Background: Antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and venlafaxine have the potential to exert beneficial effects on the heart via serotonin mediated antiplatelet activity. However, previous evidence regarding the cardiovascular effects of these agents has been conflicting. There is a need for further investigation into the risks and benefits of these drugs. Objective: To assess the risk of acute MI and cardiac death associated the use of various classes of antidepressants, and determine whether this risk is modified by the presence of predisposing factors. Methods: We identified a population-based, retrospective cohort study of 71,253 elderly persons initiating treatment with an antidepressant between 1997 and 2004. The cohort was analyzed using nested case-control approach with each case of acute MI or cardiac death matched with up to 20 controls according to age (±1 year), duration of follow-up, and year of cohort entry. Rate ratios for acute MI and cardiac death associated with the current use of various antidepressants were estimated using conditional logistic regression and adjusted for potential confounders. Results: Compared with the current use of atypical antidepressants, current use of venlafaxine was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of MI and cardiac death (rate ratio [RR] 0.80 [95% CI 0.66 to 0.97]) that was more pronounced in persons with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) (RR 0.65 [CI 0.50 to 0.86]). We found no clear evidence of a benefit or harm associated with the use of SSRIs (RR 0.92 [CI 0.79 to 1.06]), although there was the suggestion of a clinically important benefit from treatment with SSRIs for individuals who had history of MI (RR 0.68 [CI 0.44 to 1.07]). No benefit or harm was observed with other classes of antidepressants. Conclusions: These results demonstrate a reduced risk for acute MI and cardiac death associated with current use of venlafaxine among elderly persons. This beneficial effect appears to be more pronounced in those with established cardiovascular disease. No clear evidence of benefit on CV outcomes was associated with the current use of SSRIs, although results suggest a potential benefit for use in persons with a previous MI. / Thesis (Master, Community Health & Epidemiology) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-04 14:46:14.571

The concept of ‘risk’ has become one of the main ontological, existential, and epistemological categories in the modern Western world. People are continually confronted with considerable amounts of information concerning what constitutes risks and how they are to be mediated and avoided. Along side this growing concern with risk and risk avoidance, a large segment of the population continues to seek out risk itself. Although substantial sociological research has been undertaken to try and understand why people engage with risk, these theories and subsequent research falls short in ontological, existential, and epistemological breadth. As a response, this thesis presents a new avenue to understanding risk-taking that is based upon Nietzschean aesthetic theory and its conceptualization of the ‘Apollonian’ and ‘Dionysian’ drives that structure human existence. The world of high-risk skiing is the focal point upon which Nietzsche’s theory is applied, with the hope of not only understanding this specific area of social life, but also to demonstrate the importance that risk can play as an ontological, existential, and epistemological emancipatory category. Chapter two provides an overview of the historical inception of the concept of risk and the popular theoretical perspectives used to understand its place within the social whole. Following this, chapter three reviews the dominant theories used within the sociology of sport to understand risk-taking within the world of sport. Finally, chapter four engages Nietzsche’s theory showing how the high-risk skiing community is analogous to pre-Socratic Greek tragedy, in that it enables adherents to properly balance both Apollonian and Dionysian drives allowing them to escape the ‘reactive nihilism’ that defines the modern Western world. It is concluded that such a perspective not only provides researchers with new tools that are based around the social importance of art and aesthetics, but also that risk is an important ontological, existential, and epistemological category that allows risk-takers to experience a more complete level of existence based upon an understanding of life that celebrates both its positive and negative aspects. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2009-10-29 19:14:15.441

This study examines the mentalities and sensibilities of government that get (re)produced in one programmatic narrative about ‘child abuse’ and child homicide. It shows how a perspective of governance takes shape through the lens and language of risk, and how a discourse of risk can take very different forms even within one governmental programme. Empirically the study examines the major report released from the Public Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario (known after its chairperson as the Goudge Inquiry/Report). The Goudge Inquiry (2008) was commissioned by the Ontario government in the wake of a Chief Coroner’s Review into the problematic practices of Dr. Charles Smith, the province’s most trusted paediatric forensic pathologist for nearly 15 years. The resultant Goudge Report presents a rationalization of Ontario’s paediatric death investigation system and its failures. It presents an ideal-typical narrative that carves out the image of a fully formed and perfected risk management complex for combatting ‘child abuse’. To understand the mentalities and sensibilities of government that shape and get shaped by the Report’s risk management narrative, this study probes what ‘risk’ does in the Goudge Report. Risk discourse in this case proves to be entangled in a ‘volatile and contradictory’ set of ‘superficial’ connections, associations and activities, one that operates at the nexus of ‘common sense’ mentalities and populist sensibilities. That the Report depends for its rhetorical power on the silencing of alternative claims, discourses and rationales is central to this analysis. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-31 16:33:55.671

