bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Incorporating caregiver and family effects in economic evaluations of child health
Authors: Brouwer Werner B.F. , van Exel N. Job A. , Tilford J. Mick
Published: February 2010

Patients are not isolated individuals, but have friends and families who care about them and, often, care for them. This is especially true for children. Parents' well-being and quality of life is likely to be affected by the illness of their child, especially when the illness is severe, even if they do not provide informal care. This chapter deals with the inclusion of the costs and effects on caregivers and other family members in economic evaluations, with a focus on informal care. Key topics are illustrated using data from previous studies. In the first part of the chapter, the burden of providing informal care to children and its valuation for economic evaluations is described. Next, attention is turned to family effects. Finally, recommendations and conclusions are provided for incorporating caregiver and family effects in economic evaluations of child health.
Economic evaluations of newborn screening
Authors: Grosse Scott D.
Published: February 2010

Screening for metabolic, endocrine, and other diseases in newborns is performed through the laboratory analysis of dried blood spot specimens. This chapter reviews economic evaluations of newborn dried blood spot screening strategies published during 2002-07, focusing on the cost-effectiveness of screening for cystic fibrosis, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD). The use of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to detect MCADD is presented in detail, through examinations of the costs of screening and medical management, and of outcomes, including quality-adjusted life year (QALY) measurement, disability, and mortality. Ways to generate higher quality evidence are presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the use of economic evaluations to inform newborn screening policies.
Health technology assessment in child health
Authors: Costa Vania , Ungar Wendy J.
Published: February 2010

The generation of high quality evidence, while a necessary condition for informed allocation decision-making, is not sufficient. Health technology assessment (HTA) is a discipline which considers not only the production of high quality health economic evidence, but also the consumption of that evidence by decision and policy makers. The first half of the chapter begins with a definition of HTA and explains how health technology assessment is conducted globally, describes who produces and uses health technology assessment, and takes a look at international health technology assessment organizations and networks. In the second half, the challenges associated with HTA in child health are described and results comparing the number and type of HTAs in children and adults are presented. The chapter ends with a discussion of the value of health technology assessment in health policy decision-making.
Introduction
Authors: Fodor Jerry A.
Published: February 2010

This introductory chapter begins with the author's evaluation of his book The Language of Thought (LOT 1). It contends that the language-of-thought hypothesis endorsed in LOT 1 was not just any old hyper-realism about the mental; it was, in particular, a species of representational theory of mind. It further says that the nearest approximation to the view of cognition that LOT 1 had in mind was perhaps the sort of computationalism that was pervasive in artificial intelligence (AI). Cognitive science did not, as it turned out, develop in the way that LOT 1 thought it would. Rather, the mainstream view, not just in AI but in philosophy and cognitive psychology, is now a kind of pragmatism: what is essential to thought is not its relation to the things in the world that it represents, but its relations to the actions (the ‘behaviours’) that it guides.
Preconceptual Representation
Authors: Fodor Jerry A.
Published: February 2010

This chapter argues that at least some of the mental representations that are causally implicated in the formation of perceptual beliefs are indeed non-conceptual. The line of argument offered goes like this: on the one hand, it is (empirically) plausible that at least some of these representations are ‘iconic’ (rather than ‘discursive’); and, on the other hand, it is in the nature of iconic representations not to be conceptual.
The Metaphysics of Reference
Authors: Fodor Jerry A.
Published: February 2010

Only matter has causal powers. The underlying metaphysical intuition is perhaps clear enough to be getting on with: whatever enters into causal interactions is constituted of the sort of stuff that basic physics is about. Call that the ‘physicalist’ thesis (PT). This chapter argues that PT functions as an a priori methodological constraint on scientific practice; ‘a priori’ in the sense that any theory that fails to conform to PT to that extent counts as disconfirmed. This applies to intentional psychology inter alia: only matter can think. It also discusses what philosophers call the ‘naturalization’ of intentional psychology.
The process of health care innovation: problem sequences, systems, and symbiosis
Authors: Consoli Davide , McMeekin Andrew , Metcalfe J. Stan , Mina Andrea , Ramlogan Ronnie
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines the role of process in innovation. It analyses an interesting evolutionary perspective and presents empirical evidence from an example of the intra-ocular lens and the treatment of glaucoma. It focuses on systems of innovation, arguing that generation and delivery of new medical practices is dependent on the creation of sophisticated innovation systems that rely on the specialization, diversification, and co-ordination of activities that are complementary to health care institutions.
Treatment uncertainty and irreversibility in medical care: implications for cost-effectiveness analysis
Authors: Zivin Joshua Graff , Neidell Matthew , Feldman Lauri
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses the introduction of uncertainty and irreversibility in cost-effectiveness analysis to determine optimal funding and resource allocation for medical technologies, research, and treatment. It is essential to use a valuation model that considers the uncertain arrivals of future diseases and the varying degrees of effectiveness with which they can be treated. Irreversibility raises the value of the option-preserving treatment. The existence of an option value — that value above and beyond the direct value of treatment for the current condition — means that a treatment that is inferior to an alternative for its indicated use may be the superior choice when lifetime welfare is considered. Optimal decision-making requires a careful comparison of the ‘costs’ of a less effective treatment for a condition today with the ‘benefits’ of more effective treatments for conditions in the future. The size of the option value and thus the degree to which valuations that ignore it are miscalculated, depends critically on the relative effectiveness of treatments, the likelihood of diseases arriving in the future, the extent to which current interventions limit the ability to treat these future conditions, and the relevant discount rate.
Home or nursing home? The effect of medical innovation on the demand for long-term care
Authors: Lichtenberg Frank R.
Published: February 2010

