Local Resource Allocation Research Articles

Ideology and Local Public Expenditure Priorities

Local governments prioritize spending on various types and levels of public services. Although scholars have shown that citizen preferences and institutional factors, such as economic, political, and legal arrangements, play a role in resource allocation, scholars have not systematically examined the impact of local elected officials’ own ideological preferences on service prioritization. A better understanding of the impact of personal ideology on local government resource allocation is needed as this provision of funds has implications for democratic governance and responsiveness. We develop and use a novel measure of local elected official ideology using a 2011 survey of California local elected officials to test the hypothesis that local decision-maker ideology affects attitudes on funding-specific service categories. We find evidence that local elected officials’ attitudes toward service reductions are associated with both their own individual ideology, measured on the conservative–liberal spectrum, and the ideology of their constituents.

Inequality of Paediatric Workforce Distribution in China.

Child health has been addressed as a priority at both global and national levels for many decades. In China, difficulty of accessing paediatricians has been of debate for a long time, however, there is limited evidence to assess the population- and geography-related inequality of paediatric workforce distribution. This study aimed to analyse the inequality of the distributions of the paediatric workforce (including paediatricians and paediatric nurses) in China by using Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and Theil L index, data were obtained from the national maternal and child health human resource sampling survey conducted in 2010. In this study, we found that the paediatric workforce was the most inequitable regarding the distribution of children <7 years, the geographic distribution of the paediatric workforce highlighted very severe inequality across the nation, except the Central region. For different professional types, we found that, except the Central region, the level of inequality of paediatric nurses was higher than that of the paediatricians regarding both the demographic and geographic distributions. The inner-regional inequalities were the main sources of the paediatric workforce distribution inequality. To conclude, this study revealed the inadequate distribution of the paediatric workforce in China for the first time, substantial inequality of paediatric workforce distribution still existed across the nation in 2010, more research is still needed to explore the in-depth sources of inequality, especially the urban-rural variance and the inner- and inter-provincial differences, and to guide national and local health policy-making and resource allocation.

A multi-agent system for DRCMPSP based on auction and critical chain

This paper develops a multi-agent system based on auction and critical chain (MAS/AC) for decentralised resource constrained multiple project scheduling problem (DRCMPSP). In this system, parallel projects are to be scheduled simultaneously under the consideration of multi-objectives, where the allocation of global resources is independent from the allocation of activities and local resources through a multi-agent system. The critical chain method (CCM) is applied to adjust the schedule and local resource constraints of each single project. Subsequently, multiple objectives of different projects are considered in the process of calculating bid price. Moreover, the distribution of global resources is conducted by AA employed combinatorial auction. Through the interactive communication between AA and PAs, parallel projects could be scheduled simultaneously with respect to their different characteristics and interests, and the benefits of the whole system could be ensured meanwhile. An experimental example together is applied to demonstrate the efficiency and superiority of MAS/AC.

A multi-agent system for DRCMPSP based on auction and critical chain

This paper develops a multi-agent system based on auction and critical chain (MAS/AC) for decentralised resource constrained multiple project scheduling problem (DRCMPSP). In this system, parallel projects are to be scheduled simultaneously under the consideration of multi-objectives, where the allocation of global resources is independent from the allocation of activities and local resources through a multi-agent system. The critical chain method (CCM) is applied to adjust the schedule and local resource constraints of each single project. Subsequently, multiple objectives of different projects are considered in the process of calculating bid price. Moreover, the distribution of global resources is conducted by AA employed combinatorial auction. Through the interactive communication between AA and PAs, parallel projects could be scheduled simultaneously with respect to their different characteristics and interests, and the benefits of the whole system could be ensured meanwhile. An experimental example together is applied to demonstrate the efficiency and superiority of MAS/AC.

Policy Implications on Local Government Expenditure in Sri Lanka

Local governments are closer to the people especially in the context of democratic governance than other units of governments. ‘Determinants of government expenditure’ is therefore a recurring theme both in government and scientific discourse. This study intends to develop and test a comprehensive and systematic model on the allocation of government expenditures in urban councils in Sri Lanka to identify the key determinants of local government expenditure decisions. Therefore, the study considers three major perspectives, socio-economic, political and governmental and justifies the relevancy of models of expenditure determinant research. This is a research. The first premise is that local government expenditure varies on the mixture of socio-economic, political and governmental factors. More socio-economic variables in the model indicate a demand driven aspect in local government resource allocation. Local government’s tax effort is a significant fact together with financial transfers from the central government in expenditure decision-making. As policy implications participatory budgeting system and strengthening of the local revenue base are proposed. Sri Lanka Journal of Development Administration, Vol. 5, pp. 93-108, 2015

Opportunity to Learn: A Tale of Two Michigans

This research study examines key educational opportunities necessary for Michigan students in preschool through grade 12, analyzes educational opportunities in select Michigan districts, and evaluates whether variations in Opportunity to Learn are a consequence of school finance policies or local resource allocation decisions. The authors conducted a survey to inform the creation of an Opportunity to Learn Matrix and collected and analyzed detailed operational data from two Michigan districts to assess opportunities available to their students. Students in the more affluent community (Oakville) enjoyed a much fuller range of enriching school-based opportunities, despite the fact that total per-pupil funding was higher in the poorer community (Ashville). Analysis of district finances shows that this is because Ashville devotes far more resources to servicing the needs of its more disadvantaged students and community.

Teledermatology Within the Veterans Health Administration, 2002-2014.

In order to increase veterans' access to dermatologic care, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has developed one of the largest teledermatology programs in the United States. This article describes the recent expansion of the VHA's teledermatology program after local and national initiatives and resource allocation. This report describes routinely collected VHA data. For the first half of fiscal year 2014, the VHA recorded 31,926 teledermatology encounters, which represents 14% of all recorded teledermatology visits. Although every region in the VHA used teledermatology in the past year, four regions created 51% of the encounters. The use of store-and-forward telehealth (SFT), in which physicians view patient images after the patients were photographed, is increasing, whereas live video use is decreasing. Starting in 2012, encounters for patients in urban areas exceeded those in rural areas. The majority of patients were male veterans 60-79 years of age. Seventy-one percent of SFT consultations for the first half of 2014 were completed within 1 week. Although errors in and the evolution of coding encounters may distort results, the data show rapid growth of a telemedicine system that increases access to dermatology services for veterans. Most likely this growth reflects institutional commitment to telehealth via policy and resources.

Green Cloud Meta-Scheduling

This article aims to evaluate the flexibility of GreenMACC (Metascheduling Green Architecture to Provide Quality of Service in Cloud Computing). The GreenMACC has a module called LRAM (Local Resource Allocation Manager) to automate the execution of all scheduling policies implemented in the architecture. This module enables the Meta-scheduler automatically adjust for each type of service requested by the user of a private cloud. Due to this function, can be ensure the most appropriate behavior to the principles of GreenIT while worrying about the quality of service. In this paper is shown the importance of the LRAM on GreenMACC. This article is also shown how to include a new policy in GreenMACC in a way that identifies the LRAM and automatically use. Through the performance evaluation of the new policy included it could be concluded that the GreenMACC is a flexible, reliable architecture and the LRAM module enables the automation of choosing the best scheduling mechanism in a private cloud.

Clinical challenges in patients with cancer-associated thrombosis: Canadian expert consensus recommendations.

