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This paper investigates how gender, ethnicity, and network membership interact to influence how small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers become aware of finance support programmes developed by government policy and/or support schemes advanced by the banking industry.

Drawing on expectation states theory (EST), we develop eight sets of hypotheses and employ the UK SME Finance Monitor data to test them using bivariate probit regression analysis.

In general, network membership increases awareness, but more so for government programmes. We also find no differences between female and male owner-managers when in networks. However, we identify in-network and out-network differences by ethnicity, with minority females seemingly better off than minority males.

Business networks are better for disseminating government programmes than industry-led programmes. For native White women, network membership can enhance policy awareness advantage further, whilst for minorities, networks significantly offset the big policy awareness deficits minorities inherently face. However, policy and practice need to address intersectional inequalities that remain in access to networks themselves, information access within networks, and the significant out-network deficits in awareness of support programmes afflicting minorities.

This study provides one of the first large-scale empirical examinations of intersectional mechanisms in awareness of government and industry-led enterprise programmes. Our novel and nuanced findings advance our understanding of the ways in which gender and ethnicity interact with network dynamics in entrepreneurship.

Times were tough for the heads of Australian independent schools in the 1950s and 1960s. In New South Wales alone, Knox Grammar School lost two, Barker College and P. L. C. Croydon one each in the 1950s and Newington College had lost two and Meriden School one in the 1960s. And in 1965, Allen McLucas was forced to resign from The Scots College Sydney. Behind these problems of governance and leadership in independent schools lay deeper social and moral changes in the broader community and changing educational philosophies.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on peripheral ports, hub ports and concentration – deconcentration factors. This is an issue, as investments in port development in more peripheral locations are challenging due to the difficult financial situation currently faced by the maritime industry.

This paper presents a narrative literature review focusing on peripherality in the context of seaports and transport. Moreover, it gathers the reasons why ports concentrate–deconcentrate, and how these factors evolve over time.

This paper develops a future research agenda for peripheral ports.

The paper provides insights for ports in developing countries in their efforts to upgrade their port facilities and infrastructure.

This paper contributes to the research on ports in peripheral locations which have been under studied compared to larger hub ports.

Gallstone‐related illnesses are one of the most common reasons for emergency hospital admissions, often with serious complications. Standard treatment of uncomplicated gallstone‐disease is by laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which can be safely and cost‐effectively performed during a short hospital stay or as day‐case. This paper aims to evaluate the referral pattern of patients with gallstones, which treatment is given and whether patients admitted as emergency could have benefited from earlier elective referral. The management of these patients is examined in the context of payment by results to determine cost and potential savings.

The approach takens was prospective clinical audit and patient questionnaire in a district general hospital. Cost comparisons were made using secondary care income (NHS tariff) and estimated cost of hospitalisation, investigations and treatment.

Between May and July 2007, 114 patients were admitted with symptomatic gallstones, 62 (54.4 per cent) were emergencies. Cholecystectomy was performed in all 52 elective patients and performed or planned for 59/62 (95.2 per cent) emergencies. A total 17/62 emergencies (27.4 per cent) presented with complications of gallstones. 38/62 (61.3 per cent) had similar symptoms before, with 21/38 (55.3 per cent) diagnosed in primary care or by another hospital department. 11 (52.4 per cent) of these had not been referred for a surgical opinion; taking account of age, co‐morbidity and data acquired for elective admissions, the cost of their treatment could have been reduced by at least £16,194.

A large proportion of patients admitted with symptomatic biliary disease could have been referred earlier and electively. Such referral practice could improve the quality of care and reduce cost for the NHS both in primary and secondary care.

Studies of management development (MD) can be pursued at company, sector or national levels. “Sector” studies of MD are quite rare, despite providing a potential natural “laboratory” in which a variety of approaches to MD can be studied. The research here was concerned with MD in local authorities (LAs). It is based on a survey of MD policies, methods and practices in Scottish LAs, supplemented by case studies of five LAs. The analysis of this particular sector demonstrates a variety of approaches to planning for and providing MD. These are discussed with reference to a typology of MD “rationales”. The broader issues of the usefulness of, and problems with, sector studies of this kind are considered. They do offer a potential “natural laboratory” for comparative analysis, useful for exploring theories about MD; but there are practical difficulties with combining the survey and case study analysis involved.

Health care institutions in many Western countries have developed preoperative testing and assessment guidelines to improve surgical outcomes and reduce cost of surgical care. The aims of this chapter are to (1) summarize the literature on the effect of preoperative testing on clinical outcomes, efficiency, and cost; and (2) to compare preoperative testing guidelines developed in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

We reviewed the literature from 1975 to 2014 for studies and preoperative testing guidelines.

We identified 29 empirical studies and 8 country-specific guidelines for review. Most studies indicate that preoperative testing is overused and comes at a high cost. Guidelines are tied to payment only in one country studied. This is the most recent review of the literature on preoperative testing and assessment with a focus on quality of care, efficiency, and cost outcomes. In addition, this chapter provides an international comparison of preoperative guidelines.

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) suffer from premature mortality, intentional and unintentional injury, suicide and are at an increased risk for several non-communicable disease outcomes including cardiovascular disease and several cancers, compared to those employed in other occupations. Repeated exposure to stressful and traumatic stimuli is a possible mechanism driving these adverse health outcomes among LEOs. To better identify the sources of these health problems, the purpose of this paper is to determine the feasibility of conducting a cohort study using physiological measures of stress (e.g. heart rate) with LEOs; perceptions of the FitBit device, including LEO buy-in and attitudes associated with the protocol.

Data were collected from ten recent graduates of the Dallas Police Training Academy.

Results suggest that officer buy-in and protocol compliance was high. Officers were eager to participate in this study, and completion of weekly surveys was 100 percent. Minute-level missing data from wearable devices was relatively low (25 percent), and 90 percent of participants wore the FitBit devices on more than 90 percent of study days.

Results from this study suggest that wearable physiological devices can be effectively used in law enforcement populations to measure stress.