An institutional sociology perspective of the implementation of activity based costing by Spanish health care institutions

According to institutional sociology, hospitals will respond to external environmental pressures and adopt Activity-Based-Costing (ABC). This theory overemphasizes conformity and fails to consider the advantages of organizational non-conformance. A conflict of interests between physicians and management leads to physician resistance to accepting ABC. This paper investigates the Spanish government's response to this resistance by creating new public foundation hospitals, and involves a case study of the Alcorcón foundation hospital. Population ecology is offered as an explanation for the emergence of new entities as a result of inert existing entities' resistance to reform.Activity based costing; ABC implementation; Health care; Institutional sociology; Spanish health care sector;

Changes in Georgia Restaurant and Bar Smoking Policies From 2006 to 2012

Introduction The purpose of this study is to examine the change in smoking policy status among Georgia restaurants and bars from 2006 to 2012 and to identify restaurant and bar characteristics that are as- sociated with allowing smoking. Methods Data were obtained from similar cross-sectional indoor air sur- veys conducted in 2006 and 2012 in Georgia. Both surveys were designed to gather information about restaurant and bar smoking policies. Weighted χ2 analyses were performed to identify changes in smoking policy status and other variables from 2006 to 2012. Weighted logistic regression analysis was used to test for signific- ant associations between an establishment’s smoking policy and other characteristics. Results The percentage of restaurants and bars in Georgia that allowed smoking nearly doubled, from 9.1% in 2006 to 17.6% in 2012. The analyses also showed a significant increase in the percentage of establishments that allow smoking when minors are present. Having a liquor license was a significant predictor of allowing smoking. Conclusion The Smokefree Air Act was enacted in 2005 to protect the health and welfare of Georgia citizens, but study results suggest that policy makers should reevaluate the law and consider strengthening it to make restaurants and bars 100% smokefree without exemptions

Coccolithophore biodiversity controls carbonate export in the Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean waters are projected to undergo profound changes in their physical and chemical properties in the coming decades. Coccolithophore blooms in the Southern Ocean are thought to account for a major fraction of the global marine calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production and export to the deep sea. Therefore, changes in the composition and abundance of Southern Ocean coccolithophore populations are likely to alter the marine carbon cycle, with feedbacks to the rate of global climate change. However, the contribution of coccolithophores to CaCO3 export in the Southern Ocean is uncertain, particularly in the circumpolar subantarctic zone that represents about half of the areal extent of the Southern Ocean and where coccolithophores are most abundant. Here, we present measurements of annual CaCO3 flux and quantitatively partition them amongst coccolithophore species and heterotrophic calcifiers at two sites representative of a large portion of the subantarctic zone. We find that coccolithophores account for a major fraction of the annual CaCO3 export, with the highest contributions in waters with low algal biomass accumulations. Notably, our analysis reveals that although Emiliania huxleyi is an important vector for CaCO3 export to the deep sea, less abundant but larger species account for most of the annual coccolithophore CaCO3 flux. This observation contrasts with the generally accepted notion that high particulate inorganic carbon accumulations during the austral summer in the subantarctic Southern Ocean are mainly caused by E. huxleyi blooms. It appears likely that the climate-induced migration of oceanic fronts will initially result in the poleward expansion of large coccolithophore species increasing CaCO3 production. However, subantarctic coccolithophore populations will eventually diminish as acidification overwhelms those changes. Overall, our analysis emphasizes the need for species-centred studies to improve our ability to project future changes in phytoplankton communities and their influence on marine biogeochemical cycles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Prospects for polarized foreground removal

