FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT BETWEEN POLITICAL BALANCES AND MANAGERIAL NEEDS: STATING NEW RULES IN AN ITALIAN REGION

The paper examines the case of Friuli Venezia Giulia, an Italian Region which recently stated new rules for its financial management. The Italian Constitution regulates competencies and powers of Regions. Financial management is autonomously regulated by the local Authorities, with the only constrain of the respect of constitutional principles. Cash accounting is actually used by all Italian Local Governments and line item budgeting is the most common practice: accrual accounting is used in some cases as an additional source of information. In this context, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region has initiated a process of deep renovation of the financial management. The need for a new law on accounting methods and procedures in the institution arose from two main factors: (a) managerial needs: the new administrators have put big efforts in the introduction of a long term strategic plan for the development of the Region. The new plan was introduced in the light of a SWOT analysis commissioned to a consulting company, but the accounting rules were not adequate to support it. Neither administrators nor citizens had the possibility to control the congruence between the short term line item budget and the new strategies. The lines of the budget simply didn\u2019t fit the strategic plan: important information, like the total amount of resources aimed at financing innovation, was not available. Moreover, efficiency measures and cost control were almost unknown concepts. (b) a diffused awareness that the existing rules were altering the balance between the roles of policy makers and managers: elected officials used to take short term choices on the destination of public funds, trying to satisfy local needs of each ones\u2019 constituency instead of focusing on long term policies for the development of the whole region. The consequences were a fragmented political activity and a bureaucratic approach of managers in their work. The decisional power of managers was in fact very small: their attention was focused more on the lawfulness of choices and procedures instead of on the outcome of policies. This case study represents an opportunity to investigate the relationships between accounting and politics, as well as between budget and strategic plans in Public Administration, and between the role and responsibility of elected officials and managers

Discovery of a multiply lensed submillimeter galaxy in early HerMES Herschel/SPIRE data

‘In these times, during the rise in the popularity of institutional repositories, the Society does not forbid authors from depositing their work in such repositories. However, the AAS regards the deposit of scholarly work in such repositories to be a decision of the individual scholar, as long as the individual's actions respect the diligence of the journals and their reviewers.’ Original article can be found at: http://iopscience.iop.org/ Copyright American Astronomical SocietyWe report the discovery of a bright (f (250 μm)>400 mJy), multiply lensed submillimeter galaxy HERMES J105751.1+573027 in Herschel/SPIRE Science Demonstration Phase data from the HerMES project. Interferometric 880 μm Submillimeter Array observations resolve at least four images with a large separation of ∼9″. A high-resolution adaptive optics Kp image with Keck/NIRC2 clearly shows strong lensing arcs. Follow-up spectroscopy gives a redshift of z = 2.9575, and the lensing model gives a total magnification of μ ∼ 11 ± 1. The large image separation allows us to study the multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) of the lensed source unobscured by the central lensing mass. The far-IR/millimeter-wave SED is well described by a modified blackbody fit with an unusually warm dust temperature, 88 ± 3 K. We derive a lensing-corrected total IR luminosity of (1.43 ± 0.09) × 1013 L⊙, implying a star formation rate of ∼2500 M⊙ yr-1. However, models primarily developed from brighter galaxies selected at longer wavelengths are a poor fit to the full optical-to-millimeter SED. A number of other strongly lensed systems have already been discovered in early Herschel data, and many more are expected as additional data are collected.Peer reviewe

Extragalactic Submillimetric Surveys with BLAST

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) has recently conducted an extragalactic submillimetric survey of the Chandra Deep Field South region of unprecedented size, depth, and angular resolution in three wavebands centered at 250, 350, and 500 µm. BLAST wavelengths are chosen to study the Cosmic Infrared Background near its peak at 200 µm. We find that most of the CIB at these wavelengths is contributed by galaxies detected at 24 µm by the MIPS instrument on Spitzer, and that the source counts distribution shows a population with strongly evolving density and luminosity. These results anticipate what can be expected from the surveys that will be conducted with the SPIRE instrument on the Herschel space observatory

BLAST - The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope

The balloon-borne large aperture sub-millimeter telescope (BLAST) has recently completed a highly successful long duration balloon flight from Antarctica. The instrument design incorporates a 2 m diameter primary mirror, with large format bolometer arrays operating at 250, 350 and 500 microns. By providing the first sensitive large-area (10 sq. degrees) surveys at these wavelengths, BLAST will address some of the most important galactic and cosmological questions regarding the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and clusters

Submillimetre observations of galaxy clusters with the BLAST: the star formation activity in Abell 3112

We present observations at 250, 350 and 500 μm of the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 3112 (z= 0.075) carried out with the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope. Five cluster members are individually detected as bright submillimetre (submm) sources. Their far-infrared spectral energy distributions and optical colours identify them as normal star-forming galaxies of high mass, with globally evolved stellar populations. They all have (B−R) colours of 1.38 ± 0.08, transitional between the blue, active population and the red, evolved galaxies that dominate the cluster core. We stack to estimate the mean submm emission from all cluster members, which is determined to be 16.6 ± 2.5, 6.1 ± 1.9 and 1.5 ± 1.3 mJy at 250, 350 and 500 μm, respectively. Stacking analyses of the submm emission of cluster members reveal trends in the mean far-infrared luminosity with respect to clustercentric radius and KS-band magnitude. We find that a large fraction of submm emission comes from the boundary of the inner, virialized region of the cluster, at clustercentric distances around R500. Stacking also shows that the bulk of the submm emission arises in intermediate-mass galaxies with KS magnitude ∼1 mag fainter than the characteristic magnitude . The results and constraints obtained in this work will provide a useful reference for the forthcoming surveys to be conducted on galaxy clusters by Herschel

