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This paper analyses how a state produces new internal borders. It selected 1668 newspaper articles on the COVID-19 internal bordering case in Slovakia to answer this question. These articles were then analysed using the thematic trajectory analysis (TTA) through the conceptual prism of structurationism. The results suggest states apply methods during the production of internal borders similar to those used during the (re-)production of an international border. In particular, it shows the application of a military-testing nexus and economic tools to ensure compliance with the new border. Results also revealed that such a border is heavily dependent on popular support for the government and open to re-negotiations by relevant societal groups. From the border production perspective, this study offers a preliminary step into the area of internal borders imposed on a generally homogenous population, especially regarding the borders produced under COVID-19 conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on the impact both of production and transportation from changes in taxation or costs of inputs in the United States paper industry. Background of paper production; Analysis of possible variations in tax policies; Comparison of results from scenario analysis; Discussion and conclusions.

Globally there is a shortage of organs available for transplant resulting in thousands of lives lost as a result. Recently in the United Kingdom 457 people died as a result of organ shortage in just 1 year. 1 NHS Blood and Transplant suggest national debates to test public attitudes to radical actions to increase organ donation should be considered in addressing organ shortage. The selling of organs for transplant in the United Kingdom is prohibited under the Human Tissue Act 2004. This discussion paper considers five ethical objections raised in the United Kingdom to paid donation and discusses how these objections are addressed within the only legal and regulated paid living unrelated renal donation programme in the world in Iran, where its kidney transplant list was eliminated within 2 years of its commencement. This article discusses whether paid living unrelated donation in Iran increases riskier donations and reduced altruistic donation as opponents of paid donation claim. The paper debates whether objections to paid donation based upon commodification arguments only oppose enabling financial ends, even if these ends enable beneficent acts. Discussions in relation to whether valid consent can be given by the donor will take place and will also debate the objection that donors will be coerced and exploited by a paid model. This article suggests that exploitation of the paid donor within the Iranian model exists within the legally permitted framework. However, paid living kidney donation should be discussed further and other models of paid donation considered in the United Kingdom as a radical means of increasing donation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the feasibility of district heating in a small town adjacent to a Kraft pulp mill in eastern Canada. A detailed heat demand analysis is performed for all buildings using a geographical information system and archived data provided by the municipality. The study shows that the entire space heating requirement of the town can be supplied by steam from the mill, even during exceptional peak demands. A screening test based on load density indicators, however reveals that a district heating serving the entire town would probably not be economically viable. An economic analysis of partial districts show that a district covering about half of the town can be economically viable with a proper balance between the price of the steam sold by the mill to the district opera- tor and the cost of the energy sold to customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces papers published within the issue which were presented at the 6th Annual Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) in Amherst, Massachusetts in May 2011, including one on state-owned enterprises (SOE) in China, another on the implications of the need to prevent major climate change for the developmental strategies of China and India and a paper on the influence of neoliberalism on the reform of emergency services in Great Britain.

