Blocks, liquidity and corporate control

corporate ownership;control;liquidity;free riding

Analysis of the advanced Nimbus power systems

Solar-conversion power-supply subsystem for Nimbus B, using pulse width modulated voltage regulato

Grounds for dispensing with public tender procedures in Government Contracting

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa1 provides that organs of state must comply with five principles when procuring goods or services: procurement procedures must be fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective. In short, this means that organs of state should make use of competition when procuring goods or services. They should shop around and attract the maximum number of contractors who will participate in such competition. The aim should be the attainment of value for money, meaning, public money should be spent in an effective and efficient manner. Those who participate in competitions should also be treated fairly and without bias. In principle, no preferences should be afforded to different contractors; all contracting parties should have equal access to competition; some contractors should not be afforded more time for the preparation and submission of quotes or tenders than others; and the same information should be made available to all contracting parties. Government procurement procedures should further be transparent, meaning public or open. Thus, organs of state should not contract behind closed doors – government contracts should, as a rule, be advertised. Depending on the nature and value of a particular contract, the use of a public call for tenders is generally the best way to ensure compliance with the principles in the Constitution. By nature, a pubic call for tenders is open, it assists in the prevention of fraud and favouritism, and it ensures that the maximum number of contractors is approached to compete for a contract.Organs of state can also compare prices and quality and can contract with whoever offers the best deal. Most legislation therefore proceeds on the basis that procurement takes place by way of tendering. Generally, contracts above R200 000 are subject to public tender procedures. In certain instances, however, a public call for tenders may be inappropriate regardless of the high value of the contract. For this reason, exceptions are provided for in legislation. Since tendering, however, is generally the best way to ensure compliance with all the principles in the Constitution, it is important for there to be sufficient guidance on the non-use of tender procedures. Proper guidance will, to a large extent, ensure uniformity and transparency in government procurement procedures which will, in turn, assist in the combating of corruption. In this article, attention is given to the legislation that provides for exceptions to the use of tendering at all three levels of government. Recommendations are then made as to how some of the legislative provisions should be interpreted in order to align them with the principles in the Constitution. In doing so, reference is made to a number of international instruments dealing with government procurement and specifically, the non-use of tender procedures

Fire extinguishing apparatus having a slidable mass for a penetrator nozzle

A fire extinguishing apparatus for delivering an extinguishing agent through a tarrier surrounding a structure into its interior includes an elongated tubular nozzle body which has a pointed penetrating head carried on one end of the tubular body. A source of extinguishing agent coupled to the opposite end of the tubular body is fed through and passes through passages adjacent the head for delivering the extinguishing agent to the interior of the structure. A slidable mass is carried on the tubular body on a remote end of the tubular body from the penetrating head. By manipulating the slidable mass and bringing such in contact with an abutment the force imparted to the tubular body causes the head to penetrate the structure

Grounds for dispensing with public tender procedures in government contracting

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa1 provides that organs of state must comply with five principles when procuring goods or services:procurement procedures must be fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective. In short, this means that organs of state should make use of competition when procuring goods or services. They should shop around and attract the maximum number of contractors who will participate in such competition. The aim should be the attainment of value for money, meaning, public money should be spent in an effective and efficient manner. Those who participate in competitions should also be treated fairly and without bias. In principle, no preferences should be afforded to different contractors; all contracting parties should have equal access to competition; some contractors should not be afforded more time for the preparation and submission of quotes or tenders than others; and the same information should be made available to all contracting parties. Government procurement procedures should further be transparent, meaning public or open. Thus, organs of state should not contractbehind closed doors – government contracts should, as a rule, be advertised. Depending on the nature and value of a particular contract, the use of a public call for tenders is generally the best way to ensure compliance with the principles in the Constitution. By nature, a pubic call for tenders is open, it assists in the prevention of fraud and favouritism, and it ensures that the maximum number of contractors is approached to compete for a contract. Organs of state can also compare prices and quality and can contract with whoever offers the best deal. Most legislation therefore proceeds on the basis that procurement takes place by way of tendering. Generally, contracts above R200 000 are subject to public tender procedures. In certain instances, however, a public call for tenders may be inappropriate regardless of the high value of the contract. For this reason, exceptions are provided for in legislation. Since tendering, however, is generally the best way to ensure compliance with all the principles in the Constitution, it is important for there to be sufficient guidance on the non-use of tender procedures. Proper guidance will, to a large extent, ensure uniformity and transparency in government procurement procedures which will, in turn, assist in the combatingof corruption. In this article, attention is given to the legislation that provides for exceptions to the use of tendering at all three levels of government. Recommendations are then made as to how some of the legislative provisions should be interpreted in order to align them with the principles in the Constitution. In doing so, reference is made to a number of international instruments dealing with government procurement and specifically, the non-use of tender procedures.

Studies in the general ecology, physiology and bioenergetics of woodland lumbricidae

Not availabl

Towards Laser Driven Hadron Cancer Radiotherapy: A Review of Progress

It has been known for about sixty years that proton and heavy ion therapy is a very powerful radiation procedure for treating tumours. It has an innate ability to irradiate tumours with greater doses and spatial selectivity compared with electron and photon therapy and hence is a tissue sparing procedure. For more than twenty years powerful lasers have generated high energy beams of protons and heavy ions and hence it has been frequently speculated that lasers could be used as an alternative to RF accelerators to produce the particle beams necessary for cancer therapy. The present paper reviews the progress made towards laser driven hadron cancer therapy and what has still to be accomplished to realise its inherent enormous potential.Comment: 40 pages, 24 figure

How neutral is the intergalactic medium surrounding the redshift z=7.085 quasar ULAS J1120+0641?

The quasar ULAS J1120+0641 at redshift z=7.085 has a highly ionised near zone which is smaller than those around quasars of similar luminosity at z~6. The spectrum also exhibits evidence for a damping wing extending redward of the systemic Lya redshift. We use radiative transfer simulations in a cosmological context to investigate the implications for the ionisation state of the inhomogeneous IGM surrounding this quasar. Our simulations show that the transmission profile is consistent with an IGM in the vicinity of the quasar with a volume averaged HI fraction of f_HI>0.1 and that ULAS J1120+0641 has been bright for 10^6--10^7 yr. The observed spectrum is also consistent with smaller IGM neutral fractions, f_HI ~ 10^-3--10-4, if a damped Lya system in an otherwise highly ionised IGM lies within 5 proper Mpc of the quasar. This is, however, predicted to occur in only ~5 per cent of our simulated sight-lines for a bright phase of 10^6--10^7 yr. Unless ULAS J1120+0641 grows during a previous optically obscured phase, the low age inferred for the quasar adds to the theoretical challenge of forming a 2x10^9 M_sol black hole at this high redshift.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted to MNRAS letter

Migration, Human Capital Formation and the Beneficial Brain Drain Hypothesis: A Note

The recent brain drain literature suggests that migration of highly skilled people can be beneficial for a country as it gives incentives to form additional human capital. We criticise this claim by developing a career concerns model and propose that migration opportunity as an incentive mechanism is unreliable. In addition, we show that when an individual forms two types of human capital, increased migration opportunity for one type has a negative effect on the formation of the other type. The economic benefit and full policy implications of the findings were not addressed in this paper