89 research outputs found
Supporting safe motherhood : a review of financial trends : summary
No full textAn estimated 500,000 women, 99 percent of them from the developing world, die each year from pregnancy-related causes. About three quarters of these deaths are the direct result of obstetrical complications -- hemorrhage, infection, toxemia, obstructed labor, and abortion (under primitive and illegal conditions). An estimated equivalent number of infants do not survive their mother's death. For surviving mothers, the consequences of pregnancy have a severe impact on health and family economics. The strategy for safe motherhood is based on two approaches. First, the encouragement of activities that indirectly improve maternal health. These include education, policies to improve women's rights and working conditions, health care and nutrition, transportation and communication systems, water and sanitation facilities, and increases in family income and food production. The second approach targets activities to reduce maternal deaths. These activities include reducing unwanted pregnancies through the provision of family planning services, and through national policies that recognize the importance of this issue. A second objective is to reduce the risks of pregnancy through providing community-based family planning and prenatal services to identify high-risk cases'adequate referral services for the complications of pregnancy, and communication and transport systems to support patient referral procedures.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Gender and Health,Early Child and Children's Health,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems
The distortionary effects of tariff exemptions in Argentina
No full textTariff exemptions for exporters are widely used by many countries as aninstrument for providing export incentives. This author argues that when tariff exemptions are granted as a means of industrial regional promotion to an industry independently of its export performance, the tariff exemptions lose their potential as an export promotion instrument. The case of Argentina is of interest because it exemplifies the practice of many developing countries. A simple model is used to show that the indiscriminate use of duty exemptions has several undesirable effects : 1) duty exemptions deprive the government of revenues; 2) the more widespread the exemption, the less effective they become as an instrument for export promotion; 3) exemptions widen the variability of effective protection rates of industries in relation to their capital intensity; and 4) exemptions increase the demand for imports more than an export subsidy does, because output in the competing input industry contracts.Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Consumption,Export Competitiveness
Eastern Europe's experience with banking reform : is there a role for banks in the transition?
No full textAre there lessons to be learned about how Eastern European countries have dealt with problems in their banking systems? What role have these countries assigned to banks during the transition? How have they used banks in dealing with the enterprise problem? The author addresses these questions by analyzing experience in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the former Czech and Slovak Federal Republic. Most of these countries have made substantial progress in restructuring their banking systems, but few have used their banking systems to improve the allocation of credit and hence stimulate the supply response. The author finds the following. The problem is not whether banks hold nonperforming loans but how banks can avoid accumulating more nonperforming loans. The underlying problem is how to close loss-making and nonviable enterprises. The countries that have encouraged the establishment of new private banks, that have introduced regulation and supervision, and that have tried to make banks more competitive have been more successful at improving the allocation of credit and achieving more control over loss-making enterprises. Banks must focus on assessing risk - and for this, capital, private ownership, and adequate regulation are crucial. How quickly banks achieve independence in credit decisions depends on how fast new governance structures can be introduced. In this, the five countries have been less successful. The objectives of bank recapitulation should be to prevent banks from accumulating more nonperforming loans (that is, dealing with the enterprise problem) and to give them the governance structure that would prevent them from incurring new nonperforming loans. This requires introducing a system of risk and reward - by making banks comply with capital adequacy requirements, by privatizing a critical number of banks, and by introducing strong regulation and supervision. Government should see that banks provide efficient payment systems, the basis for trust in banking systems. Introducing adequate regulation and supervision has been difficult as it requires knowing what the banks'role should be. Evidence strongly supports the need to recapitalize and privatize a critical number of banks. Authorities cannot rely on banks to exert control on enterprises early in the transition. In the early stages, control over state-owned enterprises should be exercised by a semipublic institution.Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Municipal Financial Management,Banking Law
Performance prediction of crosses in plant breeding through genotype by environment interactions
No full textPerformance prediction of potential crosses plays a significant role in plant breeding, which aims to produce new crop varieties that have higher yields, require fewer resources, and are more adaptable to the changing environments. In the 2020 Syngenta crop challenge, Syngenta challenged participants to predict the yield performance of a list of potential breeding crosses of inbreds and testers based on their historical yield data in different environments. They released a dataset that contained the observed yields for 294,128 corn hybrids through the crossing of 593 unique inbreds and 496 unique testers across multiple environments between 2016 and 2018. To address this challenge, we designed a new predictive approach that integrates random forest and an optimization model for G × E interaction detection. Our computational experiment found that our approach achieved a relative root-mean-square-error (RMSE) of 0.0869 for the validation data, outperforming other state-of-the-art models such as factorization machine and extreme gradient boosting tree. Our model was also able to detect genotype by environment interactions that are potentially biologically insightful. This model won the first place in the 2020 Syngenta crop challenge in analytics.This article is published as Ansarifar, Javad, Faezeh Akhavizadegan, and Lizhi Wang. "Performance prediction of crosses in plant breeding through genotype by environment interactions." Scientific Reports 10, no. 1 (2020): 11533.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68343-1.
Copyright 2020 The Author(s).
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Posted with permission
Principles of regulatory policy design
No full textThe author contrasts command-and-control regulation (tight control of water purification, for example) with more flexible forms, including incentive regulation (such as price cap regulation), potential regulation (providing for closer scrutiny if enough customers complain), and reactive rather than proactive policies (the firm proposing actions, the regulatory saying yes or no). He contrasts informing regulation (for example, requiring that consumers be informed about ingredients in a product) and enforcing regulation (for example, prohibiting the use of certain chemicals in foods). A country's institutional structure can limit the regulators'potential for commitment, he says -- especially if regulators are limited in their ability to deliver rewards or penalties. The scope and function of regulation may also be fairly limited when technological conditions allow competition to discipline producers. Sophisticated buyers with economic power may reduce the need for regulatory control, and rapid technological change can render comprehensive command-and-control regulation ineffective or debilitating. Many forces operate simultaneously, making regulatory design a complex undertaking. Inertia is one such influence. Regulatory policies that once served an important purpose sometimes persist even though they no longer serve that purpose -- sometimes because they favor a constituency that convinces the regulator to keep the control in place. Subsidies and tariff protection often continue long past the time needed to promote the development of an infant industry, for example. When there is limited public outcry against continuing the special treatment, and the affected firms strongly urge its continuance, the regulator may be convinced to continue special treatment that no longer serves the public interest. Regulation may also be affected by the regulators'personal ambition. When regulators are"captured"by regulated firms -- diverted from the goal of protecting consumers through the promise of personal rewards for favorable treatment of the firms -- regulation may not serve society's best interest. Even if regulators are not motivated by self-interest, their ideas of what is best for society may differ from those of other government officials or of society at large. When that happens, which goals are pursued depends largely on the autonomy regulators that are granted and on the balance of power among government bodies.Regulation should be viewed in this large context to be understood fully.Administrative&Regulatory Law,Environmental Economics&Policies,National Governance,Economic Theory&Research,Insurance&Risk Mitigation
Sensory processing in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and high-functioning autism
No full textIntroduction: We aimed to assess the status of sensory processing in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, high-functioning autism and typical peers.Methods: Participants in this study are children 7 to 10 years old with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 30), autistic children with high cognitive function (n = 28) and 30 matched typical children. Parents of children in all the groups have completed the Dunn sensory profile questionnaire (SP).Results: The results of the present study showed that children in high-functioning autism and normal sensory processes act different. The autistic children differ in sensory seeking, emotional reactivity, low muscle tone and endurance, oral sensory sensitive, inattention and distractibility, poor sensory registration, sensory sensitivity, fine movement/perception. Children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder differ in seven factors of the nine factors. These factors were sensory seeking, emotional reactivity, low muscle tone and endurance, inattention and distractibility, poor sensory registration, sensory sensitivity, fine movement/perception.Conclusion: Different sensory processing function in these children may explain their abnormal behaviors. This sensory processing dysfunction affects on child's daily life in areas such as play, academic skills, peer relationships, and self-help activities. Therapists should consider the child's sensory processing functions when they set therapeutic planes.Declaration of Interest: None.Keywords: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Autism high function, Sensory processing.[1]1. Occupational therapy Department, shahidbeheshtiuniversity of medical science.2. Occupational therapy Department, shahidbeheshtiuniversity of medical science.3. Cognitive neuro science, Occupational therapyDepartment, Iran University of medical science.4. Master of clinical psychologyCorresponding Author: Faezeh Dehghan, Email:Faezeh.dehghan@gmail
Understanding and modelling rapid dynamic changes of tidewater outlet glaciers: issues and implications
No full textRecent dramatic acceleration, thinning and retreat of tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland raises concern regarding their contribution to future sea-level rise. These dynamic changes seem to be parallel to oceanic and climatic warming but the linking mechanisms and forcings are poorly understood and, furthermore, large-scale ice sheet models are currently unable to realistically simulate such changes which provides a major limitation in our ability to predict dynamic mass losses. In this paper we apply a specifically designed numerical flowband model to Jakobshavn Isbrae (JIB), a major marine outlet glacier of the Greenland ice sheet, and we explore and discuss the basic concepts and emerging issues in our understanding and modelling ability of the dynamics of tidewater outlet glaciers. The modelling demonstrates that enhanced ocean melt is able to trigger the observed dynamic changes of JIB but it heavily relies on the feedback between calving and terminus retreat and therefore the loss of buttressing. Through the same feedback, other forcings such as reduced winter sea-ice duration can produce similar rapid retreat. This highlights the need for a robust representation of the calving process and for improvements in the understanding and implementation of forcings at the marine boundary in predictive ice sheet models. Furthermore, the modelling uncovers high sensitivity and rapid adjustment of marine outlet glaciers to perturbations at their marine boundary implying that care should be taken in interpreting or extrapolating such rapid dynamic changes as recently observed in Greenland
Voucher privatization with investment funds : an institutional analysis
