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In Chapter VIII of his Second Treatise on Government John Locke claims that «if a man owns or enjoys some part of the land under a given government, while that enjoyment lasts he gives his tacit consent to the laws of that government.» According to that claim, whoever is benefited through a certain form of treatment would offer for that very reason a kind of tacit consent to it, unless s/he expresses the contrary. The goal of this paper is to critically analyze the link between consent and the idea of the beneficial as figured out by Locke. To this end, I will appeal to a semantics centered on personal or agent-relative reasons for action, which are the reasons that ultimately explain, as I will argue, the justificatory power of consent in the different normative domains of our life. ; Afirma John Locke en el Capítulo VIII de su Segundo tratado sobre el gobierno civil que «todo hombre que tenga posesiones o disfrute de alguna parte de los dominios de cualquier gobierno, está por ello dando su tácito consentimiento de sumisión». Según esta tesis, quien es beneficiado mediante cierta forma de trato, brindaría por eso mismo una suerte de consentimiento tácito al mismo, a menos que exprese lo contrario. El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar críticamente el vínculo que establece Locke entre el consentimiento y la idea de beneficio. Para ello, apelaré a una semántica centrada en las razones personales o agencialmente relativas para actuar, que son las que explican en última instancia, según argüiré, el poder justificatorio del consentimiento en los distintos ámbitos normativos de nuestra vida.

The literature on the political economy of development argues that many middle-income countries could not develop strong vocational education and training systems because of the lack of political coalitions that would support such systems. However, these researchers have overlooked the role of partisan politics, domain of political competition and the links of insiders and outsiders with political parties. This article addresses this gap by studying the case of Turkey in the 2000s, when the country was governed by the Justice and Development Party and experienced important changes in its vocational education and training system. It investigates the political shifts in these years and the impact of these shifts on vocational education and training policies. The article argues that the governing Justice and Development Party played a key role in the changes in the Turkish vocational education and training system. Small and medium enterprises and labour market outsiders, which were the outsiders of the political and economic system, formed Justice and Development Party's main constituents. Different from the previous parties, Justice and Development Party focused on the economic interests of outsiders and vocational education and training became an important tool to address such interests of both groups. The Justice and Development Party governments integrated the interests of both small and medium enterprises and workers into the vocational education and training policies in the 2000s, which has led to a vocational education and training system with high state commitment, higher firm involvement and higher permeability between vocational and general education. This research is based on process-tracing of the political dynamics and vocational education and training system developments in Turkey in 2002–2011. The data comprise primary and secondary documents, as well as interviews with several stakeholders.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the role of social factors in facilitating pro-social behavior among Arsi Negelle Preparatory school students. The research employed crosssectional research design of quantitative method. Out of 1170 grade eleven and twelve students, 299 students were selected were selected using stratified systematic random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics were computed to summarize the participants' demographic characteristics and the most observed pro-social behavior type. Independent t -test was also used to test the significance mean difference between gender while one way ANOVA was employed to quantify the family income and parental education in facilitating pro-social behavior among students. The findings showed that among domain of pro-social behavior, complaint was the most observed pro-social behavior while altruism was the least observed pro-social behavior among students. There was a significant mean difference in score of overall pro-social behavior between male and female students. There was also statistically significant difference among respondents in their overall pro-social behavior and all types of pro-social behaviors score facilitated by their mother's and father's level of education. On the other hand, there was statistically insignificant difference among respondents in their overall pro-social behavior scores that can be facilitated by their family/guardian's level of income. As a result, students were mostly involved in helping others in response to a verbal or nonverbal request. Moreover, being male or female and mother's level of education has had an influence in involving pro-social behavior. However, family/guardian's level of income difference has no influence in facilitating overall pro-social behavior. Based on the aforementioned implications, parents, teachers, neighbors, religious leaders, government and non-government bodies are recommended to play a role in promoting pro-social behavior among the students.

In Quebec, the participation of community organizations in the development of social policies at the provincial level since the 1970s is a well-known and well documented empirical reality. Using the notion of institutional work as developed by sociological institutionalism, we demonstrate how actors from the third sector have been able to play an active role in the institutionalization of some of their practices, thus accomplishing work towards the creation of institutions. Basing ourselves on three case studies on innovative practices in the health and social services (the Carpe Diem approach, the autonomous management of medication, and community support for social housing), we highlight two forms of institutional work exercised by these actors: the constitution of normative networks, which favors the change of policy norms in a given field, and the construction of identities, which conditions collective action. ; Au Québec, la participation des organismes communautaires à l'élaboration et à la mise en oeuvre des politiques sociales au niveau provincial depuis les années 1970 est une réalité empirique connue et bien documentée. En nous appuyant sur la notion de travail institutionnel, telle que développé par l'institutionnalisme sociologique, nous démontrons comment ces acteurs du tiers secteur ont pu jouer un rôle actif dans l'institutionnalisation de certaines de leurs pratiques et opérer ainsi un travail de création institutionnelle. À partir de trois études de cas dans le domaine de la santé et des services sociaux portant sur des pratiques innovantes (approche Carpe Diem, gestion autonome de la médication et soutien communautaire en logement social), nous faisons ressortir plus particulièrement deux formes de travail institutionnel exercé par ces acteurs : la constitution de réseaux normatifs, qui favorise le changement des normes d'intervention dans un secteur donné, et la construction d'identités, qui conditionne l'action collective.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (a cleanliness campaign) was initiated in 2014 under the regime of the NDA government. As the name signifies, the term 'Swachh' denotes cleanliness in Sanskrit. In its nascent stages, the program attempted to ameliorate waste management – most predominantly open defecation and efficient utilization of resources. With the primary motive of having a hygienic surrounding environment for its people, the government of India initiated sundry cleanliness drives under this campaign. However, the conceptualisation and formulation of plans is one aspect – the praxis, i.e., the practical implementation of these plans is another important consideration altogether, which is perhaps the primary concern for the Government of India – for, if there is an inability to acquire mass involvement and participation then there is an automatic implication of failure. By having a comprehensive understanding of the motivational factors and attitudinal characteristics that members of a given community harbor – it would be relatively efficient at gaining mass involvement. Consequently, by addressing those factors and formulating plans on the basis of such fundamental facets there could be an exponential rate of success for such programs. Adding on to the literature and knowledge, which pre-exists within this domain, the subsequent research can aid in the better understanding of social perceptual phenomena and the successful implementation of programs related to campaigns addressing such issues. The study undertaken had a sample size of 1000 respondents. The findings of the paper suggest that the cumulative assessment across the concerned thematic factors (political, social, environmental, and communicational) apropos the initiative indicate an effective social (r)evolution with respect to the perceptual notions of the sample population involved. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.4318588

Página do projecto: https://covid-19.iza.org/crisis-monitor/ ; As of today, up-to-date crisis-response policy inventories and general recommendations to combat the labor market and social impact of COVID-19 have become available (e.g., by the OECD). Short-run objectives of various policy responses are predominantly income and employment stabilization (often at the same time reducing activation measures), while temporarily detaching income from work and economic activities. In some countries, these responses rely to a larger extent on automatic stabilizers, while the amount of discretionary measures is generally large and often unprecedented. IZA has invited a small number of labor economists as country experts to jointly monitor the crisis responses. Their expertise is an extremely valuable addition to existing policy inventories. Based on a qualitative survey among these country experts, IZA establishes an independent assessment of actual crisis-related policy responses. This assessment focuses on the various domains in which measures can be observed and analyzes their targeting, take-up and implementation. Furthermore, the country experts point to blind spots and help identifying policy innovations to revive labor market activities at the next stage. The qualitative survey among country experts is based on a set of eight questions (see right column) and covers a sample of European and G7 countries heavily affected by COVID-19 as well as the EU. The first wave of this survey takes place in in May 2020. Three subsequent waves are planned. The initial crisis management report, to be released in early June 2020, will include short up-to-date country chapters, a review of EU-level activities and a comparative assessment prepared by the local team of IZA researchers in ...

