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This paper is based on the research of middle managers in three countries (The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK) in public and private sector organisations. The findings indicate that increasing pressures on managers to perform within a surge of management initiatives and policy moves to make organisations more profitable (in the private sector) and more "efficient" and accountable (in the public sector) invariably lead to contradictions in their performance and perceived roles. In the context of the oxymoron that "they are to do more with less", this will lead to increased stresses and strains on those performing this pivotal operational role. Terminologically, middle managers are becoming increasingly "depowered".

Based on research carried out in three European countries, Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK, the following text highlights the experiences and perceptions of European managers in organisational and managerial contexts. The findings reveal a number of convergent trends manifested through the experiences and consciousness of middle managers. What is specifically highlighted is the transformation of the role of manager in Europe against the background of a multitude of contingent influences; not only in the practices of middle management function but also in the cacophony of the accompanying discourses. It is posited that structured HRM support can considerably aid the middle manager to cope with the contradictory role demanded by this new world of work; and, paradoxically, it is a plea for self managed learning conducted by middle managers themselves within an HRM supportive environment.

BACKGROUND: In the UK, drivers aged 17 to 21 years make up 7% of licence holders but 13% of drivers involved in road traffic crashes resulting in injury. As in many countries, the UK government has proposed to tackle this problem with driver education programmes in schools and colleges. However, there is a concern that if driver education leads to earlier licensing this could increase the number of teenagers involved in road traffic crashes. OBJECTIVES: To quantify the effect of school‐based driver education on licensing and road traffic crashes. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, CIG's specialised register, MEDLINE, National Research Register, and the Science & Social Science Citation Index. We also checked reference lists of identified papers and contacted authors and experts in the field. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials comparing school‐based driver education to no driver education and assessing the effect on licensing and road traffic crash involvement. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors independently screened search results, extracted data and assessed trial quality. MAIN RESULTS: Three trials, conducted between 1982 and 1984, met the inclusion criteria (n=17,965). Two trials examined the effect of driver education on licensing. In the trial by Stock (USA) 87% of students in the driver education group obtained their driving licence as compared to 84.3% in the control group (RR 1.04; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.05). In the trial by Wynne‐Jones (New Zealand) the time from trial enrolment to licensing was 111 days in males receiving driver education compared with 300 days in males who did not receive driver education, and 105 days in females receiving driver education compared with 415 days in females who did not receive driver education. All three trials examined the effect of driver education on road traffic crashes. In the trial by Strang (Australia), 42% of students in each group had one or more crashes since being licensed (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.23). In the trial by Stock, the ...

Efforts to develop empathetic agents, or systems capable of responding appropriately to emotional content, have increased as the deployment of such systems in socially complex scenarios becomes more commonplace. In the context of human-machine communication (HMC), the ability to create the perception of empathy is achieved in large part through linguistic behavior. However, studies of how language is used to display and respond to emotion in ways deemed empathetic are limited. This article aims to address this gap, demonstrating how an interactional linguistics informed methodological approach can be applied to the study of empathy in HMC. We present an analysis of empathetic response strategies in HMC and examine how these diverge from the practices employed in human-human dialogue. The specific challenges encountered by current systems are reviewed and their implications for future work on HMC considered.

Against a backdrop of tensions related to EU membership, we find levels of online abuse toward UK MPs reach a new high. Race and religion have become pressing topics globally, and in the UK this interacts with "Brexit" and the rise of social media to create a complex social climate in which much can be learned about evolving attitudes. In 8 million tweets by and to UK MPs in the first half of 2019, religious intolerance scandals in the UK's two main political parties attracted significant attention. Furthermore, high profile ethnic minority MPs started conversations on Twitter about race and religion, the responses to which provide a valuable source of insight. We found a significant presence for disturbing racial and religious abuse. We also explore metrics relating to abuse patterns, which may affect its impact. We find "burstiness" of abuse doesn't depend on race or gender, but individual factors may lead to politicians having very different experiences online.

