The New Governance and the Tools of Public Action: An Introduction

A fundamental re-thinking is currently underway throughout the world about how to cope with public problems. Stimulated by popular frustrations with the cost and effectiveness of government programs and by a new-found faith in liberal economic theories, serious questions are being raised about the capabilities, and even the motivations, of public-sector institutions. This type of questioning has spread beyond American political discourse to other parts of the world. Underlying much of this reform surge is a set of theories that portrays government agencies as tightly structured hierarchies insulated from market forces and from effective citizen pressure and therefore free to serve the personal and institutional interests of bureaucrats instead. The heart of this revolution has been a fundamental transformation not just in the scope and scale of government action, but in its basic forms. Instead of relying exclusively on government to solve public problems, a host of other actors is being mobilized as well, sometimes are their own initiative but often in complex partnerships with the state

On Balazard, Saias, and Yor's equivalence to the Riemann Hypothesis

Balazard, Saias, and Yor proved that the Riemann Hypothesis is equivalent to a certain weighted integral of the logarithm of the Riemann zeta-function along the critical line equaling zero. Assuming the Riemann Hypothesis, we investigate the rate at which a truncated version of this integral tends to zero, answering a question of Borwein, Bradley, and Crandall and disproving a conjecture of the same authors. A simple modification of our techniques gives a new proof of a classical Omega theorem for the function S(t) in the theory of the Riemann zeta-function.Comment: 11 page

A case study of HF radar spectral width in the post midnight magnetic local time sector and its relationship to the polar cap boundary

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to advance the current understanding of the spectral width parameter observed by coherent high frequency (HF) radars. In particular, we address the relationship of a frequently observed gradient, between low ( 200 m/s) spectral width, to magnetospheric boundaries. Previous work has linked this gradient in the spectral width, in the nightside sector of magnetic local time, to the Polar Cap Boundary (PCB), and also to the boundary between the Central Plasma Sheet (CPS) and the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer (PSBL). The present case study investigates the former by comparison with the 630.0 nm optical emission. No suitable data were available to test the second of the two hypotheses. It is found that during the interval in question the spectral width gradient is within the region of the 630.0 nm optical emission. A comparison of coherent and incoherent scatter radar data is also conducted, which indicates that values of high spectral width are typically collocated with elevated F-region electron temperatures. We conclude that the high spectral width region in the interval under study is associated with particle precipitation and also that the spectral width gradient is not a reliable method for locating the PCB

Chaotic Advection at the Pore Scale: Mechanisms, Upscaling and Implications for Macroscopic Transport

The macroscopic spreading and mixing of solute plumes in saturated porous media is ultimately controlled by processes operating at the pore scale. Whilst the conventional picture of pore-scale mechanical dispersion and molecular diffusion leading to persistent hydrodynamic dispersion is well accepted, this paradigm is inherently two-dimensional (2D) in nature and neglects important three-dimensional (3D) phenomena. We discuss how the kinematics of steady 3D flow at the porescale generate chaotic advection, involving exponential stretching and folding of fluid elements,the mechanisms by which it arises and implications of microscopic chaos for macroscopic dispersion and mixing. Prohibited in steady 2D flow due to topological constraints, these phenomena are ubiquitous due to the topological complexity inherent to all 3D porous media. Consequently 3D porous media flows generate profoundly different fluid deformation and mixing processes to those of 2D flow. The interplay of chaotic advection and broad transit time distributions can be incorporated into a continuous-time random walk (CTRW) framework to predict macroscopic solute mixing and spreading. We show how these results may be generalised to real porous architectures via a CTRW model of fluid deformation, leading to stochastic models of macroscopic dispersion and mixing which both honour the pore-scale kinematics and are directly conditioned on the pore-scale tomography.Comment: 43 page

Food webs in forest and pasture streams in the Waikato region, New Zealand: A study based on analyses of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen, and fish gut contents.

Stable isotopes of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) were studied in 11 stream communities in the Waikato region of New Zealand. From comparisons of mean d13C and d15N values, food webs in the shaded, forest streams were clearly based on allochthonous material (conditioned leaf litter and terrestrial invertebrates). Autotrophs in forest streams were not a significant C source for the food webs. However, the C source of food webs in the unshaded pasture streams appeared to be a mixture of allochthonous and autochthonous material. Conditioned leaf litter appeared to contribute to the pasture stream food webs, and the d13C and d15N of some samples of epilithic diatoms indicated their consumption by invertebrates in pasture streams. Fish ate a wide range of aquatic invertebrates; longfinned eels (Anguilla dieffenbachiai) and banded kokopu (Galaxias fasciatus) also had a large proportion of terrestrial invertebrates in their diet. Filamentous green algae were found only at pasture sites, where they were sometimes abundant. The wide range of d13C values of filamentous green algae (-18.8 to -29.7[[perthousand]]) complicated understanding of their role in the stream food webs. The d13C values of Cladophora were related to water velocity, with more 13C-enriched values in pools than in runs (-23.2[[perthousand]] in pools, mean velocity 0.12 m s-1; -28.1[[perthousand]] in runs, mean velocity 0.24 m s-1). Crayfish and the gastropod mollusc Potamopyrgus appeared to be the only invertebrates to eat filamentous green algae

