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Within the financialisation literature, scholars have turned their attention to the state, exploring the adoption of financial activities by state actors, paying less attention to the limits of state financialisation. This paper explores these limits using the case of social impact bonds (SIBs). Pioneered in the UK in 2010 and subsequently trialed in some 35 countries, SIBs use private capital to fund social programs, with governments providing a return based on the degree of success. Despite expectations of dramatic growth, the SIB model has never truly taken hold. Based on the rollout of SIBs in the UK, Israel, and Canada, the paper considers the challenges encountered by the SIB enterprise as a form of financialised statecraft and identifies three barriers: (1) resistance to political agendas of state financialisation; (2) clashes between finance and public sector cultures; (3) financial innovation seen as 'risk' and 'disruption' to entrenched socio-technical routines. These barriers reveal tensions both within the state itself and between finance and the public sector, and indicate the importance of thinking about the limits and failures of state financialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article explores the structure of and recent developments in research activities in the polar regions. Based on a bibliographic study of published papers indexed in the ISI Web of Science during the period 1981-2007, we have analyzed trends in publication, scientific disciplines and subdisciplines, coauthorship, and international collaboration within the field of polar research. We have uncovered several rather striking trends. Scientific output in terms of refereed publications has increased far more rapidly in polar research compared to science in general, quadrupling rather than doubling over the surveyed period. There is a nearly 1:1 ratio between papers covering the Arctic relative to the Antarctic, with the vast majority within either the geosciences (40%) or biology (33%). There has been particularly a steep rise in the number of climate-related papers. The U.S.A. is by far the largest contributor to polar research on both the Arctic and the Antarctic, followed by Canada, the U.K., Germany, Norway, and Russia. The number of coauthored papers has grown markedly, reflecting geopolitical shifts and changing national and international funding priorities during the period. We believe our publication-based survey reveals interesting developments in scientific activities and international cooperation in general, and in polar science strategies and priorities in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a comparative mixed methods study of the accessibility and usability for disabled people of four video conferencing tools, Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet and Skype. Useable responses were obtained from 81 disabled people with diverse characteristics, mainly in the UK, though some groups had low representation. None of the tools was considered fully accessible and useable. Zoom was both the most commonly used and the most frequently preferred (56.1%) tool, with MS Teams second in usage and a trailing second in preferences (15.9%). It was considered to have better captioning, but otherwise to generally be a poor second to Zoom. Skype was the most commonly used before lockdown, but was considered dated and its limited use was mainly social, whereas the other tools were also used in work and education. The results were used to draw up separate lists of recommendations for developers and meeting organisers and hosts, as the study also identified actions for organisers and hosts to improve meeting accessibility. Developer recommendations include several easy to set customisation and user friendly interface features, involving disabled people and specific accessibility features, including compatibility with assistive technology, keyboard shortcuts for all functions and automatically-on high quality captions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the review was to explore current factors affecting the use of a powered wheelchair for an adult person a with a disability. Materials and Methods: This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement. Information about the characteristics of the studies (type, setting) and perceived barriers and facilitators to powered wheelchair use were extracted using a data extraction sheet. Data synthesis was achieved using narrative synthesis. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields (SQAC) and the CASP checklist (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme), Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network). Results: Fifteen studies qualified for inclusion in the review. The narrative synthesis produced a conceptual map of reported factors affecting the usability of a powered wheelchair. Conclusions: This review demonstrates that powered wheelchair use is a multifaceted and multidisciplinary phenomenon that is dependent on numerous interconnected factors including individual adjustment, stakeholder cooperation, societal attitudes, functional performance, and environmental features. Based on the review findings, there are several applied learning outcomes and practical applications to the powered wheelchair prescription and provision. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: The rejection, misuse or damage of a powered wheelchair can result in condition deterioration and loss of independence for the user. Adult powered wheelchair prescription, maintenance, and use is a multi-faceted process spanning social, individual, environmental, technical and functional, and organisational factors. Individuals in this stakeholder network should aim to account for these interdisciplinary factors when engaging with people who use powered wheelchairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Registered Nurses working in residential aged care facilities pertaining to pain management for residents living with dementia. Background: Sub-optimal pain management continues for people living with dementia in residential aged care. Registered Nurses are the pivotal staff responsible for complex assessment and management of people residing in residential aged care facilities. Design and methods: :This integrative literature review was informed by Whittemore (2005). Searching and screening followed