Parental leave regulations and the persistence of the male breadwinner model: Using fuzzy-set ideal type analysis to assess gender equality in an enlarged Europe

his paper uses fuzzy-set ideal type analysis to assess the conformity of European leave regulations to four theoretical ideal typical divisions of labour: male breadwinner, caregiver parity, universal breadwinner and universal caregiver. In contrast to the majority of previous studies, the focus of this analysis is on the extent to which leave regulations promote gender equality in the family and the transformation of traditional gender roles. The results of this analysis demonstrate that European countries cluster into five models that only partly coincide with countries’ geographical proximity. Second, none of the countries considered constitutes a universal caregiver model, while the male breadwinner ideal continues to provide the normative reference point for parental leave regulations in a large number of European states. Finally, we witness a growing emphasis at the national and EU levels concerning the universal breadwinner ideal, which leaves gender inequality in unpaid work unproblematized.

Estimating the incidence, prevalence and true cost of asthma in the UK: Secondary analysis of national stand-alone and linked databases in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales-a study protocol

Introduction Asthma is now one of the most common long-term conditions in the UK. It is therefore important to develop a comprehensive appreciation of the healthcare and societal costs in order to inform decisions on care provision and planning. We plan to build on our earlier estimates of national prevalence and costs from asthma by filling the data gaps previously identified in relation to healthcare and broadening the field of enquiry to include societal costs. This work will provide the first UK-wide estimates of the costs of asthma. In the context of asthma for the UK and its member countries (ie, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), we seek to: (1) produce a detailed overview of estimates of incidence, prevalence and healthcare utilisation; (2) estimate health and societal costs; (3) identify any remaining information gaps and explore the feasibility of filling these and (4) provide insights into future research that has the potential to inform changes in policy leading to the provision of more cost-effective care.

Methods and analysis Secondary analyses of data from national health surveys, primary care, prescribing, emergency care, hospital, mortality and administrative data sources will be undertaken to estimate prevalence, healthcare utilisation and outcomes from asthma. Data linkages and economic modelling will be undertaken in an attempt to populate data gaps and estimate costs. Separate prevalence and cost estimates will be calculated for each of the UK-member countries and these will then be aggregated to generate UK-wide estimates.

Ethics and dissemination Approvals have been obtained from the NHS Scotland Information Services Division's Privacy Advisory Committee, the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Collaboration Review System, the NHS South-East Scotland Research Ethics Service and The University of Edinburgh's Centre for Population Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee. We will produce a report for Asthma-UK, submit papers to peer-reviewed journals and construct an interactive map.

Spatial allocation of material flow analysis in residential developments: a case study of Kildare County, Ireland

Studies of urban metabolism provide important insights for environmental management of cities, but are not widely used in planning practice due to a mismatch of data scale and coverage. This paper introduces the Spatial Allocation of Material Flow Analysis (SAMFA) model as a potential decision support tool aimed as a contribution to overcome some of these difficulties and describes its pilot use at the county level in the Republic of Ireland. The results suggest that SAMFA is capable of identifying hotspots of higher material and energy use to support targeted planning initiatives, while its ability to visualise different policy scenarios supports more effective multi-stakeholder engagement. The paper evaluates this pilot use and sets out how this model can act as an analytical platform for the industrial ecology–spatial planning nexus.

A New Analysis of Mars "Special Regions": Findings of the Second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group (SR-SAG2)