Nonadiabatic Electronic Interactions In The Ion-Pair States Of NelCl

Nonadiabatic interactions in the NeIC1 van der Waals complex have been explored in the lowest energy triad of IC1 ion-pair states (approximately 39 000 cm-1). Dispersed fluorescence measurements reveal emission characteristic of multiple ion-pair electronic states, with the relative contributions from the E(O+ ), beta(1), and D\u27(2) states changing with the initial IC1 vibrational excitation (v(IC1)). Emission directly from NeIC1 (v(IC1) = O) complexes indicates that the initially prepared NeIC1 levels have mixed electronic character and that the IC1 electronic parentage changes with the initial van der Waals vibrational level selected. NeIC1 complexes prepared with 1-4 quanta of IC1 stretch undergo rapid vibrational predissociation with a strong propensity for DELTA-V(IC1) = - 1 relaxation. The electronic state(s) populated in the IC1 fragments differ from the mixed electronic character of the initially prepared level, demonstrating that vibrational predissociation is accompanied by nonadiabatic electronic state changing processes. The observed final state selectivity may be attributed to the relative strength of the nonadiabatic couplings between the initial NeIC1 bound state and the final IC1 states or a momentum gap rationale based on the overlap between the NeIC1 bound state wave function and the highly oscillatory continuum wave function of the separating fragments

High spatial resolution studies of galaxies in the far IR: Observations with the KAO, and the promise of SOFIA

NASA, in collaboration with the West German Science Ministry (BMFT), plans a larger airborne telescope as a successor to the Kuipper Airborne Observatory (KAO) that will achieve these goals. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is entering the final stages of Phase B review with targeted new start early in the next decade. SOFIA is a 2.7 m diameter telescope that is carried in a Boeing 747SP. In addition to having 3 times the spatial resolution of the KAO, and 10 times the light gathering power, it will incorporate improvements over the KAO in lower optical emissivity and better telescope tracking stability. The thin primary mirror will equilibrate quickly to ambient temperature at an altitude which, accompanied by airflow improvements across the telescope cavity, will result in better image quality. The sensitivity of SOFIA will allow us to see a large number of typical bright galactic HII regions in local group galaxies. The spatial resolution of 8 seconds (full width half maximum Airy disk) at 100 microns will allow these regions to be measured independently, if they are distributed similarly to those in our own galaxy. At this spatial resolution, the disks of normal galaxies will be easily resolved out to distances of several hundred Mpc. This portion of space includes many of the superluminous galaxies discovered by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS), and this spatial scale is relevant for studies of the morphology of regions of interaction among the majority of these galaxies that are members of colliding pairs

Factors influencing development of management strategies for the Abou Ali River in Lebanon. I: Spatial variation and land use

Surface water bodies are progressively subject to increasing stress as a result of environmentally degrading processes primarily related to anthropogenic activities. This study assesses and examines the impact of land use and anthropogenic activities on the spatial variation in water quality of the Abou Ali River in North Lebanon. It is the first detailed study of its kind in Lebanon and adds to the existing Knowledge by shedding light on a relatively small Mediterranean river in a developing country where there is a paucity of such studies. The assessment was conducted at the end of the dry season in 2002 and 2003 and the end of the wet season in 2003 and 2004. The study has demonstrated the importance of anthropogenic influences on the water quality of the Abou Ali River Basin, as concentrations of most contaminants were higher at locations with greatest human activity. The most adversely affected area was the section of the river that flows through an entirely urbanized and highly populated region, the Tripoli conurbation. Upstream rural sites were enriched by contaminants primarily from non-point sources such as agricultural runoff and poultry litter whereas contaminant concentrations at the urban sites were enriched by a combination of sewage discharge and flow of contaminants from upstream. If the Abou Ali River is to be utilized as a managed water resource and its water quality sustained, point source discharges will require treatment and land use management must be planned to minimize the impact of diffuse source pollution on the river. A high priority should be given to the implementation and enforcement of the precautionary and polluter pays principles. Moreover, an effective legal, economic and institutional framework is required to encourage investment in waste reduction and control and to introduce environmentally sound practices

Communiqué No. 16: Escalating Pension Benefit Costs -- Another Threat to Nonprofit Survival?

Provides findings from a national survey of nonprofits that examines the benefits of nonprofit retirement programs, explores the financial stress the plans are under, and describes the coping strategies developed by organizations