the PRISMA guidelines. Results: Thirteen papers were identified, the major themes identified were gaps in knowledge and skills, uncertainty of assessment, and delays in treatment. Conclusion: Registered Nurses require education on pain management for people living with dementia in residential aged care. Broader issues in residential aged care contribute to the problem and require examination. Research pertaining to Registered Nurses' roles pain management for residents living with dementia is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review explores the professional literature in allied healthcare to determine which self-assessments of mentor skills are the most valid and reliable for use in occupational therapy doctoral capstone programs. The aims of this scoping review include mapping evidence related to mentor assessments in healthcare, exploring implications for occupational therapy doctoral mentor training programs, and identifying common characteristics of mentor self-assessments for occupational therapy programs to consider when developing capstone mentoring resources. Researchers applied and reported via PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A librarian and authors formulated keywords and database selections to search PubMed/MEDLINE/PMC, and Embase were searched from across healthcare professions for training outcomes, mentor self-assessment, mentor attributes, and use of researcher-developed assessments. The search was limited to English publications from the last 20 years. Data were extracted for quantitative information regarding study characteristics and qualitative information about mentoring skills. A total of 852 results were delivered across all databases. Nineteen papers met the final eligibility criteria and were included in the data extraction. Populations were included from several healthcare professions, including 11 nursing, four healthcare researchers, one pharmacy, one midwifery, one medicine, and one medical dietetics. Countries included the United States (n = 7), Finland (n = 5), United Kingdom (n = 4), Japan (n = 1), South Africa (n = 1) and Canada (n = 1). The authors identified four valid self-assessment tools, demonstrating III and IV levels of evidence, that may be implemented by occupational therapy programs as they develop resources for mentor programs. Occupational therapy programs can use the mentor attributes found in this scoping review to create their own mentor assessment measures or may choose to use a validated tool. The authors recommend additional research in mentor education and mentor skill acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the paradoxes of hailing health care workers as "Covid-19 heroes" in Canada and the United Kingdom. We ask how public discourses—primarily by governments, politicians, mainstream media, but also by racially minoritized groups and migrant-led associations—frame the ambiguous social and legal status of mostly women of color "essential" health care workers during the pandemic. We argue that hailing is a form of conditional inclusion. Hailing involves both the camouflaging of individuals' low-class status, precarious position in the workplace, gendered and racially minoritized positionality and insecure/non-permanent immigration status on the one hand, as well as the potential for resistance, emancipation, wider organizing, and claims-making on the other. Through a focus on Filipino/a workers because of their high levels of representation as health care staff in both contexts, our empirical analysis underlines that hailing as conditional inclusion is asymmetrical and unequal. It enables co-optation and deflection from structural inequalities as the price of conditional inclusion of selected individuals and groups. However, at the same time, hailing generates resistance. Through "tiny openings" these contradictions are named, and the binary language of inclusion/exclusion is challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking broadly sociocultural or sociolinguistic perspectives, the five contributions to this special issue investigate various aspects of the co-construction of knowledge, as this is manifested in K-16 classrooms in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While the authors of these papers address different educational settings, student populations, and curricular content, what unites them is their concern to better understand the cumulative, multidimensional nature of learning and teaching and the ways in which this is enacted in action and discourse across different spaces and over different scales of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Research in palliative care (PC) is often regarded as challenging due to the vulnerability of the population and other peculiarities. We aim to systematically identify barriers to research in PC in the literature. Methods The electronic databases CINAHL, MEDLINE were searched for papers published in the last 25 years. Citations and then abstracts were screened for inclusion. Original papers were included on first-level analysis. On a second level reviews, reports, and position papers were analyzed. Papers containing a direct patient report were specifically analyzed. Barriers were categorized (ethical considerations, financial and time expenses, study design and methodology, human resources and politics) and results quantified. Results Twenty-one original papers and 65 other papers were included. Five studies involved patients directly, five were systematic reviews, three were study experiences, and seven were surveys or workshop reports. Most papers originated from UK, USA, or Norwegian Universities. Ethics and methods were the most often mentioned categories on both levels. Accrual, attrition, and gatekeeping were frequently named barriers. Complex invasive studies or possible side effects hinder patients' participation, as patients are often willing to participate for altruistic motivations. Discussion Barriers to PC research are ethical concerns and methodological challenges. Possible strategies to overcome methodological barriers include international collaborative efforts to include more patients and improve study designs. Ethical barriers indicate the need for patient involvement in the research development process and tailoring research specifically to the PC population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to identify whether differences exist in local and