Regulatory responses to build charity financial resilience: ‘tow truck’ or ‘guardian angel’?

Charity regulation is increasing internationally, leading to divergent views on what might constitute “better regulation.” The purpose of a charity regulator and appropriate regulation may also be contested. Many modern charity regulators are required to maintain public trust and confidence in charities in order to bolster ongoing charity support from funders and the donating public. Nevertheless, public trust and confidence is precarious. At its nadir, in England and Wales “the person in the street” was deemed more trustworthy than charities, with donations diminishing in the current environment and the charity sector close to crisis. Further, charities contribute to crises when they incite negative media interest in their operations, fail to comply with regulatory filing deadlines, and/or manipulate their accounts. Charity regulators must maintain legitimacy within a changing regulatory space, despite often being resource-constrained themselves. Yet, some suggest regulators could “do more” to increase sector-wide resilience and to increase public trust and confidence. Hence, this raises the question of how charities should be regulated and whether (and how) a regulator could build resilience. We depict charity-sector crises as a vehicular incident and ponder: should the regulator act as a “Guardian Angel” to prevent crises through interventions to build and maintain sectoral resilience, or should it appear postincident as a “Tow Truck” to clear the road for other traffic through closely bounded regulatory action focused on sanctions and deregistration. We address this question by analyzing publicly available regulatory data from the Charity Commission of England and Wales and semistructured interviews, which provide additional “behind the scenes” depth to our analysis and findings. We contribute to literature on charity regulation and expected regulatory responsibilities within a confined but permeable regulatory space

From urn models to zero-range processes: statics and dynamics

The aim of these lecture notes is a description of the statics and dynamics of zero-range processes and related models. After revisiting some conceptual aspects of the subject, emphasis is then put on the study of the class of zero-range processes for which a condensation transition arises.Comment: Lecture notes for the Luxembourg Summer School 200

Household transmission of invasive group A Streptococcus infections in England: a population-based study, 2009, 2011 to 13

Invasive group A s treptococcal infection has a 15% case fatality rate and a risk of secondary transmission. This retrospective study us ed two national data sources from England ; enhanced surveillance ( 2009) and a case management system ( 2011 - 13) to identify clusters of sever e group A streptococcal disease . 2 4 household pairs were identified. The median onset interval between cases was 2 days (range 0 - 28) with simultaneous onset in 8 pairs . The attack rate during the 30 days after first exposure to a primary case was 4 52 0 per 100000 person - years at risk (95% CI 2 900 - 673 0 ) a 19 40 ( 12 40 - 28 80 ) fold elevation over the background incidence . The theoretical number needed to treat ( NNT ) to prevent one secondary case using antibiotic prophylaxis was 2 71 ( 194 - 454 ) overall, 50 for mother - neonate pairs ( 2 7 - 3 93 ) and 8 2 for couples aged 75 years and over ( 46 - 417 ). Whilst a dramatic increased risk of infection was noted in all household contacts, increased ris k was greatest for mother - neonate pairs and couples aged 75 and over , suggesting targeted prophylaxis c ould be considered. Offering prophylaxis is challenging due to the short time interval between cases emphasising the importance of immediate notification and assessment of contacts

The future of public sector accounting research. A polyphonic debate

PurposeThe purpose of this polyphonic paper is to report on interdisciplinary discussions on the state-of-the-art and future of public sector accounting research (PSAR). The authors hope to enliven the debates of the past and future developments in terms of context, themes, theories, methods and impacts in the field of PSAR by the exchanges they include here. Design/methodology/approachThis polyphonic paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach. It brings into conversation ideas, views and approaches of several scholars on the actual and future developments of PSAR in various contexts, and explores potential implications. FindingsThis paper has brought together scholars from a plurality of disciplines, research methods and geographical areas, showing at the same time several points of convergence on important future themes (such as accounting as a mean for public, accounting, hybridity and value pluralism) and enabling conditions (accounting capabilities, profession and digitalisation) for PSA scholarship and practice, and the richness of looking at them from a plurality of perspectives. Research limitations/implicationsExploring these past and future developments opens up the potential for interesting theoretical insights. A much greater theoretical and practical reconsideration of PSAR will be fostered by the exchanges included here. Originality/valueIn setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the interdisciplinary research community interested in PSAR in various contexts. The discussion perspectives presented in this paper constitute not only a basis for further research in this relevant accounting area on the role, status and developments of PSAR but also creative potential for practitioners to be more reflective on their practices and also intended and united outcomes of such practices

NGO accounting and accountability: past, present and future

The main aim of this paper is to introduce key themes of NGO accounting and accountability and provide an overview of the papers included in this special issue. These papers deal with formal reporting issues related to the regulatory requirements as well as various alternative forms of informal accountability mechanisms which are more related with the core social purpose of the organisation. This special issue contributes not only to the scholarly debates on NGO accounting and accountability but also to the various issues facing policy makers and NGO practitioners. We have provided a robust research agenda for future researchers. HIGHLIGHTS We define the term ‘NGO’ for the purposes of this issue, concluding that NGOs’ social purposes and the constraint on distribution of surpluses are the two common characteristics. This definition encourages researchers to cast their net wider when considering contexts in which to undertake their NGO study. NGO accountability discharge is broadening to a wider range of stakeholders. There are many NGO accounting and accountability issues that warrant further research

