Integration Arrangements Research Articles

Integrating adult health and social care in Scotland

Purpose: Separate – and sometimes disjointed – systems of health and social care can no longer adequately meet the needs and expectations of increasing numbers of people who are living into older age, often with multiple, complex, long-term conditions, and who need joined-up, integrated services. The goal for integration of health and social care in Scotland, and therefore for this legislation, is to tackle these challenges, so that the balance of care shifts from institutional care to services provided in the community, and resources follow people‘s needs. Objectives: The Scottish Government introduced the Public Bodies (Joint Working) Scotland Bill to the Scottish Parliament in May 2013. This new legislation will provide the legal framework to support improvements in the quality and consistency of health and social care services by integrating health and social care in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s ambitions for integrating health and social care are: • to improve the quality and consistency of services for patients, carers, service users and their families; • to provide seamless, joined up quality health and social care services in order to care for people in their homes or a homely setting where it is safe to do so; and • to ensure resources are used effectively and efficiently to deliver services that meet the increasing number of people with longer term and often complex needs, many of whom are older. Background: Nationally agreed outcomes will apply across health and social care. Health Boards (which provide primary and secondary health care) and Local Authorities (which provide social care) will be required to establish integrated partnership arrangements. Health and social care functions and budgets will be delegated by the Health Board and Local Authority to the new integrated partnership. Legislation will establish the “minimum scope” of functions and budgets that must be integrated – this will cover adult primary and community health care, social care, and aspects of acute hospital care that offer the best opportunities for service redesign in favour of prevention. Locality planning arrangements will assure strong clinical and professional leadership, and engagement of the third and independent sectors, in strategic service planning. 14th International Conference on Integrated Care, Brussels, April 2-4 2014 International Journal of Integrated Care – Volume 14, 01 October – URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-116153– http://www.ijic.org/ Conclusion: The Scottish Government’s approach to this legislation is to focus on ensuring crosssectoral strategic planning to meet the needs of population/care groups. Rather than focussing on re-organising existing structures, the emphasis is on ensuring that strategic planning to support people, particularly those with multiple complex needs, operates with maximum effectiveness across traditional boundaries, and places the patient/service user at the centre of care planning and provision.

Comprehensive high-throughput RNA sequencing analysis reveals contamination of multiple nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines with HeLa cell genomes.

In an attempt to explore infectious agents associated with nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs), we employed our high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis pipeline, RNA CoMPASS, to investigate the presence of ectopic organisms within a number of NPC cell lines commonly used by NPC and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) researchers. Sequencing data sets from both CNE1 and HONE1 were found to contain reads for human papillomavirus 18 (HPV-18). Subsequent real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) analysis on a panel of NPC cell lines identified HPV-18 in CNE1 and HONE1 as well as three additional NPC cell lines (CNE2, AdAH, and NPC-KT). Further analysis of the chromosomal integration arrangement of HPV-18 in NPCs revealed patterns identical to those observed in HeLa cells. Clustering based on human single nucleotide variation (SNV) analysis of two separate HeLa cell lines and several NPC cell lines demonstrated two distinct clusters with CNE1, as well as HONE1 clustering with the two HeLa cell lines. In addition, duplex-PCR-based genotyping showed that CNE1, CNE2, and HONE1 do not have a HeLa cell-specific L1 retrotransposon insertion, suggesting that these three HPV-18(+) NPC lines are likely products of a somatic hybridization with HeLa cells, which is also consistent with our RNA-seq-based gene level SNV analysis. Taking all of these findings together, we conclude that a widespread HeLa contamination may exist in many NPC cell lines, and authentication of these cell lines is recommended. Finally, we provide a proof of concept for the utility of an RNA-seq-based approach for cell authentication. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell lines are important model systems for analyzing the complex life cycle and pathogenesis of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Using an RNA-seq-based approach, we found HeLa cell contamination in several NPC cell lines that are commonly used in the EBV and related fields. Our data support the notion that contamination resulted from somatic hybridization with HeLa cells, likely occurring at the point of cell line establishment. Given the rarity of NPCs, the long history of NPC cell lines, and the lack of rigorous cell line authentication, it is likely that the actual prevalence and impact of HeLa cell contamination on the EBV field might be greater. We therefore recommend cell line authentication prior to performing experiments using NPC cell lines to avoid inaccurate conclusions. The novel RNA-seq-based cell authentication approach reported here can serve as a comprehensive method for validating cell lines.