This chapter tests the hypothesis that medical innovation has reduced the age-adjusted nursing home residence rate, and estimates the contribution of medical innovation to the decline in the rate of nursing home residence during the period 1985–1999. It investigates the effects of four types of medical innovation: drug innovation, and innovation in three types of procedures (therapeutic and preventive, diagnostic, and laboratory procedures).
Institutional pathways for integrating genetic testing into mainstream health care
Authors: Petkova Hristina
Published: February 2010

This chapter considers how new knowledge generated by advances in science can be assimilated into public health care systems, allowing quicker integration of new technology into routine care. An example is drawn from maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) study applied to two very different health care systems: Germany and the UK. The chapter shows that differences in the organization, funding, and delivery of care generally can affect genetic innovation. The degree of institutional take-up of testing for MODY as a single gene disorder with highly differential diagnosis and established clinical implications for alternative treatment shows strong association with the general pattern of the health care structures. The implementation trajectories for MODY diagnosis in the two countries diverge at several points, from research expertise and pattern of provision, to diffusion channels in mainstream service.
Critical phenomena and scaling theory
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter presents the phenomenological description of critical phenomena. It derives inequalities for critical exponents which follow from thermodynamics. It explains the scaling theory of critical phenomena of Ising-like systems, it gives scaling for Heisenberg-like systems, and introduces the concept of universality.
High temperature expansions for magnets at H = 0
Authors: McCoy Barry M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter presents the results of high temperature series expansions for classical n component spin models with nearest neighbor interactions for two and three dimensions. In dimension three this data is used to estimate critical exponents. In dimension two the three-component model exhibits what in field theory is called ‘asymptotic freedom’ where the critical temperature is at T = 0. The corresponding analysis is done for the quantum Heisenberg model and universality with respect to the quantum spin is evaluated. A discussion of the relation between statistical mechanics and quantum field theory is given.
6 A Health Capability Account of Equal Access
Authors: Ruger Jennifer Prah
Published: February 2010

This chapter evaluates health care's impact on individuals' health capability and addresses what equal access, quality and a right to health and health care mean for health system development. Along the political spectrum, access is variously viewed as a negative right (preventing access is wrong), a right to a decent minimum of care, or government‐guaranteed equal access to health. The chapter proposes recasting equal access to ensure social conditions that offer all individuals the capability for health. The health capability paradigm evaluates the justness of health care services by their effectiveness in enhancing health capability and bringing individuals as close to a level of optimal health functioning as circumstances permit. This is gauged by assessing individual health needs, health agency and health norms. The paradigm is needs‐based, requiring that health care be medically necessary and medically appropriate. It also provides justification for high‐quality care, and considers how health norms and risk determine health agency. It critically examines notions of proportionality, and horizontal and vertical equity. Finally, it addresses concerns about responsibility and health and the comparison between voluntary and involuntary risk and offers analysis of the fit between the health capability paradigm and public policies that invoke paternalism and libertarian paternalism.
2 Widespread Engagement
Authors: Casarini Nicola
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines the policy of widespread engagement adopted by the two sides in the post‐Cold War era. It shows that since the mid‐1990s, the EU and its member states have adopted a firm policy of engagement with China, while Chinese leaders would come to prioritize the enhancement of relations with Europe. A new discourse on economic security emerged in both Europe and China at the beginning of the 1990s would provide the intellectual underpinning for the development of EU—China relations. This chapter explains how this securitization discourse would tie the protection of the EU's economic security and socio‐economic welfare position with China's steady and sustainable development. At the same time, it is explained how the emergence of new notions of economic security would lead Chinese policy makers to make a linkage between the enhancement of economic and technological relations with Europe and China's modernization and comprehensive national power.
9 Back to the Future
Authors: Casarini Nicola
Published: February 2010

