Sam Loyd & his chess problems ...

Pt. 1, Sam Loyd, Pt. 2, Chess strategy; Pt. 3, Miscellanies.

Forest diseases in California : problems and the research program of the Pacific Southwest Station /

"August 1961."

A Site Analysis for Programming Public Art on the University of Washington's Burke-Gilman Trail

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Attitudes and management of alcohol problems in general practice: Descriptive analysis based on findings of a world health organization international collaborative survey

Aims: To determine if general practitioners' (GPs) experience of education on alcohol, support in their working environment for intervening with alcohol problems, and their attitudes have an impact on the number of patients they manage with alcohol problems. Methods: 1300 GPs from nine countries were surveyed with a postal questionnaire as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative study. Results: GPs who received more education on alcohol (OR = 1.5; 95% CI, 1.3-1.7), who perceived that they were working in a supportive environment (OR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.4-1.9), who expressed higher role security in working with alcohol problems (OR = 2.0; 95% CI, 1.5-2.5) and who reported greater therapeutic commitment to working with alcohol problems (OR = 1.4: 95% CI, 1.1-1.7) were more likely to manage patients with alcohol-related harm. Conclusion: Both education and support in the working environment need to be provided to enhance the involvement of GPs in the management of alcohol problems.

Some problems with life event lists and health outcomes

Lists of life events are widely used in health outcomes research. As part of a large cohort study of women's health in Australia, age- and gender-specific life events lists were developed and administered to women in different age groups over time. In this article, we provide empirical evidence that recall of life events is subject to telescoping (i.e., remote events are reported to have occurred more recently) and to mood (women with lower mental health scores report more life events, especially perceived rather than factual events). Nevertheless, even after adjustment for confounders, there is a clear association between poorer physical health and more life events. Therefore, these results demonstrate a continuing need for lists of life events in health research but also highlight the methodological challenges in using them.

Public and private psychiatry: Can they work together and is it worth the effort?

Objective: Partnerships in mental health care, particularly between public and private psychiatric services, are being increasingly recognized as important for optimizing patient management and the efficient organization of services. However, public sector mental health services and private psychiatrists do not always work well together and there seem to be a number of barriers to effective collaboration. This study set out to investigate the extent of collaborative 'shared care' arrangements between a public mental health service and private psychiatrists practising nearby. It also examined possible barriers to collaboration and some possible solutions to the identified problems. Method: A questionnaire examining the above factors was sent to all public sector mental health clinicians and all private psychiatrists in the area. Results: One hundred and five of the 154 (68.2%) public sector clinicians and 103 of the 194 (53.1%) private psychiatrists returned surveys. The main barriers to successful collaboration identified by members of both sectors were: 'Difficulty communicating' endorsed by 71.4% of public clinicians and 72% of private psychiatrists, 'Confusion of roles and responsibilities' endorsed by 62.9% and 66%, respectively, and 'Different treatment approach' by 47.6% and 45.6%, respectively. Over 60% of private psychiatrists identified problems with access to the public system as a barrier to successful shared care arrangements. It also emerged, as hypothesized, that the public and private systems tend to manage different patient populations and that public clinicians in particular are not fully aware of the private psychiatrists' range of expertise. This would result in fewer referrals for shared care across the sectors. Conclusions: A number of barriers to public sector clinicians and private psychiatrists collaborating in shared care arrangements were identified. The two groups surveyed identified similar barriers. Some of these can potentially be addressed by changes to service systems. Others require cultural shifts in both sectors. Improved communications including more opportunities for formal and informal meetings between people working in the two sectors would be likely to improve the understanding of the complementary sector's perspective and practice. Further changes would be expected to require careful work between the sectors on training, employment and practice protocols and initiatives, to allow better use of the existing services and resources.

