Private

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting

Terms modified by Private

  • private action
  • private actor
  • private agencies
  • private agent
  • private allele
  • private bank
  • private benefit
  • private businesses
  • private capital
  • private channel
  • private clinic
  • private collection
  • private company
  • private consumption
  • private coverage
  • private donation
  • private education
  • private enforcement
  • private enterprise
  • private enterprises
  • private equity
  • private equity firm
  • private finance
  • private finance initiative
  • private firm
  • private foundation
  • private game reserve
  • private goods
  • private health insurance
  • private home
  • private hospital
  • private housing
  • private individual
  • private industry
  • private information
  • private institution
  • private insurance
  • private insurer
  • private interest
  • private investment
  • private investor
  • private land
  • private law
  • private life
  • private market
  • private organisation
  • private organization
  • private ownership
  • private participation
  • private partnership
  • private party
  • private patient
  • private pension
  • private physician
  • private placement
  • private practice
  • private practice setting
  • private practitioner
  • private property
  • private property right
  • private provider
  • private provision
  • private r&d
  • private realm
  • private savings
  • private school
  • private sector
  • private sector development
  • private sector participation
  • private setting
  • private source
  • private space
  • private speech
  • private sphere
  • private university
  • private value

  • Selected Abstracts


    Private borrowing during the financial revolution: Hoare's Bank and its customers, 1702,241

    ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
    PETER TEMIN
    The financial revolution improved the British government's ability to borrow, and thus its ability to wage war. North and Weingast argued that it also permitted private parties to borrow more cheaply and widely. We test these inferences with evidence from a London bank. We confirm that private bank credit was cheap in the early eighteenth century, but we argue that it was not available widely. Importantly, the government reduced the usury rate in 1714, sharply reducing the circle of private clients that could be served profitably. [source]


    STRICTLY LIABLE: GOVERNMENTAL USE OF THE PARENT,CHILD RELATIONSHIP AS A BASIS FOR HOLDING VICTIMS LIABLE FOR THEIR CHILD'S WITNESS TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

    FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 1 2006
    Sharon N. ClarkeArticle first published online: 10 FEB 200
    Studies estimate that between three and ten million children in the United States witness domestic violence annually. Although studies have demonstrated a co-occurrence of domestic violence and child abuse, there is no concrete evidence to support the assumption that a child's exposure to domestic violence increases the risk to the child of abuse or neglect. Recently the New York State Court of Appeals determined that a child's witness to abuse does not suffice, in and of itself, to show that removal of the child is necessary or that removal is in the "best interests" of the child. Programs which have developed alternatives to presumptive removal understand the importance of viewing the interests of the battered parent and children as being in accord with each other rather than in opposition. Private and government sponsored programs have demonstrated some success in protecting the parent-child relationship, ensuring the safety of both parent and child, and increasing accountability of batterers while reducing the necessity for removals. Alternative programs are less costly to the state than foster care, and emotionally less costly to the families. [source]


    Public Versus Private: The Empty Definitions of National Accounting

    FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2000
    Rowan Jones
    The policy-making processes and the policies of the two international systems of national accounts are addressed, from the perspective of the accounting discipline. The particular measurement issue that determines which parts of an economy are public and which are private - the reporting entity - is discussed. The main conclusion is that the definition of the reporting entities is so vague as to be empty; in other words, national accounting's definition of what is public and what is private is empty. [source]


    Moving from Private to Public Ownership: Selling Out to Public Firms versus Initial Public Offerings

    FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2008
    Annette B. Poulsen
    We study two alternative means to move assets from private to public ownership: through the acquisition of private companies by firms that are public (sellouts) or through initial public share offerings (IPOs). We consider firm-specific characteristics for 1,074 IPO and 735 sellout firms to identify differences in growth, capital constraints, and asymmetric information between the two types of transactions. Our results suggest that firms move to public ownership through an IPO when they have greater growth opportunities and face more capital constraints. We provide a better understanding of the firm-specific characteristics that lead firms to go public. [source]


    Private and panel patients of complementary and conventional medicine , how well are they informed about the practitioners' qualifications?

