James Munro, Fred Motson, Jim Turner, Lara A. Frumkin and Lee John Curley
Since the passage of the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011, mirroring changes in other jurisdictions, a person who has been acquitted in Scotland can, under certain…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the passage of the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011, mirroring changes in other jurisdictions, a person who has been acquitted in Scotland can, under certain circumstances, be retried for that offence. Jurors could have knowledge of the previous acquittal verdict (whether not guilty or not proven) through media sources, potentially biasing the new jury in their decision-making. The purpose of this study is to detemine the influence of knowing a trial is a retrial, on conviction rates.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study invited 253 participants to give a verdict to a mock murder trial after either receiving pretrial information about the original verdict or no information about the case being a retrial.
Findings
Significantly more acquittal verdicts were given when the participants were told that it was a retrial, compared to the control condition, irrespective of whether the prior verdict was not guilty or not proven.
Originality/value
Findings are discussed in light of jurors’ knowledge of legal concepts and acquittal verdicts and the increasing exposure of the general Scottish public to the not-proven verdict due to increased media coverage.
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Paul Hodgkin, Rosalind Eve, Ian Golton, James Munro and Gill Musson
This paper dicusses the experience of a team in Sheffield who have established a 3‐year programme, the FACTS project, which aims to develop a framework for changing clinical…
Abstract
This paper dicusses the experience of a team in Sheffield who have established a 3‐year programme, the FACTS project, which aims to develop a framework for changing clinical practice in primary care. The lessons learnt from the project, which involves a variety of change techniques, are described including the need to tailor programmes to local needs and cultures as well as the use of marketing as a strategy for change.
Rosalind Eve, Ian Golton, Paul Hodgkin, James Munro and Gill Musson
There is widespread recognition that simply publishing research findings is not enough to ensure that they are carried into clinical practice. One response to this has been the…
Abstract
There is widespread recognition that simply publishing research findings is not enough to ensure that they are carried into clinical practice. One response to this has been the burgeoning “guidelines movement” of recent years, which has now reached the stage of generating guidelines for the production of guidelines. Argues that guidelines, and other forms of intervention to change clinical practice in an evidence‐based direction, will succeed only to the extent that they engage actively with the real world of clinical decision making. This world is more complex than guidelines writers acknowledge, and includes economic, administrative, professional and personal incentives as well as those provided by research evidence. Engaging with this real world may be difficult, but it opens up new possibilities for understanding how clinicians act and how evidence may be used to inform clinical practice. Such possibilities include social influences, educational outreach, providing information to patients, negotiating local coalitions on specific issues and changing the administrative environment.
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Under this title an interesting article by Thurman B. Rice, M.D., was published in the July issue of the Monthly Bulletin of the Indiana State Board of Health. Dr. Rice tells us…
Abstract
Under this title an interesting article by Thurman B. Rice, M.D., was published in the July issue of the Monthly Bulletin of the Indiana State Board of Health. Dr. Rice tells us that it is customary in the U.S.A. for the Boards of Health to require certificates of health from all food handlers, and that a conscientious examiner would even refuse to issue a certificate if the applicant had eczematous hands or open sores on the hands or face. This seems a most excellent precaution and one which might well be studied with due consideration in this country. Unfortunately, certain unscrupulous physicians apparently overcome the inconvenience of giving a thorough examination, and cases are known where 140 blanks, certifying that as many persons were free from all transmissible disease, were signed in two hours—and also where pads of blanks have been signed and the names filled in later by the restaurant manager as employees began to work. After referring to the care and cleanliness required in the preparation of the food itself, Dr. Rice points out that, should a case of food poisoning occur, the health authorities should be informed immediately and all suspected foods should be interned and kept in a condition which will guarantee as little change as possible—usually refrigeration at a very low temperature. The layman, on hearing of a case of food poisoning, is very prone to suspect those articles of food consumed at the last previous meal—while the significant article may have been eaten a day, or more, before—or, in the case of typhoid fever, two weeks before. Dr. Rice continues by telling us that we should always remain in the most jovial of moods at the dining table, and that causes for anger, fear, disgust, or any other unpleasant major emotion should be avoided. Also complaining, nagging criticism and sarcastic remarks at the table are most injurious to the flow of the gastric juice. We refrain from comment upon the effect of the restaurant orchestra, which has at times, we feel sure, been the cause of much “ criticism and sarcastic remarks ”; also the most careful and jovial diner (even after reading Dr. Rice's article) surely cannot fail to stimulate a little “anger” at the waiter who served the latecomers at the adjoining table before his good self? As a means of preventing epidemics from food sources, Dr. Rice recommends cleanliness, character, intelligence and good health in the workers; adequate equipment, alertness and supervision from the management; and the practice of the principles of the modern science and art of epidemiology in the board of health.
The purpose of this paper is to address the question of whether two early Australian public accounts committees were established for the purpose of legitimating governments of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the question of whether two early Australian public accounts committees were established for the purpose of legitimating governments of the time.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper addressed these issues through a study of the establishment, early work and abolition in the 1930s of the Victorian Committee of Public Accounts (VCPA) and the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA).
