Good Governance: developing effective board-management relations in public and voluntary organizations

The research suggests that boards do make a number of important contributions to the organisations they serve. The nature of these contributions caries and is influenced by a variety of factors: for example the way the organisation is regulated; the history and culture of the organisation; the way board members are chosen; board member's skills and experience; the relationship with senior managers; and the way the governance function is managed

FARMER STORAGE OF IRRIGATION WATER IN FEDERAL PROJECTS

This study estimates some of the economic impacts of a program that would allow farmers to save a part of their annual surface irrigation water allocation. The objective would be to save water in full allocation years to be used in water short years. The study area consisted of the El Paso County Water Improvement District. Results indicate that optimal temporal water use would increase district net farm revenue by three percent or less above actual water use. For the study area vegetables were the most profitable crop while laser leveling was not economically feasible.Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Development of an Integrated Governance Strategy for the Voluntary and Community Sector

This report on governance provides a framework for thinking about how policy makers, funders,regulators and advisers can all work with Board members and staff to enhance the effectiveness of nonprofit organisations. It was commissioned by the Active Community Unit (ACU) of the Home Office, in parallel with other reviews designed to improve the capacity of the voluntary and community sector, at a time when the sector plays an increasingly important role in the delivery of services using public funds. That role has recently been investigated in two Government reports, the Cross Cutting Review carried out by the Treasury, and the Strategy Unit review of charities and nonprofits. Our report proposes actions of three types: some that can be taken immediately, some that require further discussion with key interests, and some integration with the other ACU reviews. Taken together they provide the starting point for an evolving strategy to improve governance across the sector. We recommend ACU chairs a group charged with the responsibility for planning and implementing this. Our focus is on governance as 'the systems and processes concerned with ensuring the overall direction, supervision and accountability of an organisation'. This is often taken to mean the way that a Board, management committee or other governing body steers the overall development of an organisation, where day-to-day management is in the hands of staff or volunteers. Sometimes, of course, the committee and volunteers are the same. They – like all governing bodies – have to balance the interests of the organisation and those they are trying to serve, while being conscious of financial and legal responsibilities, and the requirements of funders and other supporters

Children with neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) treated with therapeutic hypothermia are not as school ready as their peers

Aim: We aimed to determine whether children with neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH) differ from their peers on measures of fine motor skills, executive function, language and general cognitive abilities; factors that are important for school readiness. Methods: We compared school readiness in 31children with HIE treated with TH (without Cerebral Palsy; mean age 5 years 4 months) with 20 typically developing children without HIE (mean age 5 years 6 months). Results: Children with HIE scored significantly lower than typically developing children on fine motor skills, executive functions, memory and language. Conclusion: While general cognitive abilities and attainment were in the normal range, our findings suggest those scores mask specific underlying difficulties identified by more focussed assessments. Children with HIE treated with TH may not be as “school ready” as their typically developing classmates and may benefit from long-term follow-up until starting school

The integrated database for African policymakers

The Integrated Database for African Policymakers (IDAPs; http://www.walker.ac.uk/projects/idaps-integrated-database-for-african-policy-makers/), is a technological initiative to intended to provide valuable insight and quantitative evidence to policy makers, planners and doers, at international, national and local levels to inform scenario planning and support investment interventions for early action and adaptation. It also provides a rich source of data for researchers exploring the impacts of climate change in rural African communities, and potentially beyond. IDAPS is jointly led by the Walker Institute and Evidence for Development, our embedded NGO partner

Plastic Analysis of Two Hinged Circular Arches

Architectural Engineerin

Economic Implications of Farmer Storage of Surface Irrigation Water in Federal Projects: El Paso County, Texas