Study on power plants arrangements for integration

The three power cycles viz. gas cycle (Brayton cycle), steam cycle (Rankine cycle) and organic Rankine cycle (ORC) are arranged in two possible methods to form a triple cycle and to increase its power generating performance. In one approach, all the three cycles are arranged in series, the heat rejection of gas cycle is supplied to steam power plant having back pressure turbine and the heat rejection of steam plant is supplied to ORC plant similar to a cascading. In second option, the two bottoming cycles i.e. steam plant and ORC plant are arranged in parallel to gas turbine exhaust. In this connection, steam cycle works with high temperature heat recovery and ORC plant with low temperature heat recovery. Thermal efficiency and specific work of two triple cycles are compared with combined cycle (CC) power plant to draw the relative merits of two choices with a focus on compressor pressure ratio and gas turbine inlet temperature (GTIT). The results showed that the parallel arrangement in triple cycle offers greater benefit over the series arrangement. Therefore the wok is focused on parallel configuration triple cycle results.

Regional integration in Africa versus higher levels of intra-Africa trade

Regional integration arrangements have mushroomed worldwide, both on intra-regional and extra-regional levels. On an intra-regional level, Africa faces a complicated grid of multiple and overlapping membership of several regional integration organisations, aiming to increase intra-regional trade and cooperation. In this study, a comparative analysis will be executed, based on an intra-regional breakdown of trade, using the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa classification of countries according to geographical region. The level of intra-regional trade will be determined, whereafter the level of inter-regional trade will be established and, lastly, trade with the rest of the world. It seems that despite the high level of regional integration within Africa, it does not necessarily stimulate intra-Africa trade to expected levels as proposed by literature. A regional integration strategy that would cause deeper integration is crucial if the continent is to play a rightful role in the global arena.

A Study of Airborne Antennas Radiation and Mutual Coupling

Radiation characteristics and mutual coupling are the important factors to the integration design and arrangement for airborne antennas. And the study of them is significant to the EMC of airborne electronic systems. Therefore, by using UTD, a study of predicting the far field pattern of a monopole mounted on the fuselage of an aircraft is described, and the method of computing isolation between airborne antennas is referred to. Initially simple model of large airplane is given by the principle that configuration should be simplified while electromagnetic radiation characteristics should not be neglected. Furthermore, single order, two orders as well as higher orders ray tracing are discussed based on the basic modals such as cylinder, taper and flat. The analytical solution of ray tracing is given out when it exists. If the analytical solution of ray tracing doesnt exist, faster numerical searching method is recommended. Then shadow judgment is introduced briefly. Lastly programs are made, and the results are proved true by comparing them with relative referencesv [1].

Optimizing Resource Use and Economics of Crop-Livestock Integration Among Small Farmers in Semiarid Regions of South Africa

The adoption of crop-livestock integration (CLI) among smallholder farmers in the developing countries is no doubt one of the solutions to food security, risk management, and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. However, adequate assessment on the current status of CLI becomes necessary for the development and its evolution among smallholder farmers. This article presents a basic and multi-objective linear programming (LP) model to determine enterprise combinations of crop and livestock activities that maximize total gross margin (TGM) among small farms in the Eastern Cape Province. Optimization modeling results and trade-off analysis showed 122.61% increase and 58% decreases, respectively, compared with the average TGM per livestock unit (LU). Smallholder CLI farmers can optimally maximized profit, but fail to optimally maximize home consumption with profit maximization objectives at present resource level. The results further revealed that resources such as land, livestock enterprises were (loose resources) not efficiently used. Efficient and capital use and compact arrangement of crop-livestock integration are suggested instead of free access grazing practice in the study area.

The Effect of Economic Integration on FDI "The Empirical study of D8 countries"

Toward the different economic integration and Commercial regional arrangements, which are the small scale of globalization, could relative advantage and put on the new opportunity on the national economies. These fact causes to the Developing countries open their markets to attract FDI and reduce their restriction on tariff and non tariff, which can increase international trading at the same time. With this important item, this study inquiry the effect of economic integration and globalization on the FDI, by specifying gravity model and panel data approach, for D8 member, during 2001 to 2011. Our Gravity model estimate show: the direct integration between member states D8 has positive and significant effect on foreign direct investment inflow. JEL Classification: F13, F23 Key Word: Economic Integration, Foreign Direct Investment, Gravity Model. 1-Introduction Foreign investing capital and multinational companies are two aspects of a great change that it formed universal economic union and this variable is most important feature of international economic. Ever-increasing development of economic organizations-local economic-combining financial markets-financial union-release interchange of goods and capital transformations are some variables of universal economic. Rather than formed international markets, universal economic established a competitive situation that only efficient and powerful companies can remain with it. It is necessary to equipped different countries of world, especially development countries. So study the equipment and benefits of economic and understanding their challenges and problems can provide an accurate stimulation field in this discussion. In addition, different economical unions and localizations as appropriate tools, can clarify 1 MA Graduated of economics, Iran, Azad University, Khomeinishahr Branch, 2 MA of Economics in Chamran University, Shamohamadi_fa1363@yahoo.com 3 MA in Banking Management, kiani1362@yahoo.com 4 MA Graduated of economics, Iran, Azad University, Khomeinishahr Branch International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development July 2013, Vol. 2, No. 3

