scholarly journals Evaluation of Large-Scale Public-Sector Reforms

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen N. Breidahl ◽  
Gunnar Gjelstrup ◽  
Hanne Foss Hansen ◽  
Morten Balle Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
The Impact

Research on the evaluation of large-scale public-sector reforms is rare. This article sets out to fill that gap in the evaluation literature and argues that it is of vital importance since the impact of such reforms is considerable and they change the context in which evaluations of other and more delimited policy areas take place. In our analysis, we apply four governance perspectives (rational-instrumental perspective, rational interest–based perspective, institutional-cultural perspective, and chaos perspective) in a comparative analysis of the evaluations of two large-scale public-sector reforms in Denmark and Norway. We compare the evaluation process (focus and purpose), the evaluators, and the organization of the evaluation, as well as the utilization of the evaluation results. The analysis uncovers several significant findings including how the initial organization of the evaluation shows strong impact on the utilization of the evaluation and how evaluators can approach the challenges of evaluating large-scale reforms.

scholarly journals FEATURES FOR THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DISEASES MORBIDITY IN THE CHILD POPULATION LIVING IN THE IMPACT AREA OF EMISSION COMPONENTS OF LARGE-SCALE ALUMINA PRODUCTION

2019 ◽  
pp. 28-33
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Respiratory System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Morbidity Rate ◽  
Alumina Production ◽  
Atmospheric Air ◽  
Child Population ◽  
Actual Attendance ◽  
The Impact

We made hygienic assessment of the atmospheric air quality of the observation territory and comparison according to monitoring and field observations, carried out a comparative analysis of the respiratory system diseases morbidity of the child population according to the form of federal statistical observation and actual attendance for medical care for 2014–2017, evaluated the relationship of respiratory system diseases morbidity with the effects of the studied chemical factors. Atmospheric air poor quality for a number of substances has been established in the residential development of the observation territory. An increased morbidity rate of respiratory system diseases and certain nosological forms (chronic diseases of the tonsils and adenoids and bronchial asthma) in areas with stable atmospheric air pollution by emission components of large-scale alumina production has been established as a result of a comparative analysis of morbidity rates. We proved the dependence of the occurrence probability of additional cases of respiratory system diseases on the content in the atmospheric air of suspended solids, fine PM10, PM2.5 fractions, nitrogen dioxide, aluminum, manganese, solid and gaseous fluorides, chromium.

The importance of phase morphology for rheology of ferropericlase-bridgmanite mixtures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Thielmann ◽  
Gregor Golabek ◽  
Hauke Marquardt
Keyword(s):  
Lower Mantle ◽  
Mantle Convection ◽  
Effective Viscosity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Phase Morphology ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Analytical Approximations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Strong Control

<p>The rheology of the Earth’s lower mantle is poorly constrained due to a lack of knowledge of the rheological behaviour of its constituent minerals. In addition, the lower mantle does not consist of only a single, but of multiple mineral phases with differing deformation behaviour. The rheology of Earth’s lower mantle is thus not only controlled by the rheology of its individual constituents (bridgmanite and ferropericlase), but also by their interplay during deformation. This is particularly important when the viscosity contrast between the different minerals is large. Experimental studies have shown that ferropericlase may be significantly weaker than bridgmanite and may thus exert a strong control on lower mantle rheology.</p><p>Here, we thus explore the impact of phase morphology on the rheology of a ferropericlase-bridgmanite mixture using numerical models. We find that elongated ferropericlase structures within the bridgmanite matrix significantly lower the effective viscosity, even in cases where no interconnected network of weak ferropericlase layers has been formed. In addition to the weakening, elongated ferropericlase layers result in a strong viscous anisotropy. Both of these effects may have a strong impact on lower mantle dynamics, which makes is necessary to develop upscaling methods to include them in large-scale mantle convection models. We develop a numerical-statistial approach to link the statistical properties of a ferropericlase-bridgmanite mixture to its effective viscosity tensor. With this approach, both effects are captured by analytical approximations that have been derived to describe the evolution of the effective viscosity (and its anisotropy) of a two-phase medium with aligned elliptical inclusions, thus allowing to include these microscale processes in large-scale mantle convection models.</p>

The Strong Impact of Weak Horizontal Convergence on Continental Shallow Convection

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (9) ◽  
pp. 3119-3137
Author(s):  
Marcin J. Kurowski ◽  
Wojciech W. Grabowski ◽  
Kay Suselj ◽  
João Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Cloud Microphysics ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Shallow Convection ◽  
Liquid Water Path ◽  
Strong Response ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Benchmark Solutions

Abstract Idealized large-eddy simulation (LES) is a basic tool for studying three-dimensional turbulence in the planetary boundary layer. LES is capable of providing benchmark solutions for parameterization development efforts. However, real small-scale atmospheric flows develop in heterogeneous and transient environments with locally varying vertical motions inherent to open multiscale interactive dynamical systems. These variations are often too subtle to detect them by state-of-the-art remote and in situ measurements, and are typically excluded from idealized simulations. The present study addresses the impact of weak [i.e., O(10−6) s−1] short-lived low-level large-scale convergence/divergence perturbations on continental shallow convection. The results show a strong response of shallow nonprecipitating convection to the applied weak large-scale dynamical forcing. Evolutions of CAPE, mean liquid water path, and cloud-top heights are significantly affected by the imposed convergence/divergence. In contrast, evolving cloud-base properties, such as the area coverage and mass flux, are only weakly affected. To contrast those impacts with microphysical sensitivity, the baseline simulations are perturbed assuming different observationally based cloud droplet number concentrations and thus different rainfall. For the tested range of microphysical perturbations, the imposed convergence/divergence provides significantly larger impact than changes in the cloud microphysics. Simulation results presented here provide a stringent test for convection parameterizations, especially important for large-scale models progressing toward resolving some nonhydrostatic effects.

Glutton: large-scale integration of non-model organism transcriptome data for comparative analysis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Medlar ◽  
Laura Laakso ◽  
Andreia Miraldo ◽  
Ari Löytynoja
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Reference Species ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

AbstractHigh-throughput RNA-seq data has become ubiquitous in the study of non-model organisms, but its use in comparative analysis remains a challenge. Without a reference genome for mapping, sequence data has to be de novo assembled, producing large numbers of short, highly redundant contigs. Preparing these assemblies for comparative analyses requires the removal of redundant isoforms, assignment of orthologs and converting fragmented transcripts into gene alignments. In this article we present Glutton, a novel tool to process transcriptome assemblies for downstream evolutionary analyses. Glutton takes as input a set of fragmented, possibly erroneous transcriptome assemblies. Utilising phylogeny-aware alignment and reference data from a closely related species, it reconstructs one transcript per gene, finds orthologous sequences and produces accurate multiple alignments of coding sequences. We present a comprehensive analysis of Glutton’s performance across a wide range of divergence times between study and reference species. We demonstrate the impact choice of assembler has on both the number of alignments and the correctness of ortholog assignment and show substantial improvements over heuristic methods, without sacrificing correctness. Finally, using inference of Darwinian selection as an example of downstream analysis, we show that Glutton-processed RNA-seq data give results comparable to those obtained from full length gene sequences even with distantly related reference species. Glutton is available from http://wasabiapp.org/software/glutton/ and is licensed under the GPLv3.

Impact of Abrupt Land Cover Changes by Tropical Deforestation on Southeast Asian Climate and Agriculture

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 2587-2600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merja H. Tölle ◽  
Steven Engler ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Panitz
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Layer Structure ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Natural Mode ◽  
Land Cover Changes ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Se Asia ◽  
The Impact

Southeast Asia (SE Asia) undergoes major and rapid land cover changes as a result of agricultural expansion. Landscape conversion results in alterations to surface fluxes of moisture, heat, and momentum and sequentially impact the boundary layer structure, cloud-cover regime, and all other aspects of local and regional weather and climate occurring also in regimes remote from the original landscape disturbance. The extent and magnitude of the anthropogenic modification effect is still uncertain. This study investigates the biogeophysical effects of large-scale deforestation on monsoon regions using an idealized deforestation simulation. The simulations are performed using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM forced with ERA-Interim data during the period 1984–2004. In the deforestation experiment, grasses in SE Asia, between 20°S and 20°N, replace areas covered by trees. Using principal component analysis, it is found that abrupt conversion from forest to grassland cover leads to major climate variability in the year of disturbance, which is 1990, over SE Asia. The persistent land modification leads to a decline in evapotranspiration and precipitation and a significant warming due to reduced latent heat flux during 1990–2004. The strongest effects are seen in the lowlands of SE Asia. Daily precipitation extremes increase during the monsoon period and ENSO, differing from the result of mean precipitation changes. Maximum temperature also increases by 2°C. The impacts of land cover change are more intense than the effects of El Niño and La Niña. In addition, results show that these land clearings can amplify the impact of the natural mode ENSO, which has a strong impact on climate conditions in SE Asia. This will likely have consequences for the agricultural output.

