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Because of the 2008 global financial crisis aftermaths, economic downturn and prolonged recession, several OECD countries have adopted an austerity compound by significantly reducing public health expenditure (PHE) for dealing with their fiscal pressure and sovereign-debt challenges. Against this backdrop, this study aims to examine the responsiveness of PHE to macro-fiscal determinants, demography, as well to private health insurance (PHI) financing.

The authors gather annual panel data from four international organizations databases for the total of OECD countries from a period lasting from 2000 to 2017. The authors apply static and dynamic econometric methodology to deal with panel data and assess the impact of several parameters on PHE.

The authors’ findings indicate that gross domestic product, fiscal capacity, tax revenues and population aging have a positive effect on PHE. Further, the authors find that both unemployment rate and voluntary private health insurance financing present a negative statistically significant impact on our estimated outcome variable. Different specifications and sample periods applied in the regression models reveal how inseparably associated are PHE and OECD's economies compliance on macro-fiscal policies for offsetting public finances derailment.

Providing more evidence on the responsiveness of PHE to several macro-fiscal drivers, it can be a helpful tool for governments to reconsider their persistence on fiscal adjustments measures and rank public health financing to the top of their political agenda. Health systems policies for meeting Universal Health Coverage (UHC) objectives, they should also take into consideration the voluntary PHI institution, especially for economies with insufficient fiscal capacity to raise public health financing.

To the best of knowledge, the impact of unemployment and voluntary PHI funding on public health financing, apart from other macro-fiscal and demographical parameters effect, remains unnoticed in the existing published studies on the topic.

The paper aims to establish a quality assurance framework for Chinese private higher education (PHE) in particular and for any newly-established higher education sector in general.

This research relied on published qualitative and quantitative data, existing literature, historical documents, and the authors' observations. It described the PHE growth context, analyzed the quality issue from three dimensions (academic, administrative, and relationship quality), and examined its quality assurance practice through three players.

The paper provides empirical insights about how quality and quality assurance issues have impacted on PHE development. To approach the issues, it suggests a “quality assurance triangle” framework that is composed of three PHE players (government, market, institution) and their joint association.

Because of the relative position of each player in current quality assurance, the success of its implementation in China depends on how the government establishes the triangle system and balances its dominating roles to ensure each of the players act independently and collaboratively.

This framework provides directions for establishing an appropriate quality assurance system for PHE in China.

This paper fulfills an identified need to setup a sound quality assurance system for PHE in China and contributes to quality assurance literature with a new framework.

This paper aims at testing several conditions using activated carbon for removing phenylalanine (Phe) from protein hydrolysates, in order to prepare dietary supplements for phenylketonurics, based on skim milk.

Six hydrolysates from skim milk were prepared, using a protease from Aspergillus oryzae (AO), isolated or in association with papain (PA). Some parameters were tested for removing Phe, such as amount of activated carbon, temperature and stirring time. The second derivative spectrophotometry was used to evaluate the efficiency of Phe removal.

The best condition for removing Phe was achieved using an activated carbon: casein ratio of 118 (in g), a stirring time of 30 min, at a temperature of 25°C, which produced 96 to 99 per cent of Phe removal. Among the hydrolytic conditions employed, the association of AO and PA (1 hour, 1 per cent and 4 hours, 2 per cent, respectively) led to the lowest absolute value for the final Phe concentration (0.060 × 10⁻⁴ mg/100 mg of protein).

Since we know, there is no formula for PKU on the market based on skim milk hydrolysed proteins. Isolated casein, the main milk protein, is the choice in most cases. This is a factor that may be taken in consideration especially in developing countries, where milk proteins are imported and, consequently, are much more expensive than skim milk.