Regional integration and nuclear energy in Africa

African states are hampered by unreliable electric energy that has not complemented economic development efforts. Recently, several African states announced plans to pursue nuclear energy in the future. However, several challenges remain for these states, notably insecurity and financial deficiencies. This paper proposes the use of regional integration arrangements to address these challenges faced by African states, as a way of complementing other efforts enabling African states to obtain nuclear energy. The existence of these arrangements and their institutional mechanisms can enable African states to enhance security and cost-effectively develop nuclear power infrastructure.

Institution-driven comparative advantage and organizational choice

The theory of the firm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms' integration opportunities affect the way contract enforcement institutions determine international trade patterns. We find that the benefits of judicial quality for the exports of contract-intense goods are more muted in industries that have a greater propensity towards vertical integration arrangements with input suppliers. We show that our results are not driven by primitive industry characteristics. Our results confirm the role of judicial quality as a source of comparative advantage and suggest that this depends not only on the technological characteristics of the goods produced but also on the way firms are able to organize the production process.

Institution-Driven Comparative Advantage and Organizational Choice

The theory of the firm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms' integration opportunities affect the way contract enforcement institutions determine international trade patterns. We find that the benefits of judicial quality for the exports of contract-intense goods are more muted in industries that have a greater propensity towards vertical integration arrangements with input suppliers. We show that our results are not driven by primitive industry characteristics. Our results confirm the role of judicial quality as source of comparative advantage and suggest that this depends not only on the technological characteristics of the goods produced but also on the way firms are able to organize the production process.

The Art of Integrating Care: Theories Revisited

Integration of care is high on public health agendas all around the world. The development and implementation of integrative arrangements has been promoted for more or less two decades. Despite this every so often extensive history, there are recognised needs to take research into areas yet poorly explored, which include measures and outcomes of integrated care. On the other hand, existing evidence and knowledge can probably become more ennobled and thereby contribute to a deeper understanding of the compound art of integrating of health care services. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to re-evaluate and synthesise some revisited theories for the facilitation of sustainable integrated care solutions. This exploration shows it is important to have crucial prerequisites for integration in place: both functional and interactional conditions. This appears to be an organic process where the stakeholders go through gradual changes until the optimum level of integration as well as mutualistic interactions are established. It could be argued that refined knowledge could be excerpted from existing research. Then again, this strategy does not exclude actions for new research in poorly explored areas. Both approaches are important for the development of sustainable integrated care.

ENVIRONMENTAL MAINSTREAMING: THE ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES OF POLICY INTEGRATION

SUMMARYMainstreaming has been adopted internationally as a key approach to promoting environmental concerns and opportunities in national plans and strategies, as well as in sectoral policies and plans. As the climate change response begins to look to mainstreaming as a way forward for adaptation, lessons should be learnt from the environmental mainstreaming experience on the forms of organisational arrangements adopted. From an analysis of experience in a range of southern countries, the article uses a framework of vertical and horizontal organisational arrangements for policy integration to assess which organisational forms have been adopted and with what implications. The review found a mix of experience, with strong political commitment seeming to support a vertical approach to organisational integration, with a lead, overarching agency, as opposed to a more horizontal approach with the ministry responsible for the environment leading. The theory and analysis suggests that a more promising approach to facilitate effective mainstreaming might be to combine elements of vertical and horizontal arrangements, at least over the medium term, where there is strong central commitment and capacity for sustained implementation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Szinergiakeltés vagy látszatcselekvés? Az afrikai regionális integrációk problémái

A regionális integrációk a gazdasági/társadalmi fejlődést elősegítő szinergiákat képesek kelteni a pozitív impulzusok komplexumával. Erre a dinamizáló erőre a legszegényebb kontinensen, Afrikában lenne a legnagyobb szükség. Azonban az életképes, hatékony regionális integrációk létrejöttét és főként működését számos tényező nehezíti. Ilyenek az országcsoportokon belüli drasztikus fejlettségbeli különbségek (amelyeket a legerősebb „vezér” tagállamok – például Dél-Afrika, Nigéria – önző módon kihasználnak), a tagországok közötti konfliktusok, az intrakontinentális nemzetközi kereskedelem jelentéktelensége, a közlekedési infrastruktúra anakronisztikus állapota, valamint a feleslegesen sok regionális integráció közötti igen gyakori részleges (esetenként teljes) területi átfedés. A felsorolt és egyéb körülmények miatt Afrikában óvakodni kellene az európai viszonyokra kidolgozott integrációs modellek másolásától, és a helyi sajátosságokat figyelembe vevő módosításokra lenne szükség.