Changes in soil properties on agricultural land with the impact of water and tillage erosion in the last 60 years

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Juřicová ◽  
Tomáš Chuman ◽  
Daniel Žížala
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Tillage Erosion

<p>The decline in soil organic carbon (SOC) is generally perceived as a major threat to the sustainability of the soil due to its key role in many productive and non - productive soil functions. The aim of this research is to assess the intensity of changes and the spatial variability of SOC and soil depth in the last 60 years. Estimation of spatial variability of soil properties was performed by using digital soil mapping. A study area is located in the chernozems area in south Moravia (Czechia). This region is traditionally intensively cultivated with the strong impact of water and tillage erosion. The study is based on the analysis of historical data that comes from the Large-scale mapping of Agricultural Soils in Czechoslovakia soil database. Our dataset contained data from 120 soil profiles. A new field investigation shows significant SOC losses on steep slopes and slope shoulders with a decrease of depth of the humic horizon. As a result, there is a gradual transformation of soil units from the former Calcic Chernosems into the Haplic Calcisols. These findings are the result of ongoing environmental changes with the strong impact of historical agricultural policy and inappropriate interference in the landscape.</p>

scholarly journals Risk Aversion and Sorting into Public Sector Employment

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Pfeifer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
German Socioeconomic Panel ◽  
Unemployment Risk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This research note uses two German datasets - the large-scale German Socioeconomic Panel and unique data from own student questionnaires - to analyse the relationship between risk aversion and the choice for public sector employment. Main results are (1) more risk-averse individuals sort into public sector employment, (2) the impact of career-specific and unemployment risk attitudes is larger than the impact of general risk attitudes and (3) risk taking is rewarded with higher wages in the private but not in the public sector.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis of income tax and tax on the shown out capital: modern realities and prospects

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-16
Author(s):  
Olena ZHAM ◽  
Yana SUKHOPER
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
The State ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
State Budget ◽  
Withholding Tax ◽  
Corporate Profits ◽  
The Impact

The paper is devoted to the characterization and analysis of income tax in Ukraine at the present stage, as well as the issue of the level of tax burden, the level of all revenues to the state budget of Ukraine and all issues and problems associated with its management. The authors also examined the prospects for reform of this tax, its transformation into a tax on the withdrawn capital in the conditions of losses for enterprises and a decrease in economic indicators in general. The paper provides a comparative analysis of these two taxes and analyzes the impact of such a reform on the economy of the whole country. Also analyzed are European models of taxation of corporate profits in order to comply with international standards of Ukraine. At the present stage, the income tax is the main tax paid by legal entities, because making a profit is the main goal of any company, and such a tax can both promote development and cause quite big problems for business. At the same time, there is a lot of discussion and controversy about the transformation of the traditional income tax by the withholding tax, taking the example of Estonia. This issue is one of the most pressing now, because the transformation of the tax will have a strong impact on the state of our economy and will allow the business sector to develop with renewed vigor fairly quickly. The subject of this study is the tax on withdrawn capital, as well as how it affects the business of our country. The question of how to ensure reform in general and the transformation of income tax into withholding tax is still controversial and is often raised in the work of various experts. The paper describes and compares these two taxes (income tax and withheld capital tax), focusing on the problems and shortcomings of both taxes and ways to improve the situation.

scholarly journals Political Leadership and Public Accountability in Post-colonial Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Inakefe Gabriel Inakef ◽  
Bassey Virtue Uduak ◽  
Mbonu Felix Ifenna
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
The Impact

In the quest for transparency and accountability in the public sector, several political administrations have initiated public sector reforms to promote accountability and transparency in Nigeria. The paper investigates the impact of political leadership on political accountability and fiscal accountability in Nigeria. It also explains why the problem of lack of accountability has thrived despite the numerous reforms which have been introduced to abate it. Anchored in a documentary/historical research design, the paper observed that the problem of lack of accountability thrives because of legal lapses, weakness of civil society organizations, political patronage and the principle of possessive individualism/primitive capital accumulation that holds the country’s elites are embroiled in. The paper recommends policy learning, adherence to the principles of the constitution and constitutionalism, civil society advocacy, and recall to engender accountability in the Nigerian public sector.

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