Environmental management amidst energy use,urbanization, trade openness,and deforestation: The Nigerian experience

This study empirically explores the linkage between urbanization and deforestation while controlling for the role of energy consumption, trade openness, and economic growth within recent data from 1971 to 2015. To do this, we employed the vector error correction‐Granger causality approach and Pesaran's autoregressive distributed lag cointegration technique. The Bayer–Hanck cointegration test establishes an equilibrium relationship among the variables. Results reveal that economic growth, energy consumption, and urbanization have a significant impact on deforestation in Nigeria, thereby reducing the quality of the environment. Short‐ and long‐run unidirectional casualty flows from urbanization to deforestation. Therefore, policies for reducing deforestation and enhancing environmental sustainability for growth and development were suggested.     

New formulae for estimating age-at-death in the Balkans utilizing Lamendin's dental technique and Bayesian analysis

The present study analyzed apical translucency and periodontal recession on single-rooted teeth in order to generate age-at-death estimations using two inverse calibration methods and one Bayesian method. The three age estimates were compared to highlight inherent problems with the inverse calibration methods. The results showed that the Bayesian analysis reduced severity of several problems associated with adult skeletal age-at-death estimations. The Bayesian estimates produced a lower overall mean error, a higher correlation with actual age, reduced aging bias, reduced age mimicry, and reduced the age ranges associated with the most probable age as compared to the inverse calibration methods for this sample. This research concluded that periodontal recession cannot be used as a univariate age indicator, due to its low correlation with chronological age. Apical translucency yielded a high correlation with chronological age and was concluded to be an important age indicator. The Bayesian approach offered the most appropriate statistical analysis for the estimation of age-at-death with the current sample.     

Promising Under Duress

Law and Philosophy - In her chapter “Duress and Moral Progress”, Seana Shiffrin offers a novel perspective on coerced promises. According to the dominant view, these promises confer no...     

Holes in the safety net,leaks in the roof: Changes in Canadian welfare policy and their implications for social housing programs 1

Abstract

This article surveys recent reforms to Canadian social policy at the national level and welfare programs at the provincial level to determine how social housing policy and programming are being affected. The survey considers Canada's Social Security Review consultation process, which played out over 1994 and 1995. The article outlines various concerns raised over the Canada Health and Social Transfer, a fundamental reform to intergovernmental fiscal and policy relations announced in the 1995 federal budget and elaborated on in the 1996 budget.

The transfer of administrative responsibility for federally funded social housing to provincial and territorial governments is discussed and recent developments in welfare programs across Canada are described, noting housing elements within these programs.     

A cancer control strategy and deliberative federalism: Modernizing health care and democratizing intergovernmental relations

Abstract: This article describes the nature of, and the need for, a national strategy on cancer control. It then considers the implications of such a strategy for the working models of Canadian federalism. The ideas, structure, and process of developing the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control involves a new model for the conduct of intergovernmental and inter‐sectoral relations, an approach we can call deliberative federalism. In this model, interest groups, professional associations, and other social actors are part of the modern state alongside cabinet parliamentary government and federalism. As a multiple partnership arrangement, the Strategy is a platform for communication between governments, non‐governmental agencies, health professionals, and cancer survivors and families. Adopting a strategy for cancer control is thus an opportunity to modernize the management of chronic diseases and to further democratize the conduct of intergovernmental relations. Sommaire: Le présent article décrit la nature et le besoin d'une stratégie nationale pour la lutte contre le cancer. Il examine ensuite les implications d'une telle stratégie pour les modèles de travail du fédéralisme canadien. Les idées, la structure et le processus concernant l'élaboration de la Stratégie canadienne de lutte contre le cancer impliquent un nouveau modèle pour les relations intergouvernementales et intersectorielles, une approche que nous pouvons nommer fédéralisme délibératif. Dans ce modèle, les groupes d'intérêts, les associations professionnelles et autres acteurs sociaux font partie de l'État moderne, aux côtés du gouvernement parlementaire et du fédéralisme. En tant que contrat de partenariat multiple, la Stratégie est une plate‐forme pour la communication entre les gouvernements, les organismes non gouvernementaux, les professíonnels de la santé et les survivants du cancer et leurs familles. L'adoption d'une stratégie de lutte contre le cancer est donc une occasion de moderniser la gestion des maladies chroniques et de démocratiser davantage les relations intergouvernementales.     

Prevention for those who can pay: insurance reimbursement of genetic-based preventive interventions in the liminal state between health and disease

Clinical use of genetic testing to predict adult onset conditions allows individuals to minimize or circumvent disease when preventive medical interventions are available. Recent policy recommendations and changes expand patient access to information about asymptomatic genetic conditions and create mechanisms for expanded insurance coverage for genetic tests. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) recommends that laboratories provide incidental findings of medically actionable genetic variants after whole genome sequencing. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) established mechanisms to mandate coverage for genetic tests, such as BRCA. The ACA and ACMG, however, do not address insurance coverage for preventive interventions. These policies equate access to testing as access to prevention, without exploring the accessibility and affordability of interventions. In reality, insurance coverage for preventive interventions in asymptomatic adults is variable given the US health insurance system''s focus on treatment. Health disparities will be exacerbated if only privileged segments of society can access preventive interventions, such as prophylactic surgeries, screenings, or medication. To ensure equitable access to interventions, federal or state legislatures should mandate insurance coverage for both predictive genetic testing and recommended follow-up interventions included in a list established by an expert panel or regulatory body.