bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Intergovernmental Structure and Fiscal Management Strategies: A Crossnational Analysis
Authors: DANZIGER JAMES N. 
Published: March 2005

Does intergovernmental structure have a systematic effect on the impacts of local governments' fiscal policy responses? Using empirical data from more than 800 local governments in five countries, the article concludes that intergovernmental structure is associated with the impact attributed to various fiscal management strategies. Such strategies have generally had greater impact in local governments in federal systems than those in unitary state systems.There are similarities between federal and unitary local governments regarding the fiscal management strategies that have least impact, and both types stress the importance of productivity gains via technology. But the differences in relative importance and level of impact are more striking than the similarities. In particular, fiscal management strategies involving the relations of the local government with other governments, such as obtaining intergovernmental revenue and shifting service provision to other governments, have greater impact in significantly more federal systems than in unitary state systems. These federal local governments also experience greater impacts from increasing user charges and raising local taxes. In contrast, local governments in unitary state systems place greater reliance on the more politically expeditious strategy of across–the–board expenditure reductions and on reductions of capital spending.These findings suggest that local governments in more decentralized systems have greater flexibility to manipulate relations with other governments in order to enhance their own fiscal situation. The data also suggest that the government's level of fiscal stress is not systematically associated with the level of impact from most fiscal management strategies, especially in the unitary state systems.
The Executive Divided Against Itself: Cohabitation in France, 1986–1988
Authors: PIERCE ROY 
Published: March 2005

From March 1986 to May 1988 France was headed by a leftist President and a rightist Prime Minister. The background to this unusual situation is presented, and the experience itself — referred to as cohabitation — is discussed in detail.The complex game that the two executive leaders played during the period was regulated by the constitutional rules, conditioned by the electoral calendar and the narrowness of the prime minister's coalition majority, and moderated by public approval and the existence of a bipartisan foreign and defense policy.The 1986–1988 experience did not overtax the constitutional system, but cohabitation under different conditions could be destabilizing. Cohabitation is like the possibility of the US president being selected by the House of Representatives: not highly probable but possible, not necessarily dangerous but possibly so, and something that arouses little enthusiasm.
Financing Transport Infrastructure: The Effects of Institutional Durability in French and American Policymaking
Authors: PERL ANTHONY 
Published: March 2005

This article compares the finance of transportation infrastructure in France and the United States in order to test the concept of institutional durability as an intervening variable that can account for different patterns of industrial development. Institutional durability is defined as the degree to which the fiscal norms and principles established in agreements between government, industry, and financial investors go on to exert influence over subsequent attempts to reorder the allocation of collective economic burdens and benefits. Two historical episodes of infrastructure development, mid‐19th century railroad construction and the creation of inter‐city highways between the First and Second World Wars, will be evaluated to identify and differentiate the effect of institutional durability upon American and French transportation policy.French infrastructure finance is shown to exhibit a limited institutional durability which has facilitated the historical adjustment of both rail and road infrastructure along convergent fiscal terms. US infrastructure development is seen to possess a much greater institutional durability which has encouraged the divergence of fiscal arrangements set up at different periods of time. The resulting accumulation of incompatible and often competitive arrangements appears to have locked the US into conflicting means of transport development that make a fiscally coherent transportation policy very difficult to achieve. No such institutional obstacle emerges in French transport policy where the terms of macroeconomic decision‐making are seen to be integrated.
Restructuring Government Organization in China and Transforming Government Functions for an Efficient and More Productive Bureaucratic Performance
Authors: JIAQI GU 
Published: March 2005

A sustained, steady economic development and a stable, prosperous society cannot come about by focusing only on the formulation of concrete social and economic policies. Increased attention and priority should be given to the reform of the state apparatus itself, especially of the policymaking and implementation process. Administrative structural reform, particularly China's practice of adjusting organizational structure and transforming government functions and management processes, is an example of the efforts to explore strategies and approaches for the conduct of administrative restructuring and enhancing bureaucratic performance in developing countries.This article discusses three questions: first, the necessity of adjusting the government organizational structure and rationalizing the administrative policymaking mechanism, as well as some practices in China; second, transforming government management processes towards adapting to the changing social and economic environment in developing countries, e.g., describing what has been done by China in order to change direct and micro‐management; and third, concentrating on improving efficiency and productivity.
Public Sector Management Reform: Convergence or Divergence?
Authors: HOLMES MALCOLM 
Published: March 2005

