Property rights and competing for the affections of Demos: The Impact of the 1867 Reform Act on stock prices

The 1867 Reform Act in Britain extended the electoral franchise to the skilled but propertyless urban working classes. Using stock market data and exploiting the fact that foreign and domestic equities traded simultaneously on the London market, this paper finds that investors in British firms reacted negatively to the passage of this Act. We suggest that this finding is consistent with investors foreseeing future alterations of property rights arising from the pressure that the large newly enfranchised group would bring to bear on government policy. We also suggest that our findings appear to be more consistent with the Tory political competition explanation for the Act rather than the Whig threat-of-revolution explanation.

Quasiexperimental Study of the Effects of Antibiotic Use, Gastric Acid-Suppressive Agents, and Infection Control Practices on the Incidence of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diarrhea in Hospitalized Patients

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of antimicrobial drug use, gastric acid-suppressive agent use, and infection control practices on the incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) in a 426-bed general teaching hospital in Northern Ireland. The study was retrospective and ecological in design. A multivariate autoregressive integrated moving average (time-series analysis) model was built to relate CDAD incidence with antibiotic use, gastric acid-suppressive agent use, and infection control practices within the hospital over a 5-year period (February 2002 to March 2007). The findings of this study showed that temporal variation in CDAD incidence followed temporal variations in expanded-spectrum cephalosporin use (average delay = 2 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.01/100 bed-days), broad-spectrum cephalosporin use (average delay = 2 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.02/100 bed-days), fluoroquinolone use (average delay = 3 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.004/100 bed-days), amoxicillin-clavulanic acid use (average delay = 1 month; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.002/100 bed-days), and macrolide use (average delay = 5 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.002/100 bed-days). Temporal relationships were also observed between CDAD incidence and use of histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs; average delay = 1 month; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.001/100 bed-days). The model explained 78% of the variance in the monthly incidence of CDAD. The findings of this study highlight a temporal relationship between certain classes of antibiotics, H2RAs, and CDAD incidence. The results of this research can help hospitals to set priorities for restricting the use of specific antibiotic classes, based on the size-effect of each class and the delay necessary to observe an effect.

The effect of teachers trained in a fundamental movement skills programme on children’s self-perceptions and motor competence

Perceived and actual motor competence are hypothesized to have potential links to children and young people’s physical activity (PA) levels with a potential consequential link to long-term health. In this cross-sectional study, Harter’s (1985, Manual for the Self-perception Profile for Children. Denver, CO: University of Denver) Competency Motivation-based framework was used to explore whether a group of children taught, during curriculum time, by teachers trained in the Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) programme, scored higher on self-perception and on core motor competencies when compared to children whose teachers had not been so trained. One hundred and seventy seven children aged 7–8 years participated in the study. One hundred and seven were taught by FMS-trained teachers (FMS) and the remaining 70 were taught by teachers not trained in the programme (non-FMS). The Harter Self-Perception Profile for Children assessed athletic competence, scholastic competence, global self-worth and social acceptance. Three core components of motor competence (body management, object control and locomotor skills) were assessed via child observation. The FMS group scored higher on all the self-perception domains (p < 0.05). Statistically significant differences were found between the schools on all of the motor tasks (p < 0.05). The relationships between motor performance and self-perception were generally weak and non-significant. Future research in schools and with teachers should explore the FMS programme’s effect on children’s motor competence via a longitudinal approach.