A committee of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) has reviewed and updated the description of Special Regions on Mars as places where terrestrial organisms might replicate (per the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy). This review and update was conducted by an international team (SR-SAG2) drawn from both the biological science and Mars exploration communities, focused on understanding when and where Special Regions could occur. The study applied recently available data about martian environments and about terrestrial organisms, building on a previous analysis of Mars Special Regions (2006) undertaken by a similar team. Since then, a new body of highly relevant information has been generated from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (launched in 2005) and Phoenix (2007) and data from Mars Express and the twin Mars Exploration Rovers (all 2003). Results have also been gleaned from the Mars Science Laboratory (launched in 2011). In addition to Mars data, there is a considerable body of new data regarding the known environmental limits to life on Earth—including the potential for terrestrial microbial life to survive and replicate under martian environmental conditions. The SR-SAG2 analysis has included an examination of new Mars models relevant to natural environmental variation in water activity and temperature; a review and reconsideration of the current parameters used to define Special Regions; and updated maps and descriptions of the martian environments recommended for treatment as “Uncertain” or “Special” as natural features or those potentially formed by the influence of future landed spacecraft. Significant changes in our knowledge of the capabilities of terrestrial organisms and the existence of possibly habitable martian environments have led to a new appreciation of where Mars Special Regions may be identified and protected. The SR-SAG also considered the impact of Special Regions on potential future human missions to Mars, both as locations of potential resources and as places that should not be inadvertently contaminated by human activity. Key Words: Martian environments—Mars astrobiology—Extreme environment microbiology—Planetary protection—Exploration resources. Astrobiology 14, 887–968.

The Value and Contribution of Qualitative Research to Inform Nurse Education and Policy in Response to the Child’s Experience of Hospital

The aim of this article is to consider the value of qualitative research to inform nurse education and policy for the hospitalized child and young person (CYP). The theoretical issues and tensions inherent in qualitative research with children and young people’s nursing are presented in conjunction with a discussion and analysis of how the epistemological and ontological concepts underpin and guide research. It is then followed by an exploration of their influence on enabling nurses to understand the CYP’s perspective, before finally leading to an analysis of the impact on the development of policy and research.

Estimating policy positions from political texts

The analysis of policy-based party;;competition will not make serious progress beyond the constraints of (a) the unitary actor assumption and (b) a static approach to analyzing party competition between elections until a method is available for deriving; reliable and valid time-series estimates of the policy positions of large numbers of political actors. Retrospective estimation of these positions;In past party systems will require a method for estimating policy positions from political texts.

Previous hand-coding content analysis schemes deal with policy emphasis rather than policy positions. We propose a new hand-coding scheme for policy positions, together with a new English language computer,coding scheme that is compatible with this. We apply both schemes; to party manifestos from Britain and Ireland in 1992 and 1997 and cross validate the resulting estimates with :those derived from quite independent expert surveys and with previous,manifesto analyses.

There is a high degree of cross validation between coding methods. including computer coding. This implies that it is indeed possible to use computer-coded content analysis to derive reliable and valid estimates of policy positions from political texts. This will allow vast Volumes of text to be coded, including texts generated by individuals and other internal party actors, allowing the empirical elaboration of dynamic rather than static models of party competition that move beyond the unitary actor assumption.

Meta-analysis of the influence of experimental design on effect size in peer tutoring outcomes in elementary, middle and high school settings.

A meta-analysis was undertaken on a form of cooperative learning, peer tutoring. The effects of experimental design on outcomes were explored, as measured by Effect Size (ES). 185 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Highest ES were reported for quasi-experimental studies. ES reduced as experimental design moved from single pre-test factor matched, to multiple-factor matched randomized controlled trials. ES reduced when designs used standardised, rather than self-designed measures, The implications for future meta-analyses and research in cooperative learning are explored.

Family Economic Vulnerability & the Great Recession: An Analysis of the First two Waves of the Growing Up in Ireland Study

In this paper we make use of the first and second waves of the 2008 and 1998 cohorts of the Growing Up in Ireland study, to develop a multidimensional and dynamic approach to understanding the impact on families and children in Ireland of the Great Recession. Economic vulnerability is operationalised as involving a distinctive risk profile in relation to relative income, household joblessness and economic stress. We find that the recession was associated with a significant increase in levels of economic vulnerability and changing risk profiles involving a more prominent role for economic stress for both the 2008 and 1998 cohorts. The factors affecting vulnerability outcomes were broadly similar for both cohorts. Persistent economic vulnerability was significantly associated with lone parenthood, particularly for those with more than one child, lower levels of Primary Care Giver (PCG) education and to a lesser extent younger age of PCG at child’s birth, number of children and a parent leaving or dying. Similar factors were associated with transient vulnerability in the first wave but the magnitude of the effects was significantly weaker particularly in relation to lone parenthood and level of education of the PCG. For entry into vulnerability the impact of these factors was again substantially weaker than for persistent and transient vulnerability indicating a significantly greater degree of socio-economic heterogeneity among the group that became vulnerable during the recession. The findings raise policy and political problems that go beyond those associated with catering for groups that have tended to be characterized by high dependence on social welfare.

