Health System Reform: The Value and Price of Innovation

Explores the role of innovation in healthcare by reviewing the literature on international, federal, state, and local examples of system change; barriers to change; the contributions of research, academia, and industry; and the financing of innovation

The Solution of the d-Dimensional Twisted Group Lattices

The general d-dimensional twisted group lattice is solved. The irreducible representations of the corresponding group are constructed by an explicit procedure. It is proven that they are complete. All matrix representation solutions to the quantum hyperplane equations are obtained.Comment: 21 pages in Latex, replaced version is journal versio

Working Paper 55 - Strategic Considerations for Building a Healthy Pipeline for Bank Group Operations

The African Development Bank has, since 1982, experienced a problem withbunching of projects towards the fourth quarter of each year’s Lending Program.Contributing factors include both systemic and endogenous constraints as well asexogenous constraints. This paper proposes a holistic approach, that recognizesall the forces at work in the development of Public Investment Programs (PIPs) atthe RMC level as well as the Bank’s internal processes that help to guide andgenerate the pipeline.At the RMC level, the paper examines the need to build the capacity of NationalPlanning Commissions (NPCs) to administer the PIP process. It also advocatesfor sensitizing RMCs, through intensive and persistent dialogue, to decentralize thePIP process in order to minimize the risk of marginalizing the poor and vulnerablegroups of society in the PIP process.At the Bank Group level, the paper examines the existing processes for bothlending and non-lending services and explores areas where the Bank’s lendingoperations need to be streamlined to enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness.To this end, the need to promote and reward good Economic and Sector Work(ESW) is highlighted along with the need to formalize Country Teams and strengthentheir roles. Furthermore, the concept of a Task Manager (TM) is re-examined andproposals are made that will assure greater responsibility and accountability ofTMs and allow them to play a leadership role in building up the Bank’s pipeline. Amore objective and easily monitorable classification of “bankable” projects isproposed along with a more flexible set of lending instruments that are necessaryto secure a smoother implementation of the Bank’s pipeline beyond the three-yearplanning horizon engendered by the three-year lending cycle.

Spectral Properties of the Massless Relativistic Quartic Oscillator

An explicit solution of the spectral problem of the non-local Schr\"odinger operator obtained as the sum of the square root of the Laplacian and a quartic potential in one dimension is presented. The eigenvalues are obtained as zeroes of special functions related to the fourth order Airy function, and closed formulae for the Fourier transform of the eigenfunctions are derived. These representations allow to derive further spectral propertiessuch as estimates of spectral gaps, heat trace and the asymptotic distribution of eigenvalues, as well as a detailed analysis of the eigenfunctions. A subtle spectral effect is observed which manifests in an exponentially tight approximation of the spectrum by the zeroes of the dominating term in the Fourier representation of the eigenfunctions and its derivative.Comment: to appear in J Differential Equation

EXAMINING INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN LOCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND COMMUTING PATTERNS IN ALABAMA

The paper examines the causal relationships and pattern of spatially distributed employment growth and commuter patterns in Alabama using a distance deterrence model. The findings suggest that as commuting distance increase the number of commuters from one region to another decrease.Labor and Human Capital,

Quantum Mechanical Treatment of Variable Molecular Composition: From "Alchemical" Changes of State Functions to Rational Compound Design

"Alchemical" interpolation paths, i.e.~coupling systems along fictitious paths that without realistic correspondence, are frequently used within materials and molecular modeling and simulation protocols for the estimation of relative changes in state functions such as free energies. We discuss alchemical changes in the context of quantum chemistry, and present illustrative numerical results for the changes of HOMO eigenvalues of the He atom due to a linear alchemical teleportation---the simultaneous annihilation and creation of nuclear charges at different locations. To demonstrate the predictive power of alchemical first order derivatives (Hellmann-Feynman) the covalent bond potential of hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride is investigated, as well as the van-der-Waals binding in the water-water and water-hydrogen fluoride dimer, respectively. Based on converged electron densities for one configuration, the versatility of alchemical derivatives is exemplified for the screening of entire binding potentials with reasonable accuracy. Finally, we discuss constraints for the identification of non-linear coupling potentials for which the energy's Hellmann-Feynman derivative will yield accurate predictions

Responsible corporate governance in Europe

The latest European Union’s (EU) guiding policies are encouraging big businesses and state-owned organisations to provide a fair and truthful view of their respective entities’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. At present, European member states are transposing directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial reporting. The EU’s “comply or explain” approach has presented a significant step forward toward the corporations’ active engagement on corporate governance disclosure and transparency. Hence, this chapter makes specific reference to some of the corporations’ best practices as it identifies areas for improvement in corporate governance issues. It explains how three major European banks have reviewed the roles and responsibilities of corporate boards and management. In many cases, they have anticipated any regulatory, legal, contractual, social and market-driven obligations as they helped stakeholders to exercise their rights. This contribution contends that there are significant implications for financial services corporations who intend following the right path toward responsible corporate governance and ethical behaviours.peer-reviewe