This collection of articles is yet further evidence of an emerging consensus around the world of the need to improve the performance of the public sector. This is happening across countries at different stages of development, with widely divergent cultures and different forms of economic organization. Gu Jiaqi, in discussing reform in China, refers to the public demanding that governments act with fewer inputs and with best outcomes. The recently published book, Reinventing Government, which appears to have captured the attention of both law–makers and the bureaucracy in the US (with some good reason), notes that Americans are demanding “more performance for less money” (1992, 2). In Australia, administrative reform was launched under the umbrella of a Financial Management Improvement Program which sought to change attitudes in the public sector to be much more concerned with outcomes and constantly relate these outcomes to the resources being applied to achieving them.There seems to be little doubt that there is a common language in the area of results. While this is of considerable interest, of greater interest is the variety of means that are being pursued to achieve these ends. This note raises some questions about the compatibility of some of the means and the ends. It suggests that some of the means identified in these articles may be counter–productive.
Lessons for the Study of Policy Implementation: Project Renewal in Israel
Authors: LAZIN FRED A. 
Published: March 2005

This article attempts to clarify some of the issues in the debate over the study of policy implementation, in particular the disagreements between proponents of the top‐down versus bottom‐up approaches. It proposes use of a modified top‐down perspective which bridges the assumed dichotomy between policy formulation, enactment, and an implementation process and addresses many of the concerns of the bottom‐up research strategy. This new perspective portrays implementation as part of a single ongoing process in which policy is formulated, enacted and continually readjusted and adapted before and after implementation at the local level.The article is based on an analysis of the findings of a case study of the implementation of Israel's Project Renewal, a comprehensive community renewal and development program – a hybrid resembling the American Urban Renewal, Model Cities and the War on Poverty programs. Rather than evaluate the success of this Israeli program, the intent here is to ask what the research findings teach about the study of policy implementation.
Inside Moves and Outside Views: An Australian Case Study of Elite and Public Perceptions of Political Corruption
Authors: JACKSON MICHAEL , SMITH RODNEY 
Published: March 2005

The search for a definition of political corruption that adequately captures the nuances of governmental activity has been a long one. This article defends social or attitudinal definitions of corruption against some recent criticisms. It examines the value of Arnold Heidenheimer's widely cited distinctions among “black,”“gray,” and “white” corruption using empirical evidence from an interview study of over 100 Australian politicians and 500 voters. The results show that the broad dimensions of corruption — the official, the donor, the payoff, and the favor — identified by John Peters and Susan Welch affect the views of both politicians and voters alike.Nonetheless, elites and the public come to judgments from different perspectives, and they judge some acts differently. Put another way, some corruption is gray. Politicians judge actions more subtly than do voters, who are more likely to see corruption in all acts. As Michael Johnston has suggested, the different experiences of political insiders and outsiders explain this disparity in their moral outlooks. Insiders are socialized to see at least some actions as functional and therefore not corrupt. Outsiders, unaware of the insiders' rules, tend to judge political action by moral absolutes. Thus the structure of liberal democratic government contributes to conflicting elite and public views of political right and wrong.
Regulatory Competition and the Politics of Financial Market Reform in Britain and Japan
Authors: LAURENCE HENRY 
Published: March 2005

This article examines the impact that the internationalization of jnance has had on the regulation of domestic securities markets in Japan and Britain. In particular, it seeks to explain the apparent incompatibility of two distinct trends: deregulation (and state retreat) on the one hand, and increased regulation and state involvement in markets on the other.Much of the literature about the efects of internationalization on domestic policymaking has drfjculty explaining these two distinct regulatory frends. First, there has been no uniform “competition in regulatory laxity.” Second, the United States does not appear to have exerted hegemonic influence over outcomes. Finally, domestic‐level explanations which deny the importance of systemic‐level influences on domestic policy choices are unable to explain the similarity of policy choices undertaken by governments with very different regulatory traditions.I argue instead that regulatory reforms have been undertaken primarily for the benefit of a particular set of private economic actors—mobile consumers of financial services, including both holders of liquid investment capital and large multinational borrowers. Internationalization has systematically strengthened their influence over the policymaking process by making “exit” from one political marketplace to another a more realistic and more potent bargaining strategy than the alternative of exercising “voice.”
The information needs of perioperative staff: a preparatory study for a proposed specialist library for theatres (NeLH)
Authors: Nicholas David , Williams Peter , Smith Andrew , Longbottom Paul 
Published: March 2005

