Suchergebnisse

Since 2003, the Australian government has funded a conjugate serogroup C meningococcal vaccine for those aged over 1 year and born since 1 January 1984. This summary of the epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in Queensland assesses the effect that the vaccination program has had on IMD notifications. In Queensland, IMD cases are notified to the Notifiable Conditions System by clinicians and laboratories. Additional surveillance data are collected by population health units from relatives of the case, the case and medical practitioners. In 2005, Queensland recorded its lowest number of cases and lowest incidence of IMD since statewide surveillance began. This remained low in 2006. The serogroup C rate in Queensland also declined to its lowest in 2006. The pattern of age specific incidence remains similar, though rates are lower in all but those aged less than 12 months. However, Indigenous rates are still twice non-Indigenous rates. The case fatality rate for IMD (all serogroups) has declined, possibly due to the reduced incidence of serogroup C and septicaemia cases. The program appears to have mostly achieved its aims of: reducing illness and death in the population at highest risk; inducing immunity in those who are vaccinated; and reducing the incidence of disease. However, there is considerable natural fluctuation in the rates of IMD and continued surveillance will be needed to monitor trends.

South Korea and Taiwan are often cited as successful cases of third-wave democracies where democracy has taken roots. However, electoral volatility is high and disenchantment among citizens is rising, especially regarding the performance of politicians and political parties. Since political parties play a vital role in the democratic process their institutionalization is seen as an indicator of democratic consolidation. An analysis of Taiwanese and South Korean parties in terms of age, organization and structure, as well as programs and leadership style of parties indicates that parties are weakly institutionalized. The Korean party system is a weak point in democratic deepening, as it is reminiscent of a carousel of party creations, mergers and dissolutions. Parties lack distinguishing ideological or programmatic markers and remain cadre parties, focusing on their charismatic leader and their home regions. In Taiwan, in contrast, aclear cleavage in the form of Taiwanese identity led to the appearance of two distinct political camps, each consisting of several parties. Taiwanese parties have progressed in their institutionalization in terms of longevity, organization and programmatic differences. However, membership numbers and party identification remain low and regular corruption scandals show the slow attitudinal change among Taiwanese politicians. In the light of politicians' behavior, citizens in both countries thus are feeling increasingly disenchanted with the ruling elite as well as the democratic system.

The theme of ICIS 2013 in Milan is "Reshaping Society through Information Systems" (http://icis2013.aisnet.org/). One aspect of reshaping society that has been recently discussed in central Europe is that of social inclusion (http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=750&langId=en). Yet, after decades of research and ambitious political programs, we still observe an imbalanced treatment toward groups of different gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and social background. Such an issue raises questions about the degree to which information systems can help to overcome such imbalance; for instance, if design principles can be formalized in order to reshape the information systems design into a different, more-inclusive direction. We contend that IS falls short in tackling this issue. In this panel, Shirley Gregor, Fred Niederman, Eileen Trauth, and Cathy Urquhart reflect on the multiple aspects of social inclusion in the design and the resulting shape of Information Systems. This panel intends to deliver more in-depth results than merely advocating a stance for more diversity in the IS workforce. Building on the principles of Design Science, we believe that our discipline can help reshape the digital economy. As a key takeaway, the panel provides guidance on the impact of gender in IS theorizing as a demonstration example, and reflect on the trend towards Social Design in the IS research community.

We consider a political economy model in which agents have the possibility to hide part of their earnings in order to avoid taxation. Taxation is exclusively used to finance a pension system. If the pension system is implemented, agents in their old age receive a benefit which includes both a Bismarkian and a Beveridgian component. We show that in the absence of compliance costs, agents are indifferent to the tax rate level as in response, they can perfectly adapt their level of compliance. The public pension system is found to be at least partially contributory in order to increase compliance and thus to increase the tax base. When compliance costs are introduced, perfect substitutability between compliance and taxation breaks down. Depending on the relative returns from public pensions and private savings as well as on the elasticity of compliance to income, we obtain that the preferred tax rate should be increasing or decreasing in income. The majority voting tax rate is more likely to be positive when the median income is low and when the return from public pensions dominates that of private savings. The level of the Bismarkian pillar will now be chosen so as to account for increased political support, for increased direct redistribution toward the worst-off agent, and increased tax base.

The article deals with realization peculiarities of woman's figure in Bulat Okudzhava's poetry, who is known as one of the greatest representatives of «men of the sixties». The analysis shows that female images have substantial representation in poet's works, who takes into account woman's age (a little girl, a girl, a woman, an old woman) as well as her interfamilial and marital status (a mother, a daughter, a sister, a bride, a wife, a widow). In poems on military topics the greater attention is given to images of the mother, the wife and the widow. In poetic texts written in the form of apostrophe to a woman the onymization of the appellative (Woman) together with the use of the capital letter in pronoun ―You‖ is observed. The cases of anthropomorphize and granting nature-made (or other) objects with distinctive appearance attributes of a woman are noted. The results of analysis of poetic texts make possible to assert that the poet combines planes of life and existence, mortal and heavenly, physical and spiritual in woman's figure. Spiritual or even divine female image of Okudzhava's poems preserves particular mortal features, although, there is no doubt that the eternal, the ―above-living‖ and the sacred have a higher position in poet's value hierarchy.

The law does not determine between legal competency and actual competency of minors in medical issues. The objective of this paper is to put forward proposals to amend the legislation to redefine legal competency on the base that understanding should have more bearing than age. The English landmark case of Gillick is used to analyse the Maltese situation. The Maltese legislation was examined and it resulted that there is no legal definition of what competency is. Various legislations use different ages to define competency. The Genito-Urinary (GU) Clinic was even given permission to assess a minor's competency itself and if it is determined by the medical professional that the minor is competent then such minor will be treated without the need for parental consent. To substantiate the claim, in 2009 the researcher carried out empirical research using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Questionnaires were given to children aged between 6 and 18. Structured and semistructured interviews were used to interview legal and medical professionals involved in the field. By triangulating the results the conclusion reached is that that minors do seek treatment without parental consent and that there are medical professionals who already treat minors without parental consent. There is the need for legal reforms to substantiate the reality of actual competency of minors. ; peer-reviewed

Aim: Children represent the future, and ensuring their healthy growth and development should be a prime concern of all societies. Better health for all childrenis one of the leading objectives of the National Plan of Action for Children and a keyelement of the tailored Millennium Development Goals for Serbia.Methods: Our analysis was based on relevant literature and available information from the primary and secondary sources and databases. We analyzed health status of children that can be illustrated by indicators of child and infant mortality, morbidity,and nutritional status.Results: There has been a significant reduction in the mortality rates at the nationallevel, particularly with regard to infants and children under five years of age. However, the current mortality rate of Roma children is still three times as high as the Millennium Goal set at the national level for Serbia. Most deaths of children under theage of five are due to preterm birth complications, congenital anomalies, birthasphyxia and trauma, pneumonia and sepsis. The rate of malnourished childrenamong the poor and in Roma settlements is twice as high as in the general population of Serbian children. A growing number of obese children was also noted in the Roma population.Conclusion: Political awareness, commitment and leadership are required to ensurethat child health receives receive the attention and the resources needed to accelerate the progress of Serbia.

