Offshoring the Nation's water

When the ten regional water authorities in England and Wales were floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989, a shift in ownership inevitably followed from the privatization of household water. The public listing of shares in water companies initially created a wide distribution of ownership across the UK population, with preference given to those who paid the water bills. Controls were put in place to ensure that no one individual or company could monopolize the shareholdings, with the UK government retaining a ‘golden share’ precisely to avoid such an outcome. Once those shares were relinquished by the government in 1994, however, the ownership of the nation’s water started to shift abroad, with foreign investors largely attracted by the low risk, stable returns on offer. Some two decades on, with seven of the ten water authorities now in foreign ownership, the contrast from the idea of a British shareholding public that drove the early UK privatisations could not be greater

The Moral Economy and Research on Projects: neglect and relevance to social capital and competencies

This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the understanding of management and of projects. The paper adopts an analysis of the moral economy, which poses a conceptual challenge to the way in which management generally, and specifically concerning projects, is understood. The paper also poses an indirect methodological challenge, particularly to positivism, empiricism and some interpretative analysis.Project management and the management of projects have tended to focus upon task and function respectively, which has relegated or excluded the role of morality in relationships in both research and practice. A similar position is adopted in economics with a focus upon closed systems. The combined result is an exclusion of the moral economy. This paper argues for a theoretical reappraisal of management generally, and specifically with regard to projects, to include the moral economy. The moral economy is not only foundational to the operation of the market economy, but also contributes to its performance.The conclusion summaries the main points and makes recommendations concerning theoretical development, methodology and practice

Beyond Paris: 11 innovations in aid effectiveness

The current framework for improving aid effectiveness, the 'Paris' agenda of harmonisation and alignment, has been found lacking. Alternatives are needed. This paper highlights some examples of recent innovations in the management and delivery of development aid. Drawing upon Barder (2009) and Howes (2011), the paper structures 11 innovations into three categories: improving the quality of the aid donor; improving the quality of the aid recipient; and improving how donors interact and the way aid is given. By examining these 11 innovations, the paper shows that aid agencies have the potential to adapt and evolve. The challenge for donors is to start selecting good ideas for implementation now and to never stop searching for new innovations to improve aid effectiveness.aid

Australian aid to Afghanistan: submission to the foreign affairs, defence and trade reference committee

This submission is written by Professor Stephen Howes, Director of the Development Policy Centre and Mr Jonathan Pryke a researcher at the Centre. Professor Howes has twenty-five years of experience working in and on aid and development in the AsiaPacific region. Formerly Lead Economist for India with the World Bank and Chief Economist with AusAID, he was a lead author of the Core Group Report on Aid Effectiveness (2006), the review of Australian aid to PNG (2010) and the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness (2012). He currently serves on the Board of CARE Australia. Jonathan Pryke graduated from the ANU in 2011 with a Masters in Public Policy and Masters in Diplomacy. Ms Alicia Mollaun also contributed to this submission via the provision of a literature survey. Ms Mollaun is a PhD student at the Crawford School working on American aid to Pakistan. She has worked for the Australian Government with PM&C and DFAT, and is currently on leave from DFAT

CMB E/B decomposition of incomplete sky: a pixel space approach

CMB polarization signal may be decomposed into gradient-like (E) and curl-like (B) mode. We have investigated E/B decomposition in pixel space. We find E/B mixing due to incomplete sky is localized in pixel-space, and negligible in the regions far away from the masked area. By estimating the expected local leakage power, we have diagnosed ambiguous pixels. Our criteria for ambiguous pixels (i.e. r_c) is associated with the tensor-to-scalar ratio of B mode power spectrum, which the leakage power is comparable to. By setting r_c to a lower value, we may reduce leakage level, but reduce sky fraction at the same time. Therefore, we have solved \partial \Delta C_l/\partial r_c=0, and obtained the optimal r_c, which minimizes the estimation uncertainty, given a foreground mask and noise level. We have applied our method to a simulated map blocked by a foreground (diffuse + point source) mask. Our simulation shows leakage power is smaller than primordial (i.e. unlensed) B mode power spectrum of tensor-to-scalar ratio r\sim 10^{-3} at wide range of multipoles (50\lesssim l \lesssim 2000), while allowing us to retain sky fraction ~ 0.48.Comment: v2: the point of the method strengthened, v3: criteria for ambiguous pixels rigorously derived, v4: matched with the accepted version in A&A (minor change), v5: typos correcte

China is not conducting debt trap diplomacy in the Pacific—at least not yet

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/A close look at the evidence suggests that China has not been engaged in "debt-trap diplomacy" in the Pacific, at least not so far. Nonetheless, if future Chinese lending continues on a business-as-usual basis, serious problems of debt sustainability will arise, and concerns about quality and corruption are valid

A Comparative Study of the Depth of Maximum of Simulated Air Shower Longitudinal Profiles

A comparative study of simulated air shower longitudinal profiles is presented. An appropriate thinning level for the calculations is first determined empirically. High statistics results are then provided, over a wide energy range, (10^14.0 to 10^20.5 eV), for proton & iron primaries, using four combinations of the MOCCA & CORSIKA program frameworks, and the SIBYLL & QGSJET high energy hadronic interaction models. These results are compared to existing experimental data. The way in which the first interaction controls Xmax is investigated, as is the distribution of Xmax.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by Astroparticle Physics. (Revised according to referee's comments.

Novel strategies for the construction of cyclic boronate esters and acids & novel aspects of furan chemistry

Methodology studies for cyclic boronate ester synthesis Figure i: Target molecules (see Abstract in pdf for image) Structures i,ii,iii represent a general depiction of cyclic boron-containing heterocyles targeted in this methodology study. These molecules will be made using a range of new organic pathways. A 1,3 nitrogen-boron relationship in selected structures will also be investigated due to its importance in pharmaceutical chemistry. In the pursuit of cyclic boranes a new method for the preparation of unsaturated ketones has been discovered, which utilises the boron chemistry outlined below. Figure ii: Reagents and Conditions: (a) tBuLi, B(OIPr)3, Et2O, -79 °C, 20 % (see Abstract in pdf for image) Novel aspects of furan chemistry It was found that the furan derivative vii, when treated with palladium salts, gave the bis-annulated benzene structure viii. This sequence gave rise to a novel method for the construction of aromatic rings. This reaction was tested on a range of substituted furans in order to examine the scope of this reaction. Figure iii: Reagents and Conditions: (a) Pd(OAc)2, K2CO3, MeCN, 80 °C, 25% (see Abstract in pdf for image