    FOCUS ON ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES AN EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH, Issue 4 2003
    C Peiffer
    [source]


    The Change from Private to Public Governance of British Higher Education: Its Consequences for Higher Education Policy Making 1980,2006

    HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2008
    Michael Shattock
    This article argues that in moving from being self governed to being state governed the policy drivers for higher education are no longer those of the system itself but are derived from a set of policies designed for the reform and modernisation of the public sector of the economy. The formation of higher education policy therefore needs to be reinterpreted as an adjunct of public policy, rather than as something intrinsic to higher education. The impact of ,new public management' approaches and of political interventions are explored in illustrating the consequences of the centralisation of the management of the public services and of higher education becoming an issue in national politics. [source]


    Private or public: debating the meaning of tenure legalization

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002
    Ann Varley
    Hernando de Soto's book The mystery of capital has renewed debate about illegality in low,income housing in Latin America, Asia and Africa. De Soto and others argue that property titles provide the poor with collateral for loans to improve their housing or set up a business. Critics argue that incorporation into the formal market will displace the original inhabitants. In this article I analyse these debates about legalization as expressions of the dualisms that have shaped western thought. The relation between legal and illegal can be understood as a variant of the public/private dichotomy. Challenging the opposition of legal to illegal, I argue that the difference between them is not as great as the proponents of legalization assume. This questions the efficacy of legalization as an engine of change. In Mexico, the beneficiaries of legalization have little interest in formal credit, preferring loans from friends or relatives, and legalization does not lead to displacement. The failure of theories about legalization to predict the outcome is a product of their reliance on dualistic thinking and of the exclusion of the private from their accounts of the process. Le livre d'Hernando de Soto, The mystery of capital, a relancé le débat sur l'illégalité de l'habitat à faible revenu en Amérique latine, Asie et Afrique. Selon de Soto et d'autres, les titres de propriété procurent aux pauvres une garantie pour emprunter afin d'améliorer leur logement ou de créer une entreprise. Les opposants affirment qu'une intégration au marché officiel déplacerait les habitants d'origine. L'article analyse ces débats sur la légalisation en tant qu'expressions des dualismes qui ont façonné la pensée occidentale. On peut appréhender la relation entre le légal et l'illégal comme une variante de la dichotomie public,privé. En contestant l'opposition légal,illégal, on peut affirmer que la différence n'est pas aussi importante que le supposent les partisans de la légalisation, ce qui remet en cause l'efficacité de celle,ci en tant que moteur de changement. Au Mexique, les bénéficiaires de la légalisation s'intéressent peu au crédit officiel, préférant les prêts entre amis ou parents, et cette légalisation ne provoque pas de déplacement. Les théories sur la légalisation ont échoué dans leur prédiction des résultats, car elles s'appuient sur une réflexion dualiste et excluent le privé de leur évaluation du processus. [source]


    Women's Place in the Family and the Convent: A Reconsideration of Public and Private in Renaissance Florence

    JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, Issue 2 2001
    Saundra Weddle
    The public-private dichotomy has traditionally been defined by contrasting spaces that are open to those that are enclosed. Historical studies of Renaissance Italian architecture and cities have generally accepted this categorization and have relegated women of the period to the private realm,the domestic or the conventual setting. An examination of contemporary writings and of the function of so-called private spaces of a Florentine convent demonstrates that our understanding ofpublic andprivate must go beyond a consideration of formal criteria, and must also consider the identity and activities of the individuals who occupy the spaces in question. [source]


    Public (Interest) or Private (Gain)?

    JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2007
    The Curious Case of Network Rail's Status
    This paper develops Whitehouse's 2003 examination of the creation of Network Rail, a case study of New Labour's attempt to operationalize the ,third way'. Significant changes have occurred since 2003 which make Network Rail's position as a private company with private sector debt appear increasingly anomalous. These changes include: the reclassification of the debt of another rail company from private to public, and the introduction of,imputed debt'into public sector debt measurement; new funding arrangements for Network Rail which make it heavily dependent on public support; and important rail regulatory policy changes. The paper analyses these changes, and revisits White-house's conclusions. In particular, this paper challenges Whitehouse's contention that Network Rail's creation led to the de facto renationalization of the railway infrastructure at a reduced public cost. The paper demonstrates that Network Rail is a very expensive mechanism for channelling public money to private companies, and argues that the Labour government's attempt to maintain the company's private sector status as part of its third way approach is ultimately untenable. [source]


    Payments Settlement: Tiering in Private and Public Systems

    JOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 5 2009
    CHARLES M. KAHN
    payment systems; limited enforcement; settlement risk; tiering What are the benefits provided by a payment system? What are the trade-offs in public versus private payment systems and in restricted versus open payments arrangements? Modern payment systems encompass a variety of institutional designs with varying degrees of counterparty protection. We develop a framework that allows for an examination and comparison of payment systems, and specification of conditions leading to their adoption. We relate these conditions to the design of present large-value payment systems (Fedwire, CHIPS, TARGET, etc.). [source]


    Epidemic of Cesarean Section at the General, Private and University Hospitals in Thailand

    JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY RESEARCH (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2000
    Dr. Boonsri Chanrachakul
    Abstract Objective: To undertake a survey of cesarean section in the general, private and university hospitals in Thailand. Methods: Postal questionnaires were sent to all the general, private and university hospitals with 200 beds or more. The questionnaires were prepared to find out the percentage, the indications and the trend of cesarean delivery, the measures taken to decrease cesarean section rate, and the practice of external cephalic version (ECV) and vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC) in the hospitals. Results: The overall response rate was 88%. Mean cesarean section rates were 24, 48, and 22% in the general, private and university hospitals, respectively. Cesarean section rates in most of the hospitals were increased in the past 5 years namely 78% in the general hospitals, 50% in the private hospitals, 66% in the university hospitals. However, only 38% of the hospitals had measures to regulate this operation. Repeated cesarean section was the most common indication in the private (63%) and the university hospitals (88%) while failure to progress was the most common indication in the general hospitals (55%). ECV and VBAC were performed in 26 and 12% of the hospitals. They were, however, not the standard practices. Conclusion: Rising of cesarean section rate without any measure to regulate it is the problem in the developing countries. Standardised labor management and reduction of unnecessary primary cesarean section will automatically reduce repeated operation and overall cesarean section. [source]


    Hazardous Facility Siting When Cost Information Is Private: An Application of Multidimensional Mechanism Design

    JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMIC THEORY, Issue 4 2003
    Keith Waehrer
    The siting of hazardous facilities often involves externalities that extend beyond the border of the community selected as a site. Thus, the private information of each community is potentially a vector of costs comprising a cost for each of the possible sites. I characterize the conditions for the existence of a direct mechanism that is incentive compatible, individually rational, and budget balancing. Incentive compatibility implies a pattern of compensation payments that often conflicts with compensation policy goals. When nonparticipating communities cannot block the siting of the facility, it will often be possible to implement siting policies with a balanced budget. [source]


    Against Both Private and Public Counterfeiting

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 5 2007
    Mateusz Machaj
    In his highly provocative and otherwise brilliant book Defending the Undefendable (1991), Walter Block defends the private counterfeiting of state-counterfeited money. His argument fallaciously relies on an idiosyncratic linguistic definition of the counterfeiter, which is invalid from a legal point of view. In this short response, we analyze private counterfeiting in legal and economic terms rather than linguistic, and show why the behavior of the private counterfeiter should not be considered acceptable, let alone heroic, as claimed by Block. The present article is strongly influenced by Rothbard (1982). [source]