In the Statesman myth (268d-274e) elements of Platonic cosmology, theology, and anthropology can be found. These elements, although presented in a mythological narrative, are not only not in contradiction with Plato's direct formulations, but also help in the understanding and interpreting of them. This paper aims to show that: a) cosmic time in the age of Zeus is under divine government; b) this divine government does not exclude but requires human autonomy; c) the inclusion of human action in the cosmic context is essential to understanding the meaning and reach of human autonomy; d)Plato's description of the cosmos is crucial to understanding his ethicalpolitical preoccupations. ; No mito do Político (268d-274e) há elementos da cosmologia, da teologia e da antropologia de Platão. Apresentados em narração mitológica, esses elementos não só não estão em contradição com as perspectivas formuladas em contextos argumentativos, mas ajudam a compreendê-las e interpretálas. Esta comunicação quer mostrar: a) o tempo do mundo na era de Zeus está sob governo de deus; b) o governo de deus não exclui, mas exige a autonomia humana; c) a inserção da ação humana no contexto cósmico é fundamental para o sentido e alcance da autonomia humana; d) a descrição platônica do cosmo é crucial para a compreensão de suas preocupações ético-políticas.

Most smokers start young. Initiation of cigarette smoking at an earlier age leads to more life-years for tobacco use, makes quitting harder, and increases the risk of serious health consequences. Despite these challenges, research focusing on smoking behavior among adolescent boys in Taiwan is rare. Although the Taiwanese government enacted the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act in 2009, aimed at prevention and reducing the rate of smoking, the percentage of high school students who smoke has continued to increase. In 2006, 7.5% of adolescent boys engaged in smoking. By 2012 the rate had increased to 24.6%. This paper explores the experiences that contribute to adolescent Taiwanese boys making the decision to smoke. A phenomenological approach to inquiry was used as the philosophical foundations for this study with twelve adolescent boys who engaged in smoking behaviors. Data was gathered through two face-to-face semi-structured interviews and a focus group. Data analysis was performed using Colaizzi's analysis method. Findings indicated that decisions to begin smoking were motivated by curiosity and as a means of establishing friendships while decisions to continue smoking were linked to the addictive nature of smoking and as a means of coping with stress and passing the time. The findings can be used to inform the prevention of tobacco use and to reduce the high smoking rates among adolescent boys.

This study examined the determinant of gross margin in vegetable production, a case study of Iwo Zone of Osun state of Agricultural Development Programme (ASDP). Data were collected by administering 120 questionnaires to vegetable farmers selected through multistage sampling procedure. The data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of the findings revealed that majority (60.0) of the vegetable farmers were between the ages of 46-50 years. The mean age was 46 years. Majority (84.17%) of the farmers were married and 73.3% of the vegetable farmers had no formal education which was a major problem that compounded their gross margin. Most of the farmers (45.83%) procured their input from OSSADEP and less than half (39.17%) of the farmers got their farming land on rent. The study further revealed that the labour cost, cost of fertilizer, cost of seed were the main determinants of the gross margin in vegetable production which were significant at 10% and 1% levels of significance respectively. In the light of all this, it was recommended that formal education should be provided to the farmers informally to serve as motivation to them, in adopting improved farming practices and the government should provide highly subsidized equipment to the farmers at low cost to reduce their labour cost.

While the model of public service television that focuses on audiences has been traditionally criticised for being more akin to the commercial television model than to the public service broadcasting model, contemporary literature points out that in the age of digitisation and convergence audience participation is precisely a key element of public television (Castro, 2012; Doyle, 2010; Kjus, 2009; Bardoel, 2007). This article examines audience participation in Spanish regional public service television and, particularly, tries to determine two questions: 1) whether the variety of participation channels provided by crossmedia productions –a TV show's website, discussion forums and Twitter and Facebook accounts– increases effective audience participation; and 2) whether this participation can be said to contribute to the fulfilment of the mission of public service television, especially proximity television. Method. The study first provides a review of the literature on audience participation and the forms of participation promoted by European, national and regional policies. The TV show La noche de…, broadcast by the Spanish network ETB 2, is subsequently analysed based on the results of the literature review. Results: The increasing attention paid to audience participation in the European and Spanish literature and legislations is not proportionally reflected on the reality of public service television, and particularly of regional public service television corporations.

