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Rhinosinusitis is a common condition with adults experiencing 2-5 episodes per year. The European Positional Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps (EP3OS) published in 2005 and updated in 2007 provided evidence-based guidelines on the management of sinus disease promoting a conservative approach to treatment. This study examines the effect of EP3OS on sinus surgery uptake and acute admissions for sinusitis in England and Wales. A retrospective study using the national electronic health databases of England (Hospital Episodes Statistics, HES online) and Wales (Patient Episodes Database of Wales, PEDW) was undertaken from 2000 to 2010 using the OPCS-4 codes E12-E17 (sinus surgery) and ICD10 code J01 (acute admission for sinusitis). Data were analysed for effect following the introduction of the EP3OS in 2005 using linear regression and Chi squared analysis. 116,370 sinus procedures and 10,916 acute admissions for sinusitis were made during the study period. No significant decrease in sinus surgery procedures occurred following the introduction of the EP3OS as may have been expected ( p > 0.05), although subgroup analysis suggested a significant increase in Wales ( p < 0.05). In addition, significant increases in acute admissions for sinusitis were observed following the introduction of EP3OS ( p < 0.05). However, subgroup analysis suggested this was not the case in Wales ( p > 0.05). The EP3OS appears to have had little impact on the rates of sinus surgery but more conservative approaches to managing of sinus disease may have led to an increase in acute admissions. Further research is required to investigate whether changes in practice were adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher professionalism in England may be considered to have been shaped by the set of professional standards, and the accompanying statutory performance management system, introduced by the Labour government in 2007. More recently the coalition government’s 2010 White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, announced reforms that will potentially re-shape teacher professionalism. In this article I examine the ‘shape’ of teacher professionalism in England, as defined by the professional standards. I reveal it to be a lop-sided shape, indicating a professionalism that focuses predominantly on teachers’ behaviour, rather than on their attitudes and their intellectuality. Presenting my conceptual analysis of professionalism, and examination of its link with professional development, I consider whether—and to what extent—teacher professionalism may in fact be shaped by government-imposed reform. I conclude that ‘enacted’ professionalism may be quite different from ‘demanded’ professionalism, and shaping professionalism involves a complex and indecipherable process that is better understood by examining the process whereby individuals develop professionally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the limited exception introduced by statute in 1974, the principle that truth is and ought to be a complete defence to all actions in defamation is typically regarded as self-evident in modern English law. The fact that England stands here against not only the whole of the civilian tradition but also a number of common-law jurisdictions suggests, however, that it is not. This paper, after surveying the history of the principle in English law and the debates that it has spurred in the past, argues that English law is right on this question, but needs to understand more cogently why. This, in turn, requires an examination of the interests protected by the cause of action. It is only if we accept that it is, and is solely, reputation founded in character that the defence of veritas will be secured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1998, a review for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (the predecessor of the Food Standards Agency) was published evaluating the relative merits of different dietary assessment methods against a series of factors likely to affect compliance or accuracy in low-income households. The review informed the design of a method comparison study carried out in London, UK, in 2001, in which the validity and acceptability of 4 d dietary assessment methods based on 24 h recalls, food checklists and a semi-weighed method were compared with 4 d weighed inventories and other reference measures. Results were based on observations in 384 respondents (159 males, 225 females) aged 2-90 years in 240 households. Outcomes of the comparison study included evaluations of each method made by respondents, interviewers and researchers. These findings were used in the present paper to update and extend the 1998 review. Additional factors not included in the 1998 review have been considered. This updated and extended review provides the basis for discussion of the relative merits of approaches to dietary assessment in low-income households in developed economies. The evidence presented here and elsewhere suggests that the 24 h recall is the method best suited for dietary assessment in low-income households, followed by the weighed inventory, food checklist and lastly the semi-weighed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about paper sessions on urology to be discussed at the BAUS Annual Meeting to be held in Manchester, England from June 23-27, 2008.