This article examines how technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation has flourished within the laissez faire regulatory frameworks of neoliberalism, and argues that political economy should play a more central role in theorising about child sexual abuse. Drawing on the case study of Omegle, a livestreaming website that matches strangers via webcam, the paper illustrates how deregulatory trends have produced an alignment between the sexual interests of child sexual abusers and the economic interests of some online service providers. The paper suggests that intersecting political ideologies and economic structures have increased opportunities for child sexual exploitation and decreased formal and informal controls, while recruiting paedophilic desires and exploitative subjectivities within processes of capital accumulation. The paper explores the implications of political economy for theories of child sex offending, which have typically focused on the psychological, social and legal dimensions of child sexual abuse while overlooking the role of capitalist structures and imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Open Science' advocates for open access to scientific research, as well as sharing data, analysis plans and code in order to enable replication of results. However, these requirements typically fail to account for methodological differences between quantitative and qualitative research, and serious ethical problems are raised by the suggestion that full qualitative datasets can or should be published alongside qualitative research papers. Aside from important ethical concerns, the idea of sharing qualitative data in order to enable replication is conceptually at odds with the underpinnings on most qualitative methodologies, which highlight the importance of the unique interpretative function of the researcher. The question of whether secondary analysis of qualitative data is acceptable is key, and in this commentary we argue that there are good conceptual, ethical and economic reasons to consider how funders, researchers and publishers can make better use of existing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By combining financial and macroeconomic factors with machine learning techniques, this research paper proposes a novel method for forecasting oil price movements in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Traditional methods generally struggle to capture the complex dynamics and nonlinear linkages in the oil market, which makes accurate oil price forecasting vital for decision-making in numerous sectors. In this paper, we offer a machine learning framework that leverages financial elements like stock market indices, currency rates, and interest rates, as well as macroeconomic data like GDP growth, inflation rates, and energy consumption, as predictors of oil price movements. These factors were chosen because of their significance and importance to the ways in which the oil market in KSA functions. We use several different machine learning techniques to construct the prediction models, some of which are regression-based (such as linear regression or support vector regression) while others are ensemble models (such as random forests or gradient boosting). The models are tested and refined using historical data spanning a sizable period of time and covering a wide range of market circumstances and pricing movements. Evaluation of the prediction models is carried out using conventional metrics like mean-squared error, mean absolute error, and R-squared ( R 2) , and their robustness is evaluated using sensitivity analysis and cross-validation methods. Incorporating financial and macroeconomic variables vastly enhances the accuracy of oil price predictions compared to models based purely on historical price data, as shown by the preliminary findings, which underline the superiority of our approach. The machine learning models exhibit nonlinear pattern capture and responsiveness to market fluctuations. Insights into the relative significance of various variables and their effect on oil price movements in KSA are also provided by the sensitivity analysis. By demonstrating the usefulness of machine learning methods for oil price forecasting, particularly in the context of Saudi Arabia, this research adds to the body of knowledge already available. Our findings have important policy and market implications for oil price forecasting, benefiting policymakers, energy market participants, and investors. To improve the models' ability to forecast the future, researchers may want to consider including more variables in their analyses, such as geopolitical developments and technology advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shirking, the act of avoiding the demands of one's job, is generally seen as unethical. Drawing on empirical evidence from the sociology of work, I develop a normative conception of shirking as a form of worker resistance against illegitimate managerial power. In doing so, I present a new approach to the political theory of the firm, which is more adversarial and agent-centered than available alternatives. It is more adversarial as it recognizes the political value of counterproductive and disruptive behavior in capitalist firms. It is more agent-centered because it theorizes the firm from the perspective of workers, asking what pro tanto reasons they have to shirk. I show that shirking under the structural domination of capitalism has diagnostic, agential, and epistemic values. The paper contributes to the wider methodological ambition to tailor political theorizing to the positionality of social actors by shifting attention from the institutional design of the firm to the methods of worker resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important that macromarketers understand how income and wealth inequality affect the way people think, live, and die. It is also important that they understand the source(s) of that inequality. This paper discusses how the power elite and the rich used the law to strategically withhold from the bottom 99 percent of the population the wealth generated in the post-World War II economy. This included more than a dozen specific stealth activities the U.S. government enacted from 1970 to 2010, although only a few are highlighted in this commentary. These activities created a Program of Welfare for the Wealthy that worked against the general welfare of the American people. We refer to these as stealth activities because much of what happens in government occurs behind the scenes, in the dark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on political economy of sustainable development, to be published in the upcoming issue of the journal, is presented.

The article presents abstracts on phlebology topics which include effect of endovenous laser ablation of incompetent perforating veins in primary venous disease patients, cost-effective use of silver dressings for chronic venous leg ulcers, and superficial venous reflux duration and cessation.