Still a fine mess? Local government and the NHS 1962 to 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to take “a long view” of initiatives taken to promote integration between local government and the NHS with the objective of seeking to understand why they have achieved consistently disappointing results.Design/methodology/approachThe paper's analysis is based on an historical overview drawn from official documents and empirical research from the time of the creation of the NHS in 1948. It primarily focuses on the principles shaping the separate but parallel reorganisations of 1974 and their continuing influence up to and including the current White Paper “Liberating the NHS”, and the Health and Social Care Bill.FindingsThe fundamental sources of integration barriers today lie in the foundational principles of basing their responsibilities on the skills of providers rather than the needs of service users and their organisational forms on separation rather than interdependence, with national uniformity driving the NHS and local diversity local authorities. In addition, frameworks for integration have been established on a paradigm of seeking to build bridges at the margins of organisations rather than seeking to interweave their mainstream systems and processes.Research limitations/implicationsFuture empirical research will be necessary to establish whether the currently proposed arrangements for integration do, in fact, experience the same limited results as previous ones.Practical implicationsLocal and national strategies for improving integration should be reviewed in the light of the understandings set out here and local frameworks should seek to align and integrate mainstream systems and processes as far as possible. A thorough and dispassionate analysis should be conducted of whether a free‐standing, single purpose, national organisation still provides the most appropriate structure for delivering health services in light of changing needs, care models, and resources.Originality/valueThe paper offers a distinctive analysis of the possible causes of disappointing outcomes from successive attempts to improve integration. If accepted, it could lead to a radically different approach, first to integration and, ultimately, to the nature of the NHS and local government.

The EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement: Making of a "Deep" Free Trade Agreement

Korea a dynamic newly-industrialized economy, and the EU, the largest economic block have negotiated an FTA. It came in force on July 1, 2011. Before the FTA was formed, the two were important trading partners of each other. Korea has enjoyed a trade surplus in merchandise trade vis-à-vis the EU. An overwhelmingly large proportion of EU-Korea trade is in manufacturing products. The EU took has had a surplus in trade in services vis-à-vis Korea. The FTA protocol has specified lowering of tariffs and NTBs in a phased manner over a transition period. The FTA had sector-focused negations. Technological standards and environmental considerations are a part of the FTA protocol. It has a comprehensive coverage and in trade economics parlance known as a “deep” regional integration arrangement. The impact of the FTA on the two partner economies would be positive but small. The empirical analyses predictably concluded that of the two, the FTA will benefit Korean economy relatively more in terms of welfare gains, while the EU economy will only gain modestly. An important fact that will influence the welfare gains is that the magnitude of the EU trade with Korea; it is only 2 percent to 2.5 percent of total extra-EU trade. Sectoral impact of the FTA will be important for both the EU and Korea and this article elucidates which sectors will benefit more than others. To protect domestic producers and markets from sudden surge in imports, there is a provision of a bilateral safeguard clause in the FTA.

Regional Integration in Africa

This paper examines the history of regional integration in Africa, what has motivated it, the different initiatives that African governments have pursued, the nature of the integration process, and the current challenges. Regional integration is seen as a rational response to the difficulties faced by a continent with many small national markets and landlocked countries. As a result, African governments have concluded a very large number of regional integration arrangements, several of which have significant membership overlap. While characterized by ambitious targets, they have a dismally poor implementation record. Part of the problem may lie in the paradigm of linear market integration, marked by stepwise integration of goods, labour and capital markets, and eventually monetary and fiscal integration. This tends to focus on border measures such as the import tariff. However, supply-side constraints may be more important. A deeper integration agenda that includes services, investment, competition policy and other behind-the-border issues can address the national-level supply-side constraints far more effectively than an agenda which focuses almost exclusively on border measures.