    Effects of self-reported health conditions and pesticide exposures on probability of follow-up in a prospective cohort study

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 5 2010
    Martha P. Montgomery MHS
    Abstract Background We investigated the potential for selection bias due to non-participation in the follow-up of a large prospective cohort study. Methods Licensed pesticide applicators (52,395 private; 4,916 commercial) in the Agricultural Health Study provided demographic, health, and pesticide exposure information at enrollment (1993,1997) and in a 5-year follow-up telephone interview. Factors associated with non-participation in the follow-up were identified using multiple logistic regression. Potential for selection bias was evaluated by comparing exposure,disease associations between the entire cohort and the follow-up subset. Results Sixty-six percent of private and 60% of commercial applicators completed the follow-up interview. Private and commercial applicators who did not complete the follow-up reported at enrollment younger age, less education, lower body mass index, poorer health behaviors but fewer health conditions, and lower pesticide use. Estimates of exposure,disease associations calculated with and without non-participants did not indicate strong selection bias. Conclusions Differences between non-participants and participants in the follow-up interview were generally small, and we did not find significant evidence of selection bias. However, the extent of bias may depend on the specific exposure and outcome under study. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:486,496, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Educational Standards in Private and Public Schools,

    THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 533 2008
    Giorgio Brunello
    When school quality increases with the educational standard set by schools, education before college need not be a hierarchy with private schools offering better quality than public schools. In our model, private schools can offer a lower educational standard at a positive price because they attract students with a relatively high cost of effort, who would find the high standards of public schools excessively demanding. We estimate the key parameters of the model and show that majority voting supports a system where private schools have higher quality in the US and public schools have higher quality in Italy. [source]


    Market Liquidity, Investor Participation, and Managerial Autonomy: Why Do Firms Go Private?

    THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 4 2008
    ARNOUD W. A. BOOT
    ABSTRACT We focus on public-market investor participation to analyze the firm's decision to stay public or go private. The liquidity of public ownership is both a blessing and a curse: It lowers the cost of capital, but also introduces volatility in a firm's shareholder base, exposing management to uncertainty regarding shareholder intervention in management decisions, thereby affecting the manager's perceived decision-making autonomy and curtailing managerial inputs. We extract predictions about how investor participation affects stock price level and volatility and the public firm's incentives to go private, providing a link between investor participation and firm participation in public markets. [source]


    Patents and Pharmaceutical R&D: Consolidating Private,Public Partnership Approach to Global Public Health Crises

    THE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 4 2010
    Chidi Oguamanam
    Intellectual property (IP) is a reward and incentive market-driven mechanism for fostering innovation and creativity. The underlying, but disputed, assumption to this logic is that without IP, the wheel of innovation and inventiveness may grind to a halt or spin at a lower and unhelpful pace. This conventional justification of IP enjoys, perhaps, greater empirical credibility with the patent regime than with other regimes. Despite the inconclusive role of patents as a stimulant for research and development (R&D), special exception is given to patent's positive impact on innovation and inventiveness in the pharmaceutical sector. This article focuses on that sector and links the palpable disconnect between the current pharmaceutical R&D agenda and global public health crises, especially access to drugs for needy populations, to a flaw in the reward and incentive theory of the patent system. It proposes a creative access model to the benefits of pharmaceutical research by pointing in the direction of a global treaty to empower and institutionalize private,public partnerships in health care provisions. Such a regime would restore balance in the global IP system that presently undermines the public-regarding considerations in IP jurisprudence. [source]


    The Restoration of "Private Right"

    THE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 2 2003
    The New Chinese Trademark Law, its Implementing Regulations
    First page of article [source]


    The Welfare and Political Economy Dimensions of Private versus State Enterprise

    THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 2 2002
    Paul Cook
    We revisit the theoretical debate concerning the merits of privatization by decomposing the welfare effect of transferring an enterprise from public to private ownership. A range of effects is considered including overproduction, subsidy valuation, redistribution, ownership and regulatory effects. The potential gains/losses from privatization are examined by considering the initial conditions facing enterprises under public ownership (whether technically and/or economically efficient) and a range of post-privatization market structures (whether monopoly, oligopoly or Walrasian). [source]


    Ethics Review for Sale?

    THE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2000
    Commercial Research Review Boards, Conflict of Interest
    Research review boards, established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects, have to ensure that conflicts of interest do not interfere with the ethical conduct of medical research. Private, commercial review boards, which increasingly review research protocols, are themselves affected by a structural conflict of interest. Within the regulatory setting, procedural conflict-of-interest rules are essential because of the absence of clear substantive rules in research review and the reliance on the fairness and good judgment of institutional review board members. Current guidelines and regulations lack adequate conflict-of-interest rules and provide insufficient details on the substantive rules. Because commercial review boards are similar to administrative courts and tribunals, rules of administrative law on bias are applied to determine when a conflict of interest jeopardizes the purposes of research review; administrative law has always judged financial conflicts of interest severely. The structure of private review tends to breach a core principle of administrative law and procedural justice. Reform of the research review system will reinforce public trust in the process. [source]


    Working Girls, Cancun Style: Reconfiguring Private and Public Domains in Practice

    ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW, Issue 3 2001
    Alison C. Greene
    First page of article [source]


    From Public To Private: Evidence From a Transitional Economy Setting

    AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
    Tyrone M. Carlin
    The literature on public financial management reform has devoted comparatively little attention to the detail and effect of reform process implementation in developing economies. This study contributes to an understanding of this phenomenon by examining the impact of privatisation on a sample of previously state-owned enterprises in Vietnam. Using a detailed, financially focused methodology and drawing on data sourced from audited general purpose financial statements, our analysis suggests evidence of material variation in financial performance and position post-privatisation compared to the position observed immediately prior to privatisation. Specifically, our data suggest that after being privatised, firms generally exhibit reductions in profitability, some degree of improvement in working capital management, an increase in financial leverage accompanied by a higher degree of solvency risk and greater calls on cash resources for the purpose of funding capital expenditure. Our results assist with understanding the impact of privatisation as a reform technique in developing economies, and may help policymakers and managers better target areas of likely risk, during the process of transition from public to private ownership. [source]


    Public or Private: Where Government Should Draw the Line

    AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 33 2004
    R. R. Officer
    The search by democracies for better forms of social structure inevitably raises questions about the role of government and how it might be structured in order to improve the well-being of the community. When changes involve new methods of financing the provision of government services, such as public-private partnerships, complex considerations arise. [source]


    Effects of Private and Public Canadian Mergers

    CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 2 2005
    Ayse Yuce
    Abstract This paper examines the merger announcements of Canadian companies between 1994 and 2000 during an exceptional merger boom. The results show that both the target companies and the acquirer companies obtain significant positive abnormal returns during this time period. Companies that acquire private targets with stock have positive returns; however, acquirers of private firms have significantly higher risk compared with those that acquire public targets, despite nonsignificant differences in returns. Acquirers pay significantly less to acquire private firms than public firms, especially with stock. Overall, the findings suggest there is support for a liquidity discount for private firms, and the market is efficient in valuing firms in asymmetric conditions. Résumé Dans cet article, nous examinons les annonces de fusions des compagnies canadiennes entre 1994 et 2000, période de grand boom de fusion. Les résultats montrent qu'au cours de cette période, les compagnies cibles et les compagnies acquéreuses obtiennent des rendements anormaux positifs. Les entreprises qui achètent des cibles privées avec des actions ont des rendements positifs; cependant, ces entreprises ont des risques considérablement plus élevés par rapport aux entreprises qui achètent des cibles publiques nonobstant des différences négligeables dans les rendements. Par ailleurs, les acquéreurs paient nettement moins pour acheter les entreprises privées que pour acheter les entreprises publiques, en particulier celles qui ont des actions. Dans l'ensemble, les résultats de l'étude révèlent qu'il est nécessaire d'escompter la liquidité pour les entreprises privées et que le marché permet de valoriser les entreprises dans les conditions asymétriques. [source]


