, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons ACCF Multimodality Appropriate Use Criteria for the Detection and Risk Assessment of Ischemic Heart Disease Writing Group, Technical Panel, Task Force, and Indication Reviewers...Relationships With Industry and Other Entities (Relevant)... .403 Abstract The American College of Cardiology Foundation along with key specialty and subspecialty societies, conducted an appropriate use review of common clinical presentations for stable ischemic heart disease (SIHD) to consider use of stress testing and anatomic diagnostic procedures. The use of some modalities of testing in the initial evaluation of patients with symptoms representing ischemic equivalents, newly diagnosed heart failure, arrhythmias, and syncope was generally found to be Appropriate or May Be Appropriate, except in cases where low pre-test probability or low risk limited the benefit of most testing except exercise electrocardiogram (ECG).
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