Interaction of psychosocial risk factors explain increased neck problems among female office workers

This study investigated the relationship between psychosocial risk factors and (1) neck symptoms and (2) neck pain and disability as measured by the neck disability index (NDI). Female office workers employed in local private and public organizations were invited to participate, with 333 completing a questionnaire. Data were collected on various risk factors including age, negative affectivity, history of previous neck trauma, physical work environment, and task demands. Sixty-one percent of the sample reported neck symptoms lasting greater than 8 days in the last 12 months. The mean NDI of the sample was 15.5 out of 100, indicating mild neck pain and disability. In a hierarchical multivariate logistic regression, low supervisor support was the only psychosocial risk factor identified with the presence of neck symptoms. Similarly, low supervisor support was the only factor associated with the score on the NDI. These associations remained after adjustment for potential confounders of age, negative affectivity, and physical risk factors. The interaction of job demands, decision authority, and supervisor support was significantly associated with the NDI in the final model and this association increased when those with previous trauma were excluded. Interestingly, and somewhat contrary to initial expectations, as job demands increased, high decision authority had an increasing effect on the NDI when supervisor support was low. Crown copyright (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards a public health approach to parenting

There are various parenting, school and personal factors at play in determining a child’s risk of developing serious conduct problems. The temptation is therefore to conclude that “more is better than less”, but we think that has not been convincingly demonstrated. Some large-scale multi-risk-factor reduction approaches that include parenting, school and child-specific interventions with older school-aged children have shown promise but are complex to administer, costly to implement and have yet to show strong long-term outcomes. But in young children (toddler and preschool-aged children) there is strong evidence that social-learning-based parenting programmes are effective with a wide range of families from quite diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. We choose to focus on such programmes.

Policy into practice:a study of public policy implementation and the role of learning

Public policy becomes managerial practice through a process of implementation. There is an established literature within Implementation Studies which explains the variables and some of the processes involved in implementation, but less attention has been focused upon how public service managers convert new policy initiatives into practice. The research proposes that managers and their organisations have to go through a process of learning in order to achieve the implementation of public policy. Data was collected over a five year period from four case studies of capital investment appraisal in the British National Health Service. Further data was collected from taped interviews by key actors within the case studies. The findings suggest that managers do learn to implement policy and four factors are important in this learning process. These are; (i) the nature of bureaucratic responsibility; (ii) the motivation of actors towards learning; (iii) the passage of time which allows for the development of competence and (iv) the use of project team structures. The research has demonstrated that the conversion of policy into practice occurs through the operationalisation of solutions to policy problems via job tasks. As such it suggests that in understanding how policy is implemented, technical learning is more important than cultural learning, in this context. In conclusion, a "Model of Learned Implementation" is presented, together with a discussion of some of the implications of the research. These are the possible use of more pilot projects for new policy initiatives and the more systematic diffusion of knowledge about implementation solutions.

Prevalence of the use of cancer related self-tests by members of the public:A community survey

Background: Self-tests are those where an individual can obtain a result without recourse to a health professional, by getting a result immediately or by sending a sample to a laboratory that returns the result directly. Self-tests can be diagnostic, for disease monitoring, or both. There are currently tests for more than 20 different conditions available to the UK public, and self-testing is marketed as a way of alerting people to serious health problems so they can seek medical help. Almost nothing is known about the extent to which people self-test for cancer or why they do this. Self-tests for cancer could alter perceptions of risk and health behaviour, cause psychological morbidity and have a significant impact on the demand for healthcare. This study aims to gain an understanding of the frequency of self-testing for cancer and characteristics of users. Methods: Cross-sectional survey. Adults registered in participating general practices in the West Midlands Region, will be asked to complete a questionnaire that will collect socio-demographic information and basic data regarding previous and potential future use of self-test kits. The only exclusions will be people who the GP feels it would be inappropriate to send a questionnaire, for example because they are unable to give informed consent. Freepost envelopes will be included and non-responders will receive one reminder. Standardised prevalence rates will be estimated. Discussion: Cancer related self-tests, currently available from pharmacies or over the Internet, include faecal occult blood tests (related to bowel cancer), prostate specific antigen tests (related to prostate cancer), breast cancer kits (self examination guide) and haematuria tests (related to urinary tract cancers). The effect of an increase in self-testing for cancer is unknown but may be considerable: it may affect the delivery of population based screening programmes; empower patients or cause unnecessary anxiety; reduce costs on existing healthcare services or increase demand to investigate patients with positive test results. It is important that more is known about the characteristics of those who are using self-tests if we are to determine the potential impact on health services and the public. © 2006 Wilson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Privatization : problems of implementation in Egypt

