544 research outputs found
Competition Policy and Public Procurement in Developing Countries
Measures to support Competition Policy and enhance the efficiency of Public Procurement can enhance the impact of regional integration agreements. The first part addresses Competition Policy - measures employed by government to ensure a fair competitive market environment. Competition policy aims to ensure that markets remain competitive (through anti-trust or anti-cartel enforcement) or become competitive (through liberalisation). For a variety of reasons, competition is often restricted in developing countries and there are benefits from establishing some level of competition policy. Although the literature does not provide a blueprint, it provides guidance on the most useful ways to incorporate Competition Policy in regional agreements. The second part addresses issues in opening up public procurement and outlines the main potential sources of welfare gains. Open and transparent procurement can bring gains in terms of price reduction, competition and reduced corruption. While developing countries recognize these benefits for domestic policy, they appear opposed to including procurement commitments in international agreements.Competition Policy, Public Procurement, Regional Integration
Competition policy and public procurement in developing countries
Measures to support Competition Policy and enhance the efficiency of Public Procurement can enhance the impact of regional integration agreements. The first part addresses Competition Policy - measures employed by government to ensure a fair competitive market environment. Competition policy aims to ensure that markets remain competitive (through anti-trust or anti-cartel enforcement) or become competitive (through liberalisation). For a variety of reasons, competition is often restricted in developing countries and there are benefits from establishing some level of competition policy. Although the literature does not provide a blueprint, it provides guidance on the most useful ways to incorporate Competition Policy in regional agreements. The second part addresses issues in opening up public procurement and outlines the main potential sources of welfare gains. Open and transparent procurement can bring gains in terms of price reduction, competition and reduced corruption. While developing countries recognize these benefits for domestic policy, they appear opposed to including procurement commitments in international agreements
How a Stressed Local Public System Copes With People in Psychiatric Crisis
In order to bolster the public mental health safety net, we must first understand how these systems function on a day-to-day basis. This study explored how individual attributes and organizational interdependencies within one predominantly urban US county affected responses to individualsâ needs during psychiatric crises. We interviewed clinicians and managers within the crisis response network about people at immediate risk of psychiatric hospitalization, what had happened to them during their crises, and factors affecting services provided (N = 94 individuals and 9 agencies). Social network diagrams depicted patterns of referrals between agencies. Iterative coding of interview transcripts was used to contextualize the social network findings. Often, agencies saw crises through to resolution. However, providers also limited the types of people they served, leaving many people in crisis in limbo. This study illustrates how attributes of individuals with mental illness, service providers and their interactions, and state and federal policies intersect to shape the trajectories of individuals during psychiatric crises. Understanding both the structures of current local systems and their contexts may support continued evolution toward a more humane and robust safety net for some of our societyâs most vulnerable members
Stellar Population Properties and Evolution Analysis of NGC 628 with the Panchromatic Photometry
Panchromatic spectral energy distribution (SED) from the ultraviolet (UV),
optical to infrared (IR) photometry of NGC 628, combined with the evolutionary
stellar population synthesis, is used to derive the spatially resolved age,
metallicity and reddening maps. These parameter distributions show that the
bulge of this galaxy is a disk-like pseudobulge, which has the S{\'e}rsic index
close to the exponential law, rich gas, and a young circumnuclear ring
structure. We also discover the disk has two distinct regions with different
radial age and metallicity gradients. The inner region is older and has a much
steeper age gradient than the outer region of the disk. Both these two regions
and the central young structure can be seen in the radial profile of the
optical color. Based on the age and reddening distributions, we consider that
the pseudobulge and disk are likely to have grown via the secular evolution,
which is the redistribution of mass and energy through the angular momentum
transport caused by the non-axisymmetric potential of the spirals. However,
possible gas accretion events could affect the outer region of the disk, due to
abundant H{\sc i} gas accumulating in the outer disk.Comment: 9 figures, accepted for publication in A
The spatial distribution and origin of the FUV excess in early-type galaxies
We present surface photometry of a sample of 52 galaxies from the GALEX and
2MASS data archives, these include 32 normal elliptical galaxies, 10
ellipticals with weak Liner or other nuclear activity, and 10 star forming
ellipticals or early-type spirals. We examine the spatial distribution of the
Far Ultra-Violet excess in these galaxies, and its correlation with dynamical
and stellar population properties of the galaxies. From aperture photometry we
find that all galaxies except for recent major remnants and galaxies with
ongoing star formation show a positive gradient in the (FUV-NUV) colour
determined from the GALEX images. The logarithmic gradient does not correlate
with any stellar population parameter, but it does correlate with the central
velocity dispersion. The strength of the excess on the other hand, correlates
with both [alpha/Fe] and [Z/H], but more strongly with the former. We derive
models of the underlying stellar population from the 2MASS H-band images, and
the residual of the image from this model reveals a map of the centrally
concentrated FUV excess. We examine a possible hypothesis for generating the
FUV excess and the radial gradient in its strength, involving a helium
abundance gradient set up early in the formation process of the galaxies. If
this hypothesis is correct, the persistence of the gradients to the present day
places a strong limit on the importance of dry mergers in the formation of
ellipticals.Comment: 36 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Appendices will appear
in online journal only. This version has reduced resolution for the figure in
Appendix B to comply with arXiv size limit
Changes in Treatment Content of Services During Trauma-informed Integrated Services for Women with Co-occurring Disorders
The experience of trauma is highly prevalent in the lives of women with mental health and substance abuse problems. We examined how an intervention targeted to provide trauma-informed integrated services in the treatment of co-occurring disorders has changed the content of services reported by clients. We found that the intervention led to an increased provision of integrated services as well as services addressing each content area: trauma, mental health and substance abuse. There was no increase in service quantity from the intervention. Incorporation of trauma-specific element in the treatment of mental health and substance abuse may have been successfully implemented at the service level thereby better serve women with complex behavioral health histories
ACCESS II: A Complete Census of Star Formation in the Shapley Supercluster - UV and IR Luminosity Functions
We present panoramic Spitzer/MIPS mid- and far-infrared and GALEX ultraviolet
imaging of the the most massive and dynamically active system in the local
Universe, the Shapley supercluster at z=0.048, covering the 5 clusters which
make up the supercluster core. We combine these data with existing
spectroscopic data from 814 confirmed supercluster members to produce the first
study of a local rich cluster including both ultraviolet and infrared
luminosity functions (LFs). This joint analysis allows us to produce a complete
census of star-formation (both obscured and unobscured), extending down to
SFRs~0.02-0.05Msun/yr, and quantify the level of obscuration of star formation
among cluster galaxies, providing a local benchmark for comparison to ongoing
and future studies of cluster galaxies at higher redshifts with Spitzer and
Herschel. The GALEX NUV and FUV LFs obtained have steeper faint-end slopes than
the local field population, due largely to the contribution of massive,
quiescent galaxies at M_FUV>-16. The 24um and 70um galaxy LFs for the Shapley
supercluster instead have shapes fully consistent with those obtained for the
Coma cluster and for the local field galaxy population. This apparent lack of
environmental dependence for the shape of the FIR luminosity function suggests
that the bulk of the star-forming galaxies that make up the observed cluster
infrared LF have been recently accreted from the field and have yet to have
their star formation activity significantly affected by the cluster
environment. We estimate a global SFR of 327 Msun/yr over the whole
supercluster core, of which just ~20% is visible directly in the UV continuum
and ~80% is reprocessed by dust and emitted in the infrared. The level of
obscuration (L_IR/L_FUV) in star-forming galaxies is seen to increase linearly
with L_K over two orders of magnitude in stellar mass.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Broad-line Balmer Decrements in Blue Active Galactic Nuclei
We have investigated the broad-line Balmer decrements (Halpha/Hbeta) for a
large, homogeneous sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs using spectroscopic
data obtained in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The sample, drawn from the
Fourth Data Release, comprises 446 low redshift (z < 0.35) active galactic
nuclei (AGN) that have blue optical continua as indicated by the spectral
slopes in order to minimize the effect of dust extinction. We find that (i) the
distribution of the intrinsic broad-line Halpha/Hbeta ratio can be well
described by log-Gaussian, with a peak at Halpha/Hbeta=3.06 and a standard
deviation of about 0.03 dex only; (ii) the Balmer decrement does not correlate
with AGN properties such as luminosity, accretion rate, and continuum slope,
etc.; (iii) on average, the Balmer decrements are found to be only slightly
larger in radio-loud sources (3.37) and sources having double-peaked
emission-line profiles (3.27) compared to the rest of the sample. We therefore
suggest that the broad-line Halpha/Hbeta ratio can be used as a good indicator
for dust extinction in the AGN broad-line region; this is especially true for
radio-quiet AGN with regular emission-line profiles, which constitute the vast
majority of the AGN population.Comment: To appear in MNRAS. The data and the fitted parameters for the
decomposed spectral components (continuum, FeII and other emission lines) of
the 446 blue AGNs are available at
http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/~xbdong/Data_Release/blueAGN_DR4
The Effects of State Psychiatric Hospital Waitlist Policies on Length of Stay and Time to Readmission
This study examined the effects of a waitlist policy for state psychiatric hospitals on length of stay and time to readmission using data from North Carolina for 2004â2010. Cox proportional hazards models tested the hypothesis that patients were discharged âquicker-but-sickerâ post-waitlist, as hospitals struggled to manage admission delays and quickly admit waitlisted patients. Results refute this hypothesis, indicating that waitlists were associated with increased length of stay and time to readmission. Further research is needed to evaluate patientsâ clinical outcomes directly and to examine the impact of state hospital waitlists in other areas, such as state hospital case mix, local emergency departments, and outpatient mental health agencies
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