    Beyond Reaping the First Harvest: Management Objectives for Timber Production in the Brazilian Amazon

    CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2007
    DANIEL J. ZARIN
    manejo de bosques; producción sostenida; sustentabilidad; tala de impacto reducido Abstract:,Millions of hectares of future timber concessions are slated to be implemented within large public forests under the forest law passed in 2006 by the Brazilian Congress. Additional millions of hectares of large, privately owned forests and smaller areas of community forests are certified as well managed by the Forest Stewardship Council, based on certification standards that will be reviewed in 2007. Forest size and ownership are two key factors that influence management objectives and the capacity of forest managers to achieve them. Current best ecological practices for timber production from Brazil's native Amazon forests are limited to reduced-impact logging (RIL) systems that minimize the environmental impacts of harvest operations and that obey legal restrictions regarding minimum diameters, rare species, retention of seed trees, maximum logging intensity, preservation of riparian buffers, fire protection, and wildlife conservation. Compared with conventional, predatory harvesting that constitutes >90% of the region's timber production, RIL dramatically reduces logging damage and helps maintain forest cover and the presence of rare tree species, but current RIL guidelines do not assure that the volume of timber removed can be sustained in future harvests. We believe it is counterproductive to expect smallholders to subscribe to additional harvest limitations beyond RIL, that larger private forested landholdings managed for timber production should be sustainable with respect to the total volume of timber harvested per unit area per cutting cycle, and that large public forests should sustain volume production of individual harvested species. These additional requirements would improve the ecological sustainability of forest management and help create a stable forest-based sector of the region's economy, but would involve costs associated with lengthened cutting cycles, reduced harvest intensities, and/or postharvest silviculture to promote adequate growth and regeneration. Resumen:,Bajo la nueva ley forestal aprobada en 2006 por el Congreso Brasileño, millones de hectáreas de bosques públicos están destinadas a constituir futuras concesiones madereras. Millones de hectáreas adicionales de extensos bosques privados y áreas reducidas de bosques comunitarios están certificadas por el Forest Stewardship Council por su buen manejo, con base en estándares de certificación que serán revisados en 2007. La extensión y tenencia del bosque son dos factores clave que influyen en los objetivos de manejo y en la capacidad de los manejadores para alcanzarlos. Las mejores prácticas ecológicas actuales para la producción de madera en los bosques de la Amazonía Brasileña están limitadas a sistemas de tala de impacto reducido (TIR) que minimizan los impactos ambientales de las operaciones de cosecha y que obedecen restricciones legales en relación con los diámetros mínimos, las especies raras, la retención de árboles semilla, la máxima intensidad de tala, la preservación de amortiguamientos ribereños, la protección del fuego y la conservación de vida silvestre. En comparación con la cosecha convencional, depredadora, mediante la cual se obtiene >90% de la producción de madera en la región, la TIR dramáticamente reduce el daño y ayuda a mantener la cobertura del bosque y la presencia de especies de árboles raras, pero los actuales lineamientos de TIR no aseguran que el volumen de madera removida pueda ser sostenido en futuras cosechas. Consideramos que es contraproducente esperar que los pequeños propietarios suscriban límites a la cosecha más allá de la TIR; que los bosques privados manejados para la producción de madera debieran ser sustentables respecto al volumen total de madera cosechada por unidad de área por ciclo de corte; y que los bosques públicos deberían sustentar el volumen de producción de especies individuales. Estos requerimientos adicionales mejorarían la sustentabilidad ecológica del manejo de bosques y ayudaría a crear un sector forestal estable en la economía regional, pero implicarían costos asociados con la prolongación de los ciclos de corte, la reducción de las intensidades de cosecha y/o la silvicultura postcosecha para promover el crecimiento adecuado y la regeneración. [source]