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the functionality of health systems and world affairs. We assessed knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 23 referral hospitals located in three towns of the DRC (Lubumbashi, Kamina, Mbuji-Mayi). In total, 613 HCWs were surveyed using the World Health Organization's (WHO's) "Exposure Risk Assessment in the Context of COVID-19" questionnaire. Participants included medical doctors (27.2%) and other categories of HCWs (72.8%). The mean age was 40.3 ± 11.7 years. Over 80% (range: 83–96%) of respondents had sufficient knowledge on each of the three domains: COVID-19 symptoms, disease transmission, and patient care approach. However, attitudes and practices scores were relatively low. Only 27.7% of HCWs were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available, whereas 55% of HCWs complied with good practices; 49.4% wore masks consistently and, surprisingly, only 54.9% used personal protective equipment (PPE) consistently at work and during contact with patients. Knowledge level was positively associated with the use of social media as a primary source of COVID-19-related information and the category of residence, with HCWs from towns already affected by the COVID-19 epidemic being more likely to have positive attitudes (adjusted OR, 1.64; 95%CI, 1.32–2.20) and comply with good practices (aOR, 2.79; 95%CI, 1.93-4.06). This study showed that most Congolese HCWs had sufficient knowledge on COVID-19, whereas the majority did not comply with consistent PPE use. The government of the DRC should urgently take major steps in capacity building for HCWs in outbreak preparedness and supplying hospitals with PPE.

This paper presents the main messages of a South American expert roundtable (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of digital transformation. The input of the ERT comprised 39 propositions from 20 experts representing 11 different perspectives. The two-day ERT discussed the main drivers and challenges as well as vulnerabilities or unseens and provided suggestions for: (i) the mechanisms underlying major unseens ; (ii) understanding possible ways in which rebound effects of digital transformation may become the subject of overarching research in three main categories of impact: development factors, society, and individuals ; and (iii) a set of potential action domains for transdisciplinary follow-up processes, including a case study in Brazil. A content analysis of the propositions and related mechanisms provided insights in the genesis of unseens by identifying 15 interrelated causal mechanisms related to critical issues/concerns. Additionally, a cluster analysis (CLA) was applied to structure the challenges and critical developments in South America. The discussion elaborated the genesis, dynamics, and impacts of (groups of) unseens such as the digital divide (that affects most countries that are not included in the development of digital business, management, production, etc. tools) or the challenge of restructuring small- and medium-sized enterprises (whose service is digitally substituted by digital devices). We identify specific issues and effects (for most South American countries) such as lack of governmental structure, challenging geographical structures (e.g., inclusion in high-performance transmission power), or the digital readiness of (wide parts) of society. One scientific contribution of the paper is related to the presented methodology that provides insights into the phenomena, the causal chains underlying &ldquo ; wanted/positive&rdquo ; and &ldquo ; unwanted/negative&rdquo ; effects, and the processes and mechanisms of societal changes caused by digitalization.

Research and industrial studies have indicated that small size, low cost, high precision, and ease of integration are vital features that characterize microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensors for mass production and diverse applications. In recent times, sensors like MEMS accelerometers and MEMS gyroscopes have been sought in an increased application range such as medical devices for health care to defense and military weapons. An important limitation of MEMS inertial sensors is repeatedly documented as the ease of being influenced by environmental noise from random sources, along with mechanical and electronic artifacts in the underlying systems, and other random noise. Thus, random error processing is essential for proper elimination of artifact signals and improvement of the accuracy and reliability from such sensors. In this paper, a systematic review is carried out by investigating different random error signal processing models that have been recently developed for MEMS inertial sensor precision improvement. For this purpose, an in-depth literature search was performed on several databases viz., Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, and Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library. Forty-nine representative papers that focused on the processing of signals from MEMS accelerometers, MEMS gyroscopes, and MEMS inertial measuring units, published in journal or conference formats, and indexed on the databases within the last 10 years, were downloaded and carefully reviewed. From this literature overview, 30 mainstream algorithms were extracted and categorized into seven groups, which were analyzed to present the contributions, strengths, and weaknesses of the literature. Additionally, a summary of the models developed in the studies was presented, along with their working principles viz., application domain, and the conclusions made in the studies. Finally, the development trend of MEMS inertial sensor technology and its application prospects were presented.

Context: The human development territories have been severely constrained under the Covid-19 pandemic. A common dynamics has been observed, but its propagation has not been homogeneous over each continent. We aimed at characterizing the non-viral parameters that were most associated with death rate. Methods: We tested major indices from five domains (demography, public health, economy, politics, environment) and their potential associations with Covid-19 mortality during the first 8 months of 2020, through a Principal Component Analysis and a correlation matrix with a Pearson correlation test. Data of all countries, or states in federal countries, showing at least 10 fatality cases, were retrieved from official public sites. For countries that have not yet finished the first epidemic phase, a prospective model has been computed to provide options of death rates evolution. Results: Higher Covid death rates are observed in the [25/65°] latitude and in the [−35/−125°] longitude ranges. The national criteria most associated with death rate are life expectancy and its slowdown, public health context (metabolic and non-communicable diseases (NCD) burden vs. infectious diseases prevalence), economy (growth national product, financial support), and environment (temperature, ultra-violet index). Stringency of the measures settled to fight pandemia, including lockdown, did not appear to be linked with death rate. Conclusion: Countries that already experienced a stagnation or regression of life expectancy, with high income and NCD rates, had the highest price to pay. This burden was not alleviated by more stringent public decisions. Inherent factors have predetermined the Covid-19 mortality: understanding them may improve prevention strategies by increasing population resilience through better physical fitness and immunity.

SUMMARY: The scorecard evaluates the burden and management of osteoporosis in Canada and how care pathways differ across Canadian provinces. The results showed there are inequities in patients' access to diagnosis, treatment, and post-fracture care programs in Canada. Interventions are needed to close the osteoporosis treatment gap and minimize these inequities. INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to develop a visual scorecard that assesses the burden of osteoporosis and its management within Canada and seven Canadian provinces. METHODS: We adapted the Scorecard for Osteoporosis in Europe (SCOPE) to score osteoporosis indicators for Canada and seven provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland). We obtained data from a comprehensive literature review and interviews with osteoporosis experts. We scored 20 elements across four domains: burden of disease, policy framework, service provision, and service uptake. Each element was scored as red, yellow, or green, indicating high, intermediate, or low risk, respectively. Elements with insufficient data were scored black. RESULTS: Canada performed well on several elements of osteoporosis care, including high uptake of risk assessment algorithms and minimal wait times for hip fracture surgery. However, there were no established fracture registries, and reporting on individuals with high fracture risk who remain untreated was limited. Furthermore, osteoporosis was not an official health priority in most provinces. Government-backed action plans and other osteoporosis initiatives were primarily confined to Ontario and Alberta. Several provinces (Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland) did not have any registered fracture liaison service (FLS) programs. Access to diagnosis and treatment was also inconsistent and reimbursement policies did not align with clinical guidelines. CONCLUSION: Government-backed action plans are needed to address provincial inequities in patients' access to diagnosis, treatment, and ...

BACKGROUND: Management of cancer patients in the current era of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses significant challenges on health-care systems. However, it is mandatory to keep the required level of care of cancer patients while taking the necessary precautions to maintain the safety of both patients and health-care professionals (HCPs). The present survey explores suggested modifications of inpatient oncology/hematology care during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A web-based questionnaire using SurveyMonkey was distributed to HCPs taking care of inpatient hematology/oncology service including oncologists, hematologists, and inpatient nurses in Saudi Arabia. The 25 items selected for the survey focused on five domains including characteristics of HCPs, COVID-19 infection risk among admitted patients, possible modifications related to physicians/nursing practice, and suggested infection control measures. Clinical sensibility assessment was conducted to evaluate the comprehensiveness, clarity, and face validity of our instrument on a scale of 1–5. The percentages of HCP responses to the suggested modifications in the survey were assessed in descriptive statistics to summarize data and report views of participants. RESULTS: Of 215 HCPs, 195 responded and completed the survey. Of the respondents, 30.4% were medical oncologists, whereas hematologists and nurses constituted 6.7% and 62.9% of the participants, respectively. The majority of respondents (87.6%) work in governmental hospitals. The majority of participants (82%) have diagnosed patients with COVID-19 in their hospitals and modifications in inpatient practice during the COVID-19 pandemic were supported by 95% of respondents. The supported modifications by participants include enhanced use of oral medications (83.5%), phone calls to admitted stable patients by physicians, instead of physical interview (77%), decreasing frequency of vital signs assessment in stable patients (91%), decreasing the duration of stay in patients ...

BACKGROUND: Dengue fever outbreaks tend to spread northward in China, and Jining is the northernmost region where local dengue fever cases have been detected. Therefore, it is important to investigate the density of Aedes albopictus and its resistance to deltamethrin. METHODS: The Breteau index (BI) and container index (CI) were calculated to assess the larval density of Ae. albopictus and human-baited double net trap (HDN) surveillance was performed in six subordinate counties (Rencheng, Yanzhou, Sishui, Liangshan, Zoucheng and Jiaxiang) of Jining City in 2017 and 2018. The resistance of Ae. albopictus adults to deltamethrin was evaluated using the World Health Organization (WHO) standard resistance bioassay. The mutations at Vgsc codons 1532 and 1534 were also analysed to determine the association between kdr mutations and phenotypic resistance in adult mosquitoes. RESULTS: The average BI, CI and biting rate at Jining were 45.30, 16.02 and 1.97 (female /man/hour) in 2017 and 15.95, 7.86 and 0.59 f/m/h in 2018, respectively. In August 26, 2017, when the first dengue fever case was diagnosed, the BI at Qianli village in Jiaxiang County was 107.27. The application of prevention and control measures by the government sharply decreased the BI to a value of 4.95 in September 3, 2017. The mortality of field-collected Ae. albopictus females from Jiaxiang was 41.98%. I1532T, F1534L and F1534S mutations were found in domain III of the Vgsc gene. This study provides the first demonstration that both I1532T and F1534S mutations are positively correlated with the deltamethrin-resistant phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: Mosquito density surveillance, resistance monitoring and risk assessment should be strengthened in areas at risk for dengue to ensure the sustainable control of Ae. albopictus and thus the prevention and control of dengue transmission. [Image: see text]

Epidemics of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are a danger to civilian and military populations worldwide. Health security and mitigation of infectious disease threats is a priority of the United States Government and the Department of Defense (DoD). Next generation sequencing (NGS) and Bioinformatics (BI) enhances traditional biosurveillance by providing additional data to understand transmission, identify resistance and virulence factors, make predictions, and update risk assessments. As more and more laboratories adopt NGS and BI technologies they encounter challenges in building local capacity. In addition to choosing the right sequencing platform and approach, considerations must also be made for the complexity of bioinformatics analyses, data storage, as well as personnel and computational requirements. To address these needs, a comprehensive training program was developed covering wet lab and bioinformatics approaches to NGS. The program is meant to be modular and adaptive to meet both common and individualized needs of medical research and public health laboratories across the DoD. The training program was first deployed internationally to the Basic Science Laboratory of the US Army Medical Research Directorate-Africa in Kisumu, Kenya, which is an overseas Lab of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). A week-long workshop with intensive focus on targeted sequencing and the bioinformatics of genome assembly (n = 24 participants) was held. Post-workshop self-assessment (completed by 21 participants) noted significant median gains in knowledge domains related to NGS targeted sequencing, bioinformatics for genome assembly, and sequence quality assessment. The participants also reported that the information on study design, sample preparation, sequencing quality control, data quality assessment, reporting, and basic and advanced bioinformatics analysis were the most useful information presented in the training. While longer-term evaluations are planned, the training resulted in ...

BACKGROUND: In Colombia, public health policies to improve food environments, including front-of-pack nutrition labelling and marketing restrictions for unhealthy products, are currently under development. Opposition to these policies by the food industry is currently delaying and weakening these efforts. This opposition is commonly known as 'corporate political activity' (CPA) and includes instrumental (action-based) strategies and discursive (argument-based) strategies. Our aim was to identify the CPA of the food industry in Colombia. METHODS: We conducted a document analysis of information available in the public domain published between January–July 2019. We triangulated this data with interviews with 17 key informants. We used a deductive approach to data analysis, based on an existing framework for the CPA of the food industry. RESULTS: We identified 275 occurrences of CPA through our analysis of publicly available information. There were 197 examples of instrumental strategies and 138 examples of discursive strategies (these categories are not mutually exclusive, 60 examples belong to both categories). Interview participants also shared information about the CPA in the country. The industry used its discursive strategies to portray the industry in a 'better light', demonstrating its efforts in improving food environments and its role in the economic development of the country. The food industry was involved in several community programmes, including through public private initiatives. The industry also captured the media and tried to influence the science on nutrition and non-communicable diseases. Food industry actors were highly prominent in the policy sphere, through their lobbying, close relationships with high ranking officials and their support for self-regulation in the country. CONCLUSIONS: The proximity between the industry, government and the media is particularly evident and remains largely unquestioned in Colombia. The influence of vulnerable populations in communities and feeling of ...