Public Sector Reform from the Post-New Public Management Perspective: Review and Bibliometric Analysis

The aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of public sector reform on academic literature from the post-NPM perspective. There have been several investigations into post-NPM public governance models and their impact on public sector reform. Yet, the research problem faced when analysing post-NPM literature is the lack of studies examining the multitude of possible public governance models (PGM) with sufficient comprehensiveness, especially in Central and Eastern European (CEE) states. In order to effectively address the research problem, a bibliometric analysis was performed, following three objectives: (i) an investigation into the evolution of PGM literature, (ii) identification of the core publications and authors based on publication frequency, and (iii) a citation network analysis (a historiograph), indicating the relations among the most-cited publications. It involved the identification of 16,374 publications in the Web of Science database, narrowed down to the 100 most cited between 1994 and 2017, and the application of the HistCite bibliometric analysis software, covering descriptive statistics, bibliometric indicators, and historiographic citation analysis. The research results reveal a growing research interest in the topic, as supported by bibliometric indicators. In addition, important differences as regards coverage and diffusion of individual post-NPM models are indicated. Namely, most publications focus on the ‘governance’ paradigm and subsequent critical rethinking, as indicated by several post-NPM modernisation proposals. Furthermore, we have shown that such evaluation of governance and related doctrines may be biased in favour of subjective, pluralistic Western ideas about governance, presumably limiting their impact within the CEE and several other regions. Hence, the regions’ particularities in terms of governance (post-socialism, Rechtsstaat culture, EU membership, small states, etc.) must be further taken into account in the post-NPM literature

Dyslexia treatment

Cilj i svrha ovog diplomskog rada je dati pregled znanstvene literature koja govori o disleksiji te tretmanima koji se koriste u praksi. Rad daje sustavan pregled tretmana koji se koriste u raznim zemljama svijeta (najviše na engleskom govornom području) i u Hrvatskoj. Rad sadrži kratki pregled disleksije i njezinih obilježja te podatke o samom tretmanu disleksije. Od tretmana disleksije prikazani su Orton- Gillingham (i njegove inačice, Alphabetic Phonics i Slingerland), Fernald metoda, Lindamood Bell program, Verbotonalna metoda, hemisferalna stimulacija, tretman čitanja cijelih riječi, medicinski tretman i doprinos informacijske tehnologije u tretmanu disleksije. Osim prikazanih tretmana, navedena su istraživanja koja pokazuju pozitivne i negativne strane pojedinih tretmana. Disleksija je teškoća koja se uglavnom izjednačava s problemima u čitanju i pisanju i sa obilježjima u školskoj dobi, no rizici za njen nastanak mogu se prepoznati vrlo rano, čak i prije nego započne proces formalne poduke čitanja i samo čitanje. S obzirom na te spoznaje vrlo je važna rana intervencija kod djeteta s teškoćama u što ranijoj dobi kako bi tretman bio što uspješniji. Dobra suradnja logopeda, roditelja i učitelja je veoma važna u pravilnom tretmanu disleksije. Ne smije se zaboraviti kako je svako dijete jedinstveno te se sve teškoće ne pojavljuju kod svakog djeteta. Provođenje bilo kojeg tretmana zahtijeva prilagodbu djetetovim potrebama i mogućnostima kako bi tretman bio što uspješniji. Ključne riječi:The aim of this Master Thesis is to give an overview of scientific literature, which describes dyslexia and treatments that are used in the practice. The Thesis provides a systematic overview of treatments used in the various countries of the world (mostly in English-speaking countries) and Croatia. The Thesis presents a brief overview of dyslexia, difficulties that characterize it and informations of dyslexia treatment. Presented and described are programs; Orton- Gillingham (and programs that developed from it; Alphabetic Phonics and Slingerland program), Lindamood Bell program, Fernald program, verbotonal method, hemisphere- specific stimulation treatment, medical treatment, sight word reading treatment and tribute of information technology in treatment of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a difficulty that is generally equated with problems in reading and writing and the characteristics of school age, but the risk for its occurrence can be identified earlier, even before they begin the process of formal teaching of reading. Regard to these findings, early intervention is important to have a good therapy outcome. Good colaboration between speech therapist, parents and teacher is one of the main reason of successfull therapy. It can't be forgotten that every child is individual and uniqe and all the difficulties do not appear in every child. The implementation of any treatment requires adjustment to the child's needs and abilities to make the treatment as successful as possible . Keywords: dyslexia

