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Article
Publication date: 1 December 1996

Mark Pilling and Tom Walley

Points out that the Department of Health’s Executive Letter: EL(95)5 moved the finance of high technology treatment provided at home for chronically ill patients from the NHS…

446

Abstract

Points out that the Department of Health’s Executive Letter: EL(95)5 moved the finance of high technology treatment provided at home for chronically ill patients from the NHS prescribing budget onto a defined and consistent framework. The aim was to obtain better value for money by encouraging competition between potential homecare providers. Reports on a survey of prescribing advisers of purchasing health authorities, which focused on their response to these developments, and discusses the issues identified by purchasers in their implementation of EL(95)5. Notes that, although most purchasers chose to contract directly with a single commercial homecare organization in 1995‐1996, there was no consensus about where contracts should be placed in the future, and that the purchasers identified inefficiencies in contracting for such care. Discusses methods of improving the purchasers’ response to contracting.

Details

Journal of Management in Medicine, vol. 10 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-9235

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1996

Mark Pilling and Tom Walley

High‐technology treatments such as total parenteral nutrition or intravenous antibiotics may increasingly be provided to patients at home. In the past, these services have been…

1460

Abstract

High‐technology treatments such as total parenteral nutrition or intravenous antibiotics may increasingly be provided to patients at home. In the past, these services have been funded by the NHS prescribing budget. The aim of the Department of Health’s Executive letter EL(95)5, Purchasing High Tech Healthcare for Patients at Home was to ensure that contracts placed by health authority purchasers maintain effective patient services and obtain better value for money by encouraging competition between potential homecare providers. Examines contracting for high‐tech health care for patients at home and suggests that efficiency could be improved when contracting with commercial home‐care organizations by lead purchasing arrangements. In the long‐term, contracting with NHS tertiary centres is most likely to ensure continuity of care and appropriate clinical monitoring of patients.

Details

Journal of Management in Medicine, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-9235

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 February 2007

Elizabeth Tran and Barbara Demmig‐Adams

The purpose of this review is to summarize the available literature on the effect of vitamin and mineral supplements, especially in doses exceeding recommended daily allowances.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this review is to summarize the available literature on the effect of vitamin and mineral supplements, especially in doses exceeding recommended daily allowances.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive search and analysis of original, peer‐reviewed literature on supplementation studies was conducted.

Findings

High doses of vitamins and minerals can be harmful instead of beneficial. Supplementation of vitamins and minerals, in general, may be most beneficial, and perhaps only beneficial, to individuals with a nutrient‐deficient diet. Consumers thus need to be weary of the safety and efficacy of their supplements. While vitamins and minerals are vital to life, the optimal doses of each required nutrient are currently not known.

Research limitations/implications

Lack of standardization between studies makes it difficult to compare the results from different studies.Practical implications – Based on this review, a recommendation can be made to avoid high dose supplements and obtain vitamins from foods to the greatest extent possible.Originality/value – This review is unique in its comprehensive nature that allows the identification of common underlying problems with the supplementation of different groups of vitamins.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 September 2022

Nayantara Sheoran Appleton

Hormonal contraceptives are complicated reproductive technologies – both biologically and socially. Deeply embedded in global political-economic agendas and historically…

Abstract

Hormonal contraceptives are complicated reproductive technologies – both biologically and socially. Deeply embedded in global political-economic agendas and historically underpinned by eugenic movements, hormonal contraceptives have a social life often beyond their intended or imagined uses. Because so much of the discussion around contraceptives focuses on their complex history and volatile present, there has been minimal space to talk about the future of hormonal contraceptives. In this chapter I show that while the past and present are complex, the future is even more so!

As the threat of climate change becomes more palpable, two key anxieties (re)surface. First, a fear around growing populations in the Global South (while in reality Total Fertility Rate (TFRs) are in decline) and second, that of a hormonal body out of sync in the face of environmental changes. Similar anxieties have historically mobilised draconian ‘family planning’ measures in countries (like India) in the first instance. And in the second instance, hormonal manipulations to find ‘balance’ in the body, as opposed to balancing (or coming to a reckoning with) contemporary environments with/in which the body exists.

This chapter is an attempt to bring to the fore the importance of studying hormonal contraceptives in environmentally unstable times. To imagine a space beyond coercion or ‘choice’ as variously imagined, when it comes to reproductive justice vis-à-vis hormonal contraception. I suggest that, just as contraceptives have allowed us access to conversations about both women's autonomy and reproductive control, they now allow us to unpack the limits and potentials of hormonal management via the hormonal contraceptive pill.

Details

Technologies of Reproduction Across the Lifecourse
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-733-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2009

Jocelyn D. Evans, Mark K. Pyles and Hyuntai Choo

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of large equity ownership by both institutions and outside block shareholders in monitoring the board of directors’ decision to…

1727

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of large equity ownership by both institutions and outside block shareholders in monitoring the board of directors’ decision to initially adopt defense mechanisms and the subsequent capital market reaction to the adoption.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper employs an empirical methodology that controls for selection bias. Multiple regressions were employed to assess the relationship among the variables.

Findings

Stockholder wealth effects of poison pills are positively related to pressure‐resistant institutions, which is consistent with effective monitoring. The wealth effects of poison pills, however, are negatively related to pressure‐sensitive investors, consistent with passivity. No empirical relation was found between ownership structure and shareholder approved amendments such as classified boards and fair price amendments.

Research limitations/implications

This study was conducted as a large sample analysis over an earlier time period that was more applicable for evaluating anti‐takeover techniques.

Practical implications

The results are consistent with pressure‐resistant institutions actively monitoring to prevent unilaterally implemented defense mechanisms of all types, whereas pressure‐sensitive institutions appear to more readily accept poison pills.

Originality/value

These results suggest that failing to control for the type of outside investor may not clearly portray documented relations in other corporate governance studies.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2009

Zoë Smith, Karenza Moore and Fiona Measham

Commonly known as ecstasy, MDMA has been central to the British acid house, rave and dance club scene over the last 20 years. Figures from the annual national British Crime Survey…

Abstract

Commonly known as ecstasy, MDMA has been central to the British acid house, rave and dance club scene over the last 20 years. Figures from the annual national British Crime Survey suggest that ecstasy use has declined since 2001. This apparent decline is considered here alongside the concurrent emergence of a ‘new’ form of ecstasy ‐ MDMA powder or crystal ‐ and the extent to which this can be seen as a successful rebranding of MDMA as a ‘premium’ product in the wake of user disenchantment with cheap and easily available but poor quality pills. These changes have occurred within a policy context, which in the last decade has increasingly prioritised the drugs‐crime relationship through coercive treatment of problem drug users within criminal justice‐based interventions, alongside a focus on binge drinking and alcohol‐related harm. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the information, support and treatment available to ecstasy users since the height of dance drug harm reduction service provision pioneered by the Safer Dancing model in the mid‐1990s.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 April 2018

Shengqi Guan, Wensen Li, Jie Wang and Ming Lei

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new objective evaluation method of fabric pilling using data-driven visual attention model.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new objective evaluation method of fabric pilling using data-driven visual attention model.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the multi-scale filtering images are formed by Gaussian pyramid decomposition. Second, center-surround differences algorithm is used between multi-scale filtering images to build saliency map. On this basis, the pilling information is segmented from saliency map by the segmentation threshold. Finally, the pilling is objectively evaluated by extracting pilling feature. Experimental result shows that compared with the traditional detection methods, the proposed objective evaluation method has strong anti-interference ability, and correct classification rate (CCR) is 96 percent.

Findings

Fabric pilling saliency can be effectively improved by data-driven visual attention model, which will lead to stronger anti-interference ability and higher correct classification rate.