Equality, justice and feasibility: an ethical analysis of the WBGU’s budget approach

According to the Budget Approach proposed by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), allocating CO2 emission rights to countries on an equal per-capita basis would provide an ethically justified response to global climate change. In this paper, we will highlight four normative issues which beset the WBGU’s Budget Approach: (1) the approach’s core principle of distributive justice, the principle of equality, and its associated policy of emissions egalitarianism are much more complex than it initially appears; (2) the “official” rationale for determining the size of the budget should be modified in order to avoid implausible normative assumptions about the imposition of permissible intergenerational risks; (3) the approach heavily relies on trade-offs between justice and feasibility which should be stated more explicitly; and (4) part of the approach’s ethical appeal depends on policy instruments which are “detachable” from the approach’s core principle of distributive justice.

Cultivating Compassion through analysis of online patient narratives

Compassion is at the forefront of national and international healthcare policy, practice and educational debates as a result of a series of recent reports (Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry, 2010, Lown et al 2011, Mannion, 2014). Arguably, this emphasis on compassion is in juxtaposition to an increasingly complex technological healthcare system focused upon outcomes, efficiency, productivity and competence. Within this fast paced and time pressured environment innovative strategies are required to cultivate and sustain compassion among healthcare professionals.

Understanding the person’s experience of illness and making an emotional connection are key processes in cultivating compassion (Dewar, 2013). The exponential growth in unsolicited patient narratives has the potential to provide invaluable insight into what matters to patients and their experience of illness. For many patients these stories ‘reclaim’ their illnesses from the traditional biomedical model of disease and reveal otherwise hidden aspects of their experience. The content though freely accessible, is however unedited and lacks safeguards in relation to the quality or accuracy of the information provided. Despite these concerns, healthcare professionals are now challenged to pay attention to these unsolicited patient stories and to consider how they can inform and improve patient care.

This paper discusses the use of online patient narratives in undergraduate nurse education to cultivate compassion. Critical analysis of online patient narratives is advocated as a potential educational strategy to cultivate compassion among future health care professionals.

References
Dewar,B. (2013) Cultivating compassionate care Nursing Standard 27, (34) 48-55

Lown B, Rosen J, Martilla J.(2011) An agenda for improving compassionate care: a survey shows about half of patients say such care is missing. Health Affairs (Millwood) 30, 1772–8.
Mannion,R. (2014) Enabling compassionate healthcare: perils, prospects and perspectives International Journal of Health Policy and Management 2, 115-7
Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry (2010). Independent Inquiry into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation London: Stationery Office.

The Meaning of Drug Use among Homeless Young People:A longitudinal pathways analysis

A strong link between drug use and homelessness has long since been documented in the international literature. However, much of the research has concentrated on the direction of the relationship between drug use and homelessness, seeking to establish drug use as a cause or consequence of homelessness, with far less attention to the intersection of drug and homeless ‘careers’. This paper examines the drug and homeless pathways of young people who are participants in a qualitative longitudinal study of homeless youth in Dublin, Ireland. The findings highlight downward drug transitions as associated with exiting homelessness and continued or escalated consumption as associated with remaining homeless. Analyses of the meanings young people attach to drug use over time reveal the importance of housing as an enabler to engaging with treatment and as assisting the process of becoming and remaining drug free. Young people who remained homeless did not accept their situations, as ‘acculturation’ accounts would suggest; rather, they aspired to changing their situations. However, they also face strong barriers to accessing housing which in turn hamper their efforts to address the matter of their drug use. The implications for how the homeless/drug use ‘nexus’ is conceptualised and understood, as well as implications for policy, are discussed.