AbstractAims/objectives:  To undertake an information‐needs analysis of operating theatre staff in order to inform the development of a specialist library of the National Electronic Library of Health (NeLH).Setting:  Three hospitals in an NHS Trust in a rural county in the north of England.Methods:  In‐depth interviews, during which staff were questioned in regard to their job roles and information needs, information‐seeking behaviour, access to computers, use and perceptions of the NeLH, and what they would like from a specialist library.Results:  Information needs were found to concern direct care, professional and academic development, medical devices knowledge and administration. Currency and speed of delivery were the key information requirements. Poor communication appeared to be a major problem for many staff and inhibited efficient information exchange. When using the Web, both clinical and non‐clinical staff searched in a similar fashion to health consumers generally, despite their need for highly specialist information. Most respondents reacted warmly to the idea of the proposed National Electronic Library for Theatre Staff (NeLTS) and made several practical suggestions for suitable material. However, access was problematic for nurses and might prove to be an obstacle to take‐up of the Specialist Library.Conclusions:  Communication difficulties, the fragmentation of data in the field and the consequent difficulties of finding information point to the need for an NeLTS. However, for this library to embrace and succeed with all the various groups that constitute the operating theatre staff, issues of access and digital literacy need to be addressed.
The value and impact of information provided through library services for patient care: a systematic review
Authors: Weightman Alison L. , Williamson Jane 
Published: March 2005

AbstractObjective:  An updated systematic review was carried out of research studies looking at the value and impact of library services on health outcomes for patients and time saved by health professionals.Methods:  A comprehensive systematic search was undertaken of the published literature to September 2003 in eric, lisa, medline, premedline, embase, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and Google. Some handsearching was carried out, reference lists were scanned and experts in the field were contacted. Twenty‐eight research studies of professionally led libraries for health‐care staff, including clinical librarian projects, met the inclusion criterion of at least one health or ‘time saved’ outcome. Papers were critically appraised using internationally accepted criteria. Data were extracted and results were summarised using a narrative format as the studies were heterogeneous and precluded a statistical analysis.Results:  There is evidence of impact from both traditional and clinical librarian services. The higher quality studies of traditional services measured impacts of 37–97% on general patient care, 10–31% on diagnosis, 20–51% on choice of tests, 27–45% on choice of therapy and 10–19% on reduced length of stay. Four studies of clinical librarian projects suggested that professionals saved time as a result of clinical librarian input, and two of these studies showed evidence of cost‐effectiveness. However, the clinical librarian studies were generally smaller, with poorer quality standards.Conclusions:  Research studies suggest that professionally led library services have an impact on health outcomes for patients and may lead to time savings for health‐care professionals. The available studies vary greatly in quality but the better quality studies also suggest positive impacts. Good practice can be gathered from these studies to guide the development of a pragmatic survey for library services that includes the direct effects for patients among the outcome measures.
CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED TO CRITERIA: A METHOD FOR KNOWLEDGE PROCESSING FROM FUZZY CONTEXTS
Authors: BURUSCO ANA , FUENTES-GONZALEZ RAMON 
Published: March 2005

The objective of the work is the study of the information that stems from the L-Fuzzy contexts according to some criteria that are considered interesting. We begin defining the L-Fuzzy C-contexts [Formula: see text] where X, Y and C are the sets of objects, attributes and criteria, and [Formula: see text] represents the relationship between the objects and the attributes. Below we obtain some information from them through the L-Fuzzy C-concepts. These new concepts will allow us to set up a ranking in the object set X and the attribute set Y, according to the different criteria.
PROMOTING MORE SUSTAINABLE RURAL LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY IN EASTERN EUROPE USING BAYESIAN NETWORK MODELS
Authors: BACON PHILIP J. , CAIN JEREMY D. , KOZAKIEWICZ MICHAL , BRZEZINSKI MARCIN , LIRO ANNA 
Published: March 2005

A Bayesian Network approach to developing effective policies for more sustainable rural land use and development is presented which: • incorporates several different stakeholder viewpoints • integrates and balances the results from different viewpoints, and thus facilitates compromise land use solutions • elucidates the main factors affecting stakeholders' decisions, on which policy levers will operate more effectively • allows differences between "expected change" and "observed change" to be understood as arising from uncertainty and variation about "the average situation" • demonstrates the crucial roles of beliefs and uncertainties in determining the preferred options of different groups • emphasises the need to know the beliefs and uncertainties of local land managers • incorporates public participation and social learning while such necessary data are gathered. The approach's merits for fostering pro-active policy design and subsidiarity, and for focusing the research needed to underpin rural policy are discussed.
A note on Diophantine approximation
Authors: Almira J. M. , Toro N. Del , López-Moreno A. J. 
Published: March 2005