Periodicity of Non-Central Integral Arrangements Modulo Positive Integers

An integral coefficient matrix determines an integral arrangement of hyperplanes in $${\mathbb{R}^m}$$ . After modulo q reduction $${(q \in {\mathbb{Z}_{ >0 }})}$$ , the same matrix determines an arrangement $${\mathcal{A}_q}$$ of “hyperplanes” in $${\mathbb{Z}^m_q}$$ . In the special case of central arrangements, Kamiya, Takemura, and Terao [J. Algebraic Combin. 27(3), 317–330 (2008)] showed that the cardinality of the complement of $${\mathcal{A}_q}$$ in $${\mathbb{Z}^m_q}$$ is a quasi-polynomial in $${q \in {\mathbb{Z}_{ >0 }}}$$ . Moreover, they proved in the central case that the intersection lattice of $${\mathcal{A}_q}$$ is periodic from some q on. The present paper generalizes these results to the case of non-central arrangements. The paper also studies the arrangement $${\hat{\mathcal{B}}_m^{[0,a]}}$$ of Athanasiadis [J. Algebraic Combin. 10(3), 207–225 (1999)] to illustrate our results.

Is there a good governance model for the delivery of contemporary transport policy and practice? An examination of Melbourne and Perth

Land use and transport integration (LUTI) is a contemporary planning policy and practice that supports sustainable transport. Attempts to implement LUTI have raised questions about the appropriate organisational structure and the role of governance to deliver this policy. This paper presents the discussions from two public fora held in 2008 in Melbourne and Perth, Australia. Their purpose was to examine the governance arrangements for land use and transport integration. It is concluded that integration of land use and transport agencies does not mean that land use transport integration will be achieved in practice. Rather than simple organisational re-structuring, a focus on networked governance, together with strong regulation, is conducive to inclusive policy development and the implementation of land use and transport integration policies.

Legal and Institutional Challenges of Economic Integration in Africa

AbstractThere is a plethora of economic integration arrangements on the African continent and almost all African countries belong to more than one economic integration group. The African Union (AU), which was established in 2001, and which took over from the failed Organisation of African Unity, attempts to consolidate economic integration arrangements in Africa within one structure. Although this appears simple on paper, there are huge legal and institutional challenges and questions arise as to whether an African‐wide economic integration arrangement can be achieved within the time frame set for this in the African Economic Community (AEC) Treaty. This paper assesses the legal and institutional challenges facing the AU/AEC agenda.

COMPARING RISK TRANSFERS UNDER DIFFERENT PROCUREMENT ARRANGEMENTS / RIZIKOS PERKĖLIMO, TAIKANT SKIRTINGAS PIRKIMŲ TVARKAS, PALYGINIMAS

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) may be considered to represent a range of procurement routes characterized by the integration of many project elements into a single contract with an output-based pricing mechanism. At the other end of the same continuum of procurement routes are less integrated arrangements with more input-based pricing (‘traditional’ procurement). Risk transfer from the client to the contractor should vary with procurement route attribute values: with greater integration and more output-based pricing an increase in risk transfer would be expected. The more risk transferred to the contractor, the greater the incentive for the contractor to deliver the project efficiently. The paper proposes indicators of risk transfer and delivery efficiency which are then used in modeling the relationships between risk transfer, efficiency and procurement route attributes. The proposed model enables the mi croeconomic assumptions which underlie PPPs to be tested with data from historical construction projects in order to cast light on the effectiveness of the PPP approach. Santrauka Privataus ir viešojo sektorių partnerystė (angl. PPPs) gali būti svarstoma kaip pirkimo būdas, kuris nusakomas įvairių elementų įtraukimu į vieną sutartį, paremtą gamybos apimčių kainodaros mechanizmu. Kitame šios nenutraukiamos pirkimų srautų virtinės gale yra ne tokie kompleksiniai susitarimai, paremti sąnaudų kainodaros principais (,,tradiciniai“ pirkimai). Rizikos perkėlimas nuo kliento prie rangovo turi skirtis priklausomai nuo pirkimų srautų savybių vertės: taikant platesnį kompleksiškumą ir gamybos apimčių kainodarą, tikėtina padidinti ir rizikos perkėlimo galimybę. Kuo didesnė rizika perkeliama rangovui, tuo efektyviau jis stengiasi įgyvendinti projektą. Straipsnyje siūlomi rizikos pėrkelimo ir įgyvendinimo efektyvumo rodikliai, kurie vėliau yra pritaikyti modeliuojant rizikos perkėlimo, efektyvumo ir pirkimo srautų savybių tarpusavio priklausomybes. Siūlomas modelis leidžia patikrinti mikroekonomikos prielaidas, sudarančias privataus ir viešojo sektorių partnerystės pagrindą, naudojant istorinius statybos objektų duomenis, ir atskleisti privataus ir viešojo sektorių partnerystės požiūrio efektyvumą.