Forecasting air pollutant concentrations and identifying source regions

Air pollutants are hazardous to human health. Pollutants can be transported by air masses from one region to another. We were interested if we could use air mass movement to predict daily pollution concentrations and to visualize where this pollution came from. This area is rich in related work and there already exist methods that solve this problem. Our goal was to use machine learning to create new and better performing methods. We created two new methods. The first is based on a 2D grid, while the second is based on raw coordinate data. We compared these two methods with existing CF and RCF methods. Results show that some of our methods perform more than twice as good as existing methods. However, the results are still below our initial expectations. We cannot rely on source attribution visualization, because we were able to get it working only with the 2D grid method, which is not much better than existing CF and RCF methods. We also tried combing results of multiple stations in hopes that we could make better source attribution visualization, but this also performed worse than expected

Wie kann eine Kultur der Philanthropie aufgebaut werden? Verhaltenswissenschaftliche Maßnahmen mit Fokus auf Vermögende

Charitable donations are an essential cornerstone for the functioning of our society. In absolute terms, wealthy people donate higher amounts than less wealthy people. Relative to both wealth and income, however, the wealthy donate less. It is therefore also in the interest of society to increase the potential of donations in general and major donations in particular by promoting a culture of philanthropy. The goal of this study was to develop measures that promote a culture of philanthropy, meaning collective practices, values and emotions that could lead to more philanthropic engagement in our society. Based on an analysis of the behavioural science literature, 15 qualitative interviews and two focus groups with wealthy individuals as well as two expert workshops were conducted. The present results show that it is primarily personal imprinting and associated intrinsic motives such as the need for social justice that motivate wealthy people to donate. Compared to international literature, the feeling of responsibility is more often seen as an important reason for philanthropic commitment in the present study. Finally, effectiveness is seen as an essential prerequisite for philanthropic commitment. The pre-vailing Austrian mentality that the state is responsible for solving problems and rejection of large donations by society, also in the form of tax legislation, are seen as barriers to philanthropic engagement. A total of 36 measures were developed to promote a culture of philanthropy. Two measures in particular were elaborated in more detail as being particularly promising: The promotion of a lowthreshold exchange between philanthropists and the promotion of a differentiated public discussion on the topic of donations and philanthropy. Spenden für gemeinnützige Zwecke sind ein wesentlicher Eckpfeiler für das Funktionieren unserer Gesellschaft. Vermögende Menschen spenden absolut betrachtet höhere Beträge als weniger vermögende. Relativ sowohl zum Vermögen als auch zum Einkommen, spenden Vermögende im Durchschnitt jedoch weniger. Es ist daher auch ein gesamtgesellschaftliches Interesse, das Potenzial von Spenden insgesamt und Großspenden im Speziellen über die Förderung einer Kultur der Philanthropie zu steigern. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war es, Maßnahmen zu entwickeln, die eine Kultur der Philanthropie, das heißt kollektive Praktiken, Werte und Emotionen fördern, die zu mehr philanthropischem Engagement in unserer Gesellschaft führen können. Auf Basis einer Analyse der verhaltenswissenschaftlichen Literatur wurden 15 qualitative Interviews und zwei Fokusgruppen mit Vermögenden sowie zwei Expert:innen-Workshops durchgeführt. Die vorliegenden Ergebnisse zeigen, dass vor allem die persönliche Prägung und damit einhergehende intrinsische Motive wie das Bedürfnis nach sozialer Gerechtigkeit Vermögende zum Spenden motiviert. Im internationalen Vergleich wird in der vorliegenden Studie das Gefühl der Verantwortung häufiger als Grund für philanthropisches Engagement angeführt. Schließlich wird Effektivität als wesentliche Grundvoraussetzung für philanthropisches Engagement angesehen. Die in Österreich vorherrschende Mentalität, dass der Staat für das Lösen von Problemen zuständig ist und die ablehnende Haltung durch die Gesellschaft, auch in Form der Steuergesetzgebung, werden als Barrieren für philanthropisches Engagement genannt. Insgesamt wurden 36 Maßnahmen zur Förderung einer Kultur der Philanthropie entwickelt. Insbesondere zwei Maßnahmen wurden als besonders vielversprechend detaillierter ausgearbeitet: Die Förderung eines niederschwelligen Austauschs zwischen Philanthrop:innen und die Förderung einer differenzierten öffentlichen Diskussion zum Thema Spenden und Philanthropie

