Does health service funding go where the need is? A prototype spatial access analysis for new urban contracts data

Background Much of spatial access research measures the proximity to health service locations. We advance this research by focusing on whether health service funding is within walkable reach of neighborhoods with high hardship. This is made possible by a new administrative data source: financial contracts data for those human services that are delivered by nonprofits under contract with the government. Methods In a prototypical spatial access study we apply a classic 2-step floating area catchment model for walkable network access to analyze 2018 data about contracted nonprofit health services funded by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). CDPH collected the data for the purpose of this study. Results We find that the common container approach of aggregating contract amounts by provider headquarter locations in a given area (ignoring satellite service sites) underestimates the share of funding that goes to Chicago neighborhoods with higher hardship. Once service sites and spatial access are taken into account, a larger share of CDPH funds was found to be within walkable reach of Chicago’s high hardship areas. This was followed by low hardship areas (which could be driven by more headquarter locations there that do serve areas throughout the city). Medium hardship areas trail both, perhaps warranting closer attention. We explore these results by program type and neighborhood with a spatial decision support system developed for the health department. Conclusions The typical approach for analyzing human service contracts based on headquarters is misleading -- in fact, we find that results are reversed when service sites and walkable access are taken into account. This prototype provides an alternative framework for avoiding these misleading results.

Zamówienia publiczne w II Rzeczypospolitej

Following Poland’s regaining of independence in 1918, the country had to face a considerable range of challenges virtually at all levels of government functioning. Rebuilding the Polish state involved major expenditure, which, on the one hand, implied raising public resources in a sustainable way, while, on the other hand, the need to prioritizeand use public funds efficiently while implementing public undertakings set by the state. The huge scale of the needs coupled with limited financial resources forced Poland’s government, as it were, to develop suitable legal arrangements in the 1930s. Those measures were designed to spend public funds on the country’s reconstruction in a manner that was efficient, purposeful, economical, and competitive. The key legal measure at that time was the Act of 15 February 1933 on Supplies and Works for the Benefit of the Treasury, Local Government and Public Law Institutions. Moreover, the relevant implementing act was Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 29 January 1937 on Supplies and Works for the Benefit of the Treasury, Local Government and Public Law Institutions. Both acts implemented innovative legal measures in terms of public-service contracts which were in force not only until the outbreak of the Second World War (they were subsequently repealed by the rules established in PRL — Polish People’s Republic), considering that they also provided a basis for the new rules governing public spending implemented after 1990 and set out in the Act of 10 June 1994, Public Procurement Law.

Services of General Interest (EU) as Indicators of Public Functions in the Sense of Public Administrative Law

The article concerns the EU concept of 'Services of General Interest' (SGIs) which, due to their characteristics, are given special status in EU law. It connects these characteristics with public services that are carried out by private entities under service contracts, as well as the question of applicability of general principles of public administrative law to the relations between the providers and users of such services. The objective is to examine whether the definitions and examples of SGIs can help identify public functions in the sense of Icelandic administrative law. It examines whether they provide guidelines as to how services, carried out by private entities under service contracts with public authorities, may be singled out and so help identify public functions in the sense of Icelandic administrative law.

Assessing the reliability of automatic sentiment analysis tools on rating the sentiment of reviews of NHS dental practices in England