This study aims to investigate to what extent the views of the managers of the enterprises to be privatized are a barrier to smooth implementation of privatization as opposed to other problems. Accordingly, the research tackles two main issues: Identification and analysis of the major problems encountered in the implementation of the Egyptian privatization programme and at which level these problems exist while proposing different approaches to tackle them; and views of public sector top and middle-level managers regarding the main issues of privatization. The study relies upon a literature survey, interviews with stakeholders, a survey of managers' attitudes and several illustrative case studies. A model of "good practice" for the smooth and effective implementation of privatization has been designed. Practice in Egypt has then been studied and compared with the "good practice" model. Lack of strictness and firmness in implementing the announced privatization programme has been found to be a characteristic of Egyptian practice. This is partly attributable to the inadequacy of the programme and partly to the different obstacles to implementation. The main obstacles are doubtful desirability of privatization on the part of the managers at different implementation levels, resistance of stakeholders, in adequately of the legal framework governing privatization, redundant labour, lack of an efficient monitoring system allowing for accountability, inefficient marketing of privatization, ineffective communication, insufficient information at different levels and problems related to valuation and selling procedures. A large part of the thesis is concerned with SOE (State Owned Enterprise) managers' attitudes on and understanding of the privatization (appraised through surveys). Although most managers have stated their acceptance of privatization, many of their responses show that they do not accept selling SOEs. They understand privatization to include enterprise reform and restructuring, changing procedures and giving more authority to company executives, but not necessarily as selling SOEs. The majority of managers still see many issues that have to be addressed for smooth implementation of privatization e.g. insufficiency of information, incompleteness of legal framework, restructuring and labour problems. The main contribution to knowledge of this thesis is the study of problems of implementing privatization in developing countries especially managers' resistance to privatization as a major change, partly because of the threat it poses and partly because of the lack of understanding of privatization and implications of operating private businesses. A programme of persuading managers and offsetting the unfavourable effects is recommended as an outcome of the study. Five different phrases and words for the national Index to theses are: Egypt, privatization, implementation of privatization, problems of implementing privatization and managers' attitudes towards privatization.

Safety and health in mines: the rise of bureaucracy in the coal mining industry and its results as evidenced by the public enquiry into an accident at Houghton Main Colliery

This thesis is concerned with certain aspects of the Public Inquiry into the accident at Houghton Main Colliery in June 1975. It examines whether prior to the accident there existed at the Colliery a situation in which too much reliance was being placed upon state regulation and too Iittle upon personal responsibility. I study the phenomenon of state regulation. This is done (a) by analysis of selected writings on state regulation/intervention/interference/bureaucracy (the words are used synonymously) over the last two hundred years, specifically those of Marx on the 1866 Committee on Mines, and (b) by studying Chadwick and Tremenheere, leading and contrasting "bureaucrats" of the mid-nineteenth century. The bureaucratisation of the mining industry over the period 1835-1954 is described, and it is demonstrated that the industry obtained and now possesses those characteristics outlined by Max Weber in his model of bureaucracy. I analyse criticisms of the model and find them to be relevant, in that they facilitate understanding both of the circumstances of the accident and of the Inquiry . Further understanding of the circumstances and causes of the accident was gained by attendance at the lnquiry and by interviewing many of those involved in the Inquiry. I analyse many aspects of the Inquiry - its objectives. structure, procedure and conflicting interests - and find that, although the Inquiry had many of the symbols of bureaucracy, it suffered not from " too much" outside interference. but rather from the coal mining industry's shared belief in its ability to solve its own problems. I found nothing to suggest that, prior to the accident, colliery personnel relied. or were encouraged to rely, "too much" upon state regulation.

Ingroup and outgroup minorities:differential impact upon public and private responses

The experiment which is presented in this paper was designed to overcome some of the problems associated with previous research investigating the effects of social categorization and minority influence. Sixty-eight fourteen-year-old British Secondary School pupils indicated their attitudes towards a 'grant for pupils' before and after reading a text which advocated a minority position. The text was attributed as being the work of either pupils from their own school (ingroup minority) or from a school they discriminated against (outgroup minority). Responses were either made in ‘public’ (by telling subjects that other pupils would see their responses) or in ‘private’ (by subjects putting their responses into a ‘ballot box’). The results showed that on public responses ingroup minorities had more influence than outgroup minorities while there was no difference on private responses. Also, greater change occurred when responses were made in private than in public. These results are compatible with the intergroup analysis of minority influence.