Fiscal decentralization and poverty in South Africa : evidence from panel data analysis

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between fiscal decentralization and poverty in South Africa within a panel data framework. The data used covers the period from 2005 to 2011 for the eight metropolitan municipalities making a total of 56 observations. We use real household consumption expenditure per capita as a proxy for poverty and the ratio of metropolitan expenditure to national government expenditure as fiscal decentralization. The results from a panel VAR estimated with GMM, show a negative short run effect of fiscal decentralization on real household consumption per capita in South Africa. These results have important policy implications.http://www.businessperspectives.org/component/option,com_journals/id,4am201

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment

Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions: Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversity Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere Future urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem service

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment

Urban Ecology; Urbanism; Sustainable Development; Complex Systems; Science, general; International Environmental La

A Review of Interventions to Reduce Mechanical Restraint and Seclusion among Adult Psychiatric Inpatients

Objective: This review examines nature and effectiveness of interventions to reduce the use of mechanical restraint and seclusion among adult psychiatric inpatients. Method: Electronic searches were conducted to locate post-1960 empirical studies of restraint and seclusion reduction in English. A total of 36 studies were identified, mostly from the USA. Analysis was conducted using a structured data extraction tool. Results: The majority of studies reported reduced levels or mechanical restraint and/or seclusion, but the standard of evidence was poor. There were no randomised trials. Most were retrospective studies of official records before and after the intervention was introduced, with varying follow-up periods. The interventions were diverse, but tended to include one or more of the following: new restraint and/or seclusion policies, staffing changes, staff training, review procedures and crisis management initiatives. The research was unable to address which of these elements was most effective. There was also evidence that some improved outcomes were achieved by substituting restraint or seclusion for each other or for alternatives forms of containment (medication in particular). Nurses’ attitudes, skills and approach to patient care were absent from the literature. Conclusions: Interventions probably can reduce the use of restraint and seclusion, but better designed research is required to demonstrate their effectiveness conclusively. More attention should also be paid to understanding how interventions work, particularly from the perspective of nursing staff. This is essential to the successful implementation of restraint and seclusion interventions across different psychiatric settings and treatment populations

Modeling of the structural, optoelectronic, thermodynamic, dynamical stability, and the hydrogen storage density of CsSnX3 (X ​= ​O, S, Se and Te) perovskites

Based on density functional theory (DFT) approach, investigations on the structural, thermodynamic, electronic, optoelectronic, phonon, mechanical, and the hydrogen gravimetric storage density of CsSnX3 (X ​= ​O, S, Se and Te) perovskite systems is presented herein. While results of the computed lattice constant values for the investigated perovskite systems increased with an increase in the size of the anion X (X ​= ​O, S, Se, Te), the electronic bandgap values of 1.42, 1.02, 0.64, and 0.40 ​eV is obtained for CsSnO3, CsSnS3, CsSnSe3, and CsSnTe3 respectively. Among the studied systems, CsSnO3 and CsSnS3 are found to be dynamically stable, with CsSnO3 material being the most stable among the studied compounds owing to its frequencies in the real state of the phonon dispersion curve. To study the hydrogen storage properties of the materials in this present study: CsSnO3, CsSnS3, CsSnSe3, and CsSnTe3 the crystal structures have been modified by replacing the heteroatoms (O, S, Se, and Te) with hydrogens which is given as: CsSnO_H4, CsSnS_H4, CsSnSe_H4 and CsSnTe_H4. The gravimetric density (GD) suggests a strong agreement with the calculated band structure and decreases as the amount of band gap becomes enormous, where the CsSnO reveals a highest capacity of 0.74 which decrease as we go from O–Te for two atomic hydrogens. The CsSnTe shows the lowest gravimetric density of 0.526. Also, the formation energies obtained for CsSnO3_H4 estimated to be −31.599 ​kJ ​mol−1 ​has the highest energy however, these was observed to decrease as we go from oxygen to S ​> ​Se ​> ​Te. Moreover, the desorption temperature which is necessary for physical application reveals that the investigated materials are in line with the required range of desorption temperature for practical applications 289 ​K ​°K proposed by US-DOE, which implies that there are no barriers for hydrogen desorption from CsSnX3_H4 compounds. Therefore, it can be deduced that CsSnX3_H4 is a reversible hydrogen storage material. However, CsSnO3_H4 the best desorption temperature, this means that the presence of O atom in the perovskite improves the adsorption energy of interaction between the crystal lattice and the hydrogen molecules and decrease in the order of S ​> ​Se ​> ​Te respectively

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment

Urban Ecology; Urbanism; Sustainable Development; Complex Systems; Science, general; International Environmental La

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment

Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions:Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and ChinaUrban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversityUrban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhereFuture urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem service