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Spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) are a type of black carbon that are often not counted or recorded during palynological analysis. These fly-ash particles are formed from the incomplete, high- temperature combustion of fossil fuels and are transported to depositional environments downwind of their sources. They are chemically inert and not produced naturally, and thus have the potential to be a marker of anthropogenic impact. SCPs were common in palynological preparations of sediments deposited in the meromictic basin of Crawford Lake, Ontario since the mid-20th century as well as in samples processed using standard protocols. They were also abundant in sediments of this age in western Lake Ontario (Lan and Breslin, 1999) reflecting the rapid increase in regional fossil fuel combustion and industrial activity that has been proposed to mark the base of the Anthropocene epoch (McCarthy et al., 2023). Higher SCP concentrations were identified in palynological preparations than in preparations made following standard protocol. SCPs are being analysed from identical samples from the proposed Anthropocene paratype core archived at the Royal Ontario Museum prepared for both palynological and SCP analysis. This one-to-one comparison will provide insight on what causes the differences in SCP concentrations between the two methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One managerial narrative describes COVID-19 as a trigger for innovation in health system planning and delivery. Analysing 32 interviews with national stakeholders in Colombia's health system, this paper argues that an "innovation" narrative provides a partial account of managerial responses to COVID-19. COVID-19 triggered positive and negative effects on adaptive resilience: as mirror for recognising problems predating the pandemic; as accelerator of service changes; as source of solidarity among professional groups; as workforce trauma; and as disruptor of adjacent improvement activity. The paper concludes that multi-level sources of adaptive resilience, and the costs of its practice, need to be recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 had presented challenges to the healthcare systems and healthcare professionals in all countries. After one year of the pandemic, the evidence begins to consolidate, and the literature demands the documentation of the experiences lived by healthcare professionals and other frontline actors. This systematic review of primary qualitative studies depicts the experiences and perceptions of organizations and actors at multiple levels of health systems internationally in responding to COVID-19. Six main databases of biomedical information, public health and health administration research were searched over the period 1 October 2019 to 21 October 2020. Information extracted from included studies was analysed thematically. Twenty-two articles were selected for full assessment. Considering the professional level experiences, the most predominant themes of the studies consisted of the new roles and responsibilities of healthcare workers, burnout and distress, unseen healthcare workers, and positive changes and emergent solutions amid the crisis. Recommendations of the studies discussed mainly about the urge to provide psychological support, and leadership for managers and health authorities. Continuous training, regulation of working conditions, providing supportive resources, coordinating a diversity of actors, and reviewing and updating regulations were recommendations of a wider system support. The experiences of frontline healthcare workers had been the focus of attention of primary qualitative studies as of October 2020. Knowledge gaps and the need for primary research were identified in the organisational and national levels that could answer to the needs of the workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporatization, the conversion of state-owned enterprises into semi- autonomous, legally independent entities, has gained in popularity internationally since the 1980s. However, this usage of the term has become entangled with other organizational reforms associated with new public management and appears to have lost its distinctiveness in many contemporary studies of corporatization. This scoping review of recent literature on corporatization among health care organizations internationally aimed to assess its impact on processes and outcomes and appraise the usefulness of the concept for future research and policymaking in this field. The review finds that evidence regarding the impact of corporatization on organizational processes and outcomes is mixed and weak; and, that its impact is mediated by processes at the professional, organizational and macro levels. We argue that the term corporatization lacks both sensitivity and specificity in recent public management literature and call for greater clarity concerning how corporatization is defined in future research and how it relates to other types of public management reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]