251 research outputs found
Windfall management for poverty reduction : improving public finance Management-the case of Chad
Full text linkThis paper aims at providing a guide to ensure efficiency in the management of Chad's windfall to support the development process and poverty reduction. The analysis is based on the lessons and experience of countries that have successfully used natural-resource-generated windfalls to launch their development process while avoiding the natural resource curse. The paper also discusses the petroleum management arrangements in place in Chad for poverty reduction. The author argues that the successful management of Chad's windfall for poverty reduction will depend on the effectiveness of oil revenue management arrangements in place in Chad and the government's willingness to improve public finance management (PFM).Public Sector Expenditure Analysis&Management,Debt Markets,,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform
Influence of high-protein and high-carbohydrate diets on serum lipid and fructosamine concentrations in healthy cats
Full text linkObjectives: The aim of this study was to determine whether high-protein and high-carbohydrate diets exert differential effects on serum cholesterol, triglyceride and fructosamine concentrations in healthy cats. Methods A randomised, crossover diet trial was performed in 35 healthy shelter cats. Following baseline health assessments, cats were randomised into groups receiving either a high-protein or high-carbohydrate diet for 4 weeks. The cats were then fed a washout diet for 4 weeks before being transitioned to whichever of the two studied diets they had not yet received. Fasting serum cholesterol, triglyceride and fructosamine concentrations were determined at the end of each 4-week diet period. Results Cats on the high-carbohydrate diet had significantly lower serum cholesterol ( P 5) had lower cholesterol ( P = 0.007) and triglyceride ( P = 0.032) concentrations on the high-protein diet than cats within other BCS groups. Conclusions and relevance Diets higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates appear beneficial for short-term glucose control in healthy cats. A high-protein diet was associated with significantly elevated cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in healthy cats, even though the increase was significantly less pronounced in cats with a BCS >5. This finding suggests that overweight cats process high-protein diets, cholesterol and triglycerides differently than leaner cats
Equity in unequal deductions : implications of income tax rules in Ghana and Nigeria
Full text linkIn many African countries, the amount of personal deduction for income tax purposes increases with the taxpayer's income. At first glance, this appears to give larger tax breaks to the rich than to the poor. On closer examination, this notion turns out to be false. As this paper shows, each tax system with"income dependent tax deductions"(IDTDs) is fully equivalent to a particular conventional progressive tax system with standard deductions. One implication for comparative tax research is that the tax schedule of a country that uses IDTDs should not be compared directly with a conventional tax schedule in another country. Existing cross-country work on tax deductions and marginal tax rates generally fails to recognize that IDTDs invalidate a straightforward comparison. To make the two systems comparable, a transformation like the one suggested in this paper is needed.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Tax Policy and Administration,Taxation&Subsidies,Governance Indicators
Virological response, HIV-1 drug resistance mutations and genetic diversity among patients on first-line antiretroviral therapy in N'Djamena, Chad: Findings from a cross-sectional study
Full text linkpeer reviewedBackground: The national antiretroviral therapy in the Republic of Chad provides free of charge antiretroviral regimens and therapeutic monitoring for patients receiving antiretroviral therapy nationwide. For a successful programmatic uptake, these efforts merit to be supported by thorough assessments of antiretroviral therapy response and HIV-1 drug resistance surveillance, especially with risks of cross-resistance due to the gradual stavudine phasing out in such national settings. We therefore evaluated the virological response to antiretroviral therapy, HIV-1 drug resistance emergence and circulating HIV-1 clades in a Chad context. A cross-sectional and prospective study was conducted among 116 patients (41 [δ ± 6.87] years, 59% female) receiving first-line antiretroviral therapy for ≥ 6 months in Ndjamena, Chad, in 2011-2012, enrolled consecutively. To ensure accuracy, plasma viral load was concomitantly measured using Abbott Real-Time and Cobas AmpliPrep/TaqMan (v2.0), and virological failure defined as ≥ 1000 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml. Plasma from patients experiencing virological failure were processed for sequencing of HIV-1 protease-reverse transcriptase using the ANRS-AC.11 resistance testing protocol; drug resistant mutations were interpreted using the ANRS-AC11 algorithm; and phylogenetic analysis was performed using MEGA.v.6. Results: Majority