While researching in the archives of Lambeth Palace library to find out just what Charlotte Brontë meant when she told Ellen Nussey that her conscience would not let her be 'either a Puseyite or a Hookist' (7 April 1840), I read the Library Committee's Annual Report for 2004. Quietly the report announced that among the recently acquired papers of Dr Charles Thomas Longley, former Archbishop of Canterbury and one time Bishop of Ripon, there was a firsthand description of Charlotte Brontë (1853) and a 'poignant letter from Patrick Brontë written after the death of Charlotte two years later'. This modest announcement led me to a remarkable clutch of letters written by the Bishop that add uniquely to our knowledge not only of Patrick Brontë's diocesan bishop, but also of the remarkable parsonage family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The guidelines about research ethics and research governance, implemented by the Department of Health, present new challenges to undertaking mental health service research within the National Health Service (NHS). Aims: This paper describes how these new ethical and research governance procedures have adversely affected three multi-centre mental health service research studies, funded by the Department of Health. Methods: The workload, time, and cost of meeting these requirements for each study is described. Conclusion: The implementation of Government guidance has resulted in a level of bureaucracy that threatens the future of the type of research that underpins policy development and service planning. For the researcher, the work involved in meeting these new requirements can be greater than the work of data collection, and for the trust, greater than the cost of participation in the research itself. The Department of Health has made recommendations to streamline the research ethics process. However this will not address the tension between research ethics systems and localized research governance procedures. Declaration of interest: None. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper referred to is ‘The Future of Data Analysis,’ published in 1962. Many authors have discussed it, notably Peter Huber, who in 1995 reviewed the period starting with Hotelling's 1940 article ‘The Teaching of Statistics.’ I extend the scope of Huber's remarks by considering also the period before 1940 and developments since 1995. I ask whether statistics is a science and suggest that to attract bright students to our subject, we need to show them the excitement and rewards of applied work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research into personal education plans (PEPs) for ‘looked after’ children (children in care) in one large county local authority in England. PEPs were introduced by guidance from the Department for Education and Employment and Department of Health in 2000. The fieldwork for this research began two years after this guidance was published. The research findings show that although social services staff and teachers are critical of specific aspects of PEPs, they have helped to raise the profile of the educational needs of looked after children in the local authority studied. They have provided a forum for social work and education professionals to meet in the interests of particular children. Key problems relate to practical issues: ensuring social workers and teachers feel able to fulfil their expected roles in relation to the education of looked after children; making the system focus on meeting the needs of children as well as practitioners; difficulty in meeting specified timescales; more meaningful, constructive and sensitive involvement of children in the process of producing and reviewing PEPs. The broader issue, however, is about the ability to plan the education of looked after children. Additional barriers to planning were particularly apparent in residential care and specifically within secure accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional description of "the scientific method" as a stepwise, linear process of hypothesis testing through experimentation is a myth. Although the teaching and learning of the scientific method have been a curriculum and assessment goal, the notion of the 'scientific method' itself has been identified as being problematic. Many researchers have recognised there is no single scientific method. However, there does not seem to be any useful guidelines for how best to deal with the nature of scientific methods in school science, including in high-stakes summative assessment. The article presents the use of a framework to illustrate the diversity of scientific methods that goes beyond the traditional limitations of a scientific method, to provide a more comprehensive and inclusive account, including non-manipulative parameter measurements. The framework not only clarifies the definition of scientific methods but also is adapted as an analytical framework to trace how scientific methods are framed in high-stakes chemistry examination papers from three examination boards in England. Such analyses can potentially point to what is emphasised in chemistry lessons, given how instrumental high-stakes testing is for driving teaching and learning. Results from an empirical investigation of examination questions are presented, highlighting an imbalance in the representation of methods in chemistry tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of game theory to evolutionary problems is so commonplace today, that few stop to consider how it all began. John Maynard Smith and George R. Price's 1973 Nature article, "The Logic of Animal Conflict," is often referred to as the first description in the literature of the concept of an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS), but what was the "behind the scenes" of the writing of that seminal paper? This article tracks the little known story of the curious American polymath, George Price. As will be shown, it was an earlier paper, the lost "Antlers, Intraspecific Combat, and Altruism," sent by Price to Nature in August 1968 (Unpublished), and refereed by Maynard Smith, which instigated the birth of the first ESS. Recently, the "Antlers" paper has been re-discovered by the author, shedding new light, together with letters and journals from the personal papers of George Price and John Maynard Smith, on their historical paper., (© 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Presents comparison and critique on Rural White Papers for England, Scotland and Wales, published by British government between October 1995 and March 1996. The ethos and aims of Rural White Papers; Specific proposals and measures in the Rural White Papers; Policy objectives of the English RWP, Welsh RWP, and Scottish RWP; Reasons behind the persuasive case for incorporating the Ministry's regional management into the Government Offices; Conclusions.