Originality/value

To void uneven illumination, noise, and texture interference, the proposed method can enhance the saliency of small targets in saliency map using a bottom-up visual attention model. Through the threshold segmentation according to pilling feature, the pilling information is effectively from the fabric texture. Pilling feature about pilling area density is extracted to pilling grade evaluation.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1947

When a community of fifty thousand people have all their eggs in two baskets and one is dropped it is a serious matter, not only for the industry concerned but for all who live…

Abstract

When a community of fifty thousand people have all their eggs in two baskets and one is dropped it is a serious matter, not only for the industry concerned but for all who live upon it indirectly. Especially is this so when geographical isolation makes it impossible for the worker to transfer to other employment when his job fails. Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, has experienced the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune on several occasions since liberation from German thraldom revived both hope and opportunity to make up the loss and deprivations of those five weary years. It has not been all plain sailing. In addition to starved soil, depreciated and often ruined buildings, and other drawbacks experienced in common with agriculturalists in other countries, Jersey has had her own problems, chief of which has been the Colorado Beetle. A legacy of German neglect, this pest had established itself so widely on the island that the first crop of potatoes raised after Liberation was not safe to be imported to England, and was therefore sold to France. This was unsatisfactory from a financial point of view, and so the following year the crop was taken up by the Army of Occupation on the Rhine. By the season of 1947 sufficient progress had been made in the elimination of the beetle to allow crops from unaffected areas to enter England, and once again normal trading, in so far as controls of all kinds would permit, was resumed. Jersey is a two‐crop island and potatoes must be succeeded by tomatoes if the highly‐priced land is to be made to pay for itself. So while the first of these crops was just paying its way, the second was expected to clear costs and to make the farmer or grower his profit. When it looked as though this might be possible this season the islanders came up against another, and quite unexpected, snag—too much fine weather. It may sound ungrateful to say this, in view of the many thousands of visitors which the continued sunshine brought to the island, and actually the farmer was glad enough to have the fine dry days in which to get his work done. But it reacted against him by bringing on his fruit too early and all at once, which meant that it arrived upon the market when there were still quantities of Guernsey and English glasshouse tomatoes as well as Dutch and other foreign‐grown available, and Jersey shipments were so heavy that they caused a glut. Where a grower is situated near an industrial or residential area he has the opportunity in such circumstances of disposing of at least part of his fruit as it ripens, by retail or direct sale, even if only to passers‐by. But on an island where three‐quarters of the population is engaged in growing tomatoes or in handling them in some way, everyone is soon sick of the sight of them and it is impossible to give them away if a glut occurs. That happened this summer when on two occasions of several days each it was necessary for the authorities to prohibit picking the fruit. The island crop must be gathered when it is first turning from green to yellow in order to allow it to ripen during the process of grading, packing and transit by sea and rail to the wholesale distributors, and thence via the retailer to the ultimate consumer. Therefore, when the position arose that the distributors could handle no more of the 12 lb. trays and the order went out that no more fruit should be picked there were many thousands of these containers en route between the farmsteads and the ships which awaited them at the quayside. All this fruit became useless within a matter of hours, and the only thing to do with it would have been to drive to a disused quarry or to the seashore and dump the lot, had it not been for the local canning factory. Jersey Canners Ltd. has been in existence from the early days of this century, but were not in a position to handle a great deal of produce until this year, when they were taken under the wing of the National Canning Co. Ltd., with Mr. S. W. Smedley in control. A great deal of this surplus was therefore taken over by this factory and converted into puree and sauce, as well as being canned whole. The development and processing of the fruit in this way is a story of its own, but perhaps the most interesting feature of this factory's work is that of the preparation of tomato juice on a commercial scale. This latter process, as apart from the more usual methods of dealing with the tomatoes, was due to the foresight of Mr. Smedley, who early this year visualised the possibilities of utilising any surplus crop and thus, when the position arose, was able to put upon the market the first tins of pure tomato juice ever to have been produced commercially outside of the U.S.A. To do this it was necessary to install an American pre‐heating vacuum pasteurising machine, but all other necessary mechanical appliances are British. These consist of endless belting, elevator, seamer, rotary cooker and cooler, and labelling machines. On arrival at the factory the fruit is conveyed from the lorries by roller belt to the elevator leading to the rotary washing machines. After thorough cleansing it passes on to a sorting belt, where diseased and immature samples are discarded and the remainder are stemmed by a small staff of women. The fruit is then fed automatically to the chopping machine and after treatment it experiences its first heating in the pasteuriser. This prepares it for the actual juice extraction, which is carried out in a machine which discards the cores, skins and seeds, and pumps the pure juice back into the pre‐heater, where it is pasteurised at a temperature of 180 degrees. After passing through this process the juice flows to the automatic filling machine, which handles 60 cans per minute, and so to the seamer, where the lids are sealed down before the cans pass into the cooker. This is an automatic rotary machine which ejects the cans after 15 minutes at a temperature, of 212 degrees. They are then cooled off for ten minutes in a cold water tank and set aside for labelling. The purely mechanical processes here described appear to make the preparation of tomato juice a simple matter. Actually, however, it is one requiring much investigation into the problems of fermentation, colouring, etc., beforehand, and careful attention to temperatures and timing of the various processes while in operation. Cooking of the juice is effected by steam with the cans in a vacuum, this process conserving the vitamin contents and the natural colouring of the juice, two most important features which would be sacrificed if the liquid was exposed to the light at a high temperature. The plant at present installed at Messrs. Jersey Canners Ltd. is capable of handling up to four tons of fruit per hour and has been turning out about 30,000 cases of assorted 16 oz. and 32 oz. cans per month during the height of the rush period. At that time the factory was working right round the clock with the aid of volunteer workers, many of whom put in time at night after their own day's work, in order to save as much as possible of the crop that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 49 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2018