Extragalactic Submillimetric Surveys with BLAST

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) has recently conducted an extragalactic submillimetric survey of the Chandra Deep Field South region of unprecedented size, depth, and angular resolution in three wavebands centered at 250, 350, and 500 µm. BLAST wavelengths are chosen to study the Cosmic Infrared Background near its peak at 200 µm. We find that most of the CIB at these wavelengths is contributed by galaxies detected at 24 µm by the MIPS instrument on Spitzer, and that the source counts distribution shows a population with strongly evolving density and luminosity. These results anticipate what can be expected from the surveys that will be conducted with the SPIRE instrument on the Herschel space observatory

Increased endoplasmic reticulum stress in decidual tissue from pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction with and without pre-eclampsia

Objectives: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been implicated in both pre-eclampsia (PE) and fetal growth restriction (FGR), and is characterised by activation of three signalling branches: 1) PERK-pEIF2a, 2) ATF6 and 3) splicing of XBP1(U) into XBP1(S). To evaluate the contribution of ER stress in the pathogenesis of PE relative to FGR, we compared levels of ER stress markers in decidual tissue from pregnancies complicated by PE and/or FGR. Study design: Whole-genome transcriptional profiling was performed on decidual tissue from women with PE (n = 13), FGR (n = 9), PE+FGR (n = 24) and controls (n = 58), and used for pathway and targeted transcriptional analyses of ER stress markers. The expression and cellular localisation of ER stress markers was assesses by Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses. Results: Increased ER stress was observed in FGR and PE+FGR, including both the PERK-pEIF2a and ATF6 signalling branches, whereas ER stress was less evident in isolated PE. However, these cases demonstrated elevated levels of XBP1(U) protein. ATF6 and XBP1 immunoreactivity was detected in most (>80%) extravillous trophoblasts, decidual cells and macrophages. No difference in the proportion of immunopositive cells or staining pattern was observed between study groups. Conclusions: Increased PERK-pEIF2a and ATF6 signalling have been associated with decreased cellular proliferation and may contribute to the impaired placental growth characterising pregnancies with FGR and PE+FGR. XBP1(U) has been proposed as a negative regulator of ER stress, and increased levels in PE may reflect a protective mechanism against the detrimental effects of ER stress

BLAST: the far-infrared/radio correlation in distant galaxies

We investigate the correlation between far-infrared (FIR) and radio luminosities in distant galaxies, a lynchpin of modern astronomy. We use data from the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope (BLAST), Spitzer, the Large Apex BOlometer CamerA (LABOCA), the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS). For a catalogue of BLAST 250-micron-selected galaxies, we re-measure the 70--870-micron flux densities at the positions of their most likely 24-micron counterparts, which have a median [interquartile] redshift of 0.74 [0.25, 1.57]. From these, we determine the monochromatic flux density ratio, q_250 = log_10 (S_250micron / S_1400MHz), and the bolometric equivalent, q_IR. At z ~= 0.6, where our 250-micron filter probes rest-frame 160-micron emission, we find no evolution relative to q_160 for local galaxies. We also stack the FIR and submm images at the positions of 24-micron- and radio-selected galaxies. The difference between q_IR seen for 250-micron- and radio-selected galaxies suggests star formation provides most of the IR luminosity in ~Peer reviewe

The BLAST 250 μ\mum-selected galaxy population in GOODS-South

copyright Royal Astronomical SocietyWe identify and investigate the nature of the 20 brightest 250 μm sources detected by the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope (BLAST) within the central 150 arcmin of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) South field. Aided by the available deep VLA 1.4 GHz radio imaging, reaching S 40-μJy (4α), we have identified radio counterparts for 17/20 of the 250 μm sources. The resulting enhanced positional accuracy of ≃1 arcsec has then allowed us to exploit the deep optical (Hubble Space Telescope), near-infrared (VLT) and mid-infrared (Spitzer) imaging of GOODS-South to establish secure galaxy counterparts for the 17 radio-identified sources, and plausible galaxy candidates for the three radio-unidentified sources. Confusion is a serious issue for this deep BLAST 250 μm survey, due to the large size of the beam. Nevertheless, we argue that our chosen counterparts are significant, and often dominant contributors to the measured BLAST flux densities. For all of these 20 galaxies we have been able to determine spectroscopic (eight) or photometric (12) redshifts. The result is the first near-complete redshift distribution for a deep 250 μm-selected galaxy sample. This reveals that 250 μm surveys reaching detection limits of ≃40 mJy have a median redshift z≃ 1, and contain not only low-redshift spirals/LIRGs, but also the extreme z≃ 2 dust-enshrouded starburst galaxies previously discovered at sub-millimetre wavelengths. Inspection of the LABOCA 870 μm imaging of GOODS-South yields detections of ≃1/3 of the proposed BLAST sources (all at z > 1.5), and reveals 250/870 μm flux-density ratios consistent with a standard 40 K modified blackbody fit with a dust emissivity index β= 1.5. Based on their Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) colours, we find that virtually all of the BLAST galaxy identifications appear better described as analogues of the M82 starburst galaxy, or Sc star-forming discs rather than highly obscured ULIRGs. This is perhaps as expected at low redshift, where the 250 μm BLAST selection function is biased towards spectral energy distributions which peak longward of λ= 100 μm. However, it also appears largely true at z≃ 2.Peer reviewe