national news framing of immigration. Using 12 years (2001–2012) of print media data from 15 Canadian and British print media sources, this article presents the first attempt to look for systematic differences in cross-city, within-country and cross-national framing on the subject of immigration. Contextual variables such as change in the unemployment rate and in the rate of foreign-born within cities and countries are introduced to test the robustness of the findings from a computer-automated content analysis. Findings suggest that, contrary to expectations, there is little by way of systematic evidence that national and local newspapers frame immigration according to different concerns. Furthermore, cross-city news coverage does not vary based on local contextual factors such as changes in the unemployment rate or rate of foreign-born. Indeed, it would appear that there is little evidence to support hypotheses that local coverage attends only to the ‘local consequences’ of immigration such as crime and unemployment, and that national concerns such as border security and broader economic outlook are solely the purview of national media. Rather, there are far fewer differences in the content and tone of immigration framing among print news sources than conventional wisdom might suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are growing levels of abuse toward match officials in sport as well as general problems of their recruitment and retention. Purpose: This study analyzes the role that physical and nonphysical abuse has on association football referees' intentions to quit and their personal well-being. Methods: Drawing on pooled survey data of association football referees from the UK and Canada, this paper employs probit, ordinary least squares, and treatment effects regression analyses to explore the casual relationship between the physical and nonphysical abuse faced by referees, their intention to quit and their well-being. Results: Although physical abuse is less common than nonphysical abuse both affect the intention to quit and well-being of officials. Moreover, those that do not contemplate quitting also face reductions in their well-being. Conclusion: The research recommends a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of abuse of officials in sport and identifies that organizations have a duty of care for the well-being of their officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been no shortage of literature that has focused on the role of money in politics. While the majority has focused squarely on the fundraising activities and spending preferences of parties and candidates, far less has paid attention to the spending habits of corporations, unions and interests that often register as non-parties. Yet these actors have gained prominence across general elections and referendum campaigns in the past decade owing to the increase in funds spent to influence election outcomes. Little is known about what the public thinks about the participation of these actors in campaigns. Yet public opinion toward non-party campaign spending is important to the degree that it effects perceptions of electoral integrity and might compel policy change. This paper uses new survey data collected from Canada and the UK to answer questions about how citizens perceive non-party campaign spending and what informs attitudes toward non-parties. We find that the public in both countries have mixed views on the participation of non-parties, but that there is some evidence that core concerns about electoral interiority and perceptions toward the role of money in politics drives opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to propose a dynamic mapping for knowledge and ignorance mobilization in science research and innovation. An underlying argument is that ‘knowledge mobilization’ science policy agendas in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom fail to capture a critical element of science and innovation: ignorance mobilization. The latter draws attention to dynamicsupstreamof knowledge in science research and innovation. Although perhaps less visible, there is ample evidence that researchers value, actively produce, and thereby mobilize ignorance. For example, scientists and policymakers routinely mobilize knowledge gaps (cf. ignorance) in the process of establishing and securing research funding to argue the relevance of a scientific paper or a presentation, and to launch new research projects. Ignorance here is non-pejorative and by and large points to the borders and the limits of scientific knowing – what is known to be unknown. In addition, processes leading to the intentional or unintentional consideration or bracketing out of what is known to be unknown are intertwined with, yet remain distinct from, knowledge mobilization dynamics. The concepts of knowledge mobilization and of ignorance mobilization, respectively, are understood to be the use of knowledge or ignorance towards the achievement of goals. The value of this paper lies in its conceptualization of the mobilization of knowledge as related to the mobilization of ignorance within a complex, dynamic and symbiotic relationship in science research and innovation: it takes two to tango. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal security – effects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses state-medicine relations in Canada and Britain as an expression of medicine's perceived dominance of the health policy field. The two main questions addressed by the paper are: how do institutional frameworks affect the outcome of state-medicine conflicts, and how does the medical profession react to challenges to its policy monopoly? These questions are considered in two instances where determined state actors enacted legislation in the face of widespread and vocal medical opposition: the 1984 Canada Health Act and the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. Contrary to much of the literature on professional dominance this paper highlights the predominant role of the state in the state-medicine nexus and shows the conditional and ephemeral nature of medicine's policy monopoly and this monopoly's reliance on a co-operative and acquiescent state actor. The paper further shows that institutional factors, such as centralisation, do not offer a greater opportunity for the solidification of the medical policy monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]