Early Childhood Development of Late-Preterm Infants: A Systematic Review

CONTEXT: Late-preterm infants (LPIs) born at 34 to 36 weeks' gestation are increasingly regarded as being at risk for adverse developmental outcomes. To date, the early childhood development of LPIs has not been systematically considered.

OBJECTIVE: To undertake a broad examination of literature relating to early childhood development at the ages of 1 to 7 years of LPIs born at 34 to 36 weeks' gestation.

METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of early childhood outcomes in LPIs by using 9 electronic databases (January 1980 to March 2010). Bibliographies were reviewed. After examination of abstracts, ineligible studies were excluded. A specifically designed data-extraction form was used. The methodologic quality of included studies was assessed by using well-documented quality-appraisal guidelines.

RESULTS: Of 4581 studies, 10 (3 prospective and 7 retrospective cohort) were included. Studies were heterogeneous, and poorer outcomes were reported among LPIs in relation to neurodevelopmental disabilities, educational ability, early-intervention requirements, medical disabilities, and physical growth in comparison to term-born children. No identified study used healthy nonadmitted LPIs as a comparison group for admitted LPIs.

CONCLUSIONS: Evidence suggests that LPIs are at increased risk of adverse developmental outcomes and academic difficulties up to 7 years of age in comparison to term infants. An infant control group matched for gestational age has not been used; thus, for LPIs, the effect of neonatal admission on longer-term outcomes has not been fully explored. Systematic measurement of early childhood outcomes is lacking, and focused long-term follow-up studies are needed to investigate early childhood development after late-preterm birth. Pediatrics 2011;127:1111-1124

Beyond Poverty: Social Justice in a Global Marketplace

The social justice paradigm, developed in philosophy by John Rawls and others, reaches limits when confronted with diverse populations, unsound governments, and global markets.Its parameters are further limited by a traditional utilitarian approach to both industrial actors and consumer behaviors. Finally, by focusing too exclusively on poverty, as manifest in insufficient incomes or resources, the paradigm overlooks the oppressive role that gender,race, and religious prejudice play in keeping the poor subordinated. The authors of this article suggest three ways in which researchers in marketing could bring their unique expertise to the question of social justice in a global economy: by reinventing the theoretical foundation laid down by thinkers such as Rawls, by documenting and evaluating emergent “feasible fixes” to achieve justice (such as the global resource dividend, cause-related marketing, Fair Trade, and philanthrocapitalism), and by exploring the parameters of the consumption basket that would be minimally required to achieve human capabilities.

Novel interactions between UFH and TFPI in children

The impact of age upon therapeutic response to unfractionated heparin (UFH) in children is proposed to reflect quantitative and potentially qualitative differences in coagulation proteins across childhood. This study explores the UFH-dependent tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) release in children compared to previously published data in adults. Children <16 years of age undergoing cardiac angiography formed the population for this prospective cohort study. TFPI release was measured prior to (baseline) and at 15, 30, 45 and 120 min post-UFH dose. This study demonstrated that, whilst the immediate release of TFPI post-UFH was similar in children compared to adults, TFPI release in children remained increased and consistent for a significantly longer period post-UFH administration compared to adults. Plasma TFPI levels in children did not demonstrate an UFH concentration –dependent reduction, as has been previously reported in adults. The prolonged TFPI-mediated anticoagulant levels observed in children administered UFH may contribute to the increased rate of major bleeding reported in children compared to adults. Furthermore, we postulate that this sustained UFH-dependent increase in TFPI levels in children may influence the binding of UFH to competitive plasma proteins, such as those involved in the immunological response to UFH associated with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

Veblen's Placebo: A historical perspective on administrative evil

Thorstein Veblen was a turn of the 20th century American economist concerned with the implications of financial capitalists directing the means of production. Veblen proposed that the rationality of "material science" as practiced by the "production engineers" is fundamentally different from the rationality of market capitalism. If this claim is valid, our previous contentions regarding accounting, as a facilitating technology, for administrative evil warrant reconsideration. Veblen's position provides a historical perspective on one dimension of administrative evil that is generally unquestionably accepted, especially within accounting. That is, technology, such as accounting and the related information systems, is amoral, and it is only through ideologically instigated applications that any moral value accrues. We discuss administrative evil and the role of instrumental rationality generally, and accounting specifically, in creating it. Veblen's characterization of financial capitalism and production engineers and his arguments for the primacy of economic efficiency versus "pecuniary gain" provide a basis for evaluating the legitimating action. We consider how Veblen's work relates to notions of instrumental rationality and then undertake a critical assessment of the ideas. Some of Veblen's ideas, while utopian, might be seen as an elixir for the detrimental influences of financial capital; however, at best, they provide a placebo for the ills of administrative evil and, as such, do not provide an amoral basis for legitimating the associated accounting systems.