Domain Growth in a 1-D Driven Diffusive System

The low-temperature coarsening dynamics of a one-dimensional Ising model, with conserved magnetisation and subject to a small external driving force, is studied analytically in the limit where the volume fraction \mu of the minority phase is small, and numerically for general \mu. The mean domain size L(t) grows as t^{1/2} in all cases, and the domain-size distribution for domains of one sign is very well described by the form P_l(l) \propto (l/L^3)\exp[-\lambda(\mu)(l^2/L^2)], which is exact for small \mu (and possibly for all \mu). The persistence exponent for the minority phase has the value 3/2 for \mu \to 0.Comment: 8 pages, REVTeX, 7 Postscript figures, uses multicol.sty and epsf.sty. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Anomalous self-diffusion in the ferromagnetic Ising chain with Kawasaki dynamics

We investigate the motion of a tagged spin in a ferromagnetic Ising chain evolving under Kawasaki dynamics. At equilibrium, the displacement is Gaussian, with a variance growing as $A t^{1/2}$. The temperature dependence of the prefactor $A$ is derived exactly. At low temperature, where the static correlation length $\xi$ is large, the mean square displacement grows as $(t/\xi^2)^{2/3}$ in the coarsening regime, i.e., as a finite fraction of the mean square domain length. The case of totally asymmetric dynamics, where $(+)$ (resp. $(-)$) spins move only to the right (resp. to the left), is also considered. In the steady state, the displacement variance grows as $B t^{2/3}$. The temperature dependence of the prefactor $B$ is derived exactly, using the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang theory. At low temperature, the displacement variance grows as $t/\xi^2$ in the coarsening regime, again proportionally to the mean square domain length.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures. A few minor changes and update

New Dynamic Monte Carlo Renormalization Group Method

The dynamical critical exponent of the two-dimensional spin-flip Ising model is evaluated by a Monte Carlo renormalization group method involving a transformation in time. The results agree very well with a finite-size scaling analysis performed on the same data. The value of $z = 2.13 \pm 0.01$ is obtained, which is consistent with most recent estimates

Clinical use of HIV integrase inhibitors : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Optimal regimen choice of antiretroviral therapy is essential to achieve long-term clinical success. Integrase inhibitors have swiftly been adopted as part of current antiretroviral regimens. The purpose of this study was to review the evidence for integrase inhibitor use in clinical settings. Methods: MEDLINE and Web-of-Science were screened from April 2006 until November 2012, as were hand-searched scientific meeting proceedings. Multiple reviewers independently screened 1323 citations in duplicate to identify randomized controlled trials, nonrandomized controlled trials and cohort studies on integrase inhibitor use in clinical practice. Independent, duplicate data extraction and quality assessment were conducted. Results: 48 unique studies were included on the use of integrase inhibitors in antiretroviral therapy-naive patients and treatment-experienced patients with either virological failure or switching to integrase inhibitors while virologically suppressed. On the selected studies with comparable outcome measures and indication (n = 16), a meta-analysis was performed based on modified intention-to-treat (mITT), on-treatment (OT) and as-treated (AT) virological outcome data. In therapy-naive patients, favorable odds ratios (OR) for integrase inhibitor-based regimens were observed, (mITT OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.59-0.86). However, integrase inhibitors combined with protease inhibitors only did not result in a significant better virological outcome. Evidence further supported integrase inhibitor use following virological failure (mITT OR 0.27; 95% CI 0.11-0.66), but switching to integrase inhibitors from a high genetic barrier drug during successful treatment was not supported (mITT OR 1.43; 95% CI 0.89-2.31). Integrase inhibitor-based regimens result in similar immunological responses compared to other regimens. A low genetic barrier to drug-resistance development was observed for raltegravir and elvitegravir, but not for dolutegravir. Conclusion: In first-line therapy, integrase inhibitors are superior to other regimens. Integrase inhibitor use after virological failure is supported as well by the meta-analysis. Careful use is however warranted when replacing a high genetic barrier drug in treatment-experienced patients switching successful treatment

Switching Virally Suppressed, Treatment-Experienced Patients to a Raltegravir-Containing Regimen Does Not Alter Levels of HIV-1 DNA

Background: Current HIV-1 antiretroviral therapy (ART) greatly reduces virus replication but does not significantly affect the viral reservoir. Raltegravir, a recently introduced integrase inhibitor, could, at least theoretically, reduce residual viremia in patients on ART and affect the viral reservoir size. The aim of this study was to assess whether switching therapy in treatment-experienced patients that were virally suppressed to a raltegravir-containing regimen reduces the size of the viral reservoir, and if such treatment leads to a change in levels of HIV 2-LTR circles in this patient group. Methods: 14 ART experienced individuals with a suppressed viral load (,50 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL plasma) at baseline (for at least 2 months) were switched to a raltegravir-containing regimen. Blood samples were taken at baseline and at $2 timepoints up to 4866 weeks. Levels of total HIV-1 DNA and 2-LTR circles in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were measured using real-time PCR assays. Results: There was no significant change in HIV-1 total DNA levels over the study duration (p = 0.808), median slope 0.24 (conservative nonparametric 95 % CI: 211.78, 26.23). Low levels of 2-LTR circles were detected in 2 patients. One had 16 copies/10 6 PBMCs at baseline and the other had 34 copies/10 6 PBMCs at week 51. Conclusions: The switch to a raltegravir containing regimen was not associated with a significant change in HIV-1 total DNA levels in this cohort. There were no observed changes in the levels of HIV-1 2-LTR circles associated with raltegravi