Background Online reviews may act as a rich source of data to assess the quality of dental practices. Assessing the content and sentiment of reviews on a large scale is time consuming and expensive. Automation of the process of assigning sentiment to big data samples of reviews may allow for reviews to be used as Patient Reported Experience Measures for primary care dentistry. Aim To assess the reliability of three different online sentiment analysis tools (Amazon Comprehend DetectSentiment API (ACDAPI), Google and Monkeylearn) at assessing the sentiment of reviews of dental practices working on National Health Service contracts in the United Kingdom. Methods A Python 3 script was used to mine 15800 reviews from 4803 unique dental practices on the NHS.uk websites between April 2018 –March 2019. A random sample of 270 reviews were rated by the three sentiment analysis tools. These reviews were rated by 3 blinded independent human reviewers and a pooled sentiment score was assigned. Kappa statistics and polychoric evalutaiton were used to assess the level of agreement. Disagreements between the automated and human reviewers were qualitatively assessed. Results There was good agreement between the sentiment assigned to reviews by the human reviews and ACDAPI (k = 0.660). The Google (k = 0.706) and Monkeylearn (k = 0.728) showed slightly better agreement at the expense of usability on a massive dataset. There were 33 disagreements in rating between ACDAPI and human reviewers, of which n = 16 were due to syntax errors, n = 10 were due to misappropriation of the strength of conflicting emotions and n = 7 were due to a lack of overtly emotive language in the text. Conclusions There is good agreement between the sentiment of an online review assigned by a group of humans and by cloud-based sentiment analysis. This may allow the use of automated sentiment analysis for quality assessment of dental service provision in the NHS.

EL ABUSO EN EL NOMBRAMIENTO DE PERSONAL FUNCIONARIO INTERINO Y SU ESTABILIZACIÓN EN LA ADMINISTRACIÓN. PROPUESTAS PARA UN DEBATE.

Este estudio pretende aportar algunas ideas para contribuir a un debate más sereno sobre el abuso en el nombramiento de personal funcionario interino y su sanción a través de los llamados procesos de estabilización. El análisis resulta muy oportuno en este momento, pues se está tramitando un proyecto de ley en las Cortes que proviene del Real Decreto-ley 14/2021, de 6 de julio, de medidas urgentes para la reducción de la temporalidad en el empleo público. Algunos grupos parlamentarios han solicitado expresamente la conversión automática del personal funcionario interino afectado en personal funcionario de carrera o la creación de una nueva categoría de empleado público fijo ¿a extinguir¿. Otros han propuesto su directa estabilización mediante un concurso o mediante la realización de un concurso-oposición, sin que los ejercicios de la fase de oposición tengan carácter eliminatorio. En este análisis se parte de una visión centrada especialmente en lo público, que resalta la necesidad de que las soluciones que finalmente se adopten para proteger al funcionario interino ¿abusado¿ sean también respetuosas con la especial naturaleza pública del empleador, con los principios constitucionales rectores del acceso al empleo público y con las potestades organizatorias y de planificación de las Administraciones Públicas. Azterlan honek ideia batzuk eman nahi ditu, lasaiago eztabaidatu daitezen bitarteko funtzionarioen izendapenean izandako gehiegikeria eta hori saihesteko eta, hala badagokio, zehatzeko neurriak. Azterketa oso egokia da une honetan, enplegu publikoan behin-behinekotasuna murrizteko premiazko neurriei buruzko uztailaren 6ko 14/2021 Errege Lege Dekretutik datorren lege-proiektu bat izapidetzen ari baitira Gorteetan. Legebiltzarreko talde batzuek berariaz eskatu dute tartean dauden bitarteko funtzionarioak karrerako funtzionario bihurtzea automatikoki, edo «iraungi» beharreko enplegatu publiko finkoaren kategoria berri bat sortzea. Beste batzuek lehiaketa baten bidez edo oposizio-lehiaketa baten bidez zuzenean egonkortzea proposatu dute, oposizio-faseko ariketak baztertzaileak izan gabe.Azterketa horretan, bereziki arlo publikoan oinarritutako ikuspegi batetik abiatzen da, eta azpimarratzen du beharrezkoa dela bitartekoa babesteko azkenean hartzen diren konponbideek enplegatzailearen izaera publiko berezia, enplegu publikoa lortzeko printzipio konstituzionalak eta administrazio publikoen antolaketa- eta plangintza-ahalak errespetatzea. This study aims to offer a number of ideas contributing to a more measured debate as to abuse in the appointment of interim civil servants, and measures to avoid and, where applicable, to penalise this practice. This is now a particularly timely analysis, as the Spanish Parliament is currently considering a bill derived from Royal Decree-Law 14/2021, of 6 July 2021, on urgent measures to reduce the use of temporary contracts in public employment. A number of parliamentary groupings have explicitly called for the interim staff affected to be automatically given permanent civil service contracts, or otherwise for the creation of a new category of permanent public employee "to be extinguished". Others have proposed their direct stabilization by means of a competition (exceptional system in which merits like job experience are assessed) or by means of a competition-examination (competitive tests and merit assessment), with non-eliminatory tests in the examination phase.This analysis is based on a perspective focused in particular on the public sector, highlighting the need that any solutions that might ultimately be adopted to protect interim staff, likewise respect the specific public nature of the employer, with the constitutional principles which govern access to public employment, and the organisational and planning powers of public administration bodies.