No full textCommon wisdom among post-socialist reformers has beento use voucher investment funds to provide the corporate governance needed to restructure newly privatized enterprises after mass privatization efforts. The idea has been that mass privatization would spread the ownership too wide and make corporate governance difficult. The author examines the likely institutional behavior of voucher funds and the possible effects of their development on a transition economy. Since most policy advice has been in favor of voucher privatization with investment funds, the author can be seen as playing the devil's advocate, but his argument is institutional, not statistical. Policymaking requires insight and foresight into how institutions will tend to function. He concludes that voucher funds will introduce a bias in the economy away from the real industrial sector toward an ersatz"financial sector"that will have little if any positive financial role but will be well-protected by friendly regulators. One long-term consequence of voucher privatization with investment funds, according to this view, is a de facto"industrial policy"of real sector decapitalization in favor of short-term rent-seeking by fund managers through board sinecures and lucrative side deals with portfolio companies and through financial market manipulation and paper entrepreneurship in the"financial sector."Without strong corporate governance from the funds and without stable ownership of their own, many enterprise managers will exploit the post-socialist version of the"separation of ownership and control"to grab what they can in the form of salaries, bonuses, perquisites, and side deals. The most likely results of the strategy of voucher privatization with investment funds may be a two-sided grab fest by fund managers and enterprise managers -- together with the accompanying drift, stagnation, and decapitalization of the privatized industrial sector.Economic Adjustment and Lending,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research
The Relationship between Communication Patterns and Marital Trust: Cyberspace Users of Langaroud City
No full textThe Relationship between Communication Patterns and Marital Trust: Cyberspace Users of Langaroud City Faezeh Piazchian Langroudi[1] , Hamideh Addelyan Rasi[2] Accepted:19/4/2018 Received: 9/12/2018 Abstract The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between communication patterns and marital trust among married users in cyberspace from Langroud city in order to create social and welfare policies in family discourse and to develop programs focusing on the role of social workers in educating couples and families before and after marriage. The theoretical framework of this research is the system theory, communication theory, Bowlby's attachment theory and Giddens’s trust theory. The research method was a survey and the data were collected through a multi-stage cluster sampling method using the Rample and Holmes Trust (TS) and the Christensen and Salavi (CPQ) questionniares, as well as demographic questionnaires. The sample size includes 382 cyberspace users in Langroud. For analyzing the inferential data, chi-square correlation, v-Cramerz and gamma correlation tests were used in SPSS version 23 software. The novelty of this study was to em[3]phasize preventive policies based on the promotion of positive male and female communication patterns in order to reduce the social harm of cybernetics by educating married peoples on appropriate communication patterns. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between the subscales of communication patterns and the subscales of marital trust as well as the total amount of marital trust. In addition, the results of this study showed that the use of cyberspace indirectly and through communication patterns that couples choose in their married life are associated with marital trust and in fact, the reduction or increase of trust among married users of cyberspace is due to the consequences of the type of communication patterns the couple select. In conclusion, the study recommended a focus on prevention policies related to improving positive marietal communication patterns through education programs to reduce social problems in cyberspace. Keywords: Marital Trust, Cyberspace, Communication Patterns [1]. MA, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. [email protected] [2]. Assistant Prof., Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. (Corresponding Author) [email protected]
Stochastic approach for fine sediment erosion prediction
No full textThis study aimed to characterize the erosion behavior of cohesive sediments in the Newark Bay, at flow velocities below 1 m/s based on their index properties. The experimental methodology and data interpretation scheme of this research were devised based on the critical analysis of previous literature and aimed to reduce uncertainty, subjectivity, and arbitrariness. A comparison of erosion measurements obtained in this study with the results of some in-situ experiments conducted by other researchers revealed a strong consistency between these studies. The fact that this ex-situ study has been as successful as in-situ studies is quite an achievement. The success of the devised experimental methodology was also highlighted when the results were compared to similar ex-situ studies because the range of erosion rates measured in this study was well beyond the capability of those methods. This research contributes to the literature on cohesive sediment erosion by offering new insights into three primary areas: regression, stochastic, and probabilistic analysis of erosion test results. First, this study employed the regression technique to obtain the best linear unbiased estimator of erosion rates based on sediment index properties. The analysis resulted in the development of two fairly valid models for both fine- and coarse-grained sediments of the Newark Bay: (1) Newark Bay Fine Model (NBFM) and (2) Newark Bay Coarse Model (NBCM). These models were evaluated through cross-validation and cross-model comparison, as well as validation against a new dataset. Second, a new methodology was developed for a stochastic analysis of erosion data by applying the Monte Carlo simulation technique. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this technique had not been previously used in sediment erosion studies. This robust stochastic method enabled the researcher to investigate erosion over many artificially generated samples, in lieu of measured data, and make more realistic predictions. The confidence interval provided by stochastic simulations has a significant application in sediment erosion risk analysis. Third, the framework developed for the probabilistic analysis of erosion data offers a standardized methodology for data analysis that paves the way for the comparison of different studies that use inconsistent methodologies.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Faezeh Behzadneja
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