Raman spectroscopy characterization of 10-cash productions from the late Chinese emperors to the Republic

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Montoya, Noemí, Montagna, Elena, Lee, Yu, Domenech Carbo, Mª Teresa, Doménech Carbó, Antonio. (2017). Raman spectroscopy characterization of 10-cash productions from the late Chinese emperors to the Republic.Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 48, 10, 1337-1345. DOI: 10.1002/jrs.5218 , which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/jrs.5218. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.[EN] The use of Raman spectroscopy for discriminating monetary emissions, a recurrent problem in much archaeological studies, is described. The method involves the record of Raman signatures of tenorite and crystalline and defective cuprite in the patina based on the idea that subtle, mint-characteristic variations in the composition and metallography of the base metal during the manufacturing process are reflected in the variation in depth of the composition and crystallinity of the corrosion patina. The technique was applied to a series of 10-cash copper coins produced around the transition between the Kuang Hsu and Hsuan Tung last Chinese emperors and the first Republic whose averaged composition was 95 +/- 1% wt Cu plus 5 +/- 1% wt Zn often accompanied by traces of Sn and Pb. Raman data, corroborated by focusing ion beam-field emission scanning electron microscopy and voltammetry of immobilized particles measurements, suggested the possibility of discerning between different provincial and regular unified currency productions.MINECO, Grant/Award Number: CTQ2014-53736-C3-1-P and CTQ2014-53736-C3-2-PMontoya, N.; Montagna, E.; Lee, Y.; Domenech Carbo, MT.; Domenech Carbo, A. (2017). Raman spectroscopy characterization of 10-cash productions from the late Chinese emperors to the Republic. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. 48(10):1337-1345. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrs.5218S13371345481

Py-GC/MS applied to the analysis of synthetic organic pigments: characterization and identification in paint samples

A collection of 76 synthetic organic pigments was analysed using pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). The purpose of this work was to expand the knowledge on synthetic pigments and to assess characteristic pyrolysis products that could help in the identification of these pigments in paint samples. We analysed several classes of synthetic pigments not previously reported as being analysed by this technique: some metal complexes, β-naphthol pigment lakes, BONA pigment lakes, disazopyrazolone, triarylcarbonium, dioxazine, anthraquinone, indanthrone, isoindoline and thioindigo classes. We also report for the first time the Py-GC/MS analysis of a number of naphthol AS, benzimidazolone, phthalocyanine and perylene pigments and other miscellaneous pigments including pigments with unpublished chemical structure. We successfully used the Py-GC/MS technique for the analysis of paints by artists Clyfford Still and Jackson Pollock to identify the synthetic organic pigments and the binding media

Systematic mechanical assessment of consolidants for canvas reinforcement under controlled environment

In conservation, adhesives are commonly used for the consolidation of canvases, yet their impact upon the canvas longevity has raised some concerns amongst conservators. As such, this study presents a testing protocol developed to assess the performance of commonly-used adhesives (natural animal glue and synthetic Beva® 371) and a newly developed nanocellulose consolidant, nanofibrillated nanocellulose (CNF). This includes their effect on the visual appearance, consolidation, and response of the mechanical properties of the treated canvases to programmed changes in relative humidity (RH). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of animal glue- and Beva® 371-treated canvases revealed the presence of adhesive and consolidant on and in-between cotton fibres. The consolidants form bridges linking and connecting the cotton fibres and holding them together, whereas the CNF treatment, formed a visible continuous and dense surface coating. None of the treatments induced any discernible colour change. Controlled environment mechanical testing was performed in two ways: by applying a linearly increasing static force at fixed RH (Young’s modulus) and by applying a dynamic force together with a programmed RH cycling between 20 and 80% (RH dependent viscoelastic properties). CNF gave a higher value of Young’s modulus than either of the two commonly-used materials. Measurements at different values of RH (20 and 80%) demonstrated for all the treated canvases that at the lower value (RH 20%) Young’s modulus values were higher than at the higher value (RH 80%). Besides, the dynamic mode showed that the rate of response in all cases was rapid and reversible and that the nanofibrillated cellulose treated sample showed the highest variation in storage (or elastic) modulus measured at the end of RH plateaux (20 and 80% RH). Thus CNF appears to be a promising material given its higher mechanical performance. The protocol developed in this study has enabled us to examine and compare candidate materials for the consolidation of canvases systematically, using testing parameters that remained relevant to the field of canvas conservation