A crisis for public-private partnerships (PPPs)?

The credit squeeze and recession are combining to make PPPs almost impossible to finance, anywhere in the world. Traditional government borrowing and procurement can still be used to implement infrastructure programmes.

Private equity, productivity and earnings

A detailed study in the USA shows that workers experience a relative fall in earnings after a takeover by private equity. Also, companies bought by private equity are at great risk of defaulting on their debts in the next 2 years.

Can density functional theory (DFT) be used as an aid to a deeper understanding of tandem mass spectrometric fragmentation pathways?

Prediction of tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) fragmentation for non-peptidic molecules based on structure is of immense interest to the mass spectrometrist. If a reliable approach to MS/MS prediction could be achieved its impact within the pharmaceutical industry could be immense. Many publications have stressed that the fragmentation of a molecular ion or protonated molecule is a complex process that depends on many parameters, making prediction difficult. Commercial prediction software relies on a collection of general heuristic rules of fragmentation, which involve cleaving every bond in the structure to produce a list of 'expected' masses which can be compared with the experimental data. These approaches do not take into account the thermodynamic or molecular orbital effects that impact on the molecule at the point of protonation which could influence the potential sites of bond cleavage based on the structural motif. A series of compounds have been studied by examining the experimentally derived high-resolution MS/MS data and comparing it with the in silico modelling of the neutral and protonated structures. The effect that protonation at specific sites can have on the bond lengths has also been determined. We have calculated the thermodynamically most stable protonated species and have observed how that information can help predict the cleavage site for that ion. The data have shown that this use of in silico techniques could be a possible way to predict MS/MS spectra. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Can evidence-based healthy housing interventions be put into practice in the UK's private housing sector?

The UK’s public health agenda has encouraged enhanced housing and health interventions. The private housing sector (privately rented and owner occupied) is the favoured and majority UK tenure, but is it seen as a primarily health promoting environment, or a commercial asset? There has been a growing interest in integrating health and housing policy in recent years. However, housing and public health fall under separate government departments and funding regimes. Partnership working has sought to overcome silo working and encourage evidence-based practice, yet is particularly challenging for interventions in the private housing sector, with an increased emphasis on ‘personal responsibility’ for conditions. Strategic public health frameworks are in place, but barriers remain and there is pressure for organisations to revert to core activities. An accessible, continually updated evidence base specific to private sector housing is recommended, to help estimate health gain arising from interventions to prioritise activities and address inequalities.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) summary paper

The summary of three reports on PPPs in Europe, including a critical overview, a study of alternatives, and a study on the protection of working conditions, in the context of EU law on procurement and other subjects.

Private equity and employment - the Davos/WEF/Harvard study

The World Economic Forum at Davos has published a major study showing that workplaces of firms taken over by private equity have 10% less employees 5 years after the takeover, than other similar workplaces. The rate of plant closures, opening, acquisitions and disposals is twice as high as in other firms, and the net effect is still a job loss of 3.6%-4.5% after only 2 years, compared with other firms. Firms taken over by private equity are also more likely to go bankrupt than publicly quoted firms.

Private equity: financial investors, public services, and employment

The report surveys the activity of private equity and other financial investors in the water, waste and healthcare sectors in Europe. It includes the appraisal of a WEF study on employment effects.

More public rescues for more private finance failures - a critique of the EC Communication on PPPs

A critique of the EC Communication on PPPs, challenging the scale of state aid offered to PPPs, the role of PPPs in the economic recovery strategy for the EU, and drawing attention to the damage done to public authorities by 'innovative' financing mechanisms.

Replacing failed private water contracts

Failed private water concessions have been terminated and replaced with public sector operations in many countries. The paper reviews the negotiating processes involved in these terminations.