Findings
Clear evidence is found that the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA) had been copied from the VCPA and that the VCPA had been copied from the UK House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, which was established in 1861. This would indicate that the primary objective in the establishment of both these committees was legitimation rather than control. It was found that the subsequent work of both the VCPA and the JCPA showed a drift away from an accounting focus towards a policy focus. This is similar to the JCPA experience described by Degeling et al. in relation to the JCPA, which also supports the legitimation argument. It was also found that both committees could be disestablished with relative ease because their legitimating purpose was no longer strong enough to demand their continuation and that, in fact, their abolition became the factor that served a legitimating purpose for governments.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that the ideas of legitimation and mimetic isomorphism provide a more convincing explanation for the nature and work of these two public accounts committees than the idea of accounting colonisation.
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The dismissal of the ordinary and the embrace of chaos are characteristics of the thriller which has, over the last decade, accounted for nearly 25 percent of the best‐seller…
Abstract
The dismissal of the ordinary and the embrace of chaos are characteristics of the thriller which has, over the last decade, accounted for nearly 25 percent of the best‐seller market. In spite of its existential overtones, the thriller, with rare exceptions, is seldom viewed as quality fiction, yet is not generally classified as genre fiction with attendant categorization by libraries and bookstores. Readers of thrillers in pursuit of authors must either search through the general fiction or “mystery” shelves where thrillers are sometimes placed. However, the latter solution offends both mystery and thriller readers.
Numbers of worthy people are no doubt nursing themselves in the fond and foolish belief that when the Food Bill has received the Royal assent, and becomes law, the manufacture and…
Abstract
Numbers of worthy people are no doubt nursing themselves in the fond and foolish belief that when the Food Bill has received the Royal assent, and becomes law, the manufacture and sale of adulterated and sophisticated products will, to all intents and purposes, be suppressed, and that the Public Analyst and the Inspector will be able to report the existence of almost universal purity and virtue. This optimistic feeling will not be shared by the traders and manufacturers who have suffered from the effects of unfair and dishonest competition, nor by those whose knowledge and experience of the existing law enables them to gauge the probable value of the new one with some approach to accuracy. The measure has satisfied nobody, and can satisfy nobody but those whose nefarious practices it is intended to check, and who can fully appreciate the value, to them, of patchwork and superficial legislation. We have repeatedly pointed out that repressive legislation, however stringent and however well applied, can never give the public that which the public, in theory, should receive—namely, complete protection and adequate guarantee,—nor to the honest trader the full support and encouragement to which he is entitled. But, in spite of the defects and ineffectualities necessarily attaching to legislation of this nature, a strong Government could without much difficulty have produced a far more effective, and therefore more valuable law than that which, after so long an incubation, is to be added to the statute‐book.
Aero Research Ltd., Duxford, Cambridge, have announced that the name of the Company is to be changed to CIBA (A.R.L.) Ltd. Aero Research was formed in 1934 to pioneer research…
Abstract
Aero Research Ltd., Duxford, Cambridge, have announced that the name of the Company is to be changed to CIBA (A.R.L.) Ltd. Aero Research was formed in 1934 to pioneer research into aircraft structures, including the development of new adhesives. The trade names of Aerolite, Araldite, Redux and other proprietary products are unaffected: the change of name of the Company from Aero Research Ltd. to CIBA (A.R.L.) Ltd. took effect on June 30, 1958.
Although in many decision‐making contexts it may be a problem actually to find any evidence there are already a number of topics where the challenge is presented by the…
Abstract
Although in many decision‐making contexts it may be a problem actually to find any evidence there are already a number of topics where the challenge is presented by the bewildering array of sources and formats in which published findings are made available. By focusing on just one of these areas, nicotine replacement therapy, and by exploring characteristics such as usability and authoritativeness with a group of health professionals, the author attempts to highlight some important issues in both finding and evaluating the evidence. The results of this opportunistic preliminary investigation are presented together with some suggestions for further research and implications for health information professionals in their quest for evidence.
In preparing this report, the compliance sub‐group has set out to (a) summarise the current compliance regime as a matter of law and practice, (b) identify particular problem…
Abstract
In preparing this report, the compliance sub‐group has set out to (a) summarise the current compliance regime as a matter of law and practice, (b) identify particular problem areas within that regime concerning public sector officials (PSOs), and (c) suggest recommendations for change. The result may be seen as providing features of a ‘model’ compliance structure designed to cause difficulties for corrupt PSOs seeking to launder the proceeds of their corruption; UK law and practice has formed the springboard for the model, but it should be stressed that in order to be of any utility any suggested changes would have to be adopted (effectively) universally throughout the financial world. Piecemeal adoption by one or a few states would merely be likely to drive the tainted monies elsewhere, and would not serve the desired purpose of reducing the extent/profitability of corruption.