Venous thromboembolism is a common complication in cancer patients, and thromboembolism is the second most common cause of death after cancer progression. A number of clinical practice guidelines provide recommendations for the management of cancer-associated thrombosis. However, the guidelines lack recommendations covering commonly encountered clinical challenges (for example, thrombocytopenia, recurrent venous thromboembolism, etc.) for which little or no evidence exists. Accordingly, recommendations were developed to provide expert guidance to medical oncologists and other health care professionals caring for patients with cancer-associated thrombosis. The current expert consensus was developed by a team of 21 clinical experts. For each identified clinical challenge, the literature in medline, embase, and Evidence Based Medicine Reviews was systematically reviewed. The quality of the evidence was assessed, summarized, and graded. Consensus statements were generated, and the experts voted anonymously using a modified Delphi process on their level of agreement with the various statements. Statements were progressively revised through separate voting iterations and were then finalized. Clinicians using these recommendations and suggestions should tailor patient management according to the risks and benefits of the treatment options, patient values and preferences, and local cost and resource allocations.

The power of the purse: student funding and the labour market for Dutch Reformed and Catholic theology students, 1800–1880

Several European countries were unable to match student numbers with labour market demand during the nineteenth century. The causes of this mismatch may be found in the organisation of higher education and the funding of students. Drawing on a variety of sources, this paper compares financial support available to Reformed and Catholic theology students in The Netherlands, to examine how differences in student funding affected enrolment and labour-market patterns. While low tuition fees increased access to the public universities, generous student financing provided by numerous parties caused a structural oversupply of Protestant theology students. The private Catholic colleges instead selected students and applied grants specifically to encourage graduation, consequently balancing students more closely with labour-market demand. This relative success of regional colleges over national universities mirrors the primary education history literature on the benefits of local coordination and resource allocation.

Neighborhood geographic disparities in heart attack and stroke mortality: Comparison of global and local modeling approaches

This study investigated neighborhood geographic disparities in myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke mortality risks in middle Tennessee and identified determinants of observed disparities. Descriptive and spatial analyses were performed on MI and stroke mortality data covering the time period 1999–2007. Besag, York and Molliè (BYM) model was used to investigate spatial patterns. Global (BYM) and local models [Poisson Geographically Weighted Generalized Linear Models (GWGLM)] were used to investigate determinants of the identified spatial patterns. Significant (p<0.05) differences in mortality risks by sex, race, age and education were observed. Rural census tracts (CT) and those with higher proportions of the older populations were associated with high MI and stroke mortality risks. Additionally, CTs with high proportions of widows had significantly higher mortality risks for stroke. There was evidence of geographical variability of all regression coefficients implying that local models complement the findings of the global models and provide useful information to guide local and regional disease control decisions and resource allocation. Identification of high risk CTs is essential for targeting resources and will aid the development of more needs-based prevention programs.

The Philippines Field Management Training Program (FMTP): strengthening management capacity in a decentralized public health system.

The decentralization of the Philippines' health sector in 1991 sought to improve the efficiency of local health resource allocation; however, local officials were unprepared for the increased responsibility. In 1999 the Philippines Department of Health, with assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), implemented the Philippines Field Management Training Program (FMTP) to provide local health officials with the managerial skills needed to perform their new, more responsible jobs. This paper addresses whether the FMTP has provided participants with useful managerial skills needed for their more responsible positions. The method involved reviewing program outcomes, including results of applied management improvement projects the participants completed to solve managerial problems. Between 2000 and 2010, 294 participants completed the FMTP and many were later promoted to more responsible positions. The participants also completed 204 applied management improvement projects resulting in documented improvements in service delivery, information systems, logistics, health insurance, policy and laboratory outcomes. Examples of their successes are included in this paper. The results provide compelling evidence that managers are using the skills learned to solve significant managerial problems.

Betting on the strong: Local government resource allocation in China's poverty counties

China's primary approach to addressing poverty in its rural areas has been geographic, through the targeting of loans, grants and public works at designated 'poverty counties'. The efficacy of this approach is increasingly being called into question as China faces entrenched poverty and rising inequality despite decades of rapid economic growth. At the same time, evidence is growing that recent reforms to fiscal policy have disadvantaged poverty counties, leaving them with limited resources with which to achieve poverty alleviation and rural service provision. This article considers how these two processes interact by explaining the pattern of resource allocation in a national poverty county in Shanxi Province. Evidence suggests that the county government, operating in a highly constrained fiscal environment, is betting on the strong. It concentrates resources in villages with better existing conditions to the detriment of poorer villages who are in greater need. Such a pattern of resource allocation amplifies existing inequalities and does little to address remaining poverty in rural China.