The last chapter begins by examining the emergence of negative perceptions about China among European public opinions in the last years, explaining how these dynamics, along with changes at the top political level both in the European Commission and within member states, would lead to a reassessment of the EU's China policy. This chapter subsequently analyses the last major blow to EU—China relations occurred in July 2008 with the decision to exclude Chinese contractors from the second phase of implementation of Galileo. With this move, the EU would put a temporary halt to satellite navigation cooperation with China and pave the way for a political readjustment of relations between the two sides. This would lend itself, in the remaining part of this chapter, to a final evaluation of the current state of EU—China relations and its future prospects.
Information theory
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines the concept of information and relates it to thermodynamic entropy. It illustrates the deep connection between these two concepts. It begins by formulating one definition of information.
The chemical potential
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter extends the results on partition functions to systems in which the number of particles can vary. This allows the definition of the chemical potential and introduces the grand partition function.
Brownian motion and fluctuations
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines how fluctuations can be studied in thermodynamics and lead to effects such as Brownian motion. It considers the linear response of a system to a generalized force and derives the fluctuation-dissipation theorem.
Compact objects
Authors: Blundell Stephen J. , Blundell Katherine M.
Published: February 2010

When a star is near the end of its lifetime, and all of its fuel is used up, there is no longer enough outwards pressure due to radiation to resist the inwards pull of gravity and the star starts to collapse again. However, there is another source of internal pressure. The electrons inside a star, being fermions, are subject to the Pauli exclusion principle and take unkindly to being squashed into a small space. They produce an outwards electron degeneracy pressure which is calculated in the first section of the chapter. This concept leads to white dwarfs and, for the case of neutron degeneracy pressure, neutron stars. More massive stars can turn into black holes . The chapter considers how mass can accrete onto such objects and the entropy of a black hole.
Consumer Perceptions of the Risks and Benefits Associated With Food Hazards
Authors: Frewer Lynn , van Dijk Heleen , Fischer Arnout
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses both behavioural changes and consumer responses to public health information, and consumer perceptions of risk and benefit associated with specific food choices. These are illustrated using case studies in the following sections.
Risk Communication and Pandemic Influenza
Authors: Petts Judith , Draper Heather , Ives Jonathan , Damery Sarah
Published: February 2010

This chapter examines a risk scenario that could form one of the most significant communication challenges both nationally and globally: an influenza pandemic. A pandemic occurs when a new influenza strain emerges and spreads rapidly because people have no natural resistance to it. Drawing upon the evidence gathered from healthcare workers — who might plausibly have an enhanced understanding of the potential risks — the chapter considers how information and knowledge might be exchanged amongst the wider public. This should help in understanding how risk communication efforts might most effectively engage with people, before (as well as during) an outbreak. Before outlining this evidence, the characteristics of pandemic influenza that may impact on people's understanding, information needs, and response are summarized.
Contesting the Science: Public Health Knowledge and Action in Controversial Land-Use Developments
Authors: Elliott Eva , Harrop Emily , Williams Gareth H.
Published: February 2010

This chapter explores two different forms of public protest against land developments that were considered by local people to threaten public health. They diverged in terms of their means of struggle and in the different opportunity structures open to them. In the first example, a protest group, known as ‘Rhondda Against Nanty-y-Gwyddon Tip’ or RANT, came to pursue an oppositional course in their struggle to close and make safe a local landfill site. In the second, local residents used the process of a health impact assessment (HIA), through a university-based HIA support unit and the national public health service for Wales, to present evidence on possible risks to public health in an appeal against an application to extend an opencast mine.
Absolutism in Renaissance Milan
Authors: Black Jane
Published: February 2010

This volume charts the rise and decline of absolutism in Milan from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. The study shows how authority above the law, once the preserve of pope and emperor, was claimed by the ruling Milanese dynasties, the Visconti and the Sforza, and why this privilege was finally abandoned by Francesco II Sforza (d. 1535), the last duke. As new rulers, the Visconti and the Sforza had had to impose their regime by rewarding supporters at the expense of opponents. That process required absolute power (also known as plenitude of power), meaning the capacity to laws and the rights of subjects, including titles to property. The basis for such power reflected the changing status of Milanese rulers, first as signori and then as dukes. Contemporary lawyers were at first prepared to overturn established doctrines in support of the free use of absolute power: even Baldo degli Ubaldi accepted the latest teaching. But eventually lawyers regretted the new approach, reasserting the traditional principle that laws could not be set aside without compelling justification. The Visconti and the Sforza also saw the dangers of absolute power: as legitimate princes they were meant to champion law and justice, not condone arbitrary acts that disregarded basic rights. Black traces the application of plenitude of power in day‐to‐day government, and demonstrates how the rulers of Milan kept pace with the initial acceptance and subsequent rejection by lawyers of the concept of absolute power.
A Mechanism with a Bright Future: Joint Implementation
Authors: Hoogzaad Jelmer , Streck Charlotte
Published: February 2010

Although the term Joint Implementation itself is not mentioned anywhere in the Kyoto Protocol, Article 6 of the Protocol establishes the basis for what has become known as ‘Joint Implementation’ (JI). Jointly with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), JI belongs to the project-based flexible mechanisms defined by the Kyoto Protocol. JI involves the transfer of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) between Annex I parties that have been generated by projects developed by Parties to the Protocol or authorized legal entities. This chapter first describes the current state of play for JI, explaining the procedural requirements for a successful participation in JI, including providing insights into the so-called Track 1 JI, a modality of the JI mechanism that is often overlooked due to its national rather than global character. Next, the claim that that JI has to accept a life as a wallflower compared to the more glamorous CDM is examined and argued to be untrue. Finally, the post-2012 future of JI is discussed, elaborating upon options for JI reform as well as proposals to introduce new elements to expand the mechanisms' sectoral coverage.
Interpreting the Additionality of CDM Projects: Changes in Additionality Definitions and Regulatory Practices over Time
Authors: Axel Michaelowa
Published: February 2010

The concept of the ‘additionality’ of the emission reduction achieved by a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project lies at the heart of the CDM rules. The essential idea underlying the concept of additionality is that the emissions reductions of a CDM project would not have happened under ‘business-as-usual’. This chapter considers how the concept of additionality has evolved over time both in its theoretical definition and its actual implementation regarding registration of CDM projects. It starts with a discussion of the inability of the negotiators of the Kyoto Protocol and the Marrakech Accords to agree on an operational definition of additionality. The unexpected effort of the CDM Executive Board to introduce principles of additionality testing and the development of the consolidated additionality tool are discussed in section 3. Recent developments that allow the use of benchmarks and default discount factors to take into account non-additional projects, instead of using the additionality tool, are assessed in section 4. Section 5 describes how projects have been reviewed and rejected over time, with the CDM Executive Board (EB) developing ‘fashions’ of rejecting certain project types without prior warning. The fate of cement blending and waste heat recovery projects is assessed in detail. Given this situation, several proposals for reform of additionality testing have been made, which are dealt with in section 6. Section 7 discusses what would happen if additionality testing was scrapped. Section 8 summarizes the lessons of five years of additionality determination of CDM projects.
Carbon Contracting
Authors: Wilder Martijn , Fitz-Gerald Louisa
Published: February 2010

There are several types of carbon credits under the international, regional and national emissions trading schemes, and as to be expected, there are many different approaches to contacting for the sale and purchase of these assets. This chapter provides an overview of some of the options for contracting for carbon by focusing on the following: a history of carbon contracting approaches; the key issues involved in carbon contracting; some recent contracting issues; and some approaches to the structuring of financing arrangements for carbon projects.
The Secondary Market for Emissions Trading: Balancing Market Design and Market Based Transaction Norms
Authors: Hedges Andrew
Published: February 2010

The EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is a leading example of how to strike a balance between the necessity for a sufficiently certain market design to underpin its growth and the critically important need to allow private sector mechanisms to emerge and evolve. Section 1 of this chapter considers the design elements of the EU ETS that provide market participants with the certainty necessary to underpin their participation, with a particular emphasis on the reforms to be implemented from 2013. Section 2 then considers the market mechanisms and norms that have been developed or applied to provide those participants with the confidence that key risks are addressed. Section 3 looks at some of the issues that arise in the context of the interplay between secondary markets such as the EU ETS and the primary markets where emission reduction credits under the flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol are generated. Examples of new types of transactions will be used to demonstrate the innovation that such interaction drives.
Canada’s Experience in Emissions Trading and Related Legal Issues
Authors: Taylor Gray E , Barrett Michael R
Published: February 2010

This chapter provides an analysis of current and proposed Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) regimes and issues. Section 2 addresses the national government's proposed GHG emission reduction plan. Section 3 reviews some of the more significant implemented and proposed provincial governments' GHG emission reduction plans. Section 4 discusses issues of significance to Canadian GHG emissions reduction policies, such as trade and trade law considerations and potentially inconsistent US and Canadian GHG emission reduction policies.
International Market Solutions to Protect Tropical Rainforests
Authors: O’Sullivan Robert , Saines Rick
Published: February 2010

Tropical forests play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and have consequently moved to the forefront of the discussion about how to effectively reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigate climate change. At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bali in December 2007, governments from around the world agreed to consider, over the next two years, ‘policy approaches and positive incentives’ for reducing emissions from tropical deforestation that might become part of an agreement that would follow on after the current commitments under the Kyoto Protocol expire. UNFCCC member states are currently undertaking a work program to consider different policy approaches to address emissions from tropical deforestation in the post-2012 agreement, to be finalized at COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009. One of the policy options under consideration is a mechanism that would create positive incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). This chapter provides background on international forest carbon policies, making the case that market-based mechanisms are the most appropriate ways to provide the bulk of finance needed to address REDD. In this context it assesses challenges related to REDD and the recognition of credits for REDD in global carbon markets.
Carbon Leakage from Unilateral Environmental Tax Reforms in Europe, 1995–2005
Authors: Barker Terry , Junankar Sudhir , Pollitt Hector , Summerton Philip
Published: February 2010

This chapter assesses the macroeconomic effects of carbon‐energy taxation introduced under unilateral environmental tax reform (ETR) in the 1990s undertaken in six member states of the European Union: Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. The effects are estimated using the large‐scale Energy–Environment–Economy (E3) model for Europe, E3ME, which covers the countries involved as well as the complete single market, so that the effects on other economies can be considered, along with any effects on competitiveness. The method is to identify the key characteristics of the green tax reform packages and include these in the modelling of the price and non‐price effects of the ETR on energy use and international trade in E3ME. The effects are then compared with a ‘reference case’ (i.e. a counterfactual case) generated by E3ME over the period 1995–2012, including current and expected developments in the EU economy, e.g. the impact of the EU Emission Trading Scheme, but without the ETR. The revenue recycling meant that the cost of ETR to the economy was significantly reduced and in several cases resulted in an increase in GDP. The method for revenue recycling strongly affects the results, as does the scale of exemptions offered to certain fuel user groups.
Structural focus and exhaustivity
Authors: Kiss Katalin É.
Published: February 2010

In chapter 4 ‘Structural focus and exhaustivity’, Katalin É. Kiss claims that the structural focus of the Hungarian sentence, occupying Spec,FocP, and structural focus (e.g. the English cleft), in general, encodes the feature [+exhaustive]. After reviewing the standard arguments for the exhaustivity of structural focus, a new argument against it, proposed by Wedgwood (2005), is examined, and is shown to be based on a false premise. Finally, a new type of evidence is presented. It is argued (following van Kuppevelt (1996), and Wedgwood (2005)) that the ‘exactly n’ reading of a focussed numeral (as opposed to its basic, ‘at least n’ meaning) is a manifestation of its exhaustivity. It is shown that the ‘exactly n’ meaning of focussed numerals is grammaticalized in Hungarian; it is associated with the preverbal focus position, causing obligatory focus movement in the case of certain types of scalar elements, and predictable, structurally determined meaning differences in the case of others.
Investigating effects of structural and information‐structural factors on pronoun resolution
Authors: Kaiser Elsi
Published: February 2010

In chapter 14 ‘Investigating effects of structural and information‐structural factors on pronoun resolution’, Elsi Kaiser presents a sentence‐completion experiment that explores two questions related to reference resolution: (i) How do information‐structural factors and syntactic factors interact to guide reference resolution? (ii) Is the interpretation of a sentence‐initial pronoun connected to the presence/absence of other referential forms later in the same sentence? The results indicate that a subject‐position pronoun prefers the subject of the preceding sentence, regardless of whether the subject is discourse‐old and pronominalized or discourse‐new and contrastively focused. Moreover, a pronoun referring to the preceding subject is more likely to be followed by a subsequent mention of the preceding object than a pronoun referring to the preceding object is to be followed by a mention of the preceding subject. This suggests that if a less‐salient referent (object) is upgraded by being interpreted as the antecedent of a subject‐position pronoun, subsequent mention of the higher‐salience referent (subject) in the same clause is avoided. Put together, the results suggest that subjecthood is important both when looking back at preceding discourse and when looking forward to subsequent discourse.
Chapter 5 Chartering Europe
Authors: Eriksen Erik O.
Published: February 2010

The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights is a means to secure the interests and the diverse values of the citizens of Europe. It denotes the EU as a union of citizens and not merely as a common market. It has been argued that rights are detrimental to social integration since the granting of individuals legal rights has atomistic—disintegrative—consequences. However, human rights are not merely abstract principles which, when positivated, secure negative freedom. When they are constitutionalized and turned into fundamental rights they contain a guarantee for equal freedom of all citizens. A charter of fundamental rights is needed to enhance the legal certainty of citizens, reduce arbitrariness, and to institutionalize the right to justification. However, as the principle of popular sovereignty points to a particular society, and human rights point to an ideal republic, only with a cosmopolitan order—democracy at a supranational level—can human rights be properly institutionalized.
Chapter 6 The Cosmopolitan Dimension
Authors: Eriksen Erik O.
Published: February 2010

The parameters of power politics have changed in Europe, and the EU exports the rule of law, democracy, and human rights worldwide. The threat of force is needed to ensure equal rights for all but can only find justification when used to protect human rights. Hence the defining feature of a legitimate polity cannot be the absence of military force. The criterion for judging the polity's normative quality should rather be derived from cosmopolitanism, that is, whether it subjects its actions to the constraints of a higher‐ranking law. This chapter establishes this criterion, its theoretical and institutional underpinnings, and provisionally assesses whether the EU in fact complies with it.
The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems
Authors: Anderson Gary
Published: February 2010

People covered by public pensions are often the subject of ‘pension envy’, that is, their benefits might seem more generous and their contributions lower than those offered by the private sector. Yet this book points out that such judgments are often inaccurate, since civil servants hold jobs with few counterparts in private industry, such as firefighters, police, judges, and teachers. Often these are riskier, dirtier, and demand more loyalty and discretion than would be required of a more mobile labour force in the private sector. The debate challenges traditional ideas about how the public employee labour contract is structured and raises questions about how such employees are attracted to the public sector, retained and motivated on the job, and retired, via an entire compensation package of wages and benefits. This book explores aspects of these schemes, addressing the cost and valuation debate, along with the political economy of how public pension asset pools are perceived and managed. The discussion also explores ways that public pensions can be strengthened in the US, Japan, Canada, and Germany.
Chapter 4 Between Scylla and Charybdis: Improving the Cost Effectiveness of Public Pension Retirement Plans
Authors: Waring M. Barton
Published: February 2010

Unless defined benefit pension plans are managed much better and more cost-effectively, they will be replaced by defined contribution plans. Benefit and contribution policies need to be carefully evaluated to make sure that a reasonable level of ongoing contributions, together with investment income, are adequate to fund the defined benefit plan without unpleasant surprises. Unless valuation and contribution conventions change to market-valued economically based quantities, decision makers will lack the right information with which to make informed policy decisions.
Chapter 8 Thinking about Funding Federal Retirement Plans
Authors: Hustead Toni
Published: February 2010

Most US federal retirement plans are now fully funded, but since plan assets must legally be invested in federal securities, fund surpluses are used to reduce overall federal budget deficits. As a result, current taxpayers are not charged with the cost of future federal retirement obligations. Nevertheless, federal rules do require the employing federal agency to budget for current personnel’s accruing liability of retirement promises. Therefore, policy decisions regarding the number of federal civilian and military personnel and the design of their retirement benefits may be made with a better understanding of the costs.
Chapter 12 Redefining Traditional Plans: Variations and Developments in Public Employee Retirement Plan Design
Authors: Brainard Keith
Published: February 2010

Retiree benefits for US employees of state and local governments have been traditionally paid via defined benefit (DB) plans, but this arrangement has been neither monolithic nor static. This chapter provides examples of variants on the traditional DB model and presents recent developments in retirement benefits for public employees, focusing on the incorporation of DC plan elements into or alongside DB plan structures.
Chapter 13 Defined Contribution Pension Plans in the Public Sector: A Benchmark Analysis
Authors: Crane Roderick B. , Heller Michael , Yakoboski Paul J.
Published: February 2010

This chapter assesses best-practice benchmarks for the design of defined contribution plans in the public sector, where such plans are the primary, or core, employment-based retirement benefit. These benchmarks rely on the notion that providing an adequate and secure retirement income for participants is the primary plan objective.
Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology
Authors: Cheng Ta-Pei
Published: February 2010

