Getting management accounting off the ground: post-colonial neoliberalism in healthcare budgets

Taking Sven Modell’s (2014, pp. 83–103) “societal relevance of management accounting” agenda forward, and based on a cost accounting initiative in a Sri Lankan hospital, this paper examines how management accounting is implicated in societal relevance. It reports on a postcolonial neoliberal state’s use of cost-saving experiments and the resultant emancipation of the individuals involved. It runs a bottom-up analysis, from micro events in the hospital to policymaking at the level of the Provincial Council. This analysis suggests that cost accounting acts as a mediating instrument: it begins to loosen the old Keynesian postcolonial bureaucratic budget confinements, creates a social space for individuals to consider cost-saving experiments, and addresses wider policy concerns about hospital resource management. The story is illuminated by Gilles Deleuze’s and Zigmund Bauman’s ideas on post-panoptic societies: old confinements are being problematized and new flexible, “liquid” spaces created, in which individuals are emancipated in terms of their ability to influence resource management within and beyond the organizational constituency

Cyclotron spectroscopy of VV Puppis

We present phase-resolved spectrophotometric observations of VV Puppis obtained during two different states of accretion. We confirm the detection of cyclotron lines from emission regions at both poles (Wickramasinghe et al. 1989) having significantly different field strength of B_1 ~ 31MG and B_2 ~ 54MG. Our phase-resolved data allowed the detection of phase-dependent wavelength shifts of the cyclotron lines from the main accretion pole which is due to the varying aspect of the observer. A corresponding motion of the cyclotron lines from the secondary pole appears likely. Compared to 1984, the cyclotron lines from the main pole appeared redshifted in 1989, during an episode of higher system brightness. This shift can be explained assuming either different locations of the accretion spot and, hence, variations of the magnetic field, or variations of the plasma temperature both triggered by variations of the mass accretion rate. The cyclotron lines from the second pole do not show such changes suggesting that the coupling region for the weakly accreting pole is more or less stationary whereas the coupling region of the main pole varies in space, most likely depending on the mass accretion rate.Comment: 11 pages, 7 postscript figures Astronomische Nachrichten, in press see also http://www.aip.de:8080/science/Preprints.htm

The birth properties of Galactic millisecond radio pulsars

We model the population characteristics of the sample of millisecond pulsars within a distance of 1.5kpc.We find that for a braking index n=3, the birth magnetic field distribution of the neutron stars as they switch on as radio MSPs can be represented by a Gaussian with mean $\log B(G)= 8.1$ and $\sigma_{\log B}=0.4$ and their birth spin period by a Gaussian with mean $P_0=4$ ms and $\sigma_{P_0}=1.3$ ms. Our study, which takes into consideration acceleration effects on the observed spin-down rate, shows that most MSPs are born with periods that are close to the currently observed values and with average characteristic ages typically larger by a factor 1.5 compared to the true age. The Galactic birth rate of the MSPs is deduced to be \gsimeq 3.2 \times 10^{-6} yr$^{-1}$ near the upper end of previous estimates and larger than the semi-empirical birth rate $\sim 10^{-7}$ yr$^{-1}$ of the LMXBs. The mean birth spin period deduced by us for the radio MSPs is a factor 2 higher than the mean spin period observed for the accretion and nuclear powered X-ray pulsars, although this discrepancy can be resolved if we use a braking index $n=5$, the value appropriate to spin down caused by angular momentum losses by gravitational radiation or magnetic multipolar radiation. We discuss the arguments for and against the hypothesis that accretion induced collapse may constitute the main route to the formation of the MSPs, pointing out that on the AIC scenario the low magnetic fields of the MSPs may simply reflect the field distribution in isolated magnetic white dwarfs which has recently been shown to be bi-modal with a dominant component that is likely to peak at fields below $10^3$ G which would scale to neutron star fields below $10^9$ G.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in the MNRA

Cosmic Needles versus Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

It has been suggested by a number of authors that the 2.7K cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation might have arisen from the radiation from Population III objects thermalized by conducting cosmic graphite/iron needle-shaped dust. Due to lack of an accurate solution to the absorption properties of exceedingly elongated grains, in existing literature which studies the CMB thermalizing process they are generally modelled as (1) needle-like spheroids in terms of the Rayleigh approximation; (2) infinite cylinders; and (3) the antenna theory. We show here that the Rayleigh approximation is not valid since the Rayleigh criterion is not satisfied for highly conducting needles. We also show that the available intergalactic iron dust, if modelled as infinite cylinders, is not sufficient to supply the required opacity at long wavelengths to obtain the observed isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB. If appealing to the antenna theory, conducting iron needles with exceedingly large elongations (10^4) appear able to provide sufficient opacity to thermalize the CMB within the iron density limit. But the applicability of the antenna theory to exceedingly thin needles of nanometer/micrometer in thickness needs to be justified.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; submitted to ApJ

How do microorganisms reach the stratosphere?

