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The research on which this report and the accompanying policy brief are based was carried out in late 2019 and early 2020, before the outbreak of COVID-19. An update on the impact of the pandemic is being released alongside these two publications. ; Published in July 2020 ; Along the lines of the first exhaustive report entitled 'Is Italian Agriculture a "Pull Factor" for Irregular Migration – And, If So, Why?' (2018), this new report, commissioned by the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI) and drafted by a team of researchers coordinated by the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute (EUI), focuses on the agri-food systems in Northern European Union member states – Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden – seeking to unpack the interplay of factors underlying or contributing to the demand for low-paid, flexible and exploitative labour in this sector. These factors include the impacts of: EU and national policies on labour mobility, migration and asylum; supply chain dynamics; labour market policies; the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and national policies on agriculture and rural development; policies to fight and prevent trafficking and labour exploitation; and additional drivers identified in the different countries. The study shows that most abusive and exploitative labour practices in the agri-food system in these countries take place in a 'grey zone' through gaps and shortcomings in the legal framework. In this scenario, highly flexible labour market dynamics and practices, in particular indirect employment through agencies, play a crucial role, providing workers with staggered economic and social entitlements. The report also reviews relevant good practices which have the potential to be scaled up to the EU level. ; p. 2 "Introduction"; p. 3 "Aim of the study and methodology"; p. 4 "Germany"; p. 13 The Netherlands; p. 22 "Sweden"; p. 30 "Concluding remarks"; p. 36 "Annex 1"; p. 37 "Annex 2"; p. 38 "Annex 3"; p. 39 "Endnotes"

The pandemic is a watershed event that has prompted both an evaluation of the achievements of information and communications technology (ICT) and also a re-evaluation of the prospects for developing social processes compatible with ICT. Much has been already been accomplished in Russia and throughout the world. But in the current pandemic, telemedicine is facing new challenges. This article discusses the state of the art in telemedicine and the prospects for its development in the changing conditions wrought by the pandemic. Examples are provided of the solutions that telemedicine can offer in such a difficult period, and the risks due to widespread use of telemedicine are analyzed. The impact of telemedicine is extensive with consequences for technology, management, and law. This article is a multidisciplinary study of telemedicine from the perspective of management and law. The article examines how telemedicine technologies have been implemented and developed, the obstacles to telemedicine's advance in various countries, and the legislative frameworks that governs it. The article's interdisciplinary study is based on an integrated methodology which combines: a formal logical approach to analysis of the legislation concerning telemedicine; a comparison of the development of telemedicine across several countries; and a sociological method to identify the attitude of Russian medical staff toward telemedicine and its impact. Although telemedicine has been developed and regulated separately by each country, there are general development trends, such as collection and analysis of electronic health records (EHR), devices and systems to simplify communication between doctors and with chronically ill patients, and others. Legislation is one of the significant barriers to the development of telemedicine in different countries. However, the pandemic has been a catalyst for legislative change, and it is precisely those changes that will eliminate the key problem in telemedicine that beset Russia where telemedicine now resembles separate pieces in a puzzle.

Mātauraka Māori held by the Kāti Huikai hapū records their migrating waka (vessel), Makawhiu, arrived in Koukourarata from the Kaikoura and Wellington regions at approximately the same time as the Mayflower touched ground at Plymouth Rock around 1620. The environment into which the Makawhiu arrived was a fully vegetated harbour basin replete with birdlife in the trees and fish in the sea. A perfect place for settlement. Koukourarata is a long bay on the northern side of Horomaka (Banks Peninsula) in Canterbury, New Zealand.[1] When European traders and whalers arrived in the 1820s, the vegetation remained largely unchanged until after the establishment of larger European settlements in and around Koukourarata in the 1850s. The fledgling New Zealand Government supported the introduction of a logging industry which oversaw large scale deforestation of Koukourarata, and across all of Horomaka. This, followed by a government policy of increasing pastoral farming, saw the almost complete conversion of the Koukourarata basin from its original vegetative state and a reduction of Horomaka's native vegetation cover to less than 2% of its original extent (Harding, 2003). Kāti Huikai have maintained their Mātauraka Māori relating to place names which inherently recorded types of vegetation in the nomenclature. Furthermore, the retention of these names has provided the means for a more detailed vegetation map. Giving insight into a thriving community's past; culturally, environmentally, and ecologically. This would not have been possible without Mātauraka Māori knowledge. The utilisation of GIS (geographic information system) in conjunction with Mātauraka Māori knowledge and available literature has allowed for the digital mapping of the estimated vegetation cover from around 1830, and the Kāti Huikai place names. Additionally, existing GIS data of present-day vegetation of Horomaka has been used as a comparison to the 1830s vegetation cover.

The article gives a detailed analysis of the changes made by the Federal Law of 26.07.2019 No. 224-FZ to the Federal Law "On the state forensic activity in the Russian Federation" and the Federal Law "On the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation". These developments, primarily related to the establishment of a forensic institution of the Investigative Committee, have been criticized by the legal community since they legalize the supremacy of a criminal prosecution body over the expert offices. At that, some authors justify the need for the forensic expert departments in the structure of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, especially since both in Russia and abroad forensic offices in the bodies dealing with investigating crimes do exist. The Federal Law of 26.07.2019 No. 224-FZ came into force, and till 01.01.2022, the forensic institution of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is to be established, and the list of departmental forensic agencies will be extended. ; Подробно проанализированы изменения, внесенные Федеральным законом от 26.07.2019 № 224-ФЗ в Федеральный закон «О государственной судебно-экспертной деятельности в Российской Федерации» и Федеральный закон «О Следственном комитете Российской Федерации». Данные изменения, связанные прежде всего с созданием судебно-экспертного учреждения Следственного комитета Российской Федерации, подверглись критике юридической общественности, поскольку они легализуют главенство органа уголовного преследования над экспертными службами. При этом некоторые авторы обосновывают необходимость наличия судебно-экспертных подразделений в системе Следственного комитета Российской Федерации, тем более что как в России, так и за рубежом судебно-экспертные службы в органах, занимающихся расследованием преступлений, существуют. Федеральный закон от 26.07.2019 № 224-ФЗ вступил в силу, и в срок до 01.01.2022 судебно-экспертное учреждение Следственного комитета Российской Федерации должно быть создано, и перечень ведомственных государственных судебно-экспертных учреждений в России будет расширен.

The article deals with works devoted to various aspects of Bulgaria's European integration in the context of democratic transition. The goal of the article is the classification the historiographic array and identification the main features inherent in various groups of publications. The works differ not only in the profile of the authors, but also in the research methods used. Due to these circumstances, each historiography group focuses on certain aspects of transit, which ultimately allows a researcher to form an integral picture of this process. Author considers the problem in accordance with the regional geographic principle and divides historiography into 4 groups: Western, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Russian. Within the national–state framework, scientific works are considered in chronological and problematic aspects. The article concludes that Western scholars generally view Bulgaria in the general context of the region's democratic transit. Bulgarian authors focus on governance and reform coordination, as they have the opportunity to observe the process from the inside. Ukrainian authors adhere to Euro-optimistic rhetoric. In addition to the methodological features of the presentation of the material, some authors (especially russian) are influenсed by the ideology of residence country. Therefore, in Russian historiography, authors often focus on the negative aspects of democratic transit. ; В статье представлен обзор историографии, связанной с переходом (транзитом) Болгарии от тоталитарной модели управления к демократической. Работы исследователей различаются не только научной специализацией авторов, но и использованными методами исследования. В силу данных обстоятельств каждая группа историографии концентрируется на определенных аспектах транзита, что в итоге позволяет сформировать целостную картину данного процесса у исследователя. ; У статті представлено огляд історіографії, пов'язаної із переходом (транзитом) Болгарії від тоталітарної моделі управління до демократичної. Роботи дослідників розрізняються не тільки науковою спеціалізацією авторів, а й використаними методами дослідження. В силу даних обставин кожна група історіографії концентрується на певних аспектах транзиту, що в підсумку дозволяє сформувати цілісну картину даного процесу у дослідника.

Human well-being is determined by multiple factors related to health, social relations, safety, environment, landscape, cultural heritage, and quality of services. The Italian planning system provided a set of &ldquo ; urban standards&rdquo ; in terms of threshold values of areas per inhabitant destined for public services and facilities. The application of urban standards, for a period of more than fifty years, did not result in a broad improvement of life quality in the urban areas. This paper discusses the issue of urban facilities in Italy in order to evaluate the opportunity to innovate traditional standards according to the environmental and ecological paradigm, focusing on the benefits provided to humans by natural ecosystems, the so-called ecosystem services (ESs). The paper investigates the evolution of the Italian planning practice through the introduction of quality standards and innovative tools able to meet the ever-changing social demand. The research aims to verify if the ES concept is really implemented in the Italian planning practice and if the ecosystem approach has a real impact on political decision-making. Using a comparative method, four case-studies of urban municipal plans are selected and analyzed in order to identify different approaches and possible fields of innovation. The research highlighted a lack of integration of ecosystem services approach in the land use decisions, although there is an in-depth survey on the state of conservation of ecological and environmental resources. The local experiments of qualitative standards represent an attempt to deal with specific ecological emergencies, namely flood risk, air, water, and soil pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Conclusions discuss, from an international perspective, the need to revise the traditional planning approach in the field of public services and facilities, taking into account the influence of ecosystem services on human well-being.

Land is the carrier of the production and living activities of human society and the basis of survival and development of all living organisms. With the continuous development of the social economy, the unreasonable use of land is becoming more and more serious, aggravating the deterioration of the ecological environment. Most studies in this field have mainly focused on land use changes and the corresponding impacts on the ecological environment, but relatively few studies have delinked the relationship between land use intensity and the ecological environment. Based on data on these two factors for Gansu Province from 1998 to 2017, we used the Tapio decoupling model to evaluate the decoupling relationship between land use intensity and ecological environment. From 1998 to 2017, the comprehensive land use intensity in Gansu province increased by 107.77%, and the comprehensive ecological environment index increased by 63.76%. In general, the relationship between land use intensity and ecological environment experienced five states, namely weak decoupling, strong negative decoupling, strong decoupling, expansive negative decoupling, and declining decoupling. During 1999&ndash ; 2013 and 2013&ndash ; 2016, land use intensity and ecological environment had decoupled, and the main reasons were as follows: (1) The Chinese government introduced a series of farmland protection policies and measures, controlled the area of newly added construction land, and reduced urban land expansion ; (2) ecological restoration projects for mountains, forests, fields, lakes, and grassland strengthened the environmental protection in Gansu Province ; and (3) in the process of economic development, the increased investment of technology and capital improved the land use efficiency, finally realizing the &ldquo ; double growth&rdquo ; of land use intensity and environmental quality. Based on these results, land use intensity and environmental quality are not necessarily contradictory, and a moderate improvement of land use efficiency and environmental protection can probably result in increased land use intensity and higher environmental quality.

Information technology is a factor of sustainable economic and social development for both developed and developing countries. In recent years, special attention is given to developing countries with rapidly growing economies and with significant influence on regional and global markets - the BRICS countries. The article presents a comparative analysis of the development of information technologies and its impact on economic growth; the article also analyzes the similarities and peculiarities of IT development in the BRICS countries and state support for the IT sector in these countries. The study is based on comparative analysis and correlation analysis of data. The basis for the study is data from the World Bank, the World Economic Forum (WEF), The Total Economy Database, and other public sources. Information technologies in the BRICS countries are developing quite rapidly, and each country has its peculiarities. It should be noted a significant backlog of India in almost all indexes. In this country, it is necessary to solve the problems with access to technology, at the same time India is a well-known supplier of IT services. Russia has a well developed infrastructure and a high level of education, but it does not make it the leader in the competitiveness and economic development. China is known as a supplier of IT products, and more and more of it is a product of own R&D. South Africa and Brazil are the leaders in the ratio of preparedness of population and companies to use information technology. In all BRICS countries, government is supporting IT industry. Particular attention is given to export support and tax incentives for businesses to make it invest in education. At the moment, the BRICS countries should analyze the experience and the strengths of each other, to be able to implement joint projects in the IT sector and engage private investment.

The second half of the 19th century was the period in which the foundations were laid for Mexico's economic policy based on agro-export from the exploitation of natural resources. For this, liberal politicians, like Matías Romero, used scientific knowledge for the exploitation of Mexican and foreign plants of great world demand harvested mainly in the southeast of the country, where forests, forests and mangroves were valued as unproductive lands. In this Mexican zone, a series of plant products demanded in the United States and Europe was intensively produced, which at the same time enriched the treasury degraded the regional biological diversity. The objective of the research is to understand the influence of scientific criteria in Romero's political-economic projects by encouraging the cultivation of Mexican and acclimatized commercial plants from 1870 to 1883 and the beginning of the environmental transformation of the southeast of the Mexican Republic. This region had been valued by the political elite as unproductive in economic terms due to the difficult recovery of agricultural activities between the Independence revolution and the 1870s. Romero's writings published between 1870 and 1883 are an example of the use of scientific criteria for economic development. ; La segunda mitad del siglo XIX fue el periodo en que se cimentó la política económica de México basada en la agroexportación a partir del aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales. Para ello, los políticos liberales, como Matías Romero, utilizaron el conocimiento científico para la explotación de plantas mexicanas y aclimatadas de gran demanda mundial, cosechadas principalmente en el sureste del país, donde selvas, bosques y manglares habían sido valorados como terrenos improductivos. En esta zona mexicana se produjo intensivamente una serie de productos vegetales demandados en Estados Unidos y Europa que a la par que enriquecieron al erario degradaron la diversidad biológica regional. La investigación tiene por objetivo comprender la influencia ...

Background: The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), Maternal and Child Health (MCH) was introduced by the Nigerian government to increase the use of skilled maternal health services and reduce maternal mortality. The programme, funded out of a reduction in the fuel subsidy, was implemented between October 2012 and April 2015 and incorporated a conditional cash transfer to women to encourage use of facility based maternal services. We seek to assess the incremental cost effectiveness and long term impact of the conditional cash transfer element of the programme. Methods: An impact analysis and incremental cost-effectiveness analysis of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) is undertaken taking a health service perspective toward costs of the intervention. The study was undertaken in Anambra state, comparing areas that received only the investment in health services with areas that implemented the conditional cash transfer programme. An interrupted time series analysis of the programme outputs was undertaken. These were combined with a programme costing to determine the incremental cost per output. Findings: Maternal services provided to patients in conditional cash transfer areas accelerated rapidly from the middle of 2014 until after the programme in late 2015. The costs of providing services in each Primary Health Center facility was US $52,128 in the areas that only invested in health services compared to US $90,702 in facilities that also provided cash transfers. Much of the additional cost was in managing cash transfers. The incremental cost in the cash transfer areas was $572 for delivery care and $11 for antenatal care. If the programme was to be integrated as a regular service in the public health system, the cost of a delivery is estimated to fall to $389 and to $188 if 2015 levels of activity are assumed. Conclusion: Although the cost of CCTs as originally constituted as a vertical programme are relatively high compared to other similar programmes, these would fall substantially if ...

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a global health and economic security threat with staggering cumulative incidence worldwide. Given the severity of projections, hospitals across the globe are creating additional critical care surge capacity and limiting patient routine access to care for other diseases like tuberculosis (TB). The outbreak fuels panic in sub-Saharan Africa where the healthcare system is fragile in withstanding the disease. Here, we looked over the COVID-19 containment measures in Ethiopia in context from reliable sources and put forth recommendations that leverage the health system response to COVID-19 and TB. MAIN TEXT: Ethiopia shares a major proportion of the global burden of infectious diseases, while the patterns of COVID-19 are still at an earlier stage of the epidemiology curve. The Ethiopian government exerted tremendous efforts to curb the disease. It limited public gatherings, ordered school closures, directed high-risk civil servants to work from home, and closed borders. It suspended flights to 120 countries and restricted mass transports. It declared a five-month national state of emergency and granted a pardon for 20 402 prisoners. It officially postponed parliamentary and presidential elections. It launched the 'PM Abiy-Jack Ma initiative', which supports African countries with COVID-19 diagnostics and infection prevention and control commodities. It expanded its COVID-19 testing capacity to 38 countrywide laboratories. Many institutions are made available to provide clinical care and quarantine. However, the outbreak still has the potential for greater loss of life in Ethiopia if the community is unable to shape the regular behavioral and sociocultural norms that would facilitate the spread of the disease. The government needs to keep cautious that irregular migrants would fuel the disease. A robust testing capacity is needed to figure out the actual status of the disease. The pandemic has reduced TB care and research activities significantly and ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and compare the factors that motivated students to study dentistry in countries with similar background (Albania, Croatia and the Republic of Northern Macedonia) and to assess whether or not their motivation changed during time. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 2014/2015, cross-sectional studies were conducted in state funded dental schools in Tirana (Albania), Zagreb (Croatia) and Skopje (Macedonia) to assess student views on their career motivation. All dental students from the first, third and final years of study were invited to participate. The participation was voluntary and anonymous. A five-item questionnaire was translated into languages of the participating countries. Ethics approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Skopje. The Chi square test was used to test if there were statistically significant differences in answers between students in 3 countries, furthermore between years of the study. RESULTS: The total number of respondents was 739 (319 in Tirana, 211 in Zagreb and 208 in Skopje) The differences in the answers between the first-year students from all three countries were statistically significant (χ(2)=82.65; p<.01). The most striking answer was to the question on parents' pressure to study dentistry, which was far more frequent in Tirana (up to 27.7%). A "positive image" was the most frequent response from students from Zagreb (up to 79.7%), but it declined from the first to the final year in Skopje. There were also significant differences between the schools within the 3(rd)and final years of study. CONCLUSIONS: A positive image of dental profession was the main reason for students studying dentistry at all three schools; as many as 97% of the students of the final year in Croatia, a member of the European Union (EU). In the two non-EU countries (Albania, Macedonia) it seemed that dental profession does not have such good status and student expectations are not being fulfilled, especially in Skopje (up to 33.9% willing ...

BACKGROUND: The magnitude of the noncommunicable epidemic is difficult to overstate. The projected cost of the epidemic is substantial. It disproportionately affects people in low- and middle-income countries as well as poorer and marginalised communities in high-income countries. The international community has taken various steps to address the four modifiable risk factors causing the majority of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), however, action has so far fallen short of expectations. Both analysts and international institutions are advocating the adoption of a new international legal norm to address the NCD crisis. MAIN TEXT: Drawing on existing knowledge from international relations and international legal studies, this article argues that a new international treaty is not only currently improbable, but also not strictly desirable. In-depth critical analysis and reflection is needed regarding the strengths and weaknesses of a legal approach to addressing the NCD pandemic. The argument is set out in three sections - the first reviews contributions of agentic constructivism, which focus on the process of normative emergence and change, and draws on empirical examples to highlight overlooked aspects of normative development and how they relate to NCD politics. The second engages with the critique of legal principles. Critical approaches to law seek to expose the myths that legal principles are neutral, objective, good. The third section discusses the characteristics of practice in the NCD field and its implications on process and principles for the pursuit of a legal solution to the NCD crisis. CONCLUSIONS: Any advocacy for an international norm to address NCDs needs to be nuanced and demonstrate awareness of the nature and character of both the norm development process and resulting international legal principles. As analysts, we are responsible for advocating inclusive and ethical norms, but also for highlighting the implications of inequalities and differences between and within states and societies. There ...

Ibn Khaldun is one of the prominent scholars, studied and created works on religious science in harmony with secular science. His full name - Abdurahman Abu Zayd ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun (b. 1332, Tunisia / died. 1406, Cairo) – Arab historian and philosopher. He is considered as a follower of Ibn Rushd, in 1349-1375 he served in high posts under the rulers of Tunis, Fes, Garnot, Bujojya (Chorus). In 1382 he arrived in Egypt and began to work as a teacher at the local madrasah. Ibn Khaldun was part of the delegation negotiating the conditions for the surrender of the city of Damascus to Amir Temur. On this occasion, he succeeded in honoring a personal conversation with Amir Temur. According to Ibn Khaldun, Amir Temur asked about the Maghreb countries, their location and their cities. Regardless of the personal attitude to the foreign political activity of Amir Temur, Ibn Khaldun gives a decent objective assessment of the personality of Temur. He was surprised by Amir Temur's deep knowledge of military history, characterized him as a "witty, loving, argumentative person". In his main work "Kitob ul-Ibar" ("Book of good examples", 1370), he outlined his thoughts on the development of society and the history of Muslim nations (in particular the Maghreb). The study of the socio-political and philosophical views of prominent scholar Ibn Khaldun is of great importance in modern philosophy of history. The purpose of the article is to characterize the main directions of the religious educational philosophy of Ibn Khaldun, his attitude to history, society, the state, government, as well as the sanctification of their relationship with religious practice. The innovative component of the article lies in an in-depth study of the main aspects of Ibn Khaldun's religious and educational philosophy views in terms of solving religious-philosophical and sociopolitical, religiously enlightening issues.

The radicality of Jesus as well as the general message of the New Testament should be seen again a background of eschatology, and not be confused with revolutionism. People's acceptance of the authority of Scripture is no guarantee that they have correctly understood the message of the Bible regarding this. A critical view of the authority of Scripture as well as a thorough and constant examination concerning the relationship between the personal and social circumstances of man and his interpretation of Scripture are needed. Consequently a relevant relationship between theology and revolution can alone be established by means of a relevant Biblical hermeneutics.The ministry of Jesus, his disciples and John the Baptist should be seen and evaluated again the background of the socio-political tensions and violence of their time. Jesus' attitude on all spheres of life can be characterised as eschatological radicality, meaning, on the one hand , a critique on everything and everyone who has not considered God's will of justice, and on the other hand the denial of all resistance movements because their worldly purposes and usage of violence obscured the view on God's coming kingdom and his requirements of love and justice.Still, Jesus' idea of non-violent resistance forms a clear-cut political standpoint in which he transcends the law of necessity in war and violence – neither related to the false duality between oppressive and revolutionary violence, nor being completely uninvolved.In the end, the New Testament as a whole offers no elaborate prescriptions for the state, but indirectly guidelines can be deduced for political life. The crux of the matter is how the following of Christ and obedience towards authorities should sensibly be related. An abstract Christology – in which Christ is only a theoretical idea! – isolated from the political realities, canlead to a dualism in which religion (Christianity) can offer no guidelines for politics, and consequently escapes reality in a false, pietistic verticalism.