Einstein's general theory of relativity is introduced in this advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level textbook. Topics include special relativity, the principle of equivalence, Riemannian geometry and tensor analysis, Einstein field equation, as well as many modern cosmological subjects: from primordial inflation, cosmic microwave anisotropy to the dark energy that propels an accelerating universe. The subjects are presented with an emphasis on physical examples and simple applications. One first learns how to describe curved spacetime. At this mathematically more accessible level, the reader can already study the many interesting phenomena such as gravitational lensing, black holes, and cosmology. The full tensor formulation is presented later, when the Einstein equation is solved for a few symmetric cases. Mathematical accessibility, together with the various pedagogical devices (e.g., worked-out solutions of chapter-end problems), make it practical for interested readers to use the book to study general relativity and cosmology on their own. In this new edition of the book, presentations on special relativity and black holes are augmented by new chapters. Other parts of the book are updated to include new observation tests of general relativity (e.g., the double pular system) and more recent evidence for dark matter and dark energy.
The principle of equivalence
Authors: Cheng Ta-Pei
Published: February 2010

After a review of the Newtonian theory of gravitation in terms of its potential function, we start the study of general relativity (GR) with the introduction of the equivalence principle (EP). The Weak EP (the equality of the gravitational and inertial masses) is extended by Einstein to the Strong EP, the equivalence between inertia and gravitation for all interactions. This implies the existence of “local inertial frames” at every spacetime point. In a sufficiently small region, the “local inertial observer” will not sense any gravity effect. The equivalence of acceleration and gravity means that GR (physics laws valid in all coordinate systems, including accelerating frames) must necessarily be a theory of gravitation. The strong EP is used to deduce the results of gravitational redshift and time dilation, as well as gravitational bending of a light ray.
Metric description of a curved space
Authors: Cheng Ta-Pei
Published: February 2010

Einstein's new theory of gravitation is formulated in a geometric framework of curved spacetime. Here the subject of non-Euclidean geometry is introduced by way of Gauss's theory of curved surfaces. Generalized (Gaussian) coordinates: A systematic way to label points in space without reference to any objects outside this space. Metric function: For a given coordinate choice, the metric determines the intrinsic geometric properties of a curved space. Geodesic equation: It describes the shortest and the straightest possible curve in a warped space and is expressed in terms of the metric function. Curvature: It is a nonlinear second derivative of the metric. As the deviation from Euclidean relations is proportional to the curvature, it measures how much the space is warped.
The expanding universe and thermal relics
Authors: Cheng Ta-Pei
Published: February 2010

The dynamics of a changing universe are determined by Friedmann equations, which have simple quasi-Newtonian interpretations. The universe began hot and dense (the big bang), and thereafter expanded and cooled. The early universe had undergone a series of thermal equilibriums (e.g., neutrino decoupling). The observed abundance of the light nuclear elements (helium, deuterium, etc.) match well with their being the product of the big bang nucleosynthesis. When the universe was 360,000 years old, photons decoupled, and they remain today as the primordial light having a blackbody spectrum with temperature T=2.725K. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is not perfectly uniform. The higher multipoles contain much information about the geometry, matter/energy content of the universe, as well as the initial density perturbation out of which grew the cosmic structure we see today.
Linearized theory and gravitational waves
Authors: Cheng Ta-Pei
Published: February 2010

In the weak-field limit Einstein's equation can be linearized and it takes on form of the familiar wave equation. Gravitational waves may be viewed as ripples of curvature propagating in a background of flat spacetime. The strategy of detecting such tidal forces by a gravitational wave interferometer is outlined. The rate of energy loss due to the quadrupole radiation by a circulating binary system is calculated, and found in excellent agreement with the observed orbit decay rate of the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar.
Accountability to whom?
Authors: Fisher Angelina
Published: February 2010

This chapter considers the possibilities for ensuring that accountability takes into account the interests of those most affected by PMSC conduct. It focuses on ‘downward’ accountability — accountability of private companies to the victims of their conduct — and concludes that conditions under which victims of PMSC abuse may seek legal accountability of the companies are limited under many domestic regimes as well as under international law. Attention must therefore be shifted to creating grievance mechanisms as an alternative means of augmenting PMSC accountability to victims. The chapter proposes a mechanism for PMSCs that draws on experience of other private industries, including those discussed in the subsequent chapters. To be effective, such a mechanism must enjoy legitimacy with both the industry and the local populations, be accessible to the public, be transparent with regards to process and the outcome, engage relevant multi-stakeholders in productive dialogue, have a predictable and fair process, and empower local populations.
The privatization continuum
Authors: Barak-Erez Daphne
Published: February 2010

The use of lethal violence by private actors is often identified as a uniquely troubling aspect of the PMSC phenomenon. As this chapter demonstrates, however, our understanding will remain only partial if this is not discussed in the broader context of other privatization policies. Through the prism of domestic constitutional law, with recourse to comparative tools, the chapter analyzes the trend to privatize public functions and discusses the limitations on privatization in general and the limitations on privatization of security functions in particular. It argues that the realities of widespread privatization of public functions necessitate a rethinking of the basic principles of constitutional and administrative law beyond the mere adjustment of specific rules and doctrines.
Regulatory choices in the privatization of infrastructure
Authors: Mariana Mota Prado
Published: February 2010