Rural Tax Reform: Agricultural Productivity and Local Public Finance

The paper assesses the impact of rural tax reform on agricultural productivity, rural incomes and local public finance in China using data covering 1997 Chinese counties and the period from 1999 to 2009 spanning the abolition of agricultural taxation in 2003. Using comparable later-reformed counties as controls, the abolition was shown to have increased agricultural productivity and rural incomes, but led county governments to reallocate land from the agricultural sector to industrial and commercial uses, which gives them extra-budgetary revenue to compensate for the budgetary loss. The abolition's impact on the agricultural productivity, rural-urban income gap and on the local governments resource allocation is likely to have influenced the migration and urbanization process in China.

Local Public Health Resource Allocation

Local health department leaders are expected to improve the health of their populations as they "use and contribute to" the evidence base for practice, but effectively providing and utilizing data and evidence for local public health decision making has proven difficult. This study was conducted in 2011 and initiated by Washington State's public health practice-based research network to identify factors influencing local resource allocation and programmatic decisions among public health leaders facing severe funding losses. Quantitative data informed sampling for the collection of interview data. Qualitative methods were used to capture diverse insights of Washington State's local public health leaders in making decisions regarding resource allocation. Local decision-making authority was perceived as greatly restricted by what public health activities were legally mandated and the categoric nature of funding sources, even as some leaders exercised deliberate strategic approaches. One's workforce and board of health were also influential in making decisions regarding resource allocations. Challenges were expressed regarding making use of data and research evidence for decision making. Data were analyzed in 2011-2012. Programmatic mandates, funding restrictions, local stakeholders, and workforce capacity appear to trump factors such as research evidence and perceived community need in public health resource allocation. Study findings highlight tensions between the literature descriptions of what "should" influence decision making in local public health and the realities of practice. Advancements in practice-based research and evidence-based decision making, however, provide opportunities for strengthening the development of evidence and research translation for local decision making to maximize resources and promote effective service provision.

Lung cancer risk from radon in Ontario, Canada: how many lung cancers can we prevent?

PurposeTo calculate the burden of lung cancer illness due to radon for all thirty-six health units in Ontario and determine the number of radon-attributable lung cancer deaths that could be prevented. MethodsWe calculated the population attributable risk percent, excess life-time risk ratio, life-years lost, the number of lung cancer deaths due to radon, and the number of deaths that could be prevented if all homes above various cut-points were effectively reduced to background levels.ResultsIt is estimated that 13.6 % (95 % CI 11.0, 16.7) of lung cancer deaths in Ontario are attributable to radon, corresponding to 847 (95 % CI 686, 1,039) lung cancer deaths each year, approximately 84 % of these in ever-smokers. If all homes above 200 Bq/m3, the current Canadian guideline, were remediated to background levels, it is estimated that 91 lung cancer deaths could be prevented each year, 233 if remediation was performed at 100 Bq/m3. There was important variation across health units.ConclusionsRadon is an important contributor to lung cancer deaths in Ontario. A large portion of radon-attributable lung cancer deaths are from exposures below the current Canadian guideline, suggesting interventions that install effective radon-preventive measures into buildings at build may be a good alternative population prevention strategy to testing and remediation. For some health units, testing and remediation may also prevent a portion of radon-related lung cancer deaths. Regional attributable risk estimates can help with local public health resource allocation and decision making.

