379 research outputs found
Responding to the risk of reducing resources: development of a framework for future change programmes in environmental health services
Environmental Health services in the UK have been subject to significant resource reduction over the last 5 years. It is suggested that services risk becoming unsustainable unless efficient and effective ways of working are employed. With this in mind this paper presents the findings of research into the experience of practitioners who are developing and delivering evolving Environmental Health services in English local authorities in the context of deep cutting budget reductions. The research explores the experience of change and identifies lessons learnt in the development and execution of new models of Environmental Health service delivery to mitigate against risks of unsustainable or undeliverable services. Interviews were carried out with the participants to capture their experience of change and the impact on service delivery. A range of service delivery models have been examined including outsourcing, shared services, regional delivery models and discussion of mutual arrangements and at various stages of development from planning through to full transformation. Field work was undertaken between 2014 and 2016. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts has identified six emergent themes of the experience of change: managing changes effectively; understanding the reasons for change; understanding the nature of Environmental Health; meaningful consultation; viability of the proposal; planning and timeliness. Environmental Health services undergoing transformation may benefit from taking into account the lessons learnt by organisations that have previously undergone significant change in their response to the risk of a reducing resource.
Keywords: Environmental Health; austerity; regulation; emerging risk; outsourcing; managing change
Responding to the risk of reducing resource: a study of the evolution of English environmental health services
Environmental Health services in the UK have been subject to significant resource reduction over the last 3 years. It is suggested that services risk becoming unsustainable unless efficient and effective ways of working are employed. With this in mind this paper presents the findings of research into the experience of practitioners who are developing and delivering evolving environmental health services in English local authorities in the context of deep cutting budget reductions. The research aims to explore the experience of change and identify lessons learnt in the development and execution of new models of environmental health service delivery to mitigate against risks of unsustainable or undeliverable services. Participants were chosen from a range of local authority officers, managers, commissioners and leading members of the professional body who have been closely involved in the planning and delivery stages of environmental health service changes. Interviews were carried out with the participants to capture their experience of change and the impact on service delivery. A range of service delivery models have been examined including outsourcing, shared services, regional delivery models and discussion of mutual arrangements and at various stages of development from planning through to full transformation. Field work was undertaken between June 2014 and November 2015. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts has identified six emergent themes of the experience of change: managing changes effectively; understanding the reasons for change; understanding the nature of environmental health; meaningful consultation; viability of the proposal; planning and timeliness. Environmental health services undergoing transformation may benefit from taking into account the lessons learnt by organisations that have previously undergone significant change in their response to the risk of a reducing resource. The emergent themes are being developed to provide a framework of lessons learnt for environmental health services to consider when making changes to their model of service delivery
A non-equilibrium ortho-to-para ratio of water in the Orion PDR
The ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of HO is thought to be sensitive to the
temperature of water formation. The OPR of HO is thus useful to study the
formation mechanism of water. We investigate the OPR of water in the Orion PDR
(Photon-dominated region), at the Orion Bar and Orion S positions, using data
from {\it Herschel}/HIFI. We detect the ground-state lines of ortho- and
para-HO in the Orion Bar and Orion S and we estimate the column
densities using LTE and non-LTE methods. Based on our calculations, the
ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) in the Orion Bar is 0.1 0.5, which is
unexpectedly low given the gas temperature of 85 K, and also lower than
the values measured for other interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks.
Toward Orion S, our OPR estimate is below 2. This low OPR at 2 positions in the
Orion PDR is inconsistent with gas phase formation and with thermal evaporation
from dust grains, but it may be explained by photodesorption
Physical and chemical differentiation of the luminous star-forming region W49A - Results from the JCMT Spectral Legacy Survey
The massive and luminous star-forming region W49A is a well known Galactic
candidate to probe the physical conditions and chemistry similar to those
expected in external starburst galaxies. We aim to probe the physical and
chemical structure of W49A on a spatial scale of ~0.8 pc based on the JCMT
Spectral Legacy Survey, which covers the frequency range between 330 and 373
GHz. The wide 2x2 arcminutes field and the high spectral resolution of the HARP
instrument on JCMT provides information on the spatial structure and kinematics
of the cloud. For species where multiple transitions are available, we estimate
excitation temperatures and column densities. We detected 255 transitions
corresponding to 60 species in the 330-373 GHz range at the center position of
W49A. Excitation conditions can be probed for 16 molecules. The chemical
composition suggests the importance of shock-, PDR-, and hot core chemistry.