Knowledge Exchange, Spatial Analysis & Healthy Urban Environments (KESUE): Project Report

The Knowledge Exchange, Spatial Analysis and Healthy Urban Environments (KESUE) project has extended work previously undertaken by a QUB team of inter-disciplinary researchers engaged with the Physical Activity in the Regeneration of Connswater (PARC) project (Tully et al, 2013). The PARC project focussed on parts of East Belfast to assess the health impact of the Connswater Community Greenway. The KESUE project has aimed to extend some of the tools used initially in East Belfast so that they have data coverage of all of Belfast and Derry-Londonderry. The purpose of this has been to enable the development of evidence and policy tools that link features of the built environment with physical activity in these two cities. The project has used this data to help shape policy decisions in areas such as physical activity, park management, public transport and planning.

Working with a range of local partners who part-funded the project (City Councils in Belfast and Derry-Londonderry, Public Health Agency, Belfast Healthy Cities and Department of Regional Development), this project has mapped all the footpaths in the two cities (covering 37% of the NI population) and employed this to develop evidence used in strategies related to healthy urban planning. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the footpath network has been used as a basis for a wide range of policy-relevant analyses including pedestrian accessibility to public facilities, site options for new infrastructure and assessing how vulnerable groups can access services such as pharmacies. Key outputs have been Accessibility Atlases and maps showing how walkability of the built environment varies across the two cities.

In addition to generating this useful data, the project included intense engagement with potential users of the research, which has led to its continued uptake in a number of policies and strategies, creating a virtuous circle of research, implementation and feedback. The project has proved so valuable to Belfast City Council that they have now taken on one of the researchers to continue the work in-house.

The EU Deep Trade Agenda: Law and Policy

Providing the first comprehensive examination of the key regulatory disciplines included in the new generation of EU free trade agreements (FTAs), this book investigates the EU's supposed deep trade agenda through a legal analysis of these FTAs. In doing so, Billy A. Melo Araujo determines whether there is any substance behind the EU's foreign policy rhetoric regarding the need to introduce regulatory issues within the remit of international trade law.

At a time when the EU is busily negotiating so-called 'mega-FTAs', such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), Melo Araujo offers a timely insight into the important questions raised by such FTAs, in particular concerning the future of the multilateral trade system, the loss of policy autonomy, and the democratic legitimacy of regulating through treaty-making. The book provides a detailed analysis of the regulatory disciplines included in the more recent EU FTAs and explores the possible implications of such disciplines. Offering a significant contribution to a wider debate, this is a must read for those interested in the legal dimension of the EU's deep trade agenda.

Studying administrative reforms through textual analysis: the case of Italian central government accounting

This paper contributes to the literature on public-sector reforms by proposing textual analysis as a useful research strategy to explore how reform archetypes and related ideas are deployed in the parliamentary debate and regulations advancing reforms. Public Administration (PA) (Wilson 1887; Weber 1922), New Public Management (NPM) (Hood 1991, 1995; Dunleavy and Hood 1994; Ferlie et al. 1996) and Public Governance (GOV) (Osborne 2010; Rhodes 1997) can be depicted as three different archetypes providing characteristic administrative ideas and concepts (i.e. interpretive schemes) and related tools and practices (i.e. structures and systems) which lead reforms. We use textual analysis to look into more than twenty years of Italian central government accounting reforms and investigate how the three administrative archetypes have evolved, intertwined and replaced each other. Textual analysis proves a useful tool to investigate reform processes and allows highlighting that in neo-Weberian countries, such as Italy, NPM and GOV, far from being revolutionary paradigms, may represent fashionable trends that did not leave significant traces in the practice and rhetoric of reforms. These results also suggest interesting implications for practitioners and policy makers.

The Illusions of Post-Feminism, Ghosts of Gender and the Discourses of Law

This article seeks to consider evidence of post-feminist and "post-equality" gender narratives contained in the discourses of law in the UK and European contexts. Analysis of perennial ghosts of gender in the areas of gender-neutrality in policy, legislative regulation of sexual crimes, and the adjudication of gendered issues by judges will be undertaken in order to renew and reinstate the focus of the legal feminist project and advocate for continued scrutiny in these three practical areas.