Travis L. Jones and Marcus T. Allen

The purpose of this paper is to focus on issues of corporate control around the announcement of the decision of Hertz Global Holdings to relocate its corporate headquarters from…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on issues of corporate control around the announcement of the decision of Hertz Global Holdings to relocate its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Florida in 2013. The relocation decision and accounting irregularities discovered after the announcement raised interest from activist investors. The firm responded by enacting a “poison pill,” but control was eventually wrestled away and the CEO was replaced. Examining these events gives students insights into corporate control issues facing a major US corporation.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study presents a history of the firm from its founding in 1918 through 2017, with an emphasis on key events from 2012 through 2017. These events include acquisition of a competing firm (Dollar Thrifty), relocation of corporate headquarters, accounting irregularities, restatement of financials, activist investor responses, issuance of a “poison pill,” and turnover in the CEO position.

Findings

The case is intentionally written to “tell the story” of events that relate to issues involving control of the company around the decision to relocate its corporate headquarters. The case highlights potential agency problems between management and shareholders and the market’s response to those problems.

Originality/value

No prior case study considers the topic of corporate control from the perspective of Hertz Global Holdings. This case study can be used by instructors in graduate and undergraduate courses to examine corporate control issues from a “real world” perspective.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 44 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1963

One of Her Britannic Majesty's Ministers hanging about outside the Council Chamber while it is deliberated within whether or not Britain is to be admitted to the not so Common…

Abstract

One of Her Britannic Majesty's Ministers hanging about outside the Council Chamber while it is deliberated within whether or not Britain is to be admitted to the not so Common Market must present a picture never‐to‐be‐forgotten. Public officers, of course, are accus‐tomed to this when attending selection interviews for appointments, but such experiences invariably make us feel a little like “poor relations.” The controversy of whether we are “in” or “out” then is settled—and we must be under no delusions—for a very long time. As we see it, the French want the densely populated area of Western Europe as an agricultural market for themselves alone. They appeared to be willing to let Denmark in, but they have no intention of letting Britain in to bring the vast Commonwealth agricultural exports with them, via the back door, so to speak. That is the position now and even when “all the kings depart”, it will not change.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 65 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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