Implications to Consider in the Privatization of the City of Flint Ambulance Service

With decreased revenues and increased or constant demands for services state and local government units have examined a wide range of privatization alternatives. The most common of these alternatives has been the use of contracting for services. Contracting of services has been an alternative that has been utilized by an increasing percentage of municipalities as revenues have decreased. Data obtained from the City of Flint and various other sources were compared to illustrate implications that must be considered if a privatization effort of the municipal ambulance service was to be pursued. Implications that were examined concern economic factors, quality of service issues, social concerns, union and labor implications, legal issues, and political effects. The results of the examination indicate that 1) wage and fringe benefit packages offered to private sector employees were generally less than those received by comparable public employees; 2) competition would increase efficiency in the ambulance service; 3) the impact on minority individuals would be proportionate to the impact on the total work force; 4) labor and union negotiation is mandatory for an effort to succeed; 5) legal issues must be explored thoroughly as they pertain to the situation; and 6) political factors have an immense impact on the structure of the EMS service.Master of Public AdministrationPublic AdministrationUniversity of Michigan-Flinthttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143467/1/Linker.pd

A Model for the Sources of the Slow Solar Wind

Models for the origin of the slow solar wind must account for two seemingly contradictory observations: The slow wind has the composition of the closed field corona, implying that it originates from the continuous opening and closing of flux at the boundary between open and closed field. On the other hand, the slow wind also has large angular width, up to ~ 60{\circ}, suggesting that its source extends far from the open-closed boundary. We propose a model that can explain both observations. The key idea is that the source of the slow wind at the Sun is a network of narrow (possibly singular) open-field corridors that map to a web of separatrices and quasi-separatrix layers in the heliosphere. We compute analytically the topology of an open-field corridor and show that it produces a quasi-separatrix layer in the heliosphere that extends to angles far from the heliospheric current sheet. We then use an MHD code and MDI/SOHO observations of the photospheric magnetic field to calculate numerically, with high spatial resolution, the quasi-steady solar wind and magnetic field for a time period preceding the August 1, 2008 total solar eclipse. Our numerical results imply that, at least for this time period, a web of separatrices (which we term an S-web) forms with sufficient density and extent in the heliosphere to account for the observed properties of the slow wind. We discuss the implications of our S-web model for the structure and dynamics of the corona and heliosphere, and propose further tests of the model

May 12 1997 Cme Event: I. a Simplified Model of the Pre-Eruptive Magnetic Structure

A simple model of the coronal magnetic field prior to the CME eruption on May 12 1997 is developed. First, the magnetic field is constructed by superimposing a large-scale background field and a localized bipolar field to model the active region (AR) in the current-free approximation. Second, this potential configuration is quasi-statically sheared by photospheric vortex motions applied to two flux concentrations of the AR. Third, the resulting force-free field is then evolved by canceling the photospheric magnetic flux with the help of an appropriate tangential electric field applied to the central part of the AR. To understand the structure of the modeled configuration, we use the field line mapping technique by generalizing it to spherical geometry. It is demonstrated that the initial potential configuration contains a hyperbolic flux tube (HFT) which is a union of two intersecting quasi-separatrix layers. This HFT provides a partition of the closed magnetic flux between the AR and the global solar magnetic field. The vortex motions applied to the AR interlock the field lines in the coronal volume to form additionally two new HFTs pinched into thin current layers. Reconnection in these current layers helps to redistribute the magnetic flux and current within the AR in the flux-cancellation phase. In this phase, a magnetic flux rope is formed together with a bald patch separatrix surface wrapping around the rope. Other important implications of the identified structural features of the modeled configuration are also discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, to appear in ApJ 200

Tactical diagrammatic reasoning

Although automated reasoning with diagrams has been possible for some years, tools for diagrammatic reasoning are generally much less sophisticated than their sentential cousins. The tasks of exploring levels of automation and abstraction in the construction of proofs and of providing explanations of solutions expressed in the proofs remain to be addressed. In this paper we take an interactive proof assistant for Euler diagrams, Speedith, and add tactics to its reasoning engine, providing a level of automation in the construction of proofs. By adding tactics to Speedith's repertoire of inferences, we ease the interaction between the user and the system and capture a higher level explanation of the essence of the proof. We analysed the design options for tactics by using metrics which relate to human readability, such as the number of inferences and the amount of clutter present in diagrams. Thus, in contrast to the normal case with sentential tactics, our tactics are designed to not only prove the theorem, but also to support explanation

Slow Rise and Partial Eruption of a Double-Decker Filament. I Observations and Interpretation

We study an active-region dextral filament which was composed of two branches separated in height by about 13 Mm. This "double-decker" configuration sustained for days before the upper branch erupted with a GOES-class M1.0 flare on 2010 August 7. Analyzing this evolution, we obtain the following main results. 1) During hours before the eruption, filament threads within the lower branch were observed to intermittently brighten up, lift upward, and then merge with the upper branch. The merging process contributed magnetic flux and current to the upper branch, resulting in its quasi-static ascent. 2) This transfer might serve as the key mechanism for the upper branch to lose equilibrium by reaching the limiting flux that can be stably held down by the overlying field or by reaching the threshold of the torus instability. 3) The erupting branch first straightened from a reverse S shape that followed the polarity inversion line and then writhed into a forward S shape. This shows a transfer of left-handed helicity in a sequence of writhe-twist-writhe. The fact that the initial writhe is converted into the twist of the flux rope excludes the helical kink instability as the trigger process of the eruption, but supports the occurrence of the instability in the main phase, which is indeed indicated by the very strong writhing motion. 4) A hard X-ray sigmoid, likely of coronal origin, formed in the gap between the two original filament branches in the impulsive phase of the associated flare. This supports a model of transient sigmoids forming in the vertical flare current sheet. 5) Left-handed magnetic helicity is inferred for both branches of the dextral filament. 6) Two types of force-free magnetic configurations are compatible with the data, a double flux rope equilibrium and a single flux rope situated above a loop arcade