This chapter explores the policy changes which occurred in English higher education since 2011 which resulted in new or private higher education (PHE) providers engaging in the sector with the same regulatory requirements as established institutions (the ‘level playing field’). This chapter begins by exploring some challenges in defining and understanding PHE in England and the United Kingdom and presents some international literature to frame the English sector against PHE developments in other countries, suggesting that England’s PHE sector is distinct from international examples as it did not emerge due to an inability on the part of the incumbent sector to provide sufficient diversity of opportunity to study in England, instead emerging through a perceived need for greater competition and efficiency in the sector. The policy development of the level playing field is outlined through a review of key policy statements and reviews. A review of a sample of Access and Participation Plans submitted by PHE providers in England is used to provide some contextual data around some of the challenges presented for small, specialist PHE providers engaging with and enacting national-level widening participation (WP) policy in England. Such challenges typically include small data sets which hamper thorough analysis of interventions, under-developed information technology (IT) and record systems, and a lack of specialist expertise. These findings provide some challenge to the idea that PHE or alternative providers are inherently good at recruiting and teaching WP students as many institutions appear to have limited capacity for the data analysis and evaluation required by the Office for Students (OfS) to support such claims.

The plate heat exchangers (PHE) with small size but large efficiency are compact types of heat exchangers formed by corrugated thin pressed plates, operating at higher pressures when compared to most other traditional exchangers. This paper aims to analyze heat transfer characteristics in the PHE experimentally and numerically.

Computational fluid dynamics analysis has been used to simulate the problem by using the ANSYS fluent 16 software. Also, the effect of using TiO₂/water nanofluid as working fluid was investigated. TiO₂/water nanofluid had 2% (Wt/Wt) nanoparticle content. To improve solubility of the TiO₂ nanoparticles, Triton X-100 was added to the mixture. The results have been achieved in different working condition with changes in fluid flow rate and its temperature.

The obtained results showed that using TiO₂/water nanofluid improved the overall heat transfer coefficient averagely as 6%, whereas maximum improvement in overall heat transfer coefficient was 10%. Also, theoretical and experimental results are in line with each other.

The most important feature which separates the present study from the literature is that nanofluid is prepared by using TiO₂ nanoparticles in optimum size and mixing ratio with surfactant usage to prevent sedimentation and flocculation problems. This process also prevents particle accumulation that may occur inside the PHE. The main aim of the present study is to predict heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids in a plate heat exchanger. Therefore, it will be possible to analyze thermal performance of the nanofluids without any experiment.

Mental health is an emerging health policy priority globally. The emphasis on closing the treatment gap in psychiatric services is now being complemented by an increasing focus on prevention and health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to describe the programmes and delivery of public mental health in England led by Public Health England (PHE), an arms-length body of the Department of Health and Social Care.

This technical paper outlines the general approach PHE has taken in delivering national work in public mental health and describes several key areas of work: children and young people, suicide prevention, workplace and workforce, strategic engagement with stakeholders, data and information and evidence synthesis.

A description of the various programmes and guidance documents that PHE have produced are described and referenced, which form a substantial body of work in public mental health.

The outputs from PHE may assist in informing the approach to public mental health that other government agencies could consider adopting. The resources described and signposted within this technical paper are publicly available for readers.

England is one of a small group of countries that have a track record in delivering public mental health at a national level. This paper gives a unique and detailed insight into this work.

Patients with phenylketonuria (PKU) require a phenylalanine (Phe)-restricted diet due to its toxic effects on such subjects. Considering the low availability of specific foods for these patients, the purpose of this paper is to make breads with low Phe content while also conducting physicochemical and sensory analysis of the samples.

Five bread formulations with a common base were prepared, in which manioc – Manihot esculenta (T1); Baroa potato – Arracacia xanthorrhiza (T2); sweet potatoes – Ipomoea batatas (T3); potatoes – Solanum tuberosum (T4); and, finally, yacon potato – Smallanthus sonchifolius (T5) were added.

The physical analysis showed that the samples had similar weight, height and size values, indicating that the use of different types of vegetables does not compromise the final result of the preparation. The chemical analysis showed that the loaves were low in protein and Phe and, therefore, are considered safe preparations for patients with PKU. In the sensory analysis, all the preparations presented satisfactory characteristics for consumption, specially the one with the addition of potato.

The preparation of breads with low Phe content is a challenging task as it is necessary to exclude formulations with flours that present better technological performance. However, the results in this study showed that it is possible to get around the difficulties and obtain a viable product with easily purchased ingredients. It is known that sensory analysis with PKU patients as judges could have changed these results because their perception can differ from that of general population. The workgroup is continuing this study and we intend to take sensory analysis with PKU patients to future, as they have a pathology, the study needs special care and respectful ethical aspects.