Many molecular lines show a significant spatial extent across the maps
including high density tracers (e.g. HCN, HNC, CS, HCO+) and tracers of
UV-irradiation (e.g. CN and C2H). Large variations are seen between the
sub-regions with mostly blue-shifted emission toward the Eastern tail, mostly
red-shifted emission toward the Northern clump, and emission peaking around the
expected source velocity toward the South-west clump. A comparison of column
density ratios of characteristic species observed toward W49A to Galactic PDRs
suggests that while the chemistry toward the W49A center is driven by a
combination of UV-irradiation and shocks, UV-irradiation dominates for the
Northern Clump, Eastern tail, and South-west clump regions. A comparison to a
starburst galaxy and an AGN suggests similar C2H, CN, and H2CO abundances (with
respect to the dense gas tracer 34CS) between the ~0.8 pc scale probed for W49A
and the >1 kpc regions in external galaxies with global star-formation.Comment: Proposed for acceptance in A&A, abstract abridge
Advance Australia fair? (in)equality, prosperity and sustainability in shaping Australia's future
Scholarships & Prizes Office. University of Sydne
Triggered/sequential star formation? A multi-phase ISM study around the prominent IRDC G18.93-0.03
G18.93-0.03 is a prominent dust complex within an 0.8deg long filament, with
the molecular clump G18.93/m being IR dark from near IR wavelength up to 160mu.
Spitzer composite images show an IR bubble spatially associated with G18.93. We
use GRS 13CO and IRAM 30m H13CO+ data to disentangle the spatial structure of
the region. From ATLASGAL submm data we calculate the gas mass, while we use
the H13CO+ line width to estimate its virial mass. Using HERSCHEL data we
produce temperature maps from fitting the SED. With the MAGPIS 20cm and
SuperCOSMOS Halpha data we trace the ionized gas, and the VGPS HI survey
provides information on the atomic hydrogen gas. We show that the bubble is
spatially associated with G18.93, located at a kinematic near distance of
3.6kpc. With 280Msun, the most massive clump within G18.93 is G18.93/m. The
virial analysis shows that it may be gravitationally bound and has neither
Spitzer young stellar objects nor mid-IR point sources within. Fitting the SED
reveals a temperature distribution that decreases towards its center, but
heating from the ionizing source puts it above the general ISM temperature. We
find that the bubble is filled by HII gas, ionized by an O8.5 star. Between the
ionizing source and the IR dark clump G18.93/m we find a layered structure,
from ionized to atomic to molecular hydrogen, revealing a PDR. Furthermore, we
identify an additional velocity component within the bubble's 8mu emission rim
at the edge of the infrared dark cloud and speculate that it might be shock
induced by the expanding HII region. While the elevated temperature allows for
the build-up of larger fragments, and the shock induced velocity component may
lead to additional turbulent support, we do not find conclusive evidence that
the massive clump G18.93/m is prone to collapse because of the expanding HII
region.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
SWAS and Arecibo observations of H2O and OH in a diffuse cloud along the line-of-sight to W51
Observations of W51 with the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)
have yielded the first detection of water vapor in a diffuse molecular cloud.
The water vapor lies in a foreground cloud that gives rise to an absorption
feature at an LSR velocity of 6 km/s. The inferred H2O column density is
2.5E+13 cm-2. Observations with the Arecibo radio telescope of hydroxyl
molecules at ten positions in W51 imply an OH column density of 8E+13 cm-2 in
the same diffuse cloud. The observed H2O/OH ratio of ~ 0.3 is significantly
larger than an upper limit derived previously from ultraviolet observations of
the similar diffuse molecular cloud lying in front of HD 154368. The observed
variation in H2O/OH likely points to the presence in one or both of these
clouds of a warm (T > 400) gas component in which neutral-neutral reactions are
important sources of OH and/or H2O.Comment: 15 pages (AASTeX) including 4 (eps) figures. To appear in the
Astrophysical Journa
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