Public-Private Partnerships and the Value of the Process: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa

In the current age of fiscal austerity, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) continue to be a dominating force as a policy tool to help plug widening funding gaps and deliver vital infrastructure. There is much debate over PPP models; risk allocation and financing. Partnerships UK is currently revaluating its Private Financing Initiative (PFI) model, questioning whether competitive dialogue brings value to the process. France recently announced PPPs worth €60bn to come to market in the coming decade, developing economies’ appetite for PPPs is increasing. According to a World Bank study Africa in particular needs around US$16.5 billion a year, to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for improved water access in Sub-Sahara Africa. When over 300 water Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) were evaluated, contract type mattered to some degree, but not significantly. There were reportedly exceptional increases in the number of connections after the private sector was involved, but without an increase in financial investment. If financing and contract type were not a significant game changer, how else can we explain success and failures of different PPPs

Capability, Objectivity and 'False Consciousness' : On Sen, Marx and J.S. Mill

Purpose The extent to which Amartya Sen’s capability approach is prefigured in Karl Marx’s views comes into sharper focus when one notes that Marx and Friedrich Engels explicitly argued that the transformation from capitalism to communism would involve the development of “a totality of capacities”. Sen also cites the notion of “false consciousness” in developing his view of objectivity and claims a Marxian pedigree for the notion of “objective illusion”. He suggests that public discussion can make evaluative judgements better informed and less parochial, so that they connect more closely with what people have reason to value. The author argues that this line of argument is also closely related to views John Stuart Mill advanced in his discussion of the “competent judges” and in his defence of liberty of thought and discussion. Design/methodology/approach The approach used is conceptual analysis and discussion of historical texts. Findings The chief findings are that Amartya Sen’s works on capability and objectivity have deeper affinities with some of Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’ views than has been hitherto appreciated by scholars. However, some of the claims which Sen makes about objectivity and false consciousness are prefigured in the writings of J.S. Mill. Originality/value Because some of these affinities between the works of Sen, Marx and Mill have not previously been recognised, the paper’s elucidation of them is a new contribution to the literature. </jats:sec

Trends in utilization and off-label use of polyethylene glycol 4000 laxatives and the prevalence of constipation in children in France

Nawab Qizilbash1,2, Ignacio Mendez11OXON Epidemiology, Madrid, Spain, and London, UK; 2Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine, Imperial College, London University, UKPurpose: To determine trends in utilization and off-label use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 in children and to determine the prevalence of constipation.Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional analyses were conducted from 1997 to 2007 in a French health care database comprising general practitioners and pediatricians. Patients prescribed PEG 4000 (Forlax&amp;reg;; Ipsen Pharma, Paris, France) were used to assess PEG 4000 use; constipation was defined by a diagnosis of constipation or use of any laxative. Analyses used linear regression models to fit trends over time.Results: The study sample consisted of a nationally representative sample of 1200 general practitioners with 1.6 million patient medical records and 100 pediatricians with 70,000 patient medical records. Data were available from 1997 to 2007 for general practitioners and from 2003 to 2007 for pediatricians and were extrapolated to the national level. Among both groups of physicians there were statistically significant increases in the number of patients prescribed 4 g. For the 10 g dose, there was a decline among pediatricians. The largest increases were in children aged 0&amp;ndash;8 years and in females. The prevalence of constipation in children aged 0&amp;ndash;18 years was 4%.Conclusion: There has been an increase in the use of PEG 4000 laxative in children, particularly in the younger ages and in females. Use of the 4 g dose has increased. There was considerable off-label use of PEG 4000 in children aged 0&amp;ndash;8 years before the introduction of the 4 g pediatric dose, which reflected clinical need.Keywords: polyethylene glycol, macrogol 4000, children, drug utilization, database, laxative, off-label use, prevalence, constipation, time trend

Experimental investigation on synthesis, characterization, stability, thermo-physical properties and rheological behavior of MWCNTs-kapok seed oil based nanofluid

Several researchers devoted their efforts for the thermal conductivity enhancement of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) based nanofluids as CNTs have excellent thermal properties. However, limited research is reported on the detailed thermo-physical properties of CNTs and oil based nanofluids. In this work, the one-step method synthesis of a new MWCNTs-Kapok seed oil based nanofluid at constant nanoparticle concentration (0.1 wt./wt.) is reported. The nanofluid is characterized by FESEM, FTIR, visual stability analysis and thermophysical properties are experimentally measured. The viscosity found in the range of (0.049–10.101¿Pa·s), the thermal conductivity of (0.165–0.207¿W/m·K) and enhancement of thermal conductivity (6.1538%) were observed. Moreover, the viscosity decreases, and thermal conductivity increases with an increase in temperature. The experimentally obtained data are found in agreement with existing models and modified correlations. The rheological behavior showed that nanofluid is non-Newtonian in nature and exhibiting shear thinning or pseudo plastic behavior.Preprin

2009,18: Well-being, preference formation and the danger of paternalism

Informed or rational desire, capability and prudential value list views of well-being - must accommodate human limitations, as well as address issues about adaptation and paternalism. They sometimes address adaptation by toughening the requirement(s) on those desires, satisfaction of which constitutes well-being. That exacerbates a concern that these accounts if adopted will encourage policies which override actual desires and enforce paternalistic restrictions. Sunstein, like Sen, invokes democratic deliberation to address the adaptation problem, and advocates autonomy promoting paternalistic restrictions. Sunstein and Thaler's 'libertarian paternalism' extends this flavour of argument to cover examples of irrationality from behavioural economics. Their variation of the informed desire account involves highly idealized preferences which cannot, in practical terms, guide a paternalistic social planner, but lead to a potentially large range of cases where paternalistic intervention might, in principle, be justified. I argue that the liberal paternalist policy agenda should as currently conceived be resisted