of patients was receiving zidovudine plus lamivudine plus nevirapine (46%), stavudine plus lamivudine plus nevirapine (41%) and tenofovir plus emtricitabine plus efavirenz (11%), for a median time-on-treatment of 5 [IQR 4-7] years. The rate of virological failure was 43% (50/116), with 86% (43/50) sequencing performance. Overall, 32% (37/116) patients presented ≥ one major drug resistant mutation(s), with 29% (34/116) to nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (67% [29/43] M184V/I, 30% [13/43] T215Y/F, 19% [8/43] V75A/F/I/L/M, 9% [4/43] K70P/R/W, 9% [4/43] K219E/N/Q and 5% [2/43] A62V); 86% (37/43) to non-nulceos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (30% [13/43] K103N/S/E, 26% [11/43] Y181C/V/F/L, 2% [1/43] L100I, 2% [1/43] F227L, 2% [1/43] P225H); and 2% (1/43) to protease inhibitors (M46I, I54V, V82S). Six HIV-1 subtypes were found: 30% circulating recombinant form (CRF02-AG), 30% J, 16% G, 9% A, 9% D, 5% F. Conclusions: In Chad, almost half of patients are failing first-line antiretroviral therapy after 5 years, with considerable drug resistant mutations at failure. Absence of K65R supports the use of tenofovir-containing regimens as preferred first-line and as suitable drug for second-line combinations, in this setting with significant HIV-1 genetic diversity. © 2017 The Author(s)
A Proposed Solution to the Scholarly Communication Crisis
Full text linkAfter reviewing the history and parameters of the scholarly communications crisis, particularly in regard to skyrocketing prices for journals in the natural sciences, the author reviews and rejects previously attempted solutions. He then employs the principles of game theory in proposing a new solution to the crisis
Guilty Bystanders
Full text linkThere is a part o f Martin Luther King, Jr. \u27s Letter from Birmingham Jail that always catches me up short, and which I now think o f as at the heart o f the essay: not King\u27s civil disobedience, not his claim that an unjust law is not a law, but his anger at the character he termed the white moderate. 1 It was bad, King said, when the public called him and his allies niggers and when the police hosed them down in the street. But what really pained King was that so many well-meaning whites stood by and did nothing. In fact, it was to these people that King was really addressing his letter.
I remembered this part o f King\u27s letter again when reflecting on the AutoAdmit controversy-another controversy not without its share o f racial epithets. I was pretty much a bystander to the whole thing. I wasn\u27t the target o f any vicious postings; I wasn\u27t threatened, not personally, nor was my race or gender targeted. I didn\u27t post anything on autoadmit.com myself (vicious, virtuous, or otherwise). Indeed, I hadn\u27t really heard o f AutoAdmit before the controversy erupted.
For most o f the drama, then-from the initial outrage, to the e-mail discussions and the meetings (none o f which I attended) and then to the various scattered but coordinated responses-I was off to the side and off the stage, neither a victim nor an author o f the threats. I felt happy playing that role, happy to let things pass me by.
But then I thought again about the white moderate. And I saw how the white moderate played a role in the civil rights movement akin to the role I played in the AutoAdmit controversy. They were bystanders, and so am I. The situations are not exactly the same, but the parallels are sobering: Had I been in that generation I might have been a white moderate, and I might today be a white moderate o f a different, but related, sort
Are there synergies between World Bank partial credit guarantees and private lending?
Full text linkSince 1994, the World Bank has provided partial credit guarantees to private financiers of several large infrastructure projects in developing countries. A major objective of the partial guarantee program is to leverage Bank resources so as to provide developing countries with better private credit terms. A real test of the efficacy of World Bank partial credit guarantees is whether they also lower the interest rate and lengthen the effective maturity of the part of the credit not covered by the World Bank guarantee. On the basis of deals closed so far, the author finds no evidence that guarantees have affected nonguaranteed interest rates favorably, while the duration of the nonguaranteed credits remains relatively short.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Strategic Debt Management,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Strategic Debt Management,Insurance&Risk Mitigation
Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somali and Sudanese Communities in Western Australia
Full text linkDepression has been identified as a significant global health problem. However, to date, there has been little research into the most appropriate strategies to use in the prevention of depression. There is even less research about the understanding that people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have of the conditions encompassed by the term ‘depression’, (or more culturally and linguistically specific representations of unhappiness) and of the ways in which these conditions may be prevented.