This thesis presents a sociological framework for understanding food allergy. Food allergy is increasingly appearing on policy and media platforms in contemporary Western societies. Debates have emerged about the prevalence of food allergy and also about the “rights” of those experiencing food allergies in a number of public and private spheres. Food allergy is a specifically social phenomenon, emerging as a consequence of modernization processes. Additionally, the allergy “zone” is comprised of a number of actors and agents including the institutions of medicine, pharmaceutical companies, politicians, governments, lay actors and an array of medical technologies. Despite being an issue of major sociological significance, few empirical studies have explored the everyday experience of food allergy. Therefore, in order to understand the lived experience of food allergy, I construct a conceptual framework which draws upon theories of risk and social governance, the sociology of consumption and sociological studies of science and embodiment. These literatures shed important light upon how individuals negotiate and (de)construct the risks associated with their conditions. Drawing on data acquired from eight in-depth interviews with those who identify as food allergic, I argue food allergy need be understood as a form and practice of consumption. Thus, far from being passive subjects, this approach characterises individuals as being embodied and reflexive agents who actively deconstruct notions of risk and recurrently engage in practices of “edgework”. These actors negotiate the medical and scientific parameters of their conditions as well as the parameters and demands of consumer culture. Whilst these theoretical and conceptual frameworks are useful for understanding the experience of food allergy, I recommend further studies of food allergy acknowledge the diversity of actors/institutions involved in the discursive production and circulation of information about food allergy; specifically homeopathic and alternative practitioners and organizations. Additionally, I argue that future studies of allergy must acknowledge the fundamentally embodied experience of the condition and the consequences this has for its definition and experience. For the purposes of future studies of food allergy, I also suggest it would be worthwhile to further explore the ways in which individuals who experience food allergies and intolerances are enrolled and participate in biopolitical regimes. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-14 14:03:42.479

This three-essay dissertation first examines the impact of tax enforcement on the incidence of stock option backdating. Consistent with the theoretical prediction that tax authority enforcement can operate as a valuable monitoring tool by narrowing the scope for managerial entrenchment, we find robust evidence that the incidence of stock option backdating is lower when firms are more likely to be subject to IRS audits. Our results reinforce calls in the public policy discourse for institutions that protect investors by curtailing companies’ “degrees of freedom” to engage in corporate misbehaviour. The second essay examines how the market reacts to announcements of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by well performing acquirers and evaluates the results in light of three hypotheses: 1) managerial ability, 2) empire building, and 3) chief executive officer (CEO) overconfidence. Our results indicate that an empire building motive drives the relationship between past superior operating performance and M&A announcements. Long-term operating performance drops significantly for acquiring firms with past superior operating performance. Our evidence also indicates that the presence of insider directors helps to alleviate the negative perception of acquisitions made by firms with better operating performance or empire building CEOs. The final essay investigates the controversial issue of whether information asymmetry affects the cost of equity capital. We re-examine this unanswered question using a unique and simple measure of information risk rooted in the growing literature on geographic proximity. Relying on their distance from financial centers to gauge when firms are better known, we provide robust evidence that information risk shapes equity pricing. In particular, we find that firms located in remote areas exhibit a higher cost of equity capital. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-15 18:48:04.361

No description available.

This thesis explores the ways in which the ‘at-risk’ designation of marginalized and disadvantaged youth within youth-serving agencies contributes to a program of governance within a neoliberalized welfare state. I argue that while there is considerable resistance to the risk designation within youth-serving agencies, officially accepting funding for programming designed to target at-risk youth continues to individualize the troubles youth face and responsibilizes youth to become their own risk managers. Through these structural funding constraints, youth-serving agency staff inadvertently disseminates expert knowledges that validate the notion of ‘at-risk’ youth as a growing problem while legitimating the perspective that social problems can and should be addressed through individual treatment rather than social policy. This both disciplines youth to become better liberal subjects while leaving structural constraints unaddressed. I conclude with some examples of resistance that show promise of working outside of these technologies of governance.

Business continuity is an area of research that ensure continuity of enterprise operations. Business continuity requires knowledge and input from business and IT leaders to assess and manage risks associated with critical business processes to develop a plan that can allow the organization to resume operations. Organizations that have a holistic enterprise risk management approach can better manage business and technology risks. The increasing dependency on technological resources asserts the need to assess business and technology risks to develop business continuity. Nevertheless, governance and enterprise leaders find difficult to determine the scope and impact of risks associated with enterprise operations. In organizational contexts, business continuity planning is perceived as an element of contingency instead of an opportunity for improvement. In addition, there is a lack of academic literature related to the organizational implementation of a business continuity plan. For this reason, there is a need to merge enterprise risk management and governance of enterprise IT views to provide an integrated perspective of business and technological risk in the im-plementation of a business continuity plan.The objective of the study relies on assessing how the implementation of a business continuity plan is conducted, together with its challenges and benefits, to provide insights on the elements that facilitates a business continuity plan implementation. The study focuses on the preparation phase of a business continuity plan, where enterprise risks are identified, evalu-ated and mitigated. The study results are based on a case study performed at a multination retail and manufacturing enterprise in Spain. The results indicates that awareness from the higher governance body and senior management on the dependency that enterprises have developed on IS/IT key resources is a factor that influence how risk management and technology risk is perceived in organizations. This influence how the higher governance body views the need to implement enterprise risk management, governance of enterprise IT and business continuity initiatives. Likewise, the elements facilitating a business continuity imple-mentation are associated with the sponsorship and leadership from organizational actors, the involvement of an external organizational agent that can bring expertise and methodology related to business continuity planning, identification of enterprise critical areas and processes and the creation of business and IT risk scenarios to depict threats to the organization operations and processes. This internal reflection brings challenges and benefits to the or-ganization and both are addressed in the study.The study concludes with the presentation of two high level frameworks that can aid enter-prise leaders to visualize and understand the influence that enterprise risk management and governance of enterprise IT has on the implementation of a business continuity plan and the underlying elements that facilitate a business continuity plan implementation in organizations.