The Bureau of Reclamation has approved a program for farmer storage of surface irrigation water in Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico. This program would allow individual farmers to store part of their annual surface water allotment in the reservoir subject to evaporation loss to be drawn at a future date upon request. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the economic implications of such a program for farmers in the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1. The economic analysis was based on results from a linear programming model developed for crop production in E1 Paso County. The model was designed to maximize net farm revenue. Twelve crops were included in the analysis. The effects of soil type and salinity level of irrigation water on crop yields for all twelve crops were estimated. Input requirements by crop and yield level were identified. Input categories included seed, chemical, water, machinery, labor, harvest, other and fixed costs. Irrigation alternatives included both surface and ground sources. In addition, the water saving technology of laser leveling was incorporated into the model. The model was restricted by acreage of a soil group with a specified level of salinity in the underlying groundwater. Also, the quantity of surface irrigation water available was limited. This static linear programming model was applied for various surface irrigation water allocations ranging from zero to three acre feet per acre of cropland with groundwater assumed available. This procedure produced a schedule of net farm revenues for alternative surface irrigation water allocations for use in conjunction with groundwater. The procedure was repeated with groundwater availability limited to zero. These two schedules of net farm revenues were then used (1) to form the basis of two temporal linear programming models which maximized the real value in 1980 dollars of a stream of net farm revenues, and (23 to evaluate a specified annual surface irrigation water use scenario of two acre feet per acre per year. The temporal models maximized the 1980 real value of net farm revenues. This revenue stream was generated by optimal temporal use of the actual annual surface irrigation water allotments for 1963 to 1980. This optimal use includes the opportunity to store water in Elephant Butte Reservoir subject to evaporation. Results were obtained both with and without groundwater pumping over three surface water use scenarios (actual, optimal temporal and two acre feet per year). The results of this study indicated that, with the ability to store surface water, temporally optimizing surface water use would have increased the real value of net farm revenue $0.84 per acre per year or 0.4 percent above the real value of net farm returns implied by the actual use rates for the groundwater pumping case. For the no groundwater pumping case, the real value of net farm returns increased by$3.56 per acre per year or 2 percent above the net farm returns indicated by the actual use rates. Also, storing surface water for future use, or accumulation, tends to decrease the year to year variability of net farm revenues. Groundwater pumping is also known to decrease this variability. The target surface water allocation of the project administrators is three acre feet per year. The optimal temporal solutions tended to be between this three acre feet allocation and the two acre feet allocation as specified in the two acre feet per year scenario. An optimal temporal allotment of three acre feet appears too high while two acre feet appears too low. Without a system of farmer-held surface water storage, optimizing temporal use of surface irrigation water would not be possible. Thus, this water storage opportunity is an important irrigation management tool for individual farmers in the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1

Estimating the conditions for polariton condensation in organic thin-film microcavities

We examine the possibility of observing Bose condensation of a confined two-dimensional polariton gas in an organic quantum well. We deduce a suitable parameterization of a model Hamiltonian based upon the cavity geometry, the biexciton binding energy, and similar spectroscopic and structural data. By converting the sum-over-states to a semiclassical integration over $d$-dimensional phase space, we show that while an ideal 2-D Bose gas will not undergo condensation, an interacting gas with the Bogoliubov dispersion $H(p)\approx s p$ close to $p=0$ will undergo Bose condensation at a given critical density and temperature. We show that $T_c/\sqrt{\rho_c}$ is sensitive to both the cavity geometry and to the biexciton binding energy. In particular, for strongly bound biexcitons, the non-linear interaction term appearing in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation becomes negative and the resulting ground state will be a localized soliton state rather than a delocalized Bose condensate.Comment: 2 figure

The governance of co-operatives and mutual associations: a paradox perspective

This paper presents a new theoretical framework for understanding the governance of co-operative and mutual organisations. The theoretical literature on the governance of co-operatives is relatively undeveloped in comparison with that on corporate governance. The paper briefly reviews some of the main theoretical perspectives on corporate governance and discusses how they can be usefully extended to throw light on the governance of co-operatives and mutuals. However, taken individually these different theories are rather one dimensional, only illuminating a particular aspect of the board's role. This has lead to calls for a new conceptual framework that can help integrate the insights of these different theories. The paper argues that a paradox perspective offers a promising way forward. Contrasting the different theoretical perspectives highlights some of the important paradoxes, ambiguities and tensions that boards face

A Public Health Service-Learning Capstone: Ideal for Students, Academia and Community

Undergraduate public health degree programs strive to educate students to improve the health of communities. As such we have an obligation to develop curricula that push students to think critically about their perspectives, examine assumptions, and provide supported opportunities to apply their academic learning. In addition, curricula ideally develop and nurture students' sense of civic responsibility. Community-engaged learning provides opportunities for students to interact with populations with a range of needs and different perspectives. Students need to be prepared to engage ethically and respectfully, while thinking critically about and reflecting on their roles in these communities. Service-learning is a high-impact practice that combines community service with structured academic learning, including preparation, and reflection. In line with public health community-based work, a key aspect of service-learning is the intentional development of community partnerships to ensure that students are filling the needs defined by the communities themselves. Accreditation criteria may guide what is taught but say little about how it should be taught. However, how we teach matters. Service-learning is a high impact practice that not only aligns well with the goals and objectives of an accreditation required culminating senior experience but shares many of the values of the discipline of public health. This paper analyzes the use of service-learning in the development and delivery of the University of Washington School of Public Health undergraduate Public Health-Global Health majors' culminating experience. We describe the course learning objectives, structure, and assessment tools. In addition, we present quantitative and qualitative results on the impact of the course. We argue that it is feasible, sustainable, and beneficial to students and communities when the high impact practice of service-learning is used in delivery of a culminating senior experience