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Background Stroke can be a life-changing event, with survivors frequently experiencing some level of disability, reduced independence, and an abrupt lifestyle change. Not surprisingly, many stroke survivors report elevated levels of stress during the recovery process, which has been associated with worse outcomes. Purpose Given the multiple roles of stress in the etiology of stroke recovery outcomes, we aimed to scope the existing literature on stress management interventions that have been trialed in stroke survivors. Methods We performed a database search for intervention studies conducted in stroke survivors which reported the effects on stress, resilience, or coping outcome. Medline (OVID), Embase (OVID), CINAHL (EBSCO), Cochrane Library, and PsycInfo (OVID) were searched from database inception until March 11, 2019, and updated on September 1, 2020. Results Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. There was significant variation in the range of trialed interventions, as well as the outcome measures used to assess stress. Overall, just over half (13/24) of the included studies reported a benefit in terms of stress reduction. Acceptability and feasibility were considered in 71% (17/24) and costs were considered in 17% (4/24) of studies. The management of stress was rarely linked to the prevention of symptoms of stress-related disorders. The overall evidence base of included studies is weak. However, an increase in the number of studies over time suggests a growing interest in this subject. Conclusions Further research is required to identify optimum stress management interventions in stroke survivors, including whether the management of stress can ameliorate the negative impacts of stress on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As exogenous shocks impact on industry we believe it timely to revisit the experience of two ‘staple’ industries during the interwar period: cotton and wool textiles. Using a variety of under- explored primary source materials we argue that the ability to withstand the shocks of the interwar years was largely dependent on prior investment decisions. In cotton textiles the re floatation boom precluded strategic flexibility and encouraged collusion. The absence of such behaviour in wool textiles fostered competition and the pursuit of a successful marketing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines morbidity and mortality patterns in interwar England and Wales, using previously under-explored primary archival source materials. These materials help us understand not only what local authorities could and did do, but also the reasons for the marked variations in the ability of different authorities to manage the problem. We identify where and why there were problems and also how and why some authorities were more successful than others in dealing with the disease. Wealth was not an issue. We find a combination of pro-active preventative measures was significant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the early post-war years, tuberculosis could be prevented, identified and cured. This paper is about why that promise was not realised. We have collated evidence on the morbidity and mortality problem over a wider range of countries than previously explored. This revealed a divided world in which some people were denied release from the disease. We consider the extent to which development itself creates the condition in which the disease spreads, by assessing how and why the emerging markets experienced and dealt with the disease. Finally, we consider why so many peoples in the developing world continued to contract the disease and die. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research surveys the fight against tuberculosis in postwar Europe and presents new empirical evidence (resulting from the creation of a new data set) with regards to the victory against this disease. We contribute to the literature first by explaining how and why morbidity and mortality are valid measures of the quality of life and provide new ways of thinking about standards of living. We find that all in all, both the cross-sectional and panel data results suggest that the fight against tuberculosis was mostly a function of a country's social development (living, working conditions and nutrition) than economic growth as well as the effectiveness (and organization) of public health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper builds on previous work published in this journal by considering the historical roots of poverty in relation to the denial or otherwise of access to the information made available by radio technology. The case study is that of the British Empire in the early post-war years. New dimensions of access that are developing economy sensitive are presented and evaluated. We find that the colonial legacy of radio broadcast is significantly correlated with the diffusion and adoption of radio technologies in subsequent years and that this in terms was largely the reflection of geo-political considerations. Differential access to information has its roots in the colonial historical past. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a rich and under-exploited set of primary sources, differential rates of take up of radio broadcast technologies across the British Empire are described and explained. The research adds a developing economy perspective to the literature on the diffusion of consumer durables. The effects of prices and incomes (captured via an “affordability index”) are qualified. The strategic concerns of suppliers and path-dependent processes are shown to have been significant. The complex effects of ethnic fragmentation on rates of diffusion within colonial territories are revealed. Debates regarding technological change in the developing world and about the diffusion of consumer durables are advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background. Considerable changes have occurred over the last 5 years in the organization of out-of-hours care in the UK. Users’ experiences of their care are an important part of ‘quality of care’ and are valuable for identifying areas for improvement.Aim. To identify strengths and weaknesses of out-of hours service provision in Wales. The design of the study is a cross-sectional survey. The setting of the study is nine GP services, three Accident and Emergency units and NHS Direct in Wales.Method. Survey using the validated Out-of-Hours questionnaire. We identified the four most and least favourably rated items regarding users’ experience of care. These were analysed by type of care provided, telephone advice, treatment centre and home visit groups.Results. Eight hundred and fifty-five of 3250 users responded (26% response rate). Across providers and types of care, consistent strengths were the ‘manner of treatment by call operator’ and the ‘explanation of the next step by call operator’. Consistent weaknesses were the ‘speed of call back by the clinician’, the ‘information provided by the GP’, ‘getting medication after the consultation’ and ‘when to contact the (in-hours) GP’.Conclusions. Users of out-of-hours care identify clear and consistent strengths and weaknesses of service provision across Wales. Specific areas for improvement concern the interface between in-hours care and out-of-hours care and between out-of-hours care and self-care. GP surgeries need to give better information on how to access the out-of-hours services. Out-of-hours providers should improve their advice on how and when to access in-hours surgeries and also improve the availability of medicines after out-of-hours consultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Several different models of out-of-hours primary care now exist in the UK. Important outcomes of care include users’ satisfaction and enablement to manage their illness or condition, but the determinants of these outcomes in the unscheduled care domain are poorly understood.Aim. To identify predictors of user satisfaction and enablement across unscheduled care or GP out-of-hours service providers in Wales. The design of the study is a cross-sectional survey. The setting of the study is nine GP out-of-hours services, three Accident and Emergency units and an all Wales telephone advice service in Wales.Methods. Postal survey using the Out-of-hours Patient Questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to fit both satisfaction and enablement models, based on demographic variables, service provider and treatment received and perceptions or ratings of the care process.Results. Eight hundred and fifty-five of 3250 users responded (26% response rate, range across providers 14–41%, no evidence of non-response bias for age or gender). Treatment centre consultations were significantly associated with decreased patient satisfaction and decreased enablement compared with telephone advice. Delays in call answering or callback for triage and shorter consultations were significantly associated with lower satisfaction. Waiting more than a minute for initial call answering was associated with lower enablement.Conclusions. Giving users more time to discuss their illness in consultations may enhance satisfaction and enablement but this may be resource intensive. More simple interventions to improve access by quicker response and triage, and keeping users informed of waiting times, could also serve to increase satisfaction and ultimately impact on their enablement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current anti-poverty wave, beginning in the 1990s, has not been deeply influenced by the processes which caused underdevelopment in the past. This is a pity, because historical awareness can help define the processes and institutions which have caused poverty in the past, and provide ideas from the past which can inspire present-day policy. The essays in this volume all use primary source materials to open up pathways towards the better understanding of present-day poverty dynamics in the developing world. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we create the beginnings of a database on indicators of poverty and deprivation in six African countries over the last 100 years, with the intention of explaining the long-term trend of policy. We argue that an important key to those trends is provided by the decision during the first decades of the twentieth century to allow, or not to allow, the occupation of agricultural land by European settlers. If allowed (as in the white settler—controlled economies of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, where Africans were squeezed out of income-earning opportunities by competition and prohibition until the 1960s at least) the legacy, we show, was a lack of bargaining power by Africans in the labour market, a real wage static at the subsistence level until late in the century, a highly unequal income distribution, and a small asset base from which to reduce poverty during the liberalisations of the 1980s and 1990s. If forbidden, as in the peasant-export economies of Ghana and Uganda (and to some extent Ethiopia), the legacy was a floor under the labour market, from the 1920s on, which could serve as a basis for poverty-reducing reforms in later years. Thus the potential for poverty reduction during the current ‘poverty reduction wave’ was indeed determined by the historical inheritance of institutions and policies, in particular settlement policies; but in a quite different way from that adumbrated by the recent analysis of Acemoglu et al. (2001). In their analysis, colonies with a high density of European occupation in colonial times persistently generate higher growth potential in later years; we argue the reverse. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the elimination of malaria could provide an escape from poverty with reference to the timing of the decline in malaria and its implications in terms of the labour force, the implications for the agricultural sector and the growth of the tourist industry in Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy in the first half of the twentieth century. The paper finds that whilst the control of malaria did have an economic effect, the escape from poverty was encouraged but not explained by malaria elimination. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents a review of periodical literature on economic history in 2002. A plausible alternative to any straightforward equation between cultural change and population movement clearly lies in attention to the construction of identity, but many problems remain in applying such approaches to the available archaeological record. Economic factors receive particular emphasis in two studies of aristocratic culture in late Anglo-Saxon England. These processes are in turn attributed to increased agricultural productivity and entrepreneurship, and increased extraction of dues and renders in the form of coin. All these changes are held to have induced a series of transformations in the political culture of the mid-eleventh century, characterized by the deployment of wealth and cash in political intervention. The economy of Britain in the twelfth century is relatively neglected by historians. The development of nucleated villages has been a key theme of work on settlement. Dispersed settlement could be encouraged by the asserting associated with the population growth of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries although population was in decline in this region even before the Black Death.

