202 www.thelancet.com Vol 371 January 19, 2008 Chen refers to several potential confounding factors. We believe that, in this population, educational level is a better measure of socioeconomic status than annual income, and is what we adjusted for. The relation between abdominal obesity and COPD is not consistent, and many studies suggest that it is related to a restrictive rather than obstruct...

By way of critically examining the nexus between electronic government (e-government), service transformation and knowledge management, this paper explores the potential for better public sector governance and strengthened levels of relational trust between citizens and governments. Within such a context A specific objective of this paper is to examine strategies and mechanisms for knowledge ma...

The paper first analyses the characteristics of governance in the information age, illustrates the advantages of E-government services; Second, deals with the implications and key elements for good E-governance; finally points out the urgent tasks for good E-governance in China, emphasizing governmental responsibility on primary education, human resource cultivation, sustainable social and econ...

We are facing a rapid globalization in the twenty-first century. This sharpens our view on this one planet (1) traveling through space, the Spaceship Earth. It is largely in our hands as a human race whether this journey is a safe one. However, we can summarize the global threats endangering us – the passengers – as shown in Figure 1. All five threats affect our health but cannot be controlled ...

This review of governance distinguishes between ends and means and, by highlighting the complexity and differing definitions of the concept, defines its scope and focuses discussion on its characteristics in order to establish an interrelationship between veterinary legislation and governance. Good governance must be backed by legislation, and good legislation must incorporate the principles an...

PURPOSE To provide an overview of essential elements of good governance of data linkage for health-related research, to consider lessons learned so far and to examine key factors currently impeding the delivery of good governance in this area. Given the considerable hurdles which must be overcome and the changing landscape of health research and data linkage, a principled, proportionate, risk-b...

This paper presents a contracting model of governance based on the premise that CEOs are the main promoters of governance change. CEOs use their power to extract higher pay or private benefits, and different governance structures are preferred by different CEOs as they favor one or the other type of compensation. The model explains why good countrywide investor protection breeds good firm gover...