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This paper considers the eligibility criteria for NHS continuing healthcare funding in England ‐ with particular focus on the revised framework guidance issued by the Department of Health in July 2009. It commences with a brief review of the tensions that exist between the guidance and the law (in the form of court judgments) and provides an overview of the aspects of the guidance of most relevance to those working with disabled people with severe head and spinal injuries.The paper advises how professionals involved in this difficult area should interpret the new materials so as to reach an outcome in individual cases that is in accordance with the law. It suggests, however, that even with the July 2009 revisions, the framework and the associated decision support tool remain problematic.The paper concludes with a cautionary note, that the recent increase in the numbers of patients qualifying for NHS continuing healthcare funding may be attributable, not to the detail of the framework, but to the Department of Health's rhetoric of change and the additional monies that it has made available to primary care trusts (PCTs) for this sector.

This chapter reviews and integrates the empirical literature on the influence of organizational factors on hospital financial performance. Five categories of organizational characteristics that research has addressed are identified and examined as part of the review: ownership, governance, integration, management strategy, and quality. With some exceptions, our review reveals a general lack of consistency and conclusiveness across studies in each area. Exceptions were found in the areas of governance (e.g., physician participation and board processes) and integration (e.g., horizontal system centralization). Despite the lack of conclusive findings across studies, our review suggests substantial opportunities for future work, including opportunities for qualitative and exploratory work. Additional implications for theory and management are discussed.

The safeguarding and protection components of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 offers the culmination of four years consultation in England and Wales by the Law Commission and many years of evolving policy and practice with a view to protecting adults from harm. The purpose of this paper is to offer both scrutiny and challenge for Wales’ policy makers and practitioners alike.

The paper is a critical analysis of both current responses and forthcoming changes.

The paper proposes that Wales has failed to implement previous recommendations in relation to institutional abuse. Currently in Wales, there are individuals employed in safeguarding lead roles who have no social care qualification. This apparent “loophole” has not to date been highlighted to date by either of the regulatory bodies within Wales (CSSIW/CCfW).

The paper offers a viewpoint but leaves some questions unanswered.

The Williams Review in April 2014 is set to change the local authority landscape in Wales. There is scope for developing the function of adult safeguarding.

Wales’ failure to recognize institutionalized abuse as a distinct category may have had impacted on its ability to respond to abuse in nursing and care as well hospital settings.

The failure to recognize institutional abuse is not the only safeguarding anomaly within Wales’ arrangements for protecting those are risk of abuse. This paper describes gaps in the NHS and of professional accountability.

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an interpretive case study on user participation in the open source software (OSS) development context.

Through an empirical, interpretive case study and a literature review utilising the metaphor of text in the analysis, this paper provides a refined conceptualisation of user participation in OSS development.

The paper reveals that different kinds of meanings have been attached to users and to their participation. User participation is both direct and indirect in the OSS development context. Some user groups actively take part in OSS development, while others are merely represented in it. Different kinds of intermediaries “representing the users” are identified.

The research is based on one case study on a small but active OSS project with an interest in users. Other kinds of OSS projects should be analysed. The analysis was focused on a discussion forum, but users can take part in OSS development by other means as well. Paths for future work should include the gathering of more varied empirical data.

The findings indicate that users can provide feedback to the development through discussion forums in the distributed environment, but there is a need to support the users in doing so and the developers in analysing the data. The importance of different kinds of intermediaries “representing the users” is highlighted.

The paper provides thorough empirical insights and a refined conceptualisation of user participation addressing the currently weakly empirically explored OSS development context.

I. Introduction In their recent pastoral letter, the Catholic bishops of this country have reputedly taken a new approach in rooting their moral imperatives in the Bible. As opposed to the established, official convention of “proof‐texting”, the US bishops focus on certain biblical themes which presumably “speak to” contemporary issues and problems. Chief among these is the so‐called “preferential option for the poor”, which is attributed to both the Old and New Testaments and early Church (Christianity).

The hospital industry is again experiencing a wave of consolidation as formerly independent hospitals are acquired by multihospital systems. The effects of these consolidations on operating costs and care quality have been researched extensively. However, in addition to these benefits, many hospitals also hope that joining a multihospital system will improve their access to capital. Improved access to capital could be a particularly important benefit for independent, not-for-profit (NFP) hospitals because these hospitals face capital constraints since they lack access to publicly issued equity. Despite being an often-cited benefit of system membership, access to capital has received little attention from researchers. We draw on financial theory to identify several mechanisms through which system membership might improve access to capital for acquired NFP hospitals. We develop and test hypotheses using data from an earlier period of hospital consolidation during which hospitals were even more financially constrained than they are at present. Using propensity score matched control hospitals, we examine changes in leverage that occurred after independent hospitals joined multihospital systems. We find evidence that system membership allows under-leveraged hospitals to increase their debt holdings, suggesting that system membership may help NFP hospitals attain an optimal capital structure.

On interest in and need for religion. Notion that it is a form of defeatism, escape from reality, etc. Especially on the attitude of youth toward religion. Youth often mystical, sentimental, romantic, full of uncritical enthusiasm, yet, especially in the modern age, tending to be “irreligious.” Their enthusiasm and buoyant optimism tends to center in themselves rather than in outer “powers” of any sort. It is common (and perhaps healthy?) for youth to believe that “the world is my oyster,” and I will find the way to open it. Tendency toward a different view with advancing years, as one finds out how feeble ones powers really are, and how resistant the material with [which] one has to work in realizing ones big ideas and ideals. Story of President Harper, who said his fortieth birthday was the most melancholy day of his life, the day when he first finally admitted to himself that his life was a failure, that all he would ever get done was quite trivial and irrelevant in comparison with his hopes and plans.

Most of the chapters in this book depict local attempts to transform practices in early childhood education. They represent endeavors to problematize the complexities and challenges facing the field and the ways in which moves are being made in everyday classroom practice, policy, teacher education, and professional development to build a knowledge base that is grounded in empirical data and that reflects the diversity characteristic of a globalized society.

Argues that managers may rely too heavily on cognitively based decision‐making processes in an attempt to appear rational, logical and objective. However, the quality of decision making may be enhanced by also recognizing the legitimacy of an affective dimension of decisions, i.e. an ability to empathize with the feelings of employees, consumers and others affected by decisions. Discusses implications and makes recommendations for nurturing a sensitivity to the affective dimension.