This paper provides new empirical insights on the joint distribution of consumption, income, and wealth in three of the poorest countries in the world — Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda — all located in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The first finding is that while income inequality is similar to that of the United States (US), wealth inequality is barely one-third that of the US. Similarly, while the top of the income distribution (1 and 10 percent) earns a similar share of total income in SSA as in the US, the share of total wealth accumulated by the income-rich in SSA is one-fifth of its US counterpart. The main contributions of the paper are to document: (i) this dwarfed transmission from income to wealth, which suggests that SSA households face a larger inability to save and accumulate wealth compared with US households; and (ii) a lower transmission from income to consumption inequality, which suggests the presence of powerful institutions that favor consumption insurance to the detriment of saving. These features are more relevant for rural areas, which represent roughly four-fifths of the total population. The paper identifies the few successful pockets of the SSA population that are able to accumulate wealth by exploring sources of inequality such as age, education, migration, borrowing ability, and societal systems.

'Teacher' is among the most influential variables in educational achievements, and 'actions' of a teacher are powerful indicators of this influence. Since the actions are assumed to be the reflections of certain cognitions, 'teacher cognition becomes a significant variable to study in educational research. In this sense, this quantitative study aims to investigate EFL instructors' language learning cognitions regarding linguistic aptitude, priorities in language learning, and good language learners as well as to identify factors influencing those cognitions. The participants consisted of 606 EFL instructors teaching in 15 different higher education institutions in Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected through a cross-sectional inventory and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive results indicated that the participants tended to adopt an interactionist perspective emphasizing the significance of the environment around individuals learning a language; a performance-oriented approach focusing on real-life functions of language skills and areas; and a slight orientation to legislative learners who can create their own rules and decide on their own priorities. The inferential analyses revealed that the participants' cognitions on certain aspects differed in relation to age, teaching experience, and academic background. The findings obtained from this study offer implications for teachers as well as other stakeholders in the contexts of both pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Since 1989-1990, Vlibank is the Flemish AT information database managed by the Flemish government and aims to have a complete overview of AT devices in Flanders. The growing AT market increases the need for unbiased information on AT. However, maintaining and keeping a database up-to-date is a very challenging task. Because of recent changes in policy, the Flemish government needs to be able to reimburse a bigger group of AT devices, but also the changing needs of a larger group of people, regardless of their age. Because the crucial role of an AT information database in the selection of AT devices and the effectiveness of the service delivery, a functional analysis of an online information database is made. This paper describes the qualitative part of the study, in particular the focus groups that were held to gather views of three groups of stakeholders. Preliminary results indicate that there is consensus on the information needs next to product information and on the use of generic questions as a selection tool for AT devices. The biggest issue raised is the difficulty of keeping an information database up-to-date, especially for individualized devices. All participants, except one, are very wary of the use of user ratings and reviews.

Los ensayos clínicos son imprescindibles para disponer de medicamentos que ayuden a nuestra curación. En muchos casos es imprescindible llevarlos a cabo con menores para lograr medicamentos seguros y ef icaces para ese grupo de población. Existen muchas normas que regulan la participación de los menores en esos ensayos, tratando de conciliar la necesidad de investigar con la proteger el bienestar de los niños. Este trabajo trata de ofrecer una interpretación coherente de la confusa regulación española sobre la materia. El criterio general consiste en exigir tanto el consentimiento de los padres (o representantes legales) y el asentimiento de los niños hasta que alcancen la mayoría de edad legal. ; Clinical trials are essential to obtain effective medicines to f ight our illnesses. Clinical trials with children are needed many times in order to have secure and effective medicines for this group of population. There are a lot of rulings about children participation in clinical trials, which try to integrate research for medicines with protection of children's welfare. This paper proposes a coherent interpretation of the Spanish confuse regulation on this matter. As a general principle, it requires not only the informed consent of the parents (or legal representatives) but also the children's assent until they arrive to the age of legal competence.