    Significance of Specimen Databases from Taxonomic Revisions for Estimating and Mapping the Global Species Diversity of Invertebrates and Repatriating Reliable Specimen Data

    CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2004
    RUDOLF MEIER
    More specifically, we demonstrate for a specimen database assembled during a revision of the robber-fly genus Euscelidia (Asilidae, Diptera) how nonparametric species richness estimators (Chao1, incidence-based coverage estimator, second-order jackknife) can be used to (1) estimate global species diversity, (2) direct future collecting to areas that are undersampled and/or likely to be rich in new species, and (3) assess whether the plant-based global biodiversity hotspots of Myers et al. (2000) contain a significant proportion of invertebrates. During the revision of Euscelidia, the number of known species more than doubled, but estimation of species richness revealed that the true diversity of the genus was likely twice as high. The same techniques applied to subsamples of the data indicated that much of the unknown diversity will be found in the Oriental region. Assessing the validity of biodiversity hotspots for invertebrates is a formidable challenge because it is difficult to decide whether species are hotspot endemics, and lists of observed species dramatically underestimate true diversity. Lastly, conservation biologists need a specimen database analogous to GenBank for collecting specimen records. Such a database has a three-fold advantage over information obtained from digitized museum collections: (1) it is shown for Euscelidia that a large proportion of unrevised museum specimens are misidentified; (2) only the specimen lists in revisionary studies cover a wide variety of private and public collections; and (3) obtaining specimen records from revisions is cost-effective. Resumen:,Sostuvimos que los millones de registros de especimenes publicados en miles de revisiones taxonómicas en décadas anteriores son una fuente de información costo-efectiva de importancia crítica para la incorporación de invertebrados en decisiones de investigación y conservación. Más específicamente, para una base de datos de especimenes de moscas del género Euscelidia (Asilidae, Diptera) demostramos como se pueden utilizar estimadores no paramétricos de riqueza de especies (Chao 1, estimador de cobertura basado en incidencia, navaja de segundo orden) para (1) estimar la diversidad global de especies, (2) dirigir colecciones futuras a áreas que están sub-muestreadas y/o probablemente tengan especies nuevas y (3) evaluar si los sitios globales de importancia para la biodiversidad basados en plantas de Myers et al. (2000) contienen una proporción significativa de invertebrados. Durante la revisión de Euscelidia el número de especies conocidas fue más del doble, pero la estimación de riqueza de especies reveló que la diversidad real del género probablemente también era el doble. Las mismas técnicas aplicadas a las sub-muestras de datos indicaron que gran parte de la diversidad no conocida se encontrará en la Región Oriental. La evaluación de la validez de sitios de importancia para la biodiversidad de invertebrados es un reto formidable porque es difícil decidir si las especies son endémicas de esos sitios y si las listas de especies observadas subestiman dramáticamente la diversidad real. Finalmente, los biólogos de la conservación requieren de una base de datos de especimenes análoga a GenBank, para obtener registros de especimenes. Dicha base de datos tiene una triple ventaja sobre la información obtenida de colecciones de museos digitalizadas. (1) Se muestra para Euscelidia que una gran proporción de especimenes de museo no revisados están mal identificados. (2) Sólo las listas de especimenes en estudios de revisión cubren una amplia variedad de colecciones privadas y públicas. (3) La obtención de registros en revisiones es costo-efectiva. [source]