This chapter considers the question of how a decision to privatize is made and examines how such a decision impacts the choice of regulatory framework. By developing a comparative analysis of the privatization processes in infrastructure sectors as well as the military and security sector, it discusses the circumstances under which a regulatory framework is established, designed, and enforced. It argues that a government contracting with PMSCs should not only justify why privatization is necessary. Any such claim should be assessed by an independent body (similar to the cost-benefit analysis of regulation performed by the Office of Management and Budget in the United States). The chapter calls for transparency in privatization of private military and security services, arguing that citizens should have access to all information related to the competitive bidding process and contractual provisions.
The Familiar Enemy
Authors: Butterfield Ardis
Published: February 2010

The Familiar Enemy re‐examines the linguistic, literary, and cultural identities of England and France within the context of the Hundred Years War. During this war, two highly intertwined peoples developed complex strategies for expressing their aggressively intimate relationship. The special connection between the English and the French has endured into the modern period as a model for Western nationhood. This book reassesses the concept of ‘nation’ in this period through a wide‐ranging discussion of writing produced in war, truce or exile from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, concluding with reflections on the retrospective views of this time of war created by the trials of Jeanne d'Arc and by Shakespeare's Henry V. It considers works and authors writing in French, ‘Anglo‐Norman’, and in English, in England and on the continent, with attention to the tradition of comic Anglo‐French jargon (a kind of medieval franglais), to Machaut, Deschamps, Froissart, Chaucer, Gower, Charles d'Orléans and many lesser‐known or anonymous works. Chaucer traditionally has been seen as a quintessentially English author. This book argues that he needs to be resituated within the deeply francophone context, not only of England but the wider multilingual cultural geography of medieval Europe. It thus argues that a modern understanding of what ‘English’ might have meant in the fourteenth century cannot be separated from ‘French’, and that this has far‐reaching implications both for our understanding of English and the English, and of French and the French.
1 Pre‐nation and Post‐nation
Authors: Butterfield Ardis
Published: February 2010

The introductory chapter sets out the double perspective of the book through the eyes of two Jersey writers, Wace and Victor Hugo. It then considers the role Chaucer has played as ‘father’ to English and Englishness, and argues that decoupling Chaucer from ‘English’ may help us to grasp both Chaucer and Englishness more clearly. Two further threads, on ‘England's vernaculars’ and the constant presence of war, are unwound to give context to the wide range of English and French writings that are discussed throughout the book as a whole. The conclusion asks where the medieval belongs in a construction of nation as modern, and suggests that there might be much to connect current ‘post‐national’ anxieties about ideologies of nation and the ‘pre‐national’ Middle Ages.
8 The English Subject
Authors: Butterfield Ardis
Published: February 2010

This chapter investigates the role widely ascribed to The Book of the Duchess, Chaucer's first surviving narrative poem, as a polemically ‘English’ work. It sees it instead as the product of a francophone reader working within a multilingual, international environment. Rather than see Chaucer as ‘English’ in resistance to ‘French’, we can develop a more subtle appreciation of the ways in which cultural meanings pass from one language into another. The Book of the Duchess is compared with Machaut and Froissart, the Rose, and the Anglo‐Franco‐Italian transpositions of Boethius in Troilus and Criseyde. What modern critics conventionally herald as the new subjectivity of Chaucer's love vision is reassessed in terms of an overt, and long‐standing debate about English and its capacity to express a discourse of subjective desire in the face of French's acknowledged subtlety. It concludes with the hybrid Anglo‐French poet Charles d'Orléans.
Human Rights and International Investment Arbitration
Authors: Clara Reiner , Christoph Schreuer
Published: February 2010

This chapter discusses the role of human rights in international investment arbitration, focusing on issues such as jurisdiction, applicable law, and invocation of human rights during proceedings. It highlights certain similarities among human rights law and investment law, e.g. regarding substantive norms such as prohibition of discrimination and protection of property, that are common to both investment and human rights law. It also describes how human rights and investment law differ dramatically. The chapter points out that the role of human rights in investment arbitration is likely to increase; yet, it remains controversial whether the arbitral system is the best suited for dealing with breaches of human rights, for example in view of the lack of transparency and legitimacy of confidential arbitration proceedings without adequate legal safeguards for third parties and general citizen interests that may be adversely affected by investment disputes.