The article discusses the closure of local paper "Chronicle and Echo" in Northampton, England. It narrates that the National Union of Journalists has demanded a better mileage rate for old Beetles and Minis around the villages of Northamptonshire from general manager Bill Rodgers. Rodgers lamented about missing out on real journalism with the freedom to write about the people and events in hometown.

In October 1964, Julian Huxley, Ernst Mayr, Humphrey Osmond and Abram Hoffer co-published a controversial paper in Nature, in which they tried to explain the persistence of schizophrenia from an evolutionary perspective. This article will elucidate how the reputed authors composed this paper to make it a strong argument for biological psychiatry. Through a close reading of their correspondence, it will furthermore clarify the elements which remained unspoken in the paper, but which were elementary in its genesis. The first was the dominance of psychoanalytical theory in (American) psychiatry--a dominance which the authors wanted to break. The second was the ongoing discussion on the boundaries of biological determinism and the desirability of a new kind of eugenics. As such, the Huxley et al. paper can be used to study the central issues of psychiatry in a pivotal era of its history.

This article presents information on the fourth "Work, Employment and Society (WES) Conference," which was held in Manchester, England during September 1-3, 2004. The conference was hosted by the University of Manchester of England. WES 2004 was a lively and international three-day event. Over 200 delegates attended from 20 countries across Europe, North America and Australasia. They came from a variety of disciplines. The papers presented by the delegates represented subjects like anthropology, economics, geography, history and applied psychology.

This article explores the patriotism and national identity of English soldiers during the First World War. Using this conflict as a case-study, it draws together work on Great War mentalities and scholarship on Englishness. It argues that individuals' national identity focused on and formed around the 'implicit nation', which was primarily concerned with communities and parochial local (or regional) spaces. There was no 'essential' England: the homeland could be rural or urban, natural or human. English national identity embraced this plurality. Using published material, soldiers' newspapers and private letters, diaries and postcards, this article highlights the ways in which allegiance to an 'implicit nation' was nurtured by a military that championed local and regional identities. As subjects, not citizens, soldiers naturally centred their attention on the communities and landscapes of their homeland. The war did not diminish men's emotional connections to these homelands; in fact, it made them all the stronger. In concentrating on the subjective and emotional features of patriotism, this paper suggests that Englishness was inherently heterogeneous and drew its strength from this. Rather than a commitment to abstract structures such as the state, or theoretical political principles, it argues that English national identity embraced a composite, or patchwork, of mutually supporting patriotisms attached to particular homelands. It was a sense of these homelands that underlay men's identification with Britishness, the Empire and the monarchy. Importantly, soldiers' experience of the First World War gave this a new (or at least more vocal) articulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1996 Act has completed its quarter-century cycle of existence. At the time of its enactment, it was praised by scholars and practitioners as a “masterful… comprehensive” piece of legislation and one that was destined to “enhance the attractiveness of England as an arbitral forum”. These predictions proved exceedingly accurate. However, over time the legislation’s various shortcomings began to surface. Itsreview by the Law Commission was, therefore, very timely. This paper considersthe present state of English arbitration lawconsidering the provisions ofthe 1996Act and substantive and/or noteworthy recommendations proposed to the legislation, alongside the relevant case-law, and considers the appropriateness and potential utility of these recommendations. In particular, this article considers the following issues: the governing law of an arbitration agreement, the arbitrators’ duty of disclosure,theirimmunity from liability,the summary disposal of claims and defences,the confidentiality of arbitration and court powersin support of arbitral proceedings and emergency arbitrations. The paper concludesthat although the reform proposals are mostly commendable and sufficient to satisfy users’ concerns and expectations, not all are agreeable. Reform proposals do not go far enough. Most notably, the rule concerning the arbitrators’ duty of disclosure should recognise that, in appropriate instances, the subjective expectations of the parties should be addressed in the assessment. The parties’ reasonable and/or legitimate expectations should not be ignored when deciding what facts and circumstances to disclose to ensure that the partiesretain confidence in the process and remain the ultimate arbiters of their dispute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Productivity is key to the regional inequalities in the UK. Following work published last year by Metro Dynamics1 on Greater Manchester, this paper seeks to understand productivity trends in neighbouring regions which have also managed to start to close the productivity gap in the decade to 2020. The paper also unpacks the differences in productivity trends within the North of England's various economic sub-regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential care services are under increasing pressure to lower service provision costs while