New Public Management in an age of austerity: knowledge and experience in further education

This article originates in a piece of educational research into the experiences of further education (FE) student teachers in the West Midlands region of England. This cohort of students experienced significant upheaval in their college workplaces and placements during the 2010/2011 academic year. Pressures on FE funding were exacerbated by a Comprehensive Spending Review by the coalition government in late 2010 – prompted by the on-going global economic crisis. Some of the repercussions of these funding cuts for staff and students in the sector are discussed in this article, as perceived by this cohort of student teachers working in a range of FE providers across the West Midlands. Many of these repercussions can broadly be seen as an extension of existing managerialist practices, as the justification for an increasing squeeze on local resource allocation continues to be a wider appeal to global market ‘realities’. But we theorise that new public management (NPM) plays an important role in a reductive kind of knowledge production for policy-makers which fuels and legitimises on-going policy intervention, and we see this as an important shaping force in the emerging professional identity of these new teachers.

VRAS: A Lightweight Local Resource Allocation System for Virtual Machine Monitor

Traditional computing resource allocations in virtualization environment devote to provide fairness of resource distribution when the overall workload of host is heavy. That makes those allocations lack of efficiency under light workloads. To target this, we design and implement a lightweight resource allocation system, virtual resource allocation system (VRAS). Considering the fact that workloads can be balanced by migrating virtual machines to other hosts, we propose a request driven mechanism to focus on resource allocation under light workloads. We also present some allocation strategies used in VRAS to explain how it works on processor and memory resources. Our experiment results demonstrate that VRAS can result in throughput improvements of 28 % for RUBiS application, and the network overhead reduction of 81 %, comparing with the traditional allocation methods.

Addressing the ‘postcode lottery’ in local resource allocation decisions: a framework for clinical commissioning groups

The NHS Constitution emphasizes patients’ rights to expect these decisions to be made ‘rationally’. The National Prescribing Centre (NPC), now the Medicines and Prescribing Centre at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, has directed considerable effort in recent years at defining the parameters of rational decisionmaking, and supporting PCTs in improving their approaches to prioritization and resource allocation. The NPC, commissioned by the Department of Health, embarked on a systematic process to develop a national ‘competency framework’ resource for those involved in making difficult prioritization decisions at a local level.This paper reports on how the NPC competency framework was developed, and presents a potentially transferable methodology for advancing a competency framework to support individual and organizational learning and improvement

A Two-Tiered On-Demand Resource Allocation Mechanism for VM-Based Data Centers

In a shared virtual computing environment, dynamic load changes as well as different quality requirements of applications in their lifetime give rise to dynamic and various capacity demands, which results in lower resource utilization and application quality using the existing static resource allocation. Furthermore, the total required capacities of all the hosted applications in current enterprise data centers, for example, Google, may surpass the capacities of the platform. In this paper, we argue that the existing techniques by turning on or off servers with the help of virtual machine (VM) migration is not enough. Instead, finding an optimized dynamic resource allocation method to solve the problem of on-demand resource provision for VMs is the key to improve the efficiency of data centers. However, the existing dynamic resource allocation methods only focus on either the local optimization within a server or central global optimization, limiting the efficiency of data centers. We propose a two-tiered on-demand resource allocation mechanism consisting of the local and global resource allocation with feedback to provide on-demand capacities to the concurrent applications. We model the on-demand resource allocation using optimization theory. Based on the proposed dynamic resource allocation mechanism and model, we propose a set of on-demand resource allocation algorithms. Our algorithms preferentially ensure performance of critical applications named by the data center manager when resource competition arises according to the time-varying capacity demands and the quality of applications. Using Rainbow, a Xen-based prototype we implemented, we evaluate the VM-based shared platform as well as the two-tiered on-demand resource allocation mechanism and algorithms. The experimental results show that Rainbow without dynamic resource allocation (Rainbow-NDA) provides 26 to 324 percent improvements in the application performance, as well as 26 percent higher average CPU utilization than traditional service computing framework, in which applications use exclusive servers. The two-tiered on-demand resource allocation further improves performance by 9 to 16 percent for those critical applications, 75 percent of the maximum performance improvement, introducing up to 5 percent performance degradations to others, with 1 to 5 percent improvements in the resource utilization in comparison with Rainbow-NDA.