PKU has a direct influence on the daily diet of the patient, interfering with life decisions that go form eating at their home to where and what to eat in environments out of their control. Therefore, creating specific preparations for such patients is a challenge that assists in adherence to dietary therapy.

The study aims to use nanofluids as coolants for improving heat transfer peculiarities of plate heat exchangers (PHE). The experimental and numerical investigations are thoroughly performed using distilled water-based Al₂O₃, graphene nanoplatelet (GnP) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) nanofluids.

The numerical simulation based on Single Phase Model (SPM) was performed on a realistic 3 D model of PHE having similar dimensions as of the actual plate. The standard k-epsilon turbulent model was used to solve the problem. The concentration and flow rate of nanofluids were ranging from 0.1 to 1 Vol.% and 1 to 5 lpm, respectively, at 30°C. Whereas, hot side fluid is distilled water at 2 lpm and 80°C. The heat transfer characteristics such as bulk cold outlet temperature, heat transfer rate (HTR), heat transfer coefficient (HTC), Nusselt number (Nu), pressure drop, pumping power, effectiveness and exergy loss were experimentally evaluated using nanofluids in a PHE.

The experimental results were then compared with the numerical model. The experimental results revealed maximum enhancement in an average heat transfer rate of 9.86, 14.86 and 17.27% using Al₂O₃, GnP and MWCNT nanofluids, respectively, at 1 Vol.%. The present computational fluid dynamics model accurately predicts HTR, and the results deviate <1.1% with experiments for all the cases. The temperature and flow distribution show promising results using nanofluids.

The study helps to visualise heat transfer and flow distribution in PHE using different nanofluids under different operating conditions.

Using suspended nanoparticles in the base fluid is known as one of the most efficient ways for heat transfer augmentation and improving the thermal efficiency of various heat exchangers. Different types of nanofluids are available and used in different applications. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using hybrid nanofluid and number of plates on the performance of plate heat exchanger. In this study, TiO₂/water single nanofluid and TiO₂-Al₂O₃/water hybrid nanofluid with 1% particle weight ratio have been used to prepare hybrid nanofluid to use in plate type heat exchangers with three various number of plates including 8, 12 and 16.

The experiments have been conducted with the aim of examining the impact of plates number and used nanofluids on heat transfer enhancement. The performance tests have been done at 40°C, 45°C, 50°C and 55°C set outlet temperatures and in five various Reynolds numbers between 1,600 and 3,800. Also, numerical simulation has been applied to verify the heat and flow behavior inside the heat exchangers.

The results indicated that using both nanofluids raised the thermal performance of all tested exchangers which have a various number of plates. While the major outcomes of this study showed that TiO₂-Al₂O₃/water hybrid nanofluid has priority when compared to TiO₂/water single type nanofluid. Utilization of TiO₂-Al₂O₃/water nanofluid led to obtaining an average improvement of 7.5%, 9.6% and 12.3% in heat transfer of heat exchangers with 8, 12 and 16 plates, respectively.

In the present work, experimental and numerical analyzes have been conducted to investigate the influence of using TiO₂-Al₂O₃/water hybrid nanofluid in various plate heat exchangers. The attained findings showed successful utilization of TiO₂-Al₂O₃/water nanofluid. Based on the obtained results increasing the number of plates in the heat exchanger caused to obtain more increment by using both types of nanofluids.

A Catastrophe Theory Model modified for the explanation of the evolution/revolution of behavior in the securities market can be classified in the realm of behavioral finance. An early model of the Cusp Catastrophe Model modified to explain speculative crashes appeared in Zeeman (1976, 1977). Later, Pruden expanded upon Zeeman’s use of the Cusp Model version of Catastrophe Theory to allow for “buying stampedes” as well as “selling panics”. Pruden also established connections between the Cusp Catastrophe Model and technical market analysis. Whereas the Catastrophe Theory Model, like other models from the behavioral sciences, provides a positive scientific theory as to the “why” of behavior in the stock market, technical market analysis furnishes a nominal theory of rules and principles about “how” a trader or investor may profit from the behavior observed in the stock market. Hence, the presupposition is that behavioral science models that explain the stock market behavior provide solid scientific foundations upon which to base the principles and practices of technical market analysis.