Rezoned for Business: How Eco-Tourism Unlocked Black Farmland in Eastern Zimbabwe

Eco‐tourism is undermining black smallholders' entitlement to land in Zimbabwe. In the 1890s, British administrators restrained whites from alienating the whole of the country by demarcating native reserves. In terms of this limited aim, the policy of native reserves worked. It ensured a land base for black agriculture, particularly for women and children. In the late 1980s, however, CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources) invited the tourism industry to begin operations in the lowland reserves. These ?rms have claimed land, made money and relocated smallholders. Based on economic and ecological arguments, CAMPFIRE has rede ?ned the black entitlement as merely a claim competing with those of other ‘stakeholders’. No guarantees exist for residents and cultivators. Indeed, government and NGOs are fast transforming the lowland reserves into privileged and subsidized investment zones. Held in check for a century, a new kind of settler colonialism is sweeping down from the highlands.     

Number needed to treat based on real-world evidence for non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants versus vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants in stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation

Aims: Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) and vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) are used to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). This paper aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of NOACs when compared to VKAs by calculating the number needed to treat (NNT) at 2 years using incidence rates and hazard ratios (HRs) derived from a meta-analysis of studies conducted in real-world settings.

Materials and methods: HRs were sourced from a published systematic literature review and a meta-analysis of real-world evidence on the use of NOACs vs VKAs. Rivaroxaban, dabigatran, and apixaban vs VKAs were investigated. The efficacy outcomes included: a composite of ischaemic stroke and systemic embolism (IS/SE), ischaemic stroke (IS), and all-cause mortality. The safety analysis assessed major bleeding and intracranial haemorrhage (ICH).

Results: Superiority of NOACs vs VKAs was observed in 10/15 comparisons. Treating patients with rivaroxaban and dabigatran was associated with a reduced risk of IS and all-cause mortality compared to VKAs, with one death prevented every 22 and 32 patients, respectively, and one IS prevented every 206 and 166 patients, respectively. Rivaroxaban was significantly associated with a reduced risk of IS/SE compared to VKA (NNT: 107). No significant differences were observed between apixaban and VKAs. Dabigatran and apixaban were associated with a reduced risk of major bleeding compared to VKA (NNT: 59 and 38, respectively). No significant difference was observed between rivaroxaban and VKAs regarding major bleeding. Rivaroxaban, dabigatran, and apixaban were significantly associated with a reduced risk of ICH (NNT: 205, 115, and 108, respectively).

Limitations: Heterogeneity in definitions of major bleeding across studies.

Conclusions: The NNT calculation, when approached and interpreted properly, is a practical measure of the effectiveness of a treatment. The calculation based on HRs showed that NOACs are safe and effective alternatives to VKAs in real life.     

Disadvantaged families and the meaning of the holiday

Holiday participation, although widespread, is not universal. This paper summarises a study of the meaning and significance of the holiday for families who are rarely able to go on holiday because of personal economic and social circumstances: a subgroup of Haukeland's category C non-travellers. Holidays are likely to have particular significance for them. Studies of women’s holiday experiences are examined in order to contribute to the context of this study. Informants were interviewed in their own homes and a number of meanings emerged including the significance of ‘change’ and establishing relationships. The study confirms the diversity of holiday experiences and meanings and the particular significance for this study group in conferring the ‘excitement and spectacle’ that are particularly limited in their every-day lives. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forecasting economic and financial variables with global VARs

This paper considers the problem of forecasting economic and financial variables across a large number of countries in the global economy. To this end a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model, previously estimated by Dees, di Mauro, Pesaran, and Smith (2007) and Dees, Holly, Pesaran, and Smith (2007) over the period 1979Q1–2003Q4, is used to generate out-of-sample forecasts one and four quarters ahead for real output, inflation, real equity prices, exchange rates and interest rates over the period 2004Q1–2005Q4. Forecasts are obtained for 134 variables from 26 regions, which are made up of 33 countries and cover about 90% of the world output. The forecasts are compared to typical benchmarks: univariate autoregressive and random walk models. Building on the forecast combination literature, the effects of model and estimation uncertainty on forecast outcomes are examined by pooling forecasts obtained from different GVAR models estimated over alternative sample periods. Given the size of the modelling problem, and the heterogeneity of the economies considered–industrialised, emerging, and less developed countries–as well as the very real likelihood of possibly multiple structural breaks, averaging forecasts across both models and windows makes a significant difference. Indeed, the double-averaged GVAR forecasts perform better than the benchmark competitors, especially for output, inflation and real equity prices.     

