The Use and Usefulness of Performance Measures in the Public Sector

The paper focuses on the empirical evidence on the use and usefulness of performance measures in the public sector. It begins with consideration of the features of the public sector which make the use of performance measures complex: the issues of multiple principals and multiple tasks. It discusses the form that performance measures may take, the use made of these measures and the responses that individual may make to them. Empirical examples from the fields of education and health, with a focus on the US and UK, are examined. There is clear evidence of responses to such measures. Some of these responses improve efficiency, but others do not and fall into the category of ‘gaming’. Generally, there has been little assessment of whether performance measures bring about improvements in service. The paper ends with consideration of how such measures should be used and what measures are useful to collect.benchmarking, public sector, performance measures

Simulation of TunneLadder traveling-wave tube cold-test characteristics: Implementation of the three-dimensional, electromagnetic circuit analysis code micro-SOS

The three-dimensional, electromagnetic circuit analysis code, Micro-SOS, can be used to reduce expensive time-consuming experimental 'cold-testing' of traveling-wave tube (TWT) circuits. The frequency-phase dispersion characteristics and beam interaction impedance of a TunneLadder traveling-wave tube slow-wave structure were simulated using the code. When reasonable dimensional adjustments are made, computer results agree closely with experimental data. Modifications to the circuit geometry that would make the TunneLadder TWT easier to fabricate for higher frequency operation are explored

Extending Choice In English Health Care: The implications of the economic evidence

Extending choice in health care is currently popular amongst English, and other, politicians. Those promoting choice make an appeal to a simple economic argument. Competitive pressure helps make private firms more efficient and consumer choice acts as a major driver for efficiency. Giving service users the ability to choose applies competitive pressure to health care providers and, analogously with private markets, they will raise their game to attract business. The paper subjects this assumption to the scrutiny provided by a review of the theoretical and empirical economic evidence on choice in health care. The review considers several interlocking aspects of the current English choice policy: competition between hospitals, the responsiveness of patients to greater choice, the provision of information and the use of fixed prices. The paper concludes that there is neither strong theoretical nor empirical support for competition, but that there are cases where competition has improved outcomes. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of this literature for policies to promote competition in the English NHS.competition, choice, health care, English NHS reforms

The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey

A Little Known Figure Brought to Light Until recently Charles Torrey has been a relatively unknown figure to most students of history. Rescued from obscurity by Stanley Harrold in his path-breaking study on abolitionism in the District of Columbia, Subversives (2003), Torrey now be...

Beyond Freedom\u27s Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery

A Case Study of Tenuous Freedom and Tenacious Resistance The best kind of microhistory employs an interesting personal or family story to engage readers while elucidating larger themes of historical relevance. Adam Rothman\u27s reconstruction of an unknown episode of kidnapping in Civil War-e...

Integrating geochronologic and instrumental approaches across the Bengal Basin

Constraining time is of critical importance to evaluating the rates and relative contributions of processes driving landscape change in sedimentary basins. The geomorphic character of the field setting guides the application of geochronologic or instrumental tools to this problem, because the viability of methods can be highly influenced by geomorphic attributes. For example, sediment yield and the linked potential for organic preservation may govern the usefulness of radiocarbon dating. Similarly, the rate of sediment transport from source to sink may determine the maturity and/or light exposure of mineral grains arriving in the delta and thus the feasibility of luminescence dating. Here, we explore the viability and quirks of dating and instrumental methods that have been applied in the Bengal Basin, and review the records that they have yielded. This immense, dynamic, and spatially variable system hosts the world\u27s most inhabited delta. Outlining a framework for successful chronologic applications is thus of value to managing water and sediment resources for humans, here and in other populated deltas worldwide. Our review covers radiocarbon dating, luminescence dating, archaeological records and historical maps, short-lived radioisotopes, horizon markers and rod surface elevation tables, geodetic observations, and surface instrumentation. Combined, these tools can be used to reconstruct the history of the Bengal Basin from Late Pleistocene to present day. The growing variety and scope of Bengal Basin geochronology and instrumentation opens doors for research integrating basin processes across spatial and temporal scales. (c) 2019 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

The Complete Plastid Genome Sequence of Iris gatesii (Section Oncocyclus), a Bearded Species from Southeastern Turkey

Iris gatesii is a rare bearded species in subgenus Iris section Oncocyclus that occurs in steppe communities of southeastern Turkey. This species is not commonly cultivated, but related species in section Iris are economically important horticultural plants. The complete plastid genome is reported for I. gatesii based on data generated using the Illumina HiSeq platform and is compared to genomes of 16 species selected from across the monocotyledons. This Iris genome is the only known plastid genome available for order Asparagales that is not from Orchidaceae. The I. gatesii plastid genome, unlike orchid genomes, has little gene loss and rearrangement and is likely to be similar to other genomes from Asparagales. The plastid genome of I. gatesii demonstrates expansion of the inverted repeat, loss of 95% of the rps19–rpl22 intergenic spacer, the presence of introns in several protein-coding regions, and alternate start codons. Potentially variable regions are identified for further study