Improving the allocation and management of public spending

If a country's planning and budgeting system is dilapidated, an important first step is to rehabilitate basic budgetary and accounting functions and to generate public expenditure data that can provide a starting point for rational planning. This paper makes the point that many of the necessary reforms to the planning and budgetary systems are very simple (which is not to say that they are easily accomplished). Chapter II provides an overview of planning and budgeting processes and Chapter III discusses recurring budgeting issues. The financial woes of a country increase the value of external aid and the leverage exercised by aid agencies. In Chapter IV, the effects of these factors are discussed and ideas for effective aid management and coordination are suggested.Business in Development,Business Environment,National Governance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,ICT Policy and Strategies

Muon-Spin Rotation Measurements of an Unusual Vortex-Glass Phase in the Layered Superconductor Bi2.15Sr1.85CaCu2O8+δ

Muon-spin rotation measurements, performed on the mixed state of the classic anisotropic superconductor Bi2.15Sr1.85CaCu2O8+δ, obtain quantities directly related to two- and three-body correlations of vortices in space. A novel phase diagram emerges from such local probe measurements of the bulk, revealing an unusual glassy state at intermediate fields which appears to freeze continuously from the equilibrium vortex liquid but differs both from the lattice and the conventional high-field vortex glass state in its structure.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Size-dependent reversal of grains in perpendicular magnetic recording media measured by small-angle polarized neutron scattering

Polarized small-angle neutron scattering has been used to measure the magnetic structure of a CoCrPt–SiOx thin-film data storage layer, contained within a writable perpendicular recording media, at granular (<10 nm) length scales. The magnetic contribution to the scattering is measured as the magnetization is reversed by an external field, providing unique spatial information on the switching process. A simple model of noninteracting nanomagnetic grains provides a good description of the data and an analysis of the grain-size dependent reversal provides strong evidence for an increase in magnetic anisotropy with grain diameter

Why and how to aid 'Middle Income Countries'

The amount of aid that flows to ‘Middle Income Countries’ (MICs) has recently been challenged and some donors are shifting the balance of their aid so that more goes to poorer countries. Is there still a role for aid to MICs and what should that role be? Drawing on cases from the Andean region and Jamaica, this paper seeks to contribute to that debate within the current context of the Millennium Aid Consensus and the new ways of working that include greater emphasis on country ownership and programmatic and budget support. It concludes that, as aid as a proportion of GDP is usually modest in MICs, donors have little direct leverage. Necessarily the role of aid must be to support the agenda of those local actors, government or otherwise, who are working for the kind of change that a donor judges worthwhile. If a ‘Middle Income Country’ has a track record of rapid improvement in the welfare of its population, aid may primarily be justified to speed things up. Conversely, if no or little progress is being made, aid may be justified because of the very lack of progress in poverty reduction that may be due to deep structural inequalities and exclusion of much of the population. In this latter case it is suggested that great care should be taken to ensure that commercial and political interests of the donor government do not undermine the aid effort. Good aid practice also needs to take account of the diversity among MICs, bearing in mind that the classification system is very arbitrary, not locally owned and not integrated into regional or sub-regional considerations and history. The paper concludes by questioning some of the current conventional assumptions about the cost and benefits of donor coherence and coordination

The 2009 Influenza Pandemic: An Overview

This report first provides a synopsis of key events, actions taken, and authorities invoked by World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. federal government, and state and local governments

The 2009 Influenza Pandemic: An Overview

This report first provides a synopsis of key events, actions taken, and authorities invoked by WHO, the U.S. federal government, and state and local governments. It then discusses the WHO process to determine the phase of a flu pandemic, and selected actions taken by the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, and by state and local authorities. Next, it lists congressional hearings held to date, and provides information about appropriations and funding for pandemic flu activities. Finally, it summarizes U.S. government pandemic flu planning documents and lists sources for additional information about the situation as it unfolds

Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault

Natural history collections (NHCs) are an important source of the long-term data needed to understand how biota respond to ongoing anthropogenic climate change. These include taxon occurrence data for ecological modeling, as well as information that can be used to reconstruct mechanisms through which biota respond to changing climates. The full potential of NHCs for climate change research cannot be fully realized until high-quality data sets are conveniently accessible for research, but this requires that higher priority be placed on digitizing the holdings most useful for climate change research (e.g., whole-biota studies, time series, records of intensively sampled common taxa). Natural history collections must not neglect the proliferation of new information from efforts to understand how present-day ecosystems are responding to environmental change. These new directions require a strategic realignment for many NHC holders to complement their existing focus on taxonomy and systematics. To set these new priorities, we need strong partnerships between NHC holders and global change biologists