Although widely accepted in medicine and health services research, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are often viewed with hostility by social scientists, who cite a variety of reasons as to why this approach to evaluation cannot be used to research social interventions. This article discusses the three central themes in these debates, which are those of science, ethics, and feasibility. The article uses three recent U.K. trials of social interventions (day care for preschool children, social support for disadvantaged families, and peer-led sex education for young people) to consider issues relating to the use of random allocation for social intervention evaluation and to suggest some practical strategies for the successful implementation of "social" RCTs. The article argues that the criteria of science, ethics, and feasibility can and should apply to social intervention trials in just the same way as they do to clinical trials.

Although widely accepted in medicine & health vices research, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are often viewed with hostility by social scientists, who cite a variety of reasons as to why this approach to evaluation cannot be used to research social interventions. This article discusses the three central themes in these debates, which are those of science, ethics, & feasibility. The article uses three recent U.K. trials of social interventions (day care for preschool children, social support for disadvantaged families, & peer-led sex education for young people) to consider issues relating to the use of random allocation for social intervention evaluation & to suggest some practical strategies for the successful implementation of "social" RCTs. The article argues that the criteria of science, ethics, & feasibility can & should apply to social intervention trials in just the same way as they do to clinical trials. [Copyright 2003 Sage Publications, Inc.]

We extend previous work about general election-related abuse of UK MPs with two new time periods, one in late 2018 and the other in early 2019, allowing previous observations to be extended to new data and the impact of key stages in the UK withdrawal from the European Union on patterns of abuse to be explored. The topics that draw abuse evolve over the four time periods are reviewed, with topics relevant to the Brexit debate and campaign tone showing a varying pattern as events unfold, and a suggestion of a "bubble" of topics emphasized in the run-up to the highly Brexit-focused 2017 general election. Brexit stance shows a variable relationship with abuse received. We find, as previously, that in quantitative terms, Conservatives and male politicians receive more abuse. Gender difference remains significant even when accounting for prominence, as gauged from Google Trends data, but prominence, or other factors related to being in power, as well as gender, likely account for the difference associated with party membership. No clear relationship between ethnicity and abuse is found in what remains a very small sample (BAME and mixed heritage MPs). Differences are found in the choice of abuse terms levelled at female vs. male MPs.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption has been linked with injuries through motor vehicle crashes, falls, drowning, fires and burns, and violence. In the US, half of the estimated 100,000 deaths attributed to alcohol each year are due to intentional and unintentional injuries. The identification of effective interventions for the reduction of unintentional and intentional injuries due to problem drinking is, therefore, an important public health goal. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of interventions for problem drinking on subsequent injury risk. SEARCH METHODS: We searched 12 twelve computerized databases: MEDLINE (1966 to 2002), EMBASE (1982 to 2002), CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2002, Issue 2), PsycINFO (1967 to 2002), CINAHL (1982 to10/96), ERIC (1966 to12/96), Dissertation Abstracts International (1861 to11/96), IBSS (1961 to 2002), ISTP (1982 to 2002) and three specialized transportation databases (Transport 1988 to 2002/03). Bibliographies of relevant trials were searched and authors were contacted. Government agencies were also contacted for further information and grey literature. Most of the electronic and bibliographic database searches were last run in May 2002. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials of interventions among participants with problem drinking, which are intended to reduce alcohol consumption or to prevent injuries or their antecedents, and which measured injury‐related outcomes. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors extracted data on participants, interventions, follow‐up, allocation concealment, and outcomes, and independently rated allocation concealment quality. MAIN RESULTS: Of 23 eligible trials identified, 22 had been completed and 17 provided results for relevant outcomes. Completed trials comparing interventions for problem drinking to no intervention reported reduced motor‐vehicle crashes and related injuries, falls, suicide attempts, domestic violence, assaults and child abuse, alcohol‐related injuries and injury emergency visits, hospitalizations and deaths. ...

The absence of reliable access to clean energy and the services it provides imposes a large disease burden on low-income populations and impedes prospects for development. Furthermore, current patterns of fossil-fuel use cause substantial ill-health from