maintaining quality of care. Using a translog cost function, this paper examines the relationship between cost, quality and output in England's learning disability (LD) residential care sector. It finds genuine but diminishing economies of scale in LD residential care services vis-à-vis output (i.e., care weeks). However, some variation exists: higher-quality LD residential care homes appear to have larger economies of scale than lower-quality ones. Supplementary regression analysis, examining quality-size, further finds quality (a) is negatively associated with LD care homes of six or fewer beds; (b) shows no association with homes of more than six beds. These findings enhance residential care literature and raise the possibility that, by promoting the establishment of larger high-quality care homes, cost savings may be achieved without sacrificing quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, debt-based solutions have been implemented as part of austerity policies to distribute public goods by the use of market forces, resulting in an increase in public and private indebtedness. This paper considers the terms of such solutions by developing the conceptual lens of market studies to rethink 'debt' and 'the market' as analytical categories that often reproduce the conditions of their conceptual boundaries. In so doing, it demonstrates how paying attention to particularities reveals the normative, economic and political circumstances that determine debt-based solutions. These do not simply sit peripheral to the market, but come to define debt obligations as part of market relations. In this respect, the paper takes an approach that accounts for obligation as an entanglement of debtors in market relations. The study builds on Michel Callon's rendition of 'problematization' to explore the implementation of the 2010 higher education fee loan regime in England, a result of austerity governance. A novel application of 'markets for collective concern' and 'accountability devices' is thus used to argue that understanding the ways debt-based solutions entangle market participants in the obligation to repay that reproduces the conditions of the intervention's conceptual boundaries, requires a market studies approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the relationship between religion and football has gained considerable interest during the last twenty years, scant attention has been paid to the relationship between pilgrimage and football. This paper seeks to advance the study of this relationship through an exploration of collective memory about football disasters that throws fresh light on central themes within pilgrimage studies—pilgrimage as both a journey to a sacred place and the performance of diverse rituals at such places. The paper explores, in particular, the ways in which three different tragedies involving English football clubs have been commemorated through journeys to and ritual performance at places seen as sacred to those involved in commemoration—football stadiums and urban spaces, and cathedrals and pilgrimage shrines in England, Germany and Italy. Through this analysis, we seek to show how the commemoration of football disaster is linked to pilgrimage as a process where people seek healing and reconciliation through the public performance of rituals that link the local to the global. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of the 'hostile environment' on racialised migrant women's experiences of pregnancy and childbirth in England, arguing that the 'hostile environment' functions as a technology of 'stratified reproduction.' First coined by Shellee Colen, the concept of stratified reproduction describes the dynamic by which some individuals and groups may be supported in their reproductive activities, while others are disempowered and discouraged. This paper locates the stratified reproduction produced by the 'hostile environment' as intertwined with wider gendered and racialised discourses around British citizenship which have been 'designed to fail' racialised residents of the UK. Drawing on interviews with racialised migrant mothers in the north of England, this paper analyses how the proliferation and intensification of immigration controls interacts with gender, race, class, and other social regimes to differentially allocate the resources necessary for a safe and healthy pregnancy and childbirth, and how this is experienced materially by pregnant migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The English Public Health White Paper proposes introducing smoke-free workplaces except in pubs and bars that do not prepare and serve food. The bar area will be non-smoking in exempted pubs., Objective: To explore the likely impact of these proposals in UK pubs and bars., Methods: A total of 59 pubs and bars within Greater Manchester in 2001 were chosen. Thirteen were mechanically ventilated, 12 were naturally ventilated and 34 had extractor fans; 23 provided non-smoking areas. We measured time-weighted average concentrations of respirable suspended particles (RSP), solanesol tobacco-specific particles and vapour-phase nicotine (VPN) over a 4-h sampling period on a Tuesday or Saturday night., Results: Second-hand smoke (SHS) levels in smoking areas were high (mean RSP 114.5 microg/m3, VPN 88.2 microg/m3, solanesol 101.7 microg/m3). There were only small (5-13 per cent) reductions in bar areas. Mean levels were lower in non-smoking areas: by 33 per cent for RSPs, 52 per cent for solanesol particles and 69 per cent for VPN. Compared with other settings (homes and other workplaces) with unrestricted smoking, mean SHS levels were high throughout all areas of the pubs regardless of ventilation strategy., Conclusion: Partial measures, like those in the English Public Health White Paper, will leave bar staff in exempted pubs unprotected from the occupational hazard of SHS.