This paper investigates whether a 'wisdom of the crowd' approach might offer an alternative to recent political polls that have raised questions about survey data quality. Data collection costs have become so low that, as well as the question of data quality, concerns have also been raised about low response rates, professional respondents and respondent interaction. There are also uncertainties about self-selecting 'samples'. This paper looks at more than 100 such surveys and reports chat, in five out of the six cases discussed, £0.08p interviews delivered results in line with known outcomes. The results discussed in the paper show that such interviews are not a waste of money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction There is a growing need for health professions to demonstrate cost-effectiveness in an increasingly financially constrained climate. High quality health economic evaluations are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. This systematic review examines the quality of health economic evaluations of occupational therapy interventions. Method A systematic search was conducted, and 262 potential review papers were screened, with nine being selected for review. The consolidated health economic evaluation reporting standards statement alongside a devised scoring frame was used to appraise the quality of the review papers. Results The nine papers appraised varied considerably in quality. The main concerns were: quality of the original clinical study; statement of cost-perspective and time horizon, choice of outcome units; presentation of included costs; use and reporting of uncertainty analyses. Conclusion The current low number and variable quality of health economic evaluations are largely insufficient to inform resource allocation decisions. If occupational therapy as a profession is to flourish, as financial challenges continue to increase, it must engage more strongly with health economic evaluations and produce good quality research that incorporates health economic evaluations at a much higher quality and volume than currently. We are part of a fast evolving healthcare world, and we need to evolve with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues related to the economically justified treatment for cancer. Patients go through different medical treatments like radiation, and curative or palliative chemotherapy, but these treatments do not provide much benefit to the patients. Oncologists use chemotherapy for patients with advanced cancer who are unlikely to benefit. Before applying costly measures and making a decision, clinicians need to analyze and consider the condition of a patient carefully.

The new interpretation of the labor theory of value has raised awareness among Marxist economists that the value of money must be incorporated in a coherent manner into any solution that is proposed to the long-standing transformation problem. The author proposes a fiat money form of value that extends Marx's theory of money and offers a new approach to the transformation procedure based on a reinterpretation of socially necessary abstract labor time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars and policy-makers have proposed a "Neo-Brandeisian" reform of U.S. antitrust law, aimed at reviving "republican" antitrust. Republicanism conceives of domination as inherently detrimental to freedom. Republican antitrust considers antitrust law as an "institution of antipower," aimed at dispersing economic power. This paper sets out two key challenges to the Neo-Brandeisian reform agenda and argues for legal formalism to address them. First, republicanism would alter the normative justification, but not necessarily the content of antitrust law. Neoclassical antitrust law does not broadly reflect a Schumpeterian endorsement of dominance. Rather, its epistemological priors and methodology entail skepticism about the mere presence of economic power. Thus, mainstream antitrust law and policy remain unfazed by the Neo-Brandeisian claim that antitrust should target domination instead of consumer welfare. Second, Neo-Brandeisian reform proposals are inherently polycentric. How Neo-Brandeisians aim to balance distinct values including the competitive process, the harm of concentrated power, and the protection of democracy and egalitarianism has remained unclear. This paper argues that both challenges demand for a formalistic approach to Neo-Brandeisian antitrust. Compared to a case-by-case approach, adopting general rules through legislative or administrative decision-making may legitimately overturn current precedent, incorporate alternate methods of measuring power and competitive harm, and pursue a variety of republican goals. Neo-Brandeisian formalism would essentially reinvigorate the Harvard school's insight that multiple purposes—including both efficiency and republican liberty—can be attained by formalistic rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper places the seemingly distinct projects of refugee protection and temporary foreign worker programs alongside one another to reveal their interlinked relationship. I argue that despite its seeming humanitarian exceptionality, refugee protection is deeply implicated in the production of both the category and supply of temporary foreign workers for the Canadian economy. I demonstrate that the defining limitations of refugee law in relation to questions of class and economic deprivation are integral to the conceptualization of the category of the migrant worker. I then engage with statistical data to show that patterns of refugee adjudications in Canada have contributed to maintaining the supply of temporary foreign workers. In particular, I show that Canada has consistently rejected refugee claims from key source countries of migrant workers, namely Jamaica and Mexico. By refusing these claims, Canadian refugee protection has constituted Jamaican and Mexican nationals as inappropriate subjects of permanent protection and, subsequently, primed them for incorporation as temporary foreign workers. In effect, Canadian im/migration has operated like a revolving door: pushing some nationalities out of the permanent protection of refugee status while pulling them into the precarious opening of temporary labour migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Briefly Noted. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 42(1): 126-138. (Original DOI: 10.1177/0094306112468722In the January 2013 issue, p. 129, column 1, 13 lines from the bottom prior to the footnote, the text should have read “historical economics” instead of “historical ics.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amid concerns of 'market failure' in the U.S. commercial news industry, this paper explores more than a decade's worth of scholarly arguments that government intervention and investment is the best solution to what many deem a crisis in American journalism. Through the lenses of First Amendment theory and political economy, the analysis examines a range of ideas and proposals that, in many ways, began with Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols' The Death and Life of American Journalism in 2010 and continue up through Victor Pickard's Democracy Without Journalism: Confronting the Misinformation Society in 2020. The paper concludes that, while a 'positive' interpretation of the First Amendment would seem to demand such intervention, the window of opportunity has closed due to a range of political and economic forces that have either developed or become further entrenched over the past decade. To that end, it calls on journalists and journalism scholars to work to shift the discourse of journalism, to characterise it as an essential, nonpartisan public good – one no different than education. It argues that such a shift, along with enough evidence of further market failure, could someday help inspire the necessary political and economic will to help rescue the floundering news industry on a wider scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence on the association between audit committee formation and the quality of accounting earnings. The audit committee is responsible for overseeing the financial reporting and auditing process of the firm. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the audit committee in discharging these responsibilities by comparing the quality, or informativeness, of earnings reports before and after audit committee formation. For this paper, informativeness is measured by the extent to which the market reacts to the release of earnings reports. Economic theory predicts that the magnitude of the market's reaction to earnings is a nondecreasing function of earnings quality. The results show a significant increase in the market's reaction to earnings reports subsequent to the formation of the audit committee. Specifically, the reaction to earnings reports is more than 20 percent greater after the formation of the committee than before. These findings are robust to alternative variations in the research design. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the audit committee providing meaningful oversight of the financial reporting and auditing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the hypothesis that constrained uses of imagination are crucial to economic modeling. We propose a theoretical framework to develop this thesis through a number of specific hypotheses that we test and refine through six new, representative case studies. Our ultimate goal is to develop a philosophical account that is practice oriented and informed by empirical evidence. To do this, we deploy an abductive reasoning strategy. We start from a robust set of hypotheses and leave space for the generation of further hypotheses and theoretical claims based on the qualitative analysis of new empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to provide the church with a biblical perspective of work and economics in order for the church to missionally respond to global poverty. For this purpose, the Western Church's attitude toward work and economics is critically examined in light of how the church's biblical identity, a holy people, is related to work and economics in Scripture. This paper demonstrates that God's mission in Scripture always involves redeeming work and economics from the influence of sin. As its main thesis, this paper contends that, from a biblical perspective, the church's call to be a holy people requires practicing a way of work and economics that embodies and presents the compassionate character of God who envisions human flourishing. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the church, which seeks to missionally respond to global poverty, should participate in God's mission of redeeming work and economics from the influence of sin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing cost differentials between modes of data collection and countries are requiring users and practitioners to consider more cost-effective survey designs. Using a 'fitness for purpose' framework, the argument is made that the tools exist to enable objective evaluation of alternative designs using a variety of methods within a common framework that can be shared by all survey users. The paper argues that coverage will be one of the largest sources of potential bias in any survey using data-collection methods other than face-to-face or mail. The calibration of coverage is therefore a pre-requisite in any discussion of alternative survey designs. The paper discusses the need for clear, unambiguous definition of the characteristics of mode access to reflect the realities and constraints of research practice. It illustrates this with a discussion of internet access from home, suggesting that some current commonly used definitions are misleading as to the true level of coverage. The paper comments on the general lack of reliable coverage data for new modes. Using data from Eurobarometer and from the USA National Health Interview Survey, it tabulates the coverage of the internet, mobile telephones and sub-categories of technology in Europe and the US. The paper argues that these data show differences that are so considerable that in many countries it would be ill-advised to use single-mode approaches to achieve reliable estimates. The paper concludes that, to provide cost-effective international measurement, we must embrace the use of mixed-mode methods within countries. This will require a broad international effort to agree definitions, measurement of coverage, and better questionnaire design, to reduce/eliminate mode effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The particular vision of human, bodily life that has been adopted and developed in the neoliberal era since the 1970s is turning humans into a new kind of creature. Both our behavioral and conceptual notions of what it means to be human have been re-oriented to a vision of the "enterprising self," the social and political actor who negotiates the world through competition, self-regulation, and rational choice. The concern of this paper is to demonstrate how this framework is theologically unsound and has a destabilizing effect on what constitutes human nature as a particular embodied existence. Attending to the rationale and theological response to the neoliberal logics, this paper seeks to promote a vision of human life and activity that is ordered and oriented to human flourishing and provide examples of resistance to the person-forming capacity of neoliberal social formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the circular economy is emerging as a strategy for sustainable development. What is important in promoting the circular economy is to assess its current level and take measures for assessment. This paper discusses some methodological issues in comparing and assessing the efforts for the circular economy at the international level. To this end, the authors explain the theoretical premise related to the assessment of efforts for the circular economy, establish an indicator system for assessing the efforts for the circular economy, and suggest a method for comprehensively assessing the efforts for the circular economy by country. The conclusions are that (a) the comparative evaluation of activities related to the circular economy by country requires a unified standard or category that can cover these activities, including all factors that meet sustainable development; the outcome, process, and guarantee of the circular economy, and this can be the circular economy effort and (b) the circular economy effort of a given country must synthetically be assessed by using the indicators capable of showing all aspects. These conclusions may contribute to establishing a new theoretical foundation that can include various aspects of the circular economy activities and to setting a practical and methodological foundation for evaluating each country's various activities related to the circular economy at the international level and can serve as a policy basis for identifying the weak and strong aspects of circular economy activities at the domestic or international level and establishing technological and economic measures to strengthen the weak aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 18,000 square kilometers of water reservoirs in India can generate 280 GW of solar power through floating solar photovoltaic plants. The cumulative installed capacity of FSPV is 0.0027 GW, and the country plans to add 10 GW of FSPV to the 227 GW renewable energy target of 2022. The FSPV addition is small related to the entire market for solar energy, but each contribution is appreciated in the renewable energy market. FSPV could be a viable alternative for speeding up solar power deployment in the country and meeting its NDC targets. So far, the country has achieved the world's lowest investment cost for a floating solar installation. Despite the lower costs, generalizations are still premature because FSPV is still in its initial stages of market entry. Continuous innovation and timely adoption of innovative ideas and technology will support India in meeting its solar energy goals and progressing toward a more sustainable future. Governments must establish clear and enforceable policies to assist developers in reducing risks and increasing investor confidence in the sector. Economic and financial feasibility are examined, and various difficulties in technology, design, finances, environment, maintenance, and occupational health that impact the FSPV deployment are discussed. Based on the research, effective and comprehensive FSPV policy suggestions are included to support establishing an appropriate market, fostering competition and innovation, and attracting large-scale investment. This paper aims to stimulate interest among various policy developers, energy suppliers, industrial designers, ergonomists, project developers, manufacturers, health and safety professionals, executing agencies, training entities, and investment institutions of the FSPV plant to implement effective governance planning and help them to participate in their ways to assure sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments on a discussion by economist Gordon Clark of a hypothesis on employment relation and the spatial division of labor. The elaboration of the employment relation and its spatial implications, is stimulated by an awareness within economic geography of changes in industrial location dynamics. Industrialization is a phenomenon by which agglomerative forces dominate industrial location patterns. The trend towards spatial dispersal questioned the collapse of established agglomerations.

Introduces several articles on issues related to local economic development.

The article discusses reports which would be published in forthcoming issues from the archives of the journal "Acta Radiologica" which includes first successful treatment of a cutaneous carcinoma by using radiation therapy by professor Gosta Forsell and case study of a 62-year-old man with repeated attacks of icterus and fever.