A tremendous amount of change in traditional business paradigms has occurred over the past decade through the development of Electronic Commerce and advancements in the field of Information Technology. As lesser-developed countries progress and become more prosperous, traditional 'first world' countries have migrated to become strong service oriented economies (Asch, 2001). Supporting technologies have developed over the past decade which has exploited the benefits of the Internet and other information technologies. While Electronic Commerce continues to grow there is a corresponding impact on computer software and individual privacy (Ghosh and Swaminatha, 2001). Recently, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that software bugs cost the U.S. economy approximately $59.5 billion, or 60% of the annual Gross Domestic Product (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2003). In addition, we have witnessed a rise in the strength and impact of Denial of Service and other types of computer attacks such as: viruses, trojans, exploit scripts and probes/scans. Popular industry surveys such as the annual Federal Bureau of Investigation/Computer Security Institute (Gordon, Et. Al., 2006) confirm the growing threats in the Information Assurance field. In addition to these concerns our increased reliance on the Internet enabled systems (Loudon and Loudon, 2000), E-Commerce systems and Information Technologies an integrated suite of risks which must be managed effectively across the public and private sectors (Backhouse, Et. Al, 2005, Ghosh and Swamintha, 2001, Parker, 2001, Graf, 1995, Greenberg and Goldman, 1995). Previous research (Rumizen, 1998, Haver, 1998, Roulier, 1998) examined Inter-Organisational, Web Information Systems and Government Information Systems in order to assess how companies and other organisations can effectively design these information systems such that maximum benefits can be achieved for all participating organisations. Furthermore, Davenport, Harris and Delong (2001) and Davenport (1999) explained that collaboration is central to the results of a knowledge management system in which open, nonpolitical, non-competitive entities are involved in environments to achieve optimal individual and collective results. Before this memorable event, some related programmatic initiatives were already in-process at that time. The United States government built upon its active leadership in the areas of computer security and information assurance when it launched a number of important efforts to manage information security threats. This was clearly evident when President Clinton made the U.S. National Infrastructure (NII) a major national priority in the 1990s. One critical development occurred in 1998 when the National Infrastructure Protection Centre was established to be the central point for gathering, analysing and disseminating critical cyber security information and built upon the previous success of the national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). Earlier research (Rich, 2001, Soo Hoo, 2000, Howard, 1997 and Landwher, 1994) addressed various aspects of information security information and incident reporting. Also, Vatis (2001) addressed some research considerations in this area while investigating foreign network centric and traditional warfare events primarily through Denial of Service and Web Site Defacement attacks. However, areas for new exploration existed especially as they related to U.S. critical infrastructure protection (Karestand, 2003, Vatis, 2001, U.S. General Accounting Office, 2000, Alexander and Swetham, 1999). Finally, Information and Network Centric Warfare (Arens and Rosenbloom, 2003, Davies, 2000, Denning and Baugh, 2000, and Schwartau, 1997) are increasing national security issues in the War on Terrorism and Homeland Security in general.

stochastic approach to decision-making in defined benefit pension schemes is presented. Existing decision-making tools in the form of actuarial valuations and asset and liability modelling are discussed. These tools are shown to be inadequate to fully address the objectives of the various stakeholders. Pension fund control using a quadratic criteria with linear factors is studied in the case where the fund is invested in a risk-free asset and a risky asset. Optimal asset allocation strategies are shown to be counter-intuitive. The optimal strategy is shown to involve increasing the allocation in the risky asset as the fund deficit increases and increasing the allocation in the risk-free asset as the fund deficit decreases. It is further shown that increasing the weight on the linear factors leads to an increase in the optimal allocation in the risky asset. A risk management approach to decision-making is presented. This is shown to be a more satisfactory decision-making tool in terms of setting the funding and investment strategies. The objectives of the stakeholders are addressed through downside risk measures and a performance measure for the cost. Methods of solving the problem are discussed: an indifference curve approach and a stochastic multi-objective approach leading to Pareto optimal solutions. It is shown that, in the indifference curve approach, an "efficient region" exists. This efficient region is such that all funding and investment strategies outside this region are inefficient; that is, such strategies can be improved by choosing strategies in the region. On the other hand in the multi-objective approach, pareto optimal investment strategies are located along an "efficient frontier". An extension to the stochastic approach is presented. Optimal funding and asset allocation strategies, over a range of projection horizons, are determined by taking into account the probability of default by the sponsoring employer. It is shown that, over a short-term horizon, bond-only asset allocation strategies are optimal, whilst over a longer horizon equity-backed asset allocation strategies are optimal.