Purpose: This study investigated whether computers are a useful tool in the assessment of people with aphasia (PWA). Computerized and traditionally administered versions of tasks were compared to determine whether (a) the scores were equivalent, (b) the administration was comparable, (c) variables such as age affected performance, and (d) the participants' perceptions of the computerized and traditionally administered versions of the tasks were similar. Method: Fifteen PWA were assessed on 2 language tasks- sentence-picture matching and grammaticality judgment-in 3 conditions: computer only, computer with the clinician present, and traditional. The participants also completed questionnaires rating aspects of each condition. Results: Scores from the traditionally administered tasks were highly correlated with those from the computerized tasks, but scores from the computerized tasks were significantly lower. There was no significant difference in the time taken between the conditions. Whereas some individuals felt comfortable with the computer, overall, participants preferred the traditional assessment method or when another person was in the room. No factors were identified that predicted participants' relative performance in the computer condition. Conclusion: The results suggest that PWA can be assessed using computerized versions of tasks, but that caution should be exercised when comparing scores to those collected using traditional methods, including norms. The variation in participants' opinions regarding computerized tasks suggests that this method might be more suitable for some participants than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The General Medical Council hearing into events at the Bristol Royal Infirmary resulted in verdicts of serious professional misconduct against three senior doctors. After the longest-running hearing in the GMC’s history the press response was fierce. This paper reviews the reporting of the Bristol case (and issues arising from it) in the main broadsheet and tabloid national newspapers (dailies and Sundays) in the 5-week period around the GMC’s delivery of the verdicts and subsequent sentencing. The aim was to describe the main themes emerging from the press coverage and to assess the implications for future debates over clinical performance and accountability. Media interest in the Bristol case was intense (184 published items in 5 weeks). The reporting was emotive and largely hostile, raising doubts about not just isolated lapses of care but also the possibility of more systematic failings. Diminished trust and reduced public confidence were recurrent themes, powerfully expressed. Professional self-regulation received scathing criticism, with calls for more public access to individual performance data. Future debates about clinical governance will need to take account of the new public context in the wake of Bristol. Arguments about the relative merits of self-regulation or data-driven performance management systems now need to be played out for a knowing and openly sceptical print media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granger causality provides a framework that uses predictability to identify causation between time series variables. This is important to policymakers for effective policy management and recommendations. Granger causality is recognized as the primary advance on the causation problem. The objective of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of Granger causality publications indexed in the Web of Science database. Harzing's Publish or Perish and VOSviewer were used for performance analysis and science mapping. The first paper indexed was published in 1981 and there has been an upward trend in the annual publication of Granger causality studies which are shifting towards the areas of environmental science, energy, and economics. Most of the publications are articles and proceeding papers under the areas of business economics, environmental science ecology, and neurosciences/neurology. China has the highest number of publications while the United States has the highest number of citations. England has the highest citation impact. This paper also constructed country co-authorship, co-analysis of cited references, cited sources, and cited authors, keyword co-occurrence, and keyword overlay visualization maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 5 years, a succession of recommendations or guidelines on the acute management of patients with a head injury have been published. These documents reflect developments in imaging technology, the benefits of specialist neurosurgical care and the need for rehabilitation and follow-up. To a large extent, improvements to the shortcomings of current clinical management will be dependent on the provision of adequate resources, in particular at neuroscience centres. This paper states the present stance of The Royal College of Surgeons of England in respect of key issues addressed in the above publications and reviewed below.

The article discusses the highlights of third international conference held by the Institute of Paper Conservation in Manchester, England, in 1992. The talk "Old Master Prints and Drawings--An Art-Historical Survey of Collecting and of Preservation Methods," delivered by Carlo James, is drawn from his own book on the subject. Peter Bower's paper discusses the controversial area of current practice and produces evidence that inlaying and overcleaning of papers can destroy historical evidence.

Recent policy statements that address the quality of care provided by acute mental health services have highlighted an urgent need for specialist nurse education and training. However, examples of how to design and implement such training initiatives are sparse. Drawing on recent experience of developing an innovative training programme for acute psychiatric settings, this paper seeks to examine some of the key issues associated with current training provision for acute inpatient mental health workers. The methodological and practical concerns surrounding this type of initiative are discussed with the main aspects of programme content, service user participation, team training and organizational challenges being explored. Resulting from this work, several recommendations regarding the content, organization and delivery of future training initiatives are made.