Budgetary institutions and expenditure outcomes : binding governments to fiscal performance

The authors examine how institutional arrangements affect incentives that govern the size, allocation, and use of budgetary resources. They use a diagnostic questionnaire to elicit the relative strengths and weaknesses of specific systems in terms of instilling fiscal discipline, strategically assigning spending priorities, and making the best use of limited resources. In applying their methodology to a sample of seven countries (Australia, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, New Zealand, Thailand and Uganda) they also examine how donor assistance affects expenditure outcomes. In New Zealand, reform focused on achieving general fiscal discipline and technical efficiency. In Australia, reform focused on strategic priorities and a shift from central to line agencies. The two countries took different paths, but both sought to alter incentives that affect the size, allocation, and use of resources and to improve transparency and accountability. Systems in Indonesia and Thailand were reasonably effective in instilling fiscal discipline, butIndonesia seemed better at allocating resources to protect basic social services and alleviate poverty during fiscal austerity periods. Thailand's overcentralized system did not capitalize on useful information from line agencies and lower levels of government. Donors play a central role in spending outcome in the three African countries. Donors provided incentives for short-term fiscal discipline, but the imposed spending cuts impeded the prioritizing of expenditures and multiple donor projects fragmented budgets. Donor conditionality on the composition of expenditures and donor-driven attempts to improve technical efficiency, were ineffective. Lack of transparency and accountability meant rules were not enforced and budgets were often remade in an ad hoc, centralized way, so that the flow of resources to line agencies was unpredictable.Business Environment,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Health Economics&Finance,National Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies

Finding critical points using improved scaling Ansaetze

Analyzing in detail the first corrections to the scaling hypothesis, we develop accelerated methods for the determination of critical points from finite size data. The output of these procedures are sequences of pseudo-critical points which rapidly converge towards the true critical points. In fact more rapidly than previously existing methods like the Phenomenological Renormalization Group approach. Our methods are valid in any spatial dimensionality and both for quantum or classical statistical systems. Having at disposal fast converging sequences, allows to draw conclusions on the basis of shorter system sizes, and can be extremely important in particularly hard cases like two-dimensional quantum systems with frustrations or when the sign problem occurs. We test the effectiveness of our methods both analytically on the basis of the one-dimensional XY model, and numerically at phase transitions occurring in non integrable spin models. In particular, we show how a new Homogeneity Condition Method is able to locate the onset of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition making only use of ground-state quantities on relatively small systems.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. New version including more general Ansaetze basically applicable to all case

Inverse Estimation of an Annual Cycle of California's Nitrous Oxide Emissions

Nitrous oxide (N_2O) is a potent long‐lived greenhouse gas (GHG) and the strongest current emissions of global anthropogenic stratospheric ozone depletion weighted by its ozone depletion potential. In California, N_2O is the third largest contributor to the state's anthropogenic GHG emission inventory, though no study has quantified its statewide annual emissions through top‐down inverse modeling. Here we present the first annual (2013–2014) statewide top‐down estimates of anthropogenic N_2O emissions. Utilizing continuous N_2O observations from six sites across California in a hierarchical Bayesian inversion, we estimate that annual anthropogenic emissions are 1.5–2.5 times (at 95% confidence) the state inventory (41 Gg N_2O in 2014). Without mitigation, this estimate represents 4–7% of total GHG emissions assuming that other reported GHG emissions are reasonably correct. This suggests that control of N_2O could be an important component in meeting California's emission reduction goals of 40% and 80% below 1990 levels of the total GHG emissions (in CO_2 equivalent) by 2030 and 2050, respectively. Our seasonality analysis suggests that emissions are similar across seasons within posterior uncertainties. Future work is needed to provide source attribution for subregions and further characterization of seasonal variability

Nanoinformatics: developing new computing applications for nanomedicine

Nanoinformatics has recently emerged to address the need of computing applications at the nano level. In this regard, the authors have participated in various initiatives to identify its concepts, foundations and challenges. While nanomaterials open up the possibility for developing new devices in many industrial and scientific areas, they also offer breakthrough perspectives for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this paper, we analyze the different aspects of nanoinformatics and suggest five research topics to help catalyze new research and development in the area, particularly focused on nanomedicine. We also encompass the use of informatics to further the biological and clinical applications of basic research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and the related concept of an extended ?nanotype? to coalesce information related to nanoparticles. We suggest how nanoinformatics could accelerate developments in nanomedicine, similarly to what happened with the Human Genome and other -omics projects, on issues like exchanging modeling and simulation methods and tools, linking toxicity information to clinical and personal databases or developing new approaches for scientific ontologies, among many others

Clinical Audits in Outpatient Clinics for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Methodological Considerations and Workflow

Objectives: Previous clinical audits for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have provided valuable information on the clinical care delivered to patients admitted to medical wards because of COPD exacerbations. However, clinical audits of COPD in an outpatient setting are scarce and no methodological guidelines are currently available. Based on our previous experience, herein we describe a clinical audit for COPD patients in specialized outpatient clinics with the overall goal of establishing a potential methodological workflow.Methods: A pilot clinical audit of COPD patients referred to respiratory outpatient clinics in the region of Andalusia, Spain (over 8 million inhabitants), was performed. The audit took place between October 2013 and September 2014, and 10 centers (20% of all public hospitals) were invited to participate. Cases with an established diagnosis of COPD based on risk factors, clinical symptoms, and a post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio of less than 0.70 were deemed eligible. The usefulness of formally scheduled regular follow-up visits was assessed. Two different databases (resources and clinical database) were constructed. Assessments were planned over a year divided by 4 three-month periods, with the goal of determining seasonal-related changes. Exacerbations and survival served as the main endpoints.Conclusions: This paper describes a methodological framework for conducting a clinical audit of COPD patients in an outpatient setting. Results from such audits can guide health information systems development and implementation in real-world settings.This study was financially supported by an unrestricted grant from Laboratorios Menarini, SA (Barcelona, Spain)