In this report we discuss the impact of polarized foregrounds on a future CMBPol satellite mission. We review our current knowledge of Galactic polarized emission at microwave frequencies, including synchrotron and thermal dust emission. We use existing data and our understanding of the physical behavior of the sources of foreground emission to generate sky templates, and start to assess how well primordial gravitational wave signals can be separated from foreground contaminants for a CMBPol mission. At the estimated foreground minimum of ~100 GHz, the polarized foregrounds are expected to be lower than a primordial polarization signal with tensor-to-scalar ratio r=0.01, in a small patch (~1%) of the sky known to have low Galactic emission. Over 75% of the sky we expect the foreground amplitude to exceed the primordial signal by about a factor of eight at the foreground minimum and on scales of two degrees. Only on the largest scales does the polarized foreground amplitude exceed the primordial signal by a larger factor of about 20. The prospects for detecting an r=0.01 signal including degree-scale measurements appear promising, with 5 sigma_r ~0.003 forecast from multiple methods. A mission that observes a range of scales offers better prospects from the foregrounds perspective than one targeting only the lowest few multipoles. We begin to explore how optimizing the composition of frequency channels in the focal plane can maximize our ability to perform component separation, with a range of typically 40 < nu < 300 GHz preferred for ten channels. Foreground cleaning methods are already in place to tackle a CMBPol mission data set, and further investigation of the optimization and detectability of the primordial signal will be useful for mission design.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures, Foreground Removal Working Group contribution to the CMBPol Mission Concept Study, v2, matches AIP versio

Improved limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio using BICEP and Planck data

We present constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r using a combination of BICEP/Keck 2018 (BK18) and Planck PR4 data allowing us to fit for r consistently with the six parameters of the ? CDM model. We discuss the sensitivity of constraints on r to uncertainties in the ? CDM parameters as defined by the Planck data. In particular, we are able to derive a constraint on the reionization optical depth ? and thus propagate its uncertainty into the posterior distribution for r . While Planck sensitivity to r is slightly lower than the current ground-based measurements, the combination of Planck with BK18 and baryon-acoustic-oscillation data yields results consistent with r = 0 and tightens the constraint to r < 0.032 at 95% confidence.Planck is a project of the European Space Agency (ESA) with instruments provided by two scientific consortia funded by ESA member states and led by Principal Investigators from France and Italy, telescope reflectors provided through a collaboration between ESA and a scientific consortium led and funded by Denmark, and additional contributions from NASA (USA). We gratefully acknowledge support from the CNRS/IN2P3 Computing Center for providing computing and data-processing resources needed for this work. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231. Part of the research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant No. 80NM0018D0004)

Attribution and contestation: Relations between elites and other social groups

In this article we explore the often ambiguous relations between elites and other social groups, both subordinate and of relatively equal standing. The article draws on two distinctive ethnographic cases: the white Franco-Mauritian elite, and the expert elite of management consultants in a Western European context. Our analysis of the two cases provides insights into how the power and status of elites is both contested and attributed by the people they interact with and relate to in concrete, yet substantially different contexts and situations. The aim is to show how the position and power of different kinds of elites is relationally negotiated and achieved. As we argue, a better understanding of the role of other social groups in the attribution, maintenance and contestation of status is relevant for understanding both more traditional economic elites and expert elites without tight networks

Planck Intermediate Results. IX. Detection of the Galactic haze with Planck

Using precise full-sky observations from Planck, and applying several methods of component separation, we identify and characterize the emission from the Galactic "haze" at microwave wavelengths. The haze is a distinct component of diffuse Galactic emission, roughly centered on the Galactic centre, and extends to |b| ~35 deg in Galactic latitude and |l| ~15 deg in longitude. By combining the Planck data with observations from the WMAP we are able to determine the spectrum of this emission to high accuracy, unhindered by the large systematic biases present in previous analyses. The derived spectrum is consistent with power-law emission with a spectral index of -2.55 +/- 0.05, thus excluding free-free emission as the source and instead favouring hard-spectrum synchrotron radiation from an electron population with a spectrum (number density per energy) dN/dE ~ E^-2.1. At Galactic latitudes |b|<30 deg, the microwave haze morphology is consistent with that of the Fermi gamma-ray "haze" or "bubbles," indicating that we have a multi-wavelength view of a distinct component of our Galaxy. Given both the very hard spectrum and the extended nature of the emission, it is highly unlikely that the haze electrons result from supernova shocks in the Galactic disk. Instead, a new mechanism for cosmic-ray acceleration in the centre of our Galaxy is implied.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic

Spectral Distortions of the CMB as a Probe of Inflation, Recombination, Structure Formation and Particle Physics

Following the pioneering observations with COBE in the early 1990s, studies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have focused on temperature and polarization anisotropies. CMB spectral distortions - tiny departures of the CMB energy spectrum from that of a perfect blackbody - provide a second, independent probe of fundamental physics, with a reach deep into the primordial Universe. The theoretical foundation of spectral distortions has seen major advances in recent years, which highlight the immense potential of this emerging field. Spectral distortions probe a fundamental property of the Universe - its thermal history - thereby providing additional insight into processes within the cosmological standard model (CSM) as well as new physics beyond. Spectral distortions are an important tool for understanding inflation and the nature of dark matter. They shed new light on the physics of recombination and reionization, both prominent stages in the evolution of our Universe, and furnish critical information on baryonic feedback processes, in addition to probing primordial correlation functions at scales inaccessible to other tracers. In principle the range of signals is vast: many orders of magnitude of discovery space could be explored by detailed observations of the CMB energy spectrum. Several CSM signals are predicted and provide clear experimental targets, some of which are already observable with present-day technology. Confirmation of these signals would extend the reach of the CSM by orders of magnitude in physical scale as the Universe evolves from the initial stages to its present form. The absence of these signals would pose a huge theoretical challenge, immediately pointing to new physics.Comment: Astro2020 Science White Paper, 5 pages text, 13 pages in total, 3 Figures, minor update to reference

Full annual monitoring of Subantarctic Emiliania huxleyi populations reveals highly calcified morphotypes in high-CO2 winter conditions [Dataset]

[EN]Supplement Table S1. a. Sampling dates and morphotype relative abundance of E. huxleyi coccolith assemblages collected in the surface layer at the SOTS site. b. Sampling intervals, fluxes and morphotype relative abundance and morphometric measurements of E. huxleyi coccolith assemblages intercepted by the sediment traps at the SOTS and SAM sites. Table S2. Environmental parameters measured at the surface layer of the SOTS site from August 2011 to July 2012.European Union's Horizon 2020, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowshipThe dataset includes Supplementary Information, Table S1. : abundance, composition and morphometric data of E. huxleyi coccolith assemblages generated during the current study Table S2: environmental data Environmental parameters measured at the surface layer of the SOTS site from August 2011 to July 2012

Full annual monitoring of Subantarctic Emiliania huxleyi populations reveals highly calcified morphotypes in high-CO2 winter conditions

Datos de investigación en: http://hdl.handle.net/10366/143074[EN]Ocean acidifcation is expected to have detrimental consequences for the most abundant calcifying phytoplankton species Emiliania huxleyi. However, this assumption is mainly based on laboratory manipulations that are unable to reproduce the complexity of natural ecosystems. Here, E. huxleyi coccolith assemblages collected over a year by an autonomous water sampler and sediment traps in the Subantarctic Zone were analysed. The combination of taxonomic and morphometric analyses together with in situ measurements of surface-water properties allowed us to monitor, with unprecedented detail, the seasonal cycle of E. huxleyi at two Subantarctic stations. E. huxleyi subantarctic assemblages were composed of a mixture of, at least, four diferent morphotypes. Heavier morphotypes exhibited their maximum relative abundances during winter, coinciding with peak annual TCO2 and nutrient concentrations, while lighter morphotypes dominated during summer, coinciding with lowest TCO2 and nutrients levels. The similar seasonality observed in both time-series suggests that it may be a circumpolar feature of the Subantarctic zone. Our results challenge the view that ocean acidifcation will necessarily lead to a replacement of heavily-calcifed coccolithophores by lightly-calcifed ones in subpolar ecosystems, and emphasize the need to consider the cumulative efect of multiple stressors on the probable succession of morphotypes.European Union's Horizon 2020, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowshi