Suchergebnisse

The perennial abject poverty in Africa has motivated this thesis to inquire into some of the factors that impede economic growth which affect the living standard of the people on the continent where the average person survives on less than a dollar per day. This essay has picked corruption as a topic to investigate for its effects on economic growth in Africa. Other factors that also affect and impede economic growth such as government debt, unemployment and population (children) have been selected as control variables for the purpose of eliminating alternative explanations in order to know the exact magnitude of the effects of corruption on economic growth. The hybrid nature of this thesis connects two subjects including Political Science and Economics. Largely in part, corruption is strictly within the purview of scholars in Political Science who claim it is a problem of good governance based upon Institutions. The other three subjects government debt, unemployment and population (children) are strictly within the purview of Economics and scholars apply these concepts as foundations and basics for their economic theories. Because of the divergent approaches with different methodological tools from these two subjects to the research for the effects of corruption on economic growth, empirical studies are very rare and with the exemption of Paolo Mauro who pioneered empirical research into the effects of corruption on economic growth, the literature review is empty. This is understandable because scholars from each subject decided to stick to their lane and mind their own business by doing what they do best and only with the subjects from their field of study. To cross over into another discipline from one of these subjects into the other, as required by this research question entails a lot of versatility of knowledge in both disciplines. Being that both subjects are from the same Social Sciences family, the methodological tools from Political Science could be used to investigate causality. Thus for empirical ...

This thesis aims to show how to enhance social housing governance through system dynamics and dynamic performance management. Particularly it analyzes the Vietnam housing sector and also social housing governance to identify possible political leverage upon which to intervene in order to improve the performance of the whole system. During the last decades, social housing emerged as a critical problem for both national and local governments. A main driver of social housing has been recognized in the increasing population size, as well as the in the urbanization of big cities, the growing number of nuclear families, affordability and land management and urban planning. The management of social housing – as a global concern – requests that local communities and regional government are ready to tackle such a wicked problem effectively. This concern is the motivation of this research. Therefore, the work would offer a contribution to improve the social housing governance and to support policy-makers in adopting a more integrated approach to the housing sector. ; This thesis aims to show how to enhance social housing governance through system dynamics and dynamic performance management. Particularly it analyzes the Vietnam housing sector and also social housing governance to identify possible political leverage upon which to intervene in order to improve the performance of the whole system. During the last decades, social housing emerged as a critical problem for both national and local governments. A main driver of social housing has been recognized in the increasing population size, as well as the in the urbanization of big cities, the growing number of nuclear families, affordability and land management and urban planning. The management of social housing – as a global concern – requests that local communities and regional government are ready to tackle such a wicked problem effectively. This concern is the motivation of this research. Therefore, the work would offer a contribution to improve the social housing governance and to support policy-makers in adopting a more integrated approach to the housing sector.

Population-based reference intervals (RIs) are vital tools used to characterize health and disease based on laboratory values. The science and statistical basis for RI generation have evolved over the past 50 yr. Current veterinary-specific guidelines by the American Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology exist for establishing RIs from nondomestic and wild animals. A list of 35 items that should be included during generation and publication of reference data was distilled from the currently available RI guidelines. The archives of five peer-reviewed journals were searched and 106 articles presenting laboratory reference data from nondomestic or wildlife species were identified and each reviewed by two authors to determine compliance with the list of 35 items. A compliance score was calculated as the number of articles that fulfilled the item out of the number where it would have been appropriate to fulfill the item. Most articles reported the number of reference individuals (compliance score 0.98), their partitioning demographics (compliance score 0.95), and sample collection and handling practices (compliance scores 0.97 and 0.96, respectively). Common deficiencies included omitting discussion of the validation status of the analytical methods for the species being evaluated (compliance score 0.12), documentation of use of exclusion criteria (compliance score 0.51), outlier detection (compliance score 0.43), appropriate statistical methods for the reference population (compliance score 0.34), and calculation and presentation of confidence intervals around the reference limits (compliance score 0.35). Compliance scores were not statistically different when stratified on the number of individuals in the largest and smallest evaluated group or the format of the article (full vs short format). Articles that cited RI generation guidelines fulfilled more of the required steps and provided a more complete description of their data (compliance score 0.74) than those that did not cite guidelines (compliance score 0.58). Additional attention to the science of and recommendations for RI generation is recommended to strengthen the utility of published data.

Background: The uptake of a Covid-19 vaccine will be instrumental in limiting the spread of the disease as herd immunity requires coverage of up to 80% of the population. Purpose: To identify the predictors associated with the willingness to get vaccinated against Covid-19 once a vaccine becomes available, and to investigate whether they coincide with the predictors of attitudes towards vaccination in general. Methods: A representative sample of 2,060 Belgians were surveyed between 6 and 16 October 2020. Results: 34% (n=651) of the participants reported that they will definitely vaccinate against Covid-19 once a vaccine is available and 39% (n=742) that they would "probably" vaccinate. A multivariate analysis found that increased intended uptake was strongly associated with age, opinion on the government's dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, medical risk and spoken language, and to a lesser extent with sex and having known someone who was hospitalised because of Covid-19. Similar predictors were identified for attitudes to vaccination; however, Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy was more marked in age groups below 54 years old. We further analysed a sample of 17% (n=349) of the participants found favourable to vaccination in general but not willing to vaccinate against Covid-19. These inconsistent people were mainly female, young, French speaking, slightly less educated, and working. They also did not belong to a Covid-19 risk group, were very dissatisfied with the government's dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and did not know personally someone who was hospitalized because of Covid-19. Conclusions: The majority of Belgians intend to vaccinate, though uptake is lower in groups at lower risk of severe forms of Covid-19. While most of the population is aware of the collective welfare of infectious disease vaccination, Covid-19 is not perceived as any infectious disease and exhibits higher levels of vaccination hesitancy. Communication campaigns will need to inform on the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccination to encourage uptake.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of rich countries from water in African even in the word. However, since late years, it faces to a lack of drinking water.Indeed, only small part of the population of the country has access to water as well as sanitation services. Maniema is one of the provinces of the country that have difficulties in supplying safe water, even though there are several policies and strategies which have been implemented through the country, like the International Decade for Drinking Water and Sanitation as well as Millennium Development Goals, and recently the Sustainable Development Goals.However, it is to be noticed that thanks to the later, the tendency is going to turn over, to the extent that government actors and stakeholders have become aware of the need to implement actions that take precedence over the supply of Water and sanitation.The present thesis has therefore as the objective to highlight the difficulties of rural safe water supply in the Democratic Republic of Congo face to the challenge of the Objective 6 of Sustainable Development Goals, the example of the province of Maniema; and the solutions put in place by stakeholders to eradicate this scourge.It has shown a short story about the different initiatives put in place in The Democratic Republic of Congo since 1980 by evaluating the attended results, from the lessons for each of them with a focus in particular about Maniema province.Maniema, being among the provinces of The Democratic Republic of Congo there is a weak rate in drinking water supply, we evaluated the efforts realized by the public power and the private in case of lasting the Objective 6 of Sustainable Development Goals because the country has not succeed to attend the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals should appear as a second luck and a challenge for about, once more, turn over the present tendency where 80% of the population has no access to safe drinking water in plenty and required quality.But the major fear results by the ...

International audience ; Our article aims to study the link between crisis and identity within European civilization. For this, we have chosen as the cornerstone of our reflection The Persians by Aeschylus, a tragedy that by staging for the first time the separation between the Greeks and the Persians aspires to create and celebrate a supranational Greek identity. The playwright chooses to base this opposition on the different political and socio-identity systems of the two peoples: on the one hand, he describes the Persian Empire, an unequal society in which the people is a conglomerate of heterogeneous populations which have nothing in common with each other except a forced loyalty to the king; on the other hand, he portrays Greek cultural and political unity, which asks every citizen to engage directly, to be ready to fight for his family, his polis and his supranational community.After studying the etymological and historical links between crisis, separation, and identity, we will relate these concepts to contemporary European identity, seeking to give a possible definition. We think along the same lines as Aeschylus and Snyder: besides its history and its culture, what defines Europe and its identity in the past as in our days are its institutions, its capacity to create an area of civil rights and welfare without equivalents in the rest of the world. ; Notre article a pour objectif d'étudier le lien entre crise et identité à l'intérieur de la civilisation européenne. Pour cela, nous avons choisi comme pierre angulaire de notre réflexion Les Perses d'Eschyle, une tragédie qui, en mettant en scène pour la première fois la séparation entre les Grecs et les Perses, vise à forger et célébrer l'identité grecque supranationale. Le dramaturge choisit de baser cette opposition sur les différents systèmes politiques et socio-identitaires des deux peuples : d'un côté, il nous décrit l'Empire perse, une société inégale à l'intérieur de laquelle le peuple est un conglomérat de populations hétéroclites qui n'ont rien en ...

In 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) partnered with the Government of Bihar (GoB), India to launch the Ananya program to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition (RMNCHN) outcomes. The program sought to address supply- and demand-side barriers to the adoption, coverage, quality, equity and health impact of select RMNCHN interventions. Approaches included strengthening frontline worker service delivery; social and behavior change communications; layering of health, nutrition and sanitation into women's self-help groups (SHGs); and quality improvement in maternal and newborn care at primary health care facilities. Ananya program interventions were piloted in approximately 28 million population in eight innovation districts from 2011-2013, and then beginning in 2014, were scaled up by the GoB across the rest of the state's population of 104 million. A Bihar Technical Support Program provided techno-managerial support to governmental Health as well as Integrated Child Development Services, and the JEEViKA Technical Support Program supported health layering and scale-up of the GoB's SHG program. The level of support at the block level during statewide scale-up in 2014 onwards was approximately one-fourth that provided in the pilot phase of Ananya in 2011-2013. This paper - the first manuscript in an 11-manuscript and 2-viewpoint collection on Learning from Ananya: Lessons for primary health care performance improvement - seeks to provide a broad description of Ananya and subsequent statewide adaptation and scale-up, and capture the background and context, key objectives, interventions, delivery approaches and evaluation methods of this expansive program. Subsequent papers in this collection focus on specific intervention delivery platforms. For the analyses in this series, Stanford University held key informant interviews and worked with the technical support and evaluation grantees of the Ananya program, as well as leadership from the India Country Office of the BMGF, to analyse and synthesise data from multiple sources. Capturing lessons from the Ananya pilot program and statewide scale-up will assist program managers and policymakers to more effectively design and implement RMNCHN programs at scale through technical assistance to governments.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has been involved in the construction of artificial reefs (ARs) since the 1950s. Then in 1985, the California Artificial Reef Program (CARP) was created by legislative statute to address declines in various southern California marine species. The CARP is managed by CDFW but no longer receives funding to manage this program. Before CDFW can support further creation of ARs we need to identify gaps in the program and know how ARs affect marine species and the marine ecosystems. This will ultimately inform a scientifically based statewide AR management plan, which CDFW needs to support in the program. The first step into making informed management decisions of the ARs is to complete a literature review of published material and to survey the type, number, and placement of ARs. The results of this survey need to be standardized and transparent in order for the CDFW to review, compare, and make informed management decisions. Some critical data to include in the surveys will be reef attributes (the quality and specific features of the reef), fish density, biomass, and the assemblage of the AR structure. Identification of gaps in the CARP and the organization and standardization of timely and regular AR assessments will then allow resource managers and stakeholders to use the best available science to make the most informed management decisions possible. With the ocean continuing to warm and acidify and the world population continuing to increase, fish populations and marine ecosystems are at risk and face unforeseen dangers, including the reduction of fish stocks and the degradation of marine habitat. Rebuilding depleted stocks typically involves conventional fisheries management approaches, such as seasons, quotas, size limits, gear restrictions, MPAs, or even fishery closures. The concept of stock enhancement has been debated as another potential tool in the fisheries management toolbox, and may be possible with the successful implementation of CA's ARs. CDFW has been involved with the AR program for decades but currently has no statewide management plan to guide placement, development, and testing of AR effectiveness and functionality.

Abstract— The Economic development increasingly requires sustainable supply chains of goods and services at the regional, national and global levels. Labor markets are as important as building the supply chain infrastructure; unbalanced labor market negatively affects supply chains by making them experience significant difficulties in hiring personnel necessary to ensure supply-chain sustainability. In turn, the labor market and its balance are influenced by a number of factors which are not fully reflected in available studies. This confirms the relevance of the present research. The purpose of the study is to investigate factors affecting labor force in the supply chain. Based on the comparative, didactic and descriptive analysis of regional and national demographic and socio-economic indicators, labor market indicators of the Turkestan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan as an indicative region, the study of national and international legislation, practices and literature related to supply chains and the labor market, the following results were obtained. The region is dominated by agricultural and industrial supply chains with a significant prevalence of the former. Despite the enormous agro-industrial, transport, resource, mineral and raw material, climatic, educational and labor potential of the region, the development of the region, the creation of new and development of existing supply chains are significantly hampered by a number of reasons, including inefficient and low-productivity agriculture, technological backwardness, and immobility of material and technical resources. Common factors affecting the labor surplus of a region (country) have been identified in the study based on the example of the given region. The major factors are a high natural and mechanical population growth rate; high growth rates of human resources that outstrip the growth rate of jobs; prevailing rural population; a deeper crisis in traditional industries and decreased enterprise demand for the labor force. The research methods and results will allow scientists and public officers to apply the information to design national and regional programs aimed at developing regions, creating regional, national and global supply chains, labor market development, including solving the problems of its imbalance and labor surplus.

When learning a new language, the use of an L2 known by a multilingual learner is encouraged by the CEFR. However, certain representations regarding this support language can sometimes reduce the positive effect of its use. In this thesis, we study the two main linguistic populations of Estonia: Estonian speakers and Russian speakers. The main focus of this thesis aims to verify that having an advanced level of English allows the two groups concerned to make use of it when learning French. The different representations that these two cultural groups have about English will also be explored. English is democratizing more and more in the country, especially among the young generation, which generates contrasting opinions against it. To carry out our research, we distributed a questionnaire to learners of French from the University of Tartu (level A0 to B1). The results should allow us to consider the use of English as a support language in the FFL class, while considering the representations expressed towards this language by the different cultural groups taught. ; Lors de l'apprentissage d'une langue nouvelle, l'appui sur une L2 connue de l'apprenant plurilingue est encouragé par le CECRL. Cependant, certaines représentations à l'égard de cette langue d'appui peuvent parfois altérer l'effet positif de son utilisation. Dans ce mémoire, nous étudierons les deux principales populations linguistiques d'Estonie : les estonophones et les russophones. L'axe principal sur lequel nous travaillons doit nous aider à vérifier que le fait d'avoir un niveau d'anglais avancé permet, aux deux groupes concernés, de s'y référer lors de leur apprentissage du français. Les différentes représentations que ces deux groupes culturels ont de l'anglais seront aussi approfondies. L'anglais se démocratise de plus en plus dans le pays, notamment chez la jeune génération, ce qui engendre des opinions contrastées à son encontre. Pour effectuer notre recherche, nous avons choisi d'utiliser un questionnaire, distribué à des apprenants de français de l'université de Tartu (niveau A0 à B1). Les résultats doivent nous permettre d'envisager l'utilisation de l'anglais comme langue d'appui en classe de FLE, tout en considérant les représentations exprimées envers cette langue par les différents groupes culturels enseignés.

The aging of European societies is reshaping their population pyramids. The increase in life expectancy and the decrease in the fertility rate lead to an increasing share of the elderly population. This leads to rising age-related expenditures, especially public pension expenditures to GDP. Consequently, economies are reforming their pension systems to make them more sustainable. Next to the aging-related challenges, the new EU members, eleven post-socialist economies: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia share a similar history of restructuring of their pension systems and establishment of a multi-pillar system. The objective of this article is to examine the similarities and differences between the pension systems of the selected post-transition economies of the European Union to establish the basis for further research, simulations, and assumptions on the impact of future pension reforms. For that purpose, we apply Ward's clustering methodology on three variable groups in three selected years: 1996, 2006, and 2016. The idea of clustering economies in three years with a 10-year gap is relevant since it reveals how the cluster structure is changing over time. Additionally, three periods represent three different phases in the pension systems' development. Three groups of variables were used for cluster analysis. First, pension systems' characteristics include average effective retirement age, pension expenditure, and replacement rate. Second, demographics encompass fertility rate, life expectancy at the age of 65, net migration rate, and old-age dependency ratio. Third, the macroeconomics and labour market variables refer to the GDP growth rate, real labour productivity, labour force participation rate, and the unemployment rate. Results of cluster analysis show that the composition of the countries in the extracted clusters changes significantly, both throughout the observed period and when looking at different variable groups. Our results revealed that the pension systems of economies with later retirement proved to be more sustainable, during the three observed periods, due to lower pension expenditures that are in turn positively reflected in the favourable economic conditions and their labour market.

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study was to compare the financial information, financial self-efficacy and emotional intelligence on the financial management of women lecturer in state and private university. Methodology: This study was designed as a conclusive causality study. The study population was female lectures of state and private universities in Indonesia. From the population, there are two hundred (200) female lectures from a state university and private universities have selected as a sample of study by quota sampling method. The data collection techniques used in this research are interviews and surveys. Multiple regressions was chosen to get results with the SPSS tools. Main Findings: There is an influence of financial knowledge, financial self-efficacy, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence to the financial management behavior of female lecturers at state universities while there is no influence of financial attitude, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence to the financial management [behavior] of female university lecturers in private universities. Applications of this study: The results of this study will be beneficial for financial institutions and governments that usually hold education and training programs for their customers to increase financial knowledge so as to increase the confidence of their customers (including lecturers) in their ability to manage finance. Furthermore, this knowledge will be conveyed back to the students of the lecturer in the learning process about finance, so that it will indirectly increase the financial literacy of their students and society at large. Novelty/Originality of this study: Many researches about financial behavior topics have analyzed financial information factors' influence on financial management behavior, but few of them have included psychological factors such as financial self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. This distinguishes this research compared to other studies of financial behavior as it analyzes the two effects of psychological factors on financial management behavior. Another novelty of this study is the selection of female lecturer as research object as their characteristic as well-informed and well-educated about financial management that has not observed by previous studies.

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to provide a new theoretical interpretation of how nation-States have exercised control over targeted ethnic communities through the repressive act of camp internment. It uses two major global historical events as the frame of reference: the internment of the Chinese ethnic community in India during the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict, and internment of the Japanese ethnic population in Canada during World War II. Methodology: This study draws on Michel Foucault's theories on "biopolitics" to analyze the States' mechanisms of control during wartime periods. The Foucauldian framework of "biopolitics" is used as a theoretical tool to develop a concurrent study on the internment experiences of the two ethnic groups, and provide a new understanding of the conceptualization of this regulatory decision enforced by the government. Main Findings: The findings show the internment as an expression of State-regulated biopolitical control, in which groups of people come under the administration of a power whose sole function is to subjugate their lives and bodies by detaining them in camps. It concludes that a mass internment decisions, usually taken under the pretext of "national security," undermines the democratic set-up of a nation. Applications of this study: Taken together, findings of this study contribute to scholarly discussions in the field of social sciences and humanities. It will be of particular interest to those engaged in a contemporary interpretation of discriminatory actions against minority communities in the larger global context. It, however, carries a relevance beyond scholarly discourses – it warns us against replication of such unwarranted episodes in the future. Novelty/Originality of this study: Unlike most biopolitical studies regarding authoritarian regimes, this one develops the arguments through internment cases that occurred in the world's two leading democracies. Though Japanese Canadian internment has been studied widely, Chinese Indian study is still nascent. Analyzing these episodes together under theoretical paradigms throws new insights on the State's exertion of power upon a targeted population in a modern democratic system.Japanese Canadian Internment

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of avoidable deaths. Economic migrants represent a vulnerable population due to their exposure to medical and social risk factors. These factors expose them to higher risks for TB incidence and poor treatment outcomes. METHODS This cross-sectional study evaluated WHO-defined TB treatment outcomes among economic migrants in an urban district of Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. We measured the association of a patient's government-defined residency status with treatment success and loss to follow-up categories at baseline and performed a comparative interrupted time series (ITS) analysis to assess the impact of community-based adherence support on treatment outcomes. Key measures of interest of the ITS were the differences in step change (β) and post-intervention trend (β). RESULTS Short-term, inter-province migrants experienced lower treatment success (aRR = 0.95 [95% CI: 0.92-0.99], p = 0.010) and higher loss to follow-up (aOR = 1.98 [95% CI: 1.44-2.72], p 55 years of age (aRR = 0.93 [95% CI: 0.89-0.96], p < 0.001), relapse patients (aRR = 0.89 [95% CI: 0.84-0.94], p < 0.001), and retreatment patients (aRR = 0.62 [95% CI: 0.52-0.75], p < 0.001) had lower treatment success rates. TB/HIV co-infection was also associated with lower treatment success (aRR = 0.77 [95% CI: 0.73-0.82], p < 0.001) and higher loss to follow-up (aOR = 2.18 [95% CI: 1.55-3.06], p < 0.001). The provision of treatment adherence support increased treatment success (IRR(β) = 1.07 [95% CI: 1.00, 1.15], p = 0.041) and reduced loss to follow-up (IRR(β) = 0.17 [95% CI: 0.04, 0.69], p = 0.013) in the intervention districts. Loss to follow-up continued to decline throughout the post-implementation period (IRR(β) = 0.90 [95% CI: 0.83, 0.98], p = 0.019). CONCLUSIONS Economic migrants, particularly those crossing provincial borders, have higher risk of poor treatment outcomes and should be prioritized for tailored adherence support. In light of accelerating urbanization in many regions of Asia, implementation trials are needed to inform evidence-based design of strategies for this vulnerable population.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Unhealthy diets are one of four main behavioral risk factors contributing to the majority of NCDs. To promote healthy eating and reduce dietary risks, the Australian Commonwealth Government established the Healthy Food Partnership (HFP). In 2018, the HFP consulted on proposed nutrient reformulation targets for 36 food categories to improve the overall quality of the food supply. This study assessed whether the proposed targets were feasible and appropriate. The HFP used a five-step approach to inform the proposed targets. We replicated and extended this approach using a different nutrient composition database (FoodSwitch). Products in FoodSwitch were mapped to the proposed HFP targets. The proportion of products meeting each target was calculated and the FoodSwitch data were compared with HFP data to determine whether the proposed target nutrient levels were appropriate or whether a more stringent target was feasible. Products from the FoodSwitch database (10,599) were mapped against the proposed HFP categories: 8434 products across 30 categories for sodium, 2875 products across seven categories for sugar, and 612 products across five categories for saturated fat. The analyses revealed that 14 of 30 proposed HFP targets for sodium, one of seven targets for sugar, and one of five targets for saturated fat were feasible and appropriate. For the remaining 26 reformulation targets, the results indicate that these target levels could be more stringent and alternative targets are proposed. The draft HFP targets are feasible but the majority are too conservative. If Australia is to meet its commitment to a 30 per cent reduction in the average population salt intake by 2025, these targets could be implemented as interim targets to be reached within two years. However, the opportunity exists to improve the food supply and strengthen the HFP&rsquo ; s population health impact by adopting more ambitious and incremental targets. Reformulation programs should be prioritized and closely monitored as part of a coordinated, multi-faceted national food and nutrition strategy.