This paper develops a measurement of culture on the product category level, called the cultural embeddedness of products (CEP) scale, and progresses the scale in accordance with standard procedures. It defines CEP as the degree to which a product is connected with ethnic/national culture. The centrality of national/ethnic identity and culture, and its meanings for individuals, lead us to propose CEP as predictive of consumer attitudes and intentions. In particular, we posit that CEP plays a role for local products and potential brands, similar to that played by perceived brand globalness for global brands. We validate a two dimensional CEP scale in two cultures - American and Norwegian - and find that the scale exhibits good psychometric qualities in both. We also present the particularly consistent effects of the ethnic identity relevance dimension of CEP on attitudes and purchase intentions through perceived product quality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for marketing research theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are three issues that are crucial to advancing our academic understanding of smart cities: (1) contextual conditions, (2) governance models, and (3) the assessment of public value. A brief review of recent literature and the analysis of the included papers provide support for the assumption that cities cannot simply copy good practices but must develop approaches that fit their own situation (contingency) and concord with their own organization in terms of broader strategies, human resource policies, information policies, and so on (configuration). A variety of insights into the mechanisms and building blocks of smart city practices are presented, and issues for further research are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-Paris Agreement, India is swiftly transitioning to low-carbon electricity generation through solar park development. Despite exceeding emissions reduction targets, many social development claims remain unrealized. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) What discourses do state institutions utilize to justify solar park development in rural spaces? (2) What sociopolitical effects do these discourses have at the local scale? I conducted a critical discourse analysis of technical and policy documents focusing on knowledge production to influence social power and the political economy. I also draw on eight months of fieldwork, including semi-structured interviews of residents, bureaucrats, and solar employees in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and New Delhi. This paper argues that solar parks are rationalized via discursive formations of the climate crisis, economic development, and ecological modernization. These discursive formations are stitched together into story-lines and circulated by public and private institutions (Solar India), comprising a "deus ex mitigata," a deus ex machina set of discursive formations that rationalize greener capital accumulation in neoliberal India that does not address asymmetric power relations. The modalities by which this is accomplished dispossess peasants of land and livelihoods. As such, low-carbon electricity generation does not positively "transform the lives" of residents, a raison d'être for solar park development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:: The purpose of this paper is to provide some learnings for the NDIS from the referral pattern and cost of implementing the Partners in Recovery initiative of Gippsland.Method:: Information on referral areas made for each consumer was collated from support facilitators. Cost estimates were determined using budget estimates, administrative costs and a literature review and are reported from a government perspective.Results:: Sixty-three per cent of all referrals were made to organisations that provided multiple types of services. Thirty-one per cent were to Mental Health Community Support Services. Eighteen per cent of referrals were made to clinical mental health services. The total cost of providing the service for a consumer per year (set-up and ongoing) was estimated to be AUD$15,755 and the ongoing cost per year was estimated to be AUD$13,434. The cost of doing nothing is likely to cost more in the longer term, with poor mental health outcomes such as hospital admission, unemployment benefits, prison, homelessness and psychiatric residential care.Conclusions:: Supporting recovery in persons with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness is likely to be economically more beneficial than not doing so. Recovery can be better supported when frequently utilised services are co-located. These might be some learnings for the NDIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the case study of ketamine as a new treatment for severe depression is used to outline the challenges of repurposing established medicines and we suggest potential solutions. The antidepressant effects of generic racemic ketamine were identified over 20 years ago, but there were insufficient incentives for commercial entities to pursue its registration, or support for non-commercial entities to fill this gap. As a result, the evaluation of generic ketamine was delayed, piecemeal, uncoordinated, and insufficient to gain approval. Meanwhile, substantial commercial investment enabled the widespread registration of a patented, intranasal s-enantiomeric ketamine formulation (Spravato®) for depression. However, Spravato is priced at $600–$900/dose compared to ~$5/dose for generic ketamine, and the ~AUD$100 million annual government investment requested in Australia (to cover drug costs alone) has been rejected twice, leaving this treatment largely inaccessible for Australian patients 2 years after Therapeutic Goods Administration approval. Moreover, emerging evidence indicates that generic racemic ketamine is at least as effective as Spravato, but no comparative trials were required for regulatory approval and have not been conducted. Without action, this story will repeat regularly in the next decade with a new wave of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy treatments, for which the original off-patent molecules could be available at low-cost and reduce the overall cost of treatment. Several systemic