Explores the response of trade unions to byssinosis in the Lancashire cotton industry during the twentieth century. Byssinosis death certificates in Great Britain from 1942 to 1999; History of byssinosis; Refusal of the government to compensate byssinosis until it was established that it was a unique and detectable disease.

The author reviews periodical literature on economic history published in 2001. The focus of articles in 2001 was on evidence for trade before 1100, particularly among archaeologists. Various articles add to the knowledge of Anglo-Saxon material culture and industry. They discuss the character of Anglo-Saxon lordship and kingship, estate organization in the lowlands, money supply in England, pervasiveness of commercial values, growth of settlements, forest economy, water supply in London, stone from the North Downs, analysis of sherds from yard middens in the hamlet of West Cotton and ecclesiastical institutions. One paper examines the implications of economic and demographic change for the market in customary land. Another argues against the proposition that heiresses were generally wedded to the heirs of established families.

A recurrent theme in the economic history of the UK is that of the under-performing firm. The issue is not any scarcity of evidence, be it relative productivity levels and growth rates, market shares at home and abroad or profitability. The literature abounds with such evidence. The problem is how the fortunes of such [inns are turned round. Two aspects apply. The first is that of responsibility; who, and in what sense, is ultimately responsible for correcting under-performance? The orthodox model of the owner-managed firm would place that responsibility on the individual as both owner and manager. The growth of the publicly quoted firm, however, has led to a separation of ownership from management and, with it, problems on the nature of responsibility. The second is that, despite the growing literature and contemporary debate on best practice, the application of the analysis of systems of regulation and control to the problems of firm performance has hot figured in economic and financial history, despite the wealth of primary source material available. As a result, the contemporary debate has not been informed by the insights which recent economic and financial history might offer. This article makes a contribution to assessing corporate governance in the recent past Previously under-exploited primary source materials are used to assess the internal and external mechanisms of governance. The article is based on a case study of governance at Rolls Royce. Section II assesses theoretical approaches which predict ownership behavior. The performance of Rolls Royce is analyses ill section III. Section IV assesses shareholder behavior to test the validity of each of the theoretical propositions, finds value in each but questions whether, for a company in crisis, they have real relevance. This section moves away from standard approaches of shareholder behavior which rely on market price data. Market price data reflect the sum total of all transactions; they cannot and do not allow us to identify the transacting panics and their individual behavior. In order to identify how specific institutions behaved, we assess individual transactions behavior. We have used previously under-exploited primary source materials: the company's share registers which contain, on an annual basis, a record of the holdings and transactions of each named shareholder in the company. From this we identify how named shareholders behaved. Sections V to VII access a previously unused official report on events at the company. The report was not written as a study of corporate governance: it was a detailed exposition of events. From the wealth of evidence contained in the report, however, we can discern how corporate governance was interpreted and exercised. The information provides a unique insight into how ownership responsibility was carried out and (by whom) at a time of crisis. Section V considers how corporate governance operated in practice at the company through an examination of the company's systems of accounting, regulation and control. The exercise of responsibility in a crisis situation is examined in section VI, which highlights the part played by the banking institutions, and section VII, which considers how government policy influenced the behavior of all the parties and suggests that responsibility may be traced to the legal ramifications of fiscal liability for trading under conditions of insolvency. Section VIII draws conclusions and considers the implications for the long run evolution of corporate governance in the U K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the story of Great Britain's post-war economic "slippage," the British motor industry plays a special role. The downfall was so complete and expensive that commentators have vied with each other in condemning every aspect of management responsible for the industry. Rather than reiterating the fact of failure, the present article adds structure with evidence to the explanation of management shortcomings. It details the "how" and "why," in labor and capital markets. New primary source material is presented in a coherent theoretical framework that explains precisely what was wrong with the piece-rate payment system and how it could have been remedied. The article goes on to explain the inadequacies of the corporate governance mechanism that allowed this fundamental deficiency to persist, using material from the shareholders' register and interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the labor relations in the cotton spinning industry in Great Britain during the inter-war years, using records from employer and trade union organizations at the district and industry level. Such records include those from the Federation of Master Cotton Spinners Association, the Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers Association (CSMA) and the Oldham Master Cotton Spinners Association (MCSA). The demand constraints and strategies available to employers are explored. An examination of the bargaining process during the years when wage rates were amended is also provided.

Comments on an article by Ben Fine regarding an approach to the diffusion of household appliances. Concepts of time and household appliances; Distinction between time saving and time usage; Factors which have profound time-usage implications; Distinction made by Fine between employment and domestic labor.

The article presents a case study that considered the impact of the more loom per weaver system to increase productivity in the cotton industry during the inter-war years in Great Britain. A literature search of business and economic history journals for the last two decades would identify several key preoccupations amongst people in sociology profession. An unbiased observer could be forgiven for believing that cotton textiles was the key area of interest at an industry level and that productivity was the key thematic issue. The results reported in this paper are based on research into the records of contemporary employers as represented by the Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Association and trade unions as represented by the Amalgamated Weavers Association at the district and local level. The article also explores the outcome of the attempt to improve productivity and suggests the limited changes were a reflection of an understandable, if costly, predisposition to sacrifice productivity-enhancing schemes with long term potential, for more modest schemes which preserved consensus and solidarity in the short term.

Examines the determinants of employment at a sectoral level for the interwar economy in Great Britain. Use of the Layard and Nickell model of the labor market; Examination of the differing responses to changes in the determinants of employment; Indications of the estimation of employment functions.

The findings from an econometric study of company liquidations in the UK economy are presented. The aim is to build on previous macroeconomic analysis of business failure in order to explore to what extent the impact of the Thatcher government did represent a clear break in the determination of company liquidations. While it is possible to construct a model which performs reasonably well in statistical terms prior to 1980, clear evidence is found of a structural break associated with the new attitude towards business failure brought in by the Conservative government. There is also strong evidence that company liquidations have become much more sensitive to the state of the business cycle. The model estimated gives a prominent role to the current level of company profitability and to the growth in liquidity. Liquidity is measured by two alternative proxy variables -- the rate of growth of broad money and the flow of bank lending to the company sector. The model is consistent with a cash flow interpretation of the determination of aggregate business failure which in turn means that short-term factors may have an excessive influence on the rate of company liquidation. Results show that it is possible to construct an economically meaningful model of company liquidations which encompasses a range of theoretical approaches. The results obtained indicate that a cash flow interpretation of company liquidations is more consistent with the data than one based on the NPV condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the long-term structural determinants of labor productivity for the UK economy using a panel data set from 1924 to 1968. Trade union, product market competition and human capital explanations are embedded within the model and compared. Labor quality, or human capital, is found to be the most important of the explanations considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information as it relates to the competitive decline of the United Kingdom motor industry, while focusing on the period between 1945 and 1975 and the impact of the industry on the economy. Examination of the export performance of the industry; Factors which influence the development of the industry; What influences the demand for automobiles.

Examines the collusive strategies adopted in the cotton industry of Lancashire, Great Britain, during the period of 1919 to 1939. Impact of the first World War on the history of the Lancashire cotton industry; Reason firms during this period in the cotton industry adopted collusive practices; Discussion of the perceptions of the unions and employers regarding the problems the industry were faced with.

This article chronicles the diffusion of household appliances in Great Britain and the U.S. since 1920s. There are several different explanatory approaches to the diffusion of household machinery. One is the macro-analysis of consumer demand. The national accounts and their underlying sources provide data on the annual outlay on certain groups of durables. Economists, using these time-series data, have specified and estimated dynamic demand models which relate the outlays on durables to price, income, existing stocks, depreciation, habit, household formation, and other explanatory variables. The diffusion of appliances follows a rising trend which can be described by a logistic growth curve. In such models, the probability and timing of a new purchase is determined by the quantity and pace of previous purchases. Diffusion slows down as the target population is increasingly saturated with the new product. Annual sales take a typical bell shape, rising towards a maximum as diffusion accelerates, and declining when most new adoptions have taken place, and a mature market is sustained by replacement purchases and new entrants.