We prove the existence of a dense subset Δ of [0, 4] such that for all α ∈ Δ there exists a subgroup Xα of infinite rank of ℤ[z] such that Xα is a discrete subgroup of C[0, β] for all β ≥ α but it is not a discrete subgroup of C[0, β] for any β ∈ (0, α).Given a set of nonnegative real numbers , a Λ‐polynomial (or Müntz polynomial) is a function of the form (n ∈ ℕ). We denote by Π(Λ) the space of Λ‐polynomials and by the set of integral Λ‐polynomials. Clearly, the sets Πℤ(Λ) are subgroups of infinite rank of ℤ[x] whenever Λ ⊂ ℕ, #Λ = ∞ (by infinite rank, we mean that the real vector space spanned by X does not have finite dimension. In all what follows we are uniquely interested in groups of infinite rank). Now, it is well known that the problem of approximation of functions on intervals [a, b] by polynomials with integral coefficients is solvable only for intervals [a, b] of length smaller than four and functions f which are interpolable by polynomials of ℤ[x] on a certain set (which we call the algebraic kernel of the interval [a, b])  (a, b). Concretely, it is well known that ℤ[x] is a discrete subgroup of C[a, b] whenever b − a ≥ 4 and 4 is the smallest number with this property (for these and other interesting results about approximation by polynomials with integral coefficients, see [1,3] and the references therein. See also the other references at the end of this note). This motivates the following concept.
Vascularity and Fractal Dimension of the Dermo-Epidermal Interface in Guttate and Plaque-Type Psoriasis
Authors: Uhoda Isabelle , Piérard Gérald E. , Piérard-Franchimont Claudine , Arrese Jorge E. , Goffin Véronique , Nikkels Arjen , Paquet Philippe , Quatresooz Pascale 
Published: March 2005

<i>Background:</i> Histological structures of the skin are often irregular in size and shape. Euclidean geometry and fractal analysis are complementary for assessing distinct aspects of their dimensions. <i>Objective:</i> To determine and compare the variations in shape of the dermo-epidermal junction and the size of the superficial vessels in psoriatic lesions. <i>Method:</i> The relative microvasculature area and the fractal dimension D of the dermo-epidermal interface were measured inside and outside growth-stunted guttate lesions (n = 22) and expanding plaques (n = 37) in psoriasis of the trunk. <i>Results:</i> The median D values of the dermo-epidermal interface were significantly larger (p < 0.01) in psoriatic plaques (D = 1.15) than in guttate lesions (D = 1.08), and these D values on lesional skin were significantly larger (p < 0.01) than in the uninvolved skin (D = 1.03). The microvasculature was significantly (p < 0.01) more developed in lesional (plaque: 13%, guttate: 8.20%) than in uninvolved skin (3.60 and 3.85%). No correlations were found between the relative microvasculature areas and the D values of the dermo-epidermal interface, both in the uninvolved and lesional skins of each psoriatic type. <i>Conclusion:</i> The absence of a relationship between modulations of the dermo-epidermal junction and vascular hyperplasia, both in expanding and stable psoriasis lesions, suggests that these events are regulated by different mechanisms and do not depend on each other.
The Outcome after Cryosurgery and Intralesional Steroid Injection in Vulvar Lichen sclerosus Corresponds to Preoperative Histopathological Findings
Authors: Stücker Markus , Grape Jonas , Bechara Falk Georges , Hoffmann Klaus , Altmeyer Peter 
Published: March 2005

<i>Background:</i> Vulvar lichen sclerosus (LS) still presents a therapeutic challenge. <i>Questions:</i> The aim of the present study was to investigate whether there is a correlation between preoperative histopathological findings in female LS and long-term results after cryosurgery and intralesional steroid injections. <i>Material and Methods:</i> 22 females with LS, mean age 65.3 ± 10.5 years, were treated with cryosurgery (–186°C) using the contact method with 1 freeze-thaw cycle per lesion and intralesional triamcinolone acetonide injection. The time between surgery and follow-up examination was 27.8 ± 14.6 months. We compared the clinical outcome and the thickness of the epidermis, the zone of sclerosis and the inflammatory infiltrate in biopsy specimens taken before treatment. <i>Results:</i> In 14 of 22 patients, a relapse after cryosurgery occurred (median after 7.5 months). Patients would ‘moderately’ recommend cryosurgery for LS (2.2 ± 0.9; minimum: 0, optimum: 4). Pruritus was significantly reduced (visual analog scale: preoperative 7.1 ± 2.6 vs. postoperative 2.0 ± 2.4; p = 0.001) even in patients with relapse (preoperative 7.6 ± 2.4 vs. postoperative 3.1 ± 2.28; p = 0.001). Women with relapse showed a significantly higher composed thickness of epidermis, sclerosis and inflammatory infiltrate (430 ± 139.0 µm) than those without relapse (314 ± 41.2 µm; p = 0.046). <i>Conclusion:</i> In our patients, cryosurgery and intralesional steroid injections were efficient in the treatment of LS. Patients showing relapse had a thicker epidermis and a stronger inflammatory infiltrate. Therefore a treatment of LS should be performed at an early stage of the disease.