reforms are required to ensure that affordable, effective options become accessible; these include commercial incentives, public and public–private funding schemes, reduced regulatory barriers and more coordinated international public funding schemes to support translational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how newsworkers resisted workplace reorganization in the pre-digital news industry. It analyzes how and why the Thomson Corporation reorganized the workplace and unions resisted workplace change from 1994 to 1995 as a case study of corporate control and worker resistance. Developing the concept of alternative communication resistance practices, it conducts a thematic analysis of untapped archival documents: union, company, legal, and news content. This concept articulates historically-contingent institutional conditions that facilitate corporate strategies to reorganize the workplace and union resistance practices. This article contributes an original relational framework to understand what is distinct about workplace reorganization at a particular setting. It considers workplace actors' heterogeneous resistance practices within a specific workplace context and how communication practices express and constitute resistance. The article outlines five propositions of this framework that could be tested and potentially refined beyond a single case study in future (digital) journalism research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US government response to the coronavirus pandemic has prompted renewed debate about the size and structure of the welfare state. Particular attention has been paid to prenatal and early childhood policy, domains in which the US safety net is less robust than those of its peer countries. Contra claims that the so-called care economy constitutes a sharp break with the neoliberal consensus, this article argues that the shift in social policy focus toward early life is consistent with changes in economic ideas about the best environment in which to grow "human capital": the economization of early life. Building on insights about "critical periods" of development drawn from diverse fields including epigenetics and neurobiology, economists estimate that human capital gains are greatest when "investments in people" occur before the age of five. This article traces the history of how this research was brought to the attention of federal policy makers in the United States. While much human capital–focused social policy traditionally placed the burden of risk on the private family (e.g., with student loan debt or health insurance), in recent years, economists have instead argued that social programs dedicated to early childhood development are more "efficient" sources of public investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

England's National Health Service (NHS) is in the process of major reform as old institutional structures based around an internal "market" are being replaced with integrated care systems. The changes represent a significant shift in ethos away from commercialisation to collaboration between health providers. But the way that these policies unfold will depend on the context within which they are implemented, and three decades of neoliberal reforms have left their mark on the structure of the health system. This paper shows how a powerful, politically-connected financialised private sector has evolved alongside a weakened public system, depleted further by the pandemic. While the share of overall public health spending reaching the private sector has not increased greatly over the past decade, private financial investors are strongly embedded in some segments of health delivery, particularly mental health services where shareholder returns are boosted by financial engineering. The boundaries between private and public are increasingly blurred with the NHS treating private patients and self-payment for health services is increasingly normalised. Rather than traditional privatisation, the health system is facing a more subtle and pernicious erosion of public services across different dimensions which seems likely to continue despite the new reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine the economic evidence for interventions aimed at family carers of stroke patients. Data sources: Searches (limited to those published in English since 1990) were performed in key databases along with hand searches of relevant papers. Review methods: Papers were restricted to studies including any economic data (broadly defined) for any intervention targeting carers explicitly or explicitly referring to a carer element, beyond involving carers in the care or intervention for patients (i.e. more than just carers being invited to observe an intervention targeted at the patient). Two reviewers independently screened full papers and extracted data using guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and quality assessment using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (cohort studies), the Delphi list (randomised controlled trials) and guidelines on economic quality from the British Medical Journal. Data were reviewed descriptively as meta analyses were inappropriate due to non-comparability of studies. Results: Ten papers were included in the review. These were heterogeneous in their design, intervention and economic analyses making comparison difficult. Only three of the ten papers included economic evaluations. All three reported that the intervention was less costly and had better or equivalent outcomes than the control comparator although two of these were based on the same intervention using the same dataset. Conclusion: There is some limited evidence that interventions for family carers of stroke patients are effective and cost effective. However, due to variation in the types of interventions examined, little can be concluded regarding implications for clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this issue of the ILRReview, the first five articles provide important new evidence on gender and employment. The papers were all independently submitted and were refereed through the usual editorial process. Because the papers' unifying theme is gender and labor market outcomes, the Editors felt that creating a