The Listening to Diverse Voices: multicultural mental health promotion research project, a collaboration between Murdoch University and the East Metropolitan Population Health Unit, funded by Healthway, investigated these issues within a number of minority communities and in consultation with service providers in Perth, Western Australia, during the period 2001-2004. The objectives of the research were to identify cultural differences in understandings and experiences of ‘depression’ and appropriate ways of dealing with such issues.
The research used focus groups and interviews to explore understandings of social and emotional well-being and of ‘depression’ among members of a number of communities in Perth. These included Sudanese, Somali, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Croatian, Bosnian and Chinese communities and also Indigenous Australians. The information in this document however pertains only to the Horn of Africa communities in the study. Service providers too were canvassed for their concerns and experiences. Participants came from a variety of ethnic and class backgrounds, and while some entered Australia under the ‘skilled migrant’ category, many came under the ‘humanitarian program’ and had experienced life in refugee camps in other parts of the world before coming to Australia. Over 200 people participated in the research.
Because of cultural sensitivities, separate focus groups were conducted with men, women and young people for some communities. Within the Sudanese community separate focus groups were conducted with North and South Sudanese and, within the Ethiopian community, separate focus groups were undertaken with Oromo men and women. In the Eritrean community Arabic speaking men and Tigre speaking men participated in separate focus groups. Most focus groups, apart from those with youth, were conducted by bilingual facilitators, in community languages, and were then transcribed verbatim and translated. Some focus groups and all interviews were conducted in English.
It is important to note that the use of such groupings does not imply internal homogeneity of individuals, experiences, perspectives or concerns.
All interviews and focus groups were undertaken using a semi-structured, standardised schedule. Interview and focus group questions were designed to elicit participants’ understandings of mental health, social and emotional well-being, depression, causes of depression and recommendations for appropriate treatments and/or interventions. Interviews and focus groups were taped, transcribed and translated, where necessary, and the transcripts studied for common themes. These themes were then taken back to the communities for comment, and the summaries adapted according to this further feedback. While it is not claimed that the participants are ‘representative’ of the communities of which they are members, the research team feels confident that the issues identified are among the most common concerns of these communities.
The most significant finding was that issues seen by communities as likely to cause emotional (or mental) distress, are social and settlement issues, rather than being biomedical in nature, or being seen as the result of pre-arrival trauma (although this was one factor identified). The result of this is that while some of the issues may be dealt with from within a ‘population health’ perspective and organisation, most are outside population health parameters. Therefore this information is being provided to a wider audience in the hope that other government departments, non-government organisations and individuals will also take action to address some of these issues.
This document contains brief summaries of the various issues identified by the Horn of Africa communities as leading to what Westerners might call ‘depression’ and their suggestions for solutions. Our commitment to hearing the voices of these communities themselves is reflected in our use of direct quotations taken from the interviews and focus groups. We also provide profiles of the communities, including historical and cultural information and a brief history of arrival in Western Australia. This document provides information about the new and emerging communities from the Horn of Africa. Horn of Africa. The opinions expressed are from research participants and do not necessarily represent the views of the authors. For information about the findings from all other communities, see the East Metropolitan Population Health Unit Website: http://www.health.wa.gov.au/home/ or Murdoch University Website: http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au
Tax systems in the reforming socialist economies of Europe
Full text linkAs socialist countries move toward market systems, fiscal policy is an important part of their reform agenda. First, they need to reorient public spending to focus more on the provision of"public"goods. Second, they need to adopt more selective, predictable, and nondiscretionary means to finance such spending. The goal of this paper is to lay out some of the broad trends and issues now emerging as socialist economies attempt to reform their systems of taxation. The primary focus is on Eastern Europe, although many of the same trends and issues arise in the reforming socialized countries of Asia and Africa. Particular attention is paid to Hungary and Poland, which are most advanced in the tax reform process. The experiences they have had and the problems they are facing provide valuable lessons for those countries just starting on the reform process.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management
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