A number of studies have demonstrated that bacteria and fungi are present in the stratosphere. Since the tropopause is generally regarded as a barrier to the upward movement of particles it is difficult to see how such microorganisms can reach heights above 17 km. Volcanoes provide an obvious means by which this could be achieved, but these occur infrequently and any microorganisms entering the stratosphere from this source will rapidly fall out of the stratosphere. Here, we suggest mechanisms by which microorganisms might reach the stratosphere on a more regular basis; such mechanisms are, however, likely only to explain how micrometre to submicrometre particles could be elevated into the stratosphere. Intriguingly, clumps of bacteria of size in excess of 10 μm have been found in stratospheric samples. It is difficult to understand how such clumps could be ejected from the Earth to this height, suggesting that such bacterial masses may be incoming to Earth. We suggest that the stratospheric microflora is made up of two components: (a) a mixed population of bacteria and fungi derived from Earth, which can occasionally be cultured; and (b) a population made up of clumps of, viable but non-culturable, bacteria which are too large to have originated from Earth; these, we suggest, have arrived in the stratosphere from space. Finally, we speculate on the possibility that the transfer of bacteria from the Earth to the highly mutagenic stratosphere may have played a role in bacterial evolution

Climate change, local institutions and adaptation experience: the village tank farming community in the dry zone of Sri Lanka

Farmers are in a continuous process of, individually and as community groups, adjusting to the observed variability in climate parameters. Climate shocks are considered by farmers in their decision-making as factors affecting risk and uncertainty, and farmers make their choices so as to minimize such risks. The overall outcome of these individual and community efforts is known as ‘climate adaptation’, which itself is a continuous process. Farmers are traditionally supported by local institutions in this process, which are also currently in a state of transformation. This study examines the climate adaptation responses of the village tank farming community in the dry zone of Sri Lanka in the context of transforming socioeconomic conditions and with the objective of identifying policy implications for adaptation to global climate change. The study was conducted in six Divisional Secretariat areas in the Anuradhapura District of the North Central Province. Both, primary and secondary data was collected in the study. The major sources of primary data included a series of focus group discussions and key informant interviews conducted with village tank farmers and local officers. The findings reveal that there are two major forms of voluntary adaptation responses by farmers against climate shocks: 1) aligning of farming activities with the recognized seasonal pattern of rainfall; and 2) management of rain water harvested in commonly owned village tanks. Farmers’ adaptation responses have been facilitated by local institutions that helped to adopt joint adaptation responses. However, recent socioeconomic dynamics introduced by rapid population increase, spread of commercial opportunities and change in agricultural technology have drastically altered conditions in the village tanks in favor of developing a commercial farming system. As a result, local institutions that traditionally facilitated the climatic adaptation responses are also in a state of transition. Therefore, farmers face problems in adapting to the impending risks and uncertainties of global climate change. The paper emphasizes the need for appropriate policy measures to facilitate the adaptive capacity of farmers.Length: pp.147-156Climate changeAdaptationFarmersArid landsVillagesTanksCommon property

A control theorem for pp-adic automorphic forms and Teitelbaum's L\mathcal{L}-invariant

In this article, we describe an efficient method for computing Teitelbaum's $p$-adic $\mathcal{L}$-invariant. These invariants are realized as the eigenvalues of the $\mathcal{L}$-operator acting on a space of harmonic cocycles on the Bruhat-Tits tree $\mathcal{T}$, which is computable by the methods of Franc and Masdeu described in \cite{fm}. The main difficulty in computing the $\mathcal{L}$-operator is the efficient computation of the $p$-adic Coleman integrals in its definition. To solve this problem, we use overconvergent methods, first developed by Darmon, Greenberg, Pollack and Stevens. In order to make these methods applicable to our setting, we prove a control theorem for $p$-adic automorphic forms of arbitrary even weight. Moreover, we give computational evidence for relations between slopes of $\mathcal{L}$-invariants of different levels and weights for $p=2$.Comment: 26 page