    Skin-sensitizing and irritant properties of propylene glycol

    CONTACT DERMATITIS, Issue 5 2005
    Data analysis of a multicentre surveillance network (IVDK, review of the literature
    In the several publications reviewed in this article, propylene glycol (PG; 1,2-propylene glycol) is described as a very weak contact sensitizer, if at all. However, particular exposures to PG-containing products might be associated with an elevated risk of sensitization. To identify such exposures, we analysed patch test data of 45 138 patients who have been tested with 20% PG in water between 1992 and 2002. Out of these, 1044 patients (2.3%) tested positively, 1083 showed a doubtful, follicular or erythematous reaction (2.4%) and 271 explicit irritant reactions (0.6%). This profile of patch test reactions is indicative of a slightly irritant preparation, and thus, many of the ,weak positive' reactions must probably be interpreted as false positive. No private or occupational exposures associated with an increased risk of PG sensitization were identified, except for lower leg dermatitis. Therefore, according to our patch test data, PG seems to exhibit very low sensitization potential, and the risk for sensitization to PG on uncompromised skin seems to be very low. [source]


    CSR in business start-ups: an application method for stakeholder engagement

    CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2009
    Jose Luis Retolaza
    Abstract In this paper, we propose a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) method to apply in business start-ups or newly created firms, whose main aim is the engagement of stakeholders. Several different CSR resources have been developed from various initiatives, both public and private. However, these initiatives do not highlight and consider the characteristics of newly created firms; moreover, most CSR theories and methods of applying social responsibility in firms are focused on medium and large firms, whose characteristics are so different, compared to start-ups and newly created firms. The method proposed in this paper shows the possibility, at least theoretically, to implement a CSR method to tackle all of the interests of future and potential stakeholders in business start-ups. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


    VOICES FROM THE BARRIO: CHICANO/A GANGS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES,

    CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 2 2000
    MARJORIE S. ZATZ
    Based on in-depth interviews with 33 youth gang members and 20 adult neighborhood leaders and youth service providers, we explore the complicated relationships among gang members, their families, and other residents of poor Chicano/a and Mexicano/a barrios in Phoenix. Listening to the multiple voices of community members allows for a multifaceted understanding of the complexities and contradictions of gang life, both for the youths and for the larger community. We draw on a community ecology approach to help explain the tensions that develop, especially when community members vary in their desires and abilities to control gang-related activities. In this exploratory study, we point to some of the ways in which gender, age, education, traditionalism, and level of acculturation may help explain variation in the type and strength of private, parochial, and public social control within a community. [source]


    FATHERS, SONS, AND THE STATE: Discipline and Punishment in a Wolof Hinterland

    CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
    DONNA L. PERRY
    ABSTRACT This essay builds on fieldwork in rural Senegal to examine three cases in which elder household heads called on gendarmes to physically discipline rebellious youths. These cases, which revolved around harsh acts of corporal punishment, invite inquiry into common assumptions about African families and states. The first assumption is the common dichotomy drawn between African youths, portrayed as modern and menacing, and African elders, portrayed as "traditional" and hence benign. The second assumption is the dichotomy drawn between the African family, conceived as solidary and nurturing, and the African state, conceived as alien and predatory. In examining these cases of discipline and punishment, this essay reveals the ever-shifting power relations that link Wolof household heads, dependent junior males, and state agents, and simultaneously introduces new questions about the morality of farmer,state relations and generational conflict. My analysis reveals the spatial geography of Senegal's youth crisis, which takes different forms in rural and urban locales. The anxiety of rural patriarchs is fed by a fear-mongering media obsessed with youthful anarchy in the cities, and a long-standing political rhetoric about the threat of rural out-migration. Elder men in the countryside, who experience diminishing household authority under neoliberalism, make proactive efforts to keep the urban youth crisis at bay. They seek to augment their domestic power by reestablishing links with a state that has long bolstered patriarchy but whose power is currently in decline. By lending patriarchs their coercive force, gendarmes attempt to accomplish through private, indirect means, what the postcolonial state is unable to do: maintain social order by reining in disruptive youths. The harsh disciplinary measures that gendarmes employ are not alien to Wolof culture, but integral to Wolof conceptions of child rearing. [source]