symposium out of this new body of work would serve the research community studying gender, as well as the policymakers concerned with gender and labor market outcomes. All of the articles use new data sources or advanced statistical techniques to greatly enhance our understanding of gender and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares rational-choice economics approaches with institutional theory in assessing the ways news organizations respond to uncertainty. Rational-choice approaches suggest newsroom managers facing uncertainty will pursue "tight coupling" by monitoring audiences and collaborating with the newspaper's business side, while institutionalism suggests uncertainty will lead organizations to buffer themselves front their market environments and to mimic other news organizations. Findings from a national survey of editors and a content analysis of interactive features from newspaper Web sites reveal both institutionalist and rational-choice tendencies. News managers are monitoring audiences, but monitoring is not strongly affecting decisions about content and online features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the macroeconomics of the oil price for the United States. It investigates the impact of large oil price hikes in a standard VAR framework by introducing a new Markov switching based oil price specification. The explanatory power of this new specification is compared to that of a number of prominent non-linear specifications. The key findings are: (1) the new oil price specification is appropriate in both empirical and theoretical terms and allows for a well-founded distinction between "large" and "normal" oil price increases. (2) The observed impact of oil price shocks on real GDP growth is largely attributable to no fewer than three large oil price increases, namely those of 1973-74, 1979 and 1991, while variables such as consumer and import prices are also affected by normal oil price increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives . To determine whether gaps exist in published cost-utility analyses as measured by their coverage of topics addressed in current HIV guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).Design. A systematic review of US-based cost-effectiveness analyses of HIV/AIDS prevention and management strategies, based on original, published research.Methods. Predefined criteria were used to identify all analyses pertaining to prevention and management of HIV/AIDS; information was collected on type of strategy, patient demographics, study perspective, quality of the study, effectiveness measures, costs, and cost-effectiveness ratios.Results. One hundred and six studies were identified; 62 described strategies for averting new HIV infections, and 44 dealt with managing persons who are HIV positive. The quality of studies was generally high, but gaps were found in all studies. Especially common were omissions in reporting data abstraction methodology and discussions of direction and magnitude of potential biases. Among the 22 most highly rated papers (score of 90 or higher), only 1 was cited in the guidelines, and 3 papers reported on interventions that were superseded by newer approaches. Using a $100,000 threshold, the guidelines usually endorsed interventions found to be cost-effective. Exceptions included recommending postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) for populations in which PEP is unlikely to be cost-effective and not recommending primary resistance testing in treatment-naive persons, although the intervention was reported to have a cost-effectiveness ratio of less than $50,000.Conclusions . Despite an abundant literature on the cost-utility of HIV/AIDS-targeted strategies, guidelines cite relatively few of these papers, and gaps exist regarding assessments of some strategies and special populations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I draw on my experiences doing field research in Cuba, to contribute to the idea that participating in illegal activities is not necessarily unethical. Using a reflexive analysis, I argue that as a foreign researcher in Cuba's dual economy, full participation in Cubans' daily life—though illegal for both the researcher and the participants—was necessary to establish trust. This allowed me to gain social access to the field while allowing participants to spread the risk. Ultimately, it led to a more accurate account of Cubans' daily practices through which I was able to address unbalanced and misinformed interpretations of the island and its people, which is crucial in the midst of highly politicized literature on Cuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dependent coverage expansion (DCE), a component of the Affordable Care Act, required private health insurance policies that cover dependents to offer coverage for policyholders' children through age 25. This review summarizes peer-reviewed research on the impact of the DCE on the chain of consequences through which it could affect public health. Specifically, we examine the impact of the DCE on insurance coverage, access to care, utilization of care, and health status. All studies find that the DCE increased insurance coverage, but evidence regarding downstream impacts is inconsistent. There is evidence that the DCE reduced high out-of-pocket expenditures and frequent emergency room visits and increased behavioral health treatment. Evidence regarding the impact of the DCE on health is sparse but suggestive of positive impacts on self-rated health and health behavior. Inferences regarding the public health impact of the DCE await studies with greater methodological diversity and longer follow-up periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk of disaster exposure is often associated with prior conditions of economic deprivation, and it is held that risk would be less for an asset-rich household than an asset-poor one. Observational data may, however, contradict this expected pattern. The contradiction is resolved when we examine risk distribution through the lens of Weberian class distribution, and associate risk with peoples’ class situations. This paper draws upon the household survey data from Tanzania to illustrate this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]