Carillion: building on shaky ground

Research methodology The case uses Carillion plc, a company which focussed on providing maintenance, facilities management and energy services to buildings and large property estates, in public and private sectors; infrastructure services for roads, railways and utility networks, with contracts including road and hospital construction and many strategic service contracts, e.g. free school meals. The case uses financial analysis techniques to explore whether the failure was foreseeable and questions the extent to which existing international financial reporting standards support or inhibit the decision usefulness they aspire to. The case uses only publicly available information. Complexity academic level This case can be used in undergraduate financial reporting and current issues in accounting courses/modules at the postgraduate level.

Smart Metering and Scheduling of Electrical Loads of Buildings

The article analyzes global trends in the development of smart metering and energy planning in buildings, the development and implementation of intelligent energy monitoring to collect and analyze data on energy consumption for management to improve energy efficiency, it considers the implementation of infrastructure for advanced smart metering smart home using NILM-technology non-intrusive load monitoring. It is shown that equipping buildings of various purposes in a smart city with real-time energy accounting systems with smart meters generates a new approach to improving the energy efficiency of buildings and contributes to the successful implementation of energy service contracts and energy management systems in them.

Alternative To Development of Tourist Attraction with Public Private Partnership Scheme in Magelang Regency

This study aims to see how the condition of the object/Tourist Attraction (TA) in Magelang Regency in Indonesia and its alternative development. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach with case studies of 31 tourism objects which will then be investigated regarding their conditions and possible future developments. Research data were obtained by direct observation of the location of tourist objects and through semi-structured interviews. The results of this study illustrate that tourism objects in Magelang Regency are currently quite developed. However, this has not been able to attract general tourists to linger in the regency and provided an optimal contribution to regional income. This is because tourism objects in the regency other than Borobudur Temple have not been maximized for their existence and utilization. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme model can be an alternative to be applied in developing tourism objects accompanied by an appropriate Value for Money (VfM) analysis. Tourism objects in the form of cultural heritage can be developed through concession contracts, natural beauty can be developed through management contracts, and artificial objects can be developed through service contracts while taking into account the development needs of each tourism object. Local governments need to establish cooperation with the private sector with a Public-Private Partnership scheme accompanied by the preparation of strict regulations so that the implementation of cooperation in the context of developing tourism objects in the Magelang Regency can bring optimal benefits to all parties.

The New Investment Cycle: Current Finance Mechanisms of Power Engineering Development

The article provides the analysis of current finance mechanisms of developing power systems in the context of acute necessity to start a new investment cycle. It draws a conclusion that state policy in the field of power engineering cannot foster the development of such mechanisms of its financing as state subsidies on purchase and installation of equipment, contracts on buying electricity and power-service contracts. The analysis of extra opportunities of raising investment showed expediency of developing green mechanisms of financing power engineering in Russia and motivating power companies to conduct IPO. The authors put forward recommendations aimed at attaining the acute objective to develop and implement key initiatives promoting the start of a new investment cycle in order to raise funds for modernizing the existing power projects and opening new ones in accordance with higher ecological requirements. For example, to stimulate the growth of Russian companies' IPO and realize the investment potential of the Russian stock market the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economic Development study the possibility to introduce new tax preferences for investors and companies entering the market, which could ensure institutional support for investors and issuers.