The Effects of Working Time, Segmentation and Labour Market Mobility on Wages and Pensions in Ireland

Most research on pay and benefit differences between full– and part–time work focuses on characteristics of part–time workers and part–time jobs. However, part–time jobs are more open to labour market 'outsiders', and such labour market mobility can influence wages. We analyse the effects of working time, gender, segmentation and mobility on wages and pension benefits in Ireland. Both segmentation and mobility influence wages directly, and controlling for segmentation in a wage model eliminates the negative effect of part–time working. The wage effects of labour market mobility differ by gender and labour market segment. Pension entitlement is strongly influenced by gender, working time, labour market segment and mobility.     

The future as metaphor

One of the fascinating and frustrating facts of modern future watching is the almost shameless manner with which the concept of the future is used and abused. It is demonstrably an idea and a word that means quite different things according to a variety of factors. As the assumptions we make about what we call ‘the future’ can influence our choices, a clearer understanding of our inconsistent employment of the term is always in order. In this essay five prominent ways we can think about the future are explored. These concern imagining the future as time, as a challenge, as a destination, as an answer, and as a judgment.     

Who are the Stakeholders Now? An Empirical Examination of the Mitchell, Agle, and Wood Theory of Stakeholder Salience

Two environmental accidents in the mining industry provide the context for this study of the Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (1997, The Academy of Management Review 22, 853–886) analysis of stakeholder salience. I examine the reactions of two stakeholder groups: shareholder response is examined in terms of changing share returns and risk; management response through change in disclosure. I find the two decision-makers reacted at different times. Management responded to the first accident, though not the second. Shareholders responded to the second accident alone. My findings support the Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (MAW) assertion that stakeholder status is impermanent, and determined through the eyes of the decision-maker.     

Open data governance: civic hacking movement,topics and opinions in digital space

Quality & Quantity - The expression ‘open data’ relates to a system of informative and freely accessible databases that public administrations make generally available online in...     

International Consumer Attitudes Toward Cloud Computing: A Social Cognitive Theory and Technology Acceptance Model Perspective

The purpose of this article is to examine the factors affecting consumer attitudes toward cloud computing in the United States and Australia. The technology acceptance model and social cognitive theory are utilized to test relationships between technology acceptance model constructs (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) with individual characteristics that are shaped by environmental factors as part of social cognitive theory (consumer innovativeness, security concerns, performance expectations, and social networks) on consumer attitudes toward adopting cloud computing services. Consumers in the youth segment are used to test the hypotheses in two different countries (the United States and Australia). The results of the analysis indicate similarities and differences related to behavioral intentions and adoption behavior toward cloud computing services. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Focus as emphasis: Conceptual and performance implications for hospitals

Focus in hospitals has been heralded as the next frontier in improving its efficiency and efficacy (Herzlinger, 2004). However, there is scarce empirical work examining its effects in this setting. Focus in hospitals can take several different forms, ranging from standalone specialty centers to a hospital that chooses to emphasize in some operational way a particular specialty while still offering a full range of services. Although standalone facilities can be found in many locations, the vast majority of hospitals must follow the latter route to achieve focus. Current conceptualizations and measures of focus struggle to capture this construct in a way that does not assume a narrowing of range of offerings. In contrast to the traditional view of focus as narrowing, in this paper, we address the perspective of focus as emphasis. We select cardiology as the specialty and use secondary data for more than 264,000 patients in New York State to examine the relationship between focus as emphasis and hospital cost performance. Our results support the notion that such focus is associated with lower costs. Moreover, our results also show that focus in hospitals can be operationalized as a disproportionate emphasis on one line of service, without necessarily narrowing the overall range of services provided.