The article examines the nature of the Norman involvement in the market mechanism and deals with the reasons why United Dominions Trust (UDT) was chosen for special treatment. The scope and legitimacy of central bank activity have always attracted a great deal of attention. However, many of the recent contributions to the debate on the most appropriate degree of central bank autonomy and power have--especially from an historical viewpoint--adopted a relatively narrow perspective. In England, the Bank of England was, of course, formally independent from the state until nationalization in 1946 but, in reality, there had often been a close relationship with the government of the day. As a private sector banking company the full ambit of the Bank's central banking responsibilities were never wholly clear, never precise. Marginal overlap of functions could be tolerated but any help from the Bank to a newcomer would be forthcoming only on condition that it did not seriously disturb these arrangements. Hire purchase could be encouraged but only if the institution servicing the innovation conformed to the City's basic rules. However, the historical record still leaves the Bank open to criticisms of inadequacy, to the charge that historical and institutional constraints in the City prevented a level of commitment commensurate with industry's problems.

This article examines the trends of car ownership in Great Britain during the 1930s. The diffusion of ownership of consumer durables through society, of which the car is one example, is often described in the following terms. In the first stage production levels are low, costs are high and purchase prices expensive. As a result, ownership is limited to the wealthy and the commodity is perceived as a luxury. Supply side changes emanating from the realisation of economies of scale in production technology and processes reduce costs leading to purchase price reductions. This shifts the ownership curve in an upward direction. This second stage is associated with the diffusion of ownership among the middle-income groups in society. As ownership at these prevailing prices and incomes begins to stagnate, the growth in ownership begins to slow down. Further price reductions emanating from. the realisation of economies of scale are required to shift the diffusion curve into the third, mass-ownership, stage. The diffusion of car ownership in Great Britain in the first 70 years of the twentieth century appears to follow this basic pattern. Prior to the First World War production volumes were low, cars were an expensive luxury commodity and ownership was confined to the wealthy elite the first stage of the diffusion process.

This article assesses the role played by the electricity undertakings in promoting the growth of demand for electrical appliances in the home. The focus is on the credit facilities the undertakings offered, and the extent to which such facilities stimulated demand for electric consumer durables. As the British electricity industry saw it at the time, the overriding consideration in the domestic market was to boost the consumption of electricity in the home. Revenue from electric lighting was considered to be insufficient; new consumers had to be added and existing consumers had to be persuaded to use more electricity. This article has analyzed the contribution of deferred payment schemes to the growth of the market for domestic electric appliances in the 1930's. The industry's own benchmarks have been used, that is, the contribution of the schemes to increased consumption of electricity in the home and, underlying this overriding consideration, the roles of the schemes in overcoming the cost and inertia constraints the industry believed it had identified as potential constraints on market growth. It is clear that these schemes did help to boost increased use of electricity in the home and that they did play a role in overcoming cost and inertia constraints. However credit was not solely responsible for the growth of the market for domestic electrical appliances, and thus by definition for the growth of domestic power consumption. In this sense, the industry was only partly correct. The important consideration was the relative costs of using electricity as against gas in the home.

Discusses the diffusion curves in the market for motor cars in England in the interwar period. Three stages of market growth; Three key assumptions of contemporary motor manufacturers used to justify the absence of supply-side changes; Viability of Fordism; Disaggregated market and constraints of hire purchase and price reductions methods of prompting the growth of mass markets.

Presents letters to the editor of 'RN' magazine.

The article discusses a qualitative study which explores users' needs and experiences of general practice (GP) out-of-hours services in England. Aspects of service provision that are valued by or cause concern for users are identified. In addition, the study is designed to explore how service organisation, process and users' prior expectations of using the service may affect their judgments of quality.

'Five pupil service personnel in a small, midwestern school system combined their efforts in responding to student, teacher, and parent needs after a 14-year old boy wounded two teachers and a student and killed the principal in a shooting spree. It is suggested that schools develop tactical plans for responding to catastrophic situations.
The 14-year old student walked into his small, suburban, midwestern junior high school at about 11:00 A.M. on a January Monday. He carried a semi-automatic rifle, a handgun, and pockets full of ammunition. The principal stepped out of his office, called him by name, and asked where he was going. When the shooting stopped, a student and two teachers lay wounded; the principal, airlifted by helicopter in full view of television cameras, was dead. The youth escaped through an adjoining elementary school building, only to be captured an hour later in a nearby field--again, in full view of television cameras. The scene has been rerun hundreds of times: an officer taking